Summer Sunflower Cupcakes
Chocolate vegan cupcakes decorated with vegan buttercream frosting piped like a sunflower for your summer dessert table. Blooming beauties!
Ingredients
cupcakes
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar organic
- 1 cup vegan mayo
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup cold water
Frosting
- 1/2 cup vegan shortening I use Spectrum or Nutiva
- 3 - 3 3/4 cups vegan powdered sugar any organic powdered sugar is vegan
- 1 - 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 - 6 tablespoons soymilk or other non-dairy milk
- yellow food coloring like Watkins all vegetable food color or use a pinch of turmeric
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (to represent seeds in the center) like enjoy life chocolate chips
Instructions
CUPCAKE DIRECTIONS
- Line a cupcake tin with paper liners. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a small bowl mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl beat together sugar, mayo, and vanilla.
- Beat the flour mixture into the wet mixture in thirds, alternating with the water until blended.
- Divide the batter evenly among cupcake tins.
- Bake for 22-24 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 3 minutes in tin on a wire rack. Then remove the cupcakes from the tin and finish cooling them completely on a wire rack.
FROSTING DIRECTIONS
- Cream shortening in a large bowl.
- Add sugar and beat well.
- Add vanilla.
- Add milk a little at a time, beating well until desired consistency.
- If necessary, add a little more milk if too thick or a little more powdered sugar if too thin.
SUNFLOWER DESIGN DIRECTIONS
- To create a sunflower design you will need a piping bag or decorating press with a petal tip. See the image in the notes.
- Lightly frost each cupcake with a thin layer of frosting.
- In the center of each cupcake score a circle with a toothpick or knife point about the size of a quarter or a little smaller to use as a guide.
- Mix in yellow food color to the rest of the frosting to achieve the desired shade.
- Spoon frosting into a piping bag or decorator press with a petal tip
- Starting at the outside circle, squeeze out a petal all the way to the edge of a cupcake. Continue this all the way around the circle.
- Now put another layer of petals on top of the first layer and end just a little shorter from the edge of the cupcake so some of the first layer still shows.
- When two layers are completely around the cupcake, fill the middle section with the mini chocolate chips to represent the seeds.
Notes
tips for frosting sunflower cupcakes