In a land far far away, there lived a princess named Ariana. Every year the king and queen hosted a grand ball to celebrate the little princesses birthday. Unfortunately this year, the princess was very sick on her birthday. The king and queen had a small celebration when she got well. Yours truly was unable to attend the gathering to celebrate her birthday. So when I had the chance to meet with the princess a few weeks later, I decided to take her some flowers. But not just any flowers will do for a special princess. I put my talents to good use and made these edible flowers for her. I hope she enjoyed her little flowers.

Now a little history behind the cupcakes. I got this cupcake recipe from my land lady when I was doing an internship in a small town. It was around Christmas time and she made these every Christmas. These cupcakes are wonderful and easy to make. The recipe she gave me has a cream cheese filling that you bake it with the cupcakes. Today I am only sharing half of the recipe with you. I will share the entire recipe with the chocolate filling at another time.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

12 servings

Ingredients
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Prepare your cupcake pan with liners.

In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine all the liquid ingredients. Now pour the liquid mixture in the the bowl with dry ingredients. Now mix well together so that there are no lumps in it.

Now you cupcake batter is ready. Scoop into your lined cupcake pan. For regular size cupcakes, I filled them about 2/3 of each liner. Bake until toothpick inserts comes out clean. I baked for about 15 – 20 minutes. Cool them on a cooling rack.

Once cooled, decorate them with your choice of icing. I have used a Swiss Meringue Buttercream (recipe information follows). I used a Wilton #104 petal tip to make these flowers.

For the Swiss Meringue Buttercream, I used Gretchen Price’s, from Woodland Bakery in New Jersey, recipe. Here is a video that she made for the Buttercream recipe.

This recipe is being linked to Cooksjoy.com’s Bakefest #20 as hosted by myhomemademantra.com

Shared with Foodie Friends Friday – http://www.walkingonsunshinerecipes.com/2013/10/foodie-friends-friday-linky-party-65.html#more