Chocolate Chai Cupcakes Vegan

No, I'm not vegan, I love yogurt and LOVE milk - in fact, I drink 2 cups of milk a day - does a body good right?  But every now and then I find a vegan recipe that's so badass, I have to try it.  I picked up some tips for vegan baking from a really cool cookbook: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  At our wedding, we had some really great vegan cupcakes, the baker truly is inspirational, she made cookies n cream, red velvet, chocolate chocolate and ding dong cupcakes! 

But lately I've been drinking a lot of Chai (thanks in part to my friend Illy) and wondered what a chocolate chai cupcake would taste like...yeah it's pretty damn good.  

Ingredients:

1 cup plain soy milk

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup and 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1/3 cup canola oil (must use canola oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 tablespoons chai powder

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup Hershey's cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder (not the same as baking soda)

1/4 teaspoon salt (balances all the sugaryness)

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.  Quickly whisk together the soy milk and the apple cider vinegar.  Next whisk together the sugar, oil, vanilla extract and the chai powder.  Add the two mixtures together and beat til it's frothy and foamy.  Finally it's time to sift all the remaining dry ingredients together.  Add half to the wet mixture and beat, add the second half and beat again.  Set the mixer on high and beat the hell out of all the little lumps.  Fill cupcake cups 3/4 of the way with the batter, you'll get about 10 cupcakes.  Bake for 18 mins, until the toothpick or butter knife you insert into the cake comes out clean.  Remove from cupcake pan and place on a cooling rack. 

I used a store bought frosting because I didn't have any more patience to make frosting before I inhaled these badboys. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.