Last week, my daughter and I made these delicious vegan chocolate cupcakes. The recipe was sent to us by her grandmother.  We modified the ingredients based upon what we have (I have included the modifications below in parentheses).

These cupcakes are very rich and moist thanks to a surprise ingredient:  avocado!  You can’t taste the avocado in the final product, so have no fear!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcake Recipe with Surprise Ingredient (Avocado!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line 16 muffin cups with [amazon_link id=”B000FAIR96″ target=”_blank” ]unbleached paper liners[/amazon_link].

In a large bowl, sift together:

• 1 1/2 cups of organic white spelt flour (we used 1 cup unbleached white flour and 1/2 cup brown spelt flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

On medium heat, whisk together in a saucepan.  Cook two minutes:

• 3/4 cup organic cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup organic coconut milk

In a food processor, puree:

•  1 cup Hass avocado (we only had one avo, so we used apple sauce in addition to make one cup)
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Add chocolate mixture and puree until smooth.

Combine the chocolate/avo mix with the flour until just mixed.  Fill the 16 muffin cups.  Cook for 25 minutes.

We used a whipped cream and chocolate chip frosting, which made our cupcakes no longer vegan, but delicious.  If you would like a suggested frosting recipe that is vegan, let me know.