Happy Vegan-tines day!

Valentine's day is near, and that means one thing... Love and romance? No, silly! Cupcakes! I baked a batch of miniature white cupcakes for the big day to bring into work. Side note: I work at a restaurant, where we will be serving many lovely, happy couples who came out to have a romantic dinner together while we slave away and cook hundreds of dinners in the hot kitchen! Haha, just kidding, I'm not that bitter about Valentine's day... And not that you ever need an excuse to eat cupcakes, but for v-day, these sweet treats are a MUST!

I found this recipe at Shmooed Food, and changed a few things around. Feel free to try your own thing.

Fluffy White Cupcakes

1 TB lemon juice

1 1/4 cups plain soymilk

2 1/8 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. kosher salt

1 1/8 cups sugar

½ cup oil

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1) Preheat the oven to 350º. Prepare muffin tin (miniature or regular is fine). Spray with non-stick spray or line with muffin papers.

2) Mix the lemon juice and soy milk together in a bowl. Stir well and set aside (the mixture will curdle). In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another mixing bowl whisk together the soymilk mixture, canola oil, and vanilla.

3) Add the wet to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth using a hand-held mixer, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full.

4) Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

4 tbsp (or more) liquid (eg. soy milk, water, juice)

Red food coloring (optional)

1) Place icing sugar in bowl. Slowly beat in liquid. I used marichino cherry juice and some soy milk. Made the perfect pink color! Feel free to use whatever delicious liquid you have on hand, be creative.

Valentine's Day can be an especially hard day of the year for many people - singles and vegans alike (God bless you vegan singles out there!) - with chocolates and lovers everywhere. So induldge in these tasty treats without guilt, and show a lil' love to the most beautiful person in the room (that's you baby ;)! )