Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes

Baking is very therapeutic; it helps relieve stress, anxiety and is very good for mental health. Baking also stimulates the senses, makes you feel creative and productive.

These eggless red velvet cupcakes are super moist, replacing the egg with oil and milk. If you want to to make them vegan, you can use coconut milk and add cider vinegar to it (we recommend using unfiltered cider vinegar), let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. If you want them to be normal, full-fat milk is advised. 

Please use sunflower oil, as its flavourless. Rapeseed and other oils just won't cut it, as they all have a slight taste and will ruin the taste of the cupcake.

If you want to make it gluten-free, omit the plain flour for doves farm gluten-free, it still works the same. 

Makes 12, will keep in an airtight container for 5 days. You can omit the cream cheese frosting for standard vanilla buttercream if you wish. But the cream cheese is just the best, it's tangy and cuts through the sweetness of the cupcake.

Ingredients:

• 245g whole milk (soy/coconut/almond) - room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (vanilla pod, scraped out)
• 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 110g sunflower oil
• 200g plain flour
• 10g cocoa powder
• 200g caster sugar
• 3/4 tsp bicarb soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp red food colouring

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees fan/gas mark 3. Line a cupcake tin with liners.
2. In a medium bowl, add the milk and cider vinegar. Let it curdle for approximately 10 minutes if using whole milk, longer if using plant-based.
3. Once the milk has curdled, add the oil, vanilla extract and red gel colouring and mix well. 
4. Sieve all the dry ingredients together, gently add the wet mixture in two inclusions. You can use a hand mixer to make sure its all incorporated. 
5. Pour the mixture into a jug as its very runny. Fill the cupcake cases 3/4 of the way full.
6. Bake in the oven for 22 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. 
7. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool at room temperature. Remove from the tray after 10 minutes and allow to fully cool.

If you want a beautiful white frosting, we highly recommend using President or Lurpak butter. 

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 125g unsalted butter - room temperature
• 700g icing sugar - sifted
• 200g cream cheese - room temperature (Philadelphia full fat)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Method:

1. Whip the butter till its fluffy and airy. Add the icing sugar in 2 inclusions. Cover the mixer with a cloth cause icing sugar gets everywhere! First start slowly, incorporating it in, then amp it up to a medium speed. 
2. Add the cream cheese and continue beating for 5 minutes. Add in the vanilla extract.
3. If the consistency is still thick, you can add a little bit of milk, start with 1 tbsp at a time. You don't want it to be too loose, it needs to be pipeable but have a dropping consistency. (Shouldn't fall off the spoon too quickly) 
4. Colour as you wish with gel food colouring and put into a piping bag with the desired nozzle of your choice.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

Tastes great, very similar to the standard cream cheese, however, here you will be using vegan spreadable butter and twice as much icing sugar. The high quantity of icing sugar is needed to hold itself; the vegan spread is very soft and melts very quickly compared to regular butter. You don't want a runny mess. It should be nice and fluffy. Instead of cream cheese, lemon juice will be added for acidity and to achieve the tang cream cheese gives. 

Ingredients:

• 250g vegan spreadable butter - room temperature
• 830g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Add the spreadable butter to the mixer bowl and whip for a few minutes on medium speed. Vegan spread is generally quite soft, so you don't need to go crazy on how long you whip it for. 
2. Add all the icing sugar to the bowl and beat at a medium speed. Start slowly at first. Otherwise, the kitchen will be a pile of cloud dust. Gradually increase to medium speed for 3 minutes. 
3. Add the lemon juice to the frosting and whip for 2 minutes till all is incorporated. 

To decorate, you can keep one spare cupcake aside and shave the crumbs on top of the frosting. Or colour the icing, and decorate as you wish. We topped ours with edible glitter for a sparkly glam look. 

We hope you enjoy making these; they are a real delight. Please do tag us in your bakes on our social media channels; we will do a reshare :)