VEGAN CUPCAKES

A wise friend of mine told me that Wylie's intolerance of cupcakes might be from the combo of tons of butter and eggs in the bakery ones. So, I thought in preparation for his birthday in December I would see if I could find or devise from several recipes a Vegan cupcake recipe that didn't taste like something akin to soggy sugary dough. First I tried the recipe on the back of the Egg Replacer box (Whole Foods $$$). It was supposedly a sponge cake recipe. It was disgusting. It didn't cook well and when I took it out of the oven all the beautiful height deflated. Kind of like a souffle once you poke it. We tried it. Wylie didn't even like it. Second I tried the cornstarch/water combo egg replacement in pancakes. That worked like a charm. Some of the best darn pancakes I've ever made. SERIOUSLY YUMMY. Finally, I tried a combo of a cupcake recipe from a sesame street cookbook and the barefoot contessa cookbook. Replaced egg with cornstarch/water combo. Replaced butter with butter flavor crisco (the stick kind). Cooked for about 5 minutes longer than either recipe recommended. They were good. Wylie and I let them cool and then frosted. We used our focus group of three white guys to taste test. (We used them when we made carrot/tomato/pear ice pops) Each really liked them and didn't know they were vegan! This recipe was not without problems: 1.They did deflate once out of the pan but not to the extent the previous attempt deflated. I'm going to leave them in the muffin tin to cool rather than trying to take them out warm. The cupcakes were much firmer once they cooled down. 2. Foil cupcake liners are the way to go. The paper ones didn't hold up to the moistness of the cupcakes. 3. Fresh baking powder and soda are key to the recipe. The first batch had slightly old (okay okay it was supposedly expired sometime last year) powder. The new batch had brand new did much better. 4. Turn the pan during cooking to encourage the slight browning on the top. All in all, I'm excited about trying another batch and then moving on to the full size cake stage. I'm also happy I'm not using some crazy artificial product.