Vegan Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

The most delicious chocolate mint cupcakes I've had in several years just happened to be a vegan recipe from one of my dear friends. One of my favorite parts about friendship is sharing a love of good food -- recommending recipes to friends and having them come back and say that they loved it too, or lamenting over the difficulty of a particularly involved recipe. These cupcakes would be a hit at any adult's or child's birthday party! Likely you could also unvegify them and just use regular milk, margarine, and chocolate chips without compromising the recipe. The only struggles I had with this recipe were with the frosting, which although delicious tasting kept "melting" more and more and falling right off the cupcake. In the end, I had to beat in much more powdered sugar and vegan margarine than the recipe called for to keep the frosting stiff. My recommendation is actually look for vegan shortening as opposed to vegan margarine, and don't add the soymilk to the frosting.

Vegan Chocolate Mint Cupcakes
1 c. all purpose flour
1/3 c. cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 c. soymilk
1-2 tsp cider vinegar
1/3 c. canola oil
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp mint extract 

Frosting:
3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. vegan shortening
1 1/2 tsp mint extract

Chocolate glaze:
1/3 c. vegan chocolate chips
3 Tbs soy milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. For the cupcake batter, combine soy milk and cider vinegar in a bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk in sugar, canola oil, mint and vanilla extract, beating until foaming.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients togehter in a  separate bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry, using whisk to beat until all the large lumps are gone.
4. Pour the batter into paper lined cupcake tins and fill about 2/3 full. (If using liners, you will probably be able to make 12 cupcakes. Without liners, I only got 10 cupcakes.)
5. Bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool a bit, then remove from pan and transfer to a rack to finish cooling.
6. For mint frosting: Cream the shortening, powdered sugar, and extract together until icing is smooth and creamy. If it doesn't hold, try adding a bit more sugar or shortening. Only frost the cupcakes when they are VERY VERY COOL. (like right before serving).
7. For the chocolate oopmh on top: heat the 3 Tbs soymilk until just about to simmer and then add the chocolate chips. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. Let chocolate mixture cool for about 10 minutes until it can be safely drizzled on top of the mint frosting without melting it.