Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes

I know I’ve said in previous posts that I’ve started to “grow out” of chocolate (I was a total chocoholic when I was a kid), but when I get the craving, look out! The denser, richer and darker the chocolate, the better. These cupcakes fit the bill – in fact I can only eat one before I feel like hyperventilating (in a good way). Slather these 12 high-rising cupcakes in Creamy Cocoa Frosting, and indulge!

Chocoholics beware: these lil' puppies will give you heart palpitations. I actually had to scale them down to mini-cakes because the big ones just packed too much of a choco-punch. Enjoy!

• 1 cup sugar
• 1.5 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup soy or almond milk
• 1 shot of espresso (I use about 1.5 tsp instant espresso powder with about 2 tbsp boiling water if I don’t have any freshly brewed espresso on hand)
• 1/3 cup applesauce (or 1 tsp egg replacer + 2 tbsp warm water)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees C. Lightly oil or insert cupcake-liners into your muffin tin. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, then set aside. Combine the milk, espresso, applesauce and vanilla in a separate bowl. Add this to the dry mixture, stirring so that the two mixtures are combined. Pour the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 30-35 minutes. They’re done when a cake tester (a.k.a. toothpick) comes out clean. Let them rest for a minute then transfer to a cooling rack. Only frost them when they’re cool to the touch, otherwise you’ll get one limp lil’ cuppy-cake.

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