Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream

For as long as I can remember while growing up, whenever I baked something, it usually came out of a box. For someone who loves cooking and baking as much as I do, you'd never guess that my mom despises it so much. No wonder she always used a box, the quicker the better! The bad thing about using the box was that it required eggs. In my opinion the less animals I use, the better. I would rather eat an egg than waste it in a baked good.

In all honesty, the cupcake I created wasnt the best in the world. Although it is good I much prefer the chocolate cupcake from vegan cupcakes take over the world. My original plan was to use that recipe, but seeing that I had no soymilk or granulated sugar on hand, I ended up devising my own.
The real kicker to this whole shin dig is the Blackberry Buttercream frosting. I am telling you what it is sweet, it is tangy, and it is so fresh tasting. I AM IN LOVE WITH THE STUFF!!! I'm not evn kidding you folks, pick your favorite cupcake base if you please, but you have got to try out this frosting.

When I first started thinking up ideas of what to bake my mom for mothers day, I knew I wanted something vegan, and something relatively quick so my mom would want a copy. I am proud to say that I ended up with an absolutely perfect product with one very happy mother.

*EDIT TO ADD- my mom loved the actual cake part and told me to definitley save it. So you judge!

Chcocolate Vegan Cupcake:

1 cup flower

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup powder sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup water

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/3 + 3 tbs cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degress.

Combine the brown sugar and powder sugar into a large bowl and whisk thoroughly. Then add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the bowl and continue to whisk. Make a well into the center of the dry ingredients to add the wet ingredients, water-vanilla extract. Pour mixture into a dozen cupcake holders and bake for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Blackberry Buttercream Frosting:

1/2 cup room temp. non-hydrogenated vegan margarine

3 cups confectioners' sugar

4 tbs blackberry jam (with out or with out seeds-you pick!)

1 tsp lemon extract

In a large bowl cream the butter with an electric mixer until its nice and fluffy. Add the blackberry preserves and extract, continuing to beat the mixture until it is fully combined. Then slowly add the powder sugar by 1/2 cup until the entire mixture is well incorparated.

Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes, top with a blackberry if desired.