#vanilla cupcakes

Cupcakes are good. They sing a siren song. It goes omnomnomnomnom…

Recipe makes about a dozen large cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of standard flour (you can use wholemeal if you want, just add a bit more liquid)
  
• 1 cup of sugar - I like soft brown sugar, but white is fine too. If you want to use less sugar, swap out half a cup for a half cup of mashed banana.
  
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  
• A pinch of salt
  
• ½ cup of vegetable oil
  
• ¾ cup non dairy milk. You can use water if you want, but add a little more sugar and oil, not much.
  
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence - more if you want a strong vanilla flavour, less if you want a fairly neutral taste or to use the recipe as a base.
  

Now, here’s where you have some options. Pick one of the following:

• 2 tablespoons of ground linseed (some call it flaxseed) and 6 tablespoons of water. You could use chia seeds instead, but they’re pricey.
  
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda and two tablespoons of vinegar (white, rice, or apple cider)
  
• ½ a cup of mashed banana or smooth applesauce (this will alter the flavour a bit)
  
• Two portions of egg replacer (it’s pricey around here, but that might be different where you are)
  

The lazy way

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celcius (350 Farenheight). Grease a muffin pan, or use those little cupcake paper thingies.

Combine all the dry ingredients. You should really sift them, but I’m lazy. I find just putting them all in a bowl and running a whisk (or a fork if you don’t have a whisk) through them works well enough.

Add the linseed/water mix, or whichever option you chose, the vanilla, and about half the oil and non dairy milk. Stir everything in. Add more oil and non dairy milk slowly, till you get a medium batter you can pour or spoon in the tray without too much trouble. This recipe is pretty forgiving so don’t worry too much.

Pour or spoon out the batter, and put the tray in the oven.

Come back in about five minutes to check on them. They cook quickly. You can test them by tapping a fingertip or spoon on top of one - if it bounces back a little bit, it’s ready. The “stick a toothpick in it” method also works. Toothpick should come out clean. You don’t want them to be too brown on top.

Also, the house will smell AMAZING.

Let them cool, add icing. Nomnomomnomnomnom.