There are various methods of making a cake (or cupcake) eggless and I have tried quite a few of them already.
Vegan mango cake
Eggless chocolate cake using bananas
Chocolate sponge cake using vinegar
Eggless vanilla sponge cake using yogurt
Vegan chocolate muffins
There are a few more but the ones above are probably the most successful ones.
So anyway, coming back to using avocados in a chocolate cake. Let me be honest. The idea didn’t appeal to me one bit. Although I knew avocados have a pretty neutral flavour and they are beautifully buttery, I still couldn’t quite bring myself to do it for a while. Then I bought 2 avocados from the market (at a ridiculously high price, I must add) and forgot about them. They ripened to a mush and I panicked. Guacamole was the obvious answer but I decided to take the plunge and make this vegan chocolate cake recipe from Joy the Baker, but make them into cupcakes.
Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes 10 cupcakes
Adapted from: Joy the Baker
Ingredients:
1.5 cups of all-purpose flour (maida)
3 tbsp of cocoa powder
1/4 tsp of salt
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
1 cup of sugar
2 tbsp of vegetable oil
1/4 cup of chopped avocado (I used one small avocado which was a bit more than 1/4 cup)
1 cup of water
1 tbsp of white vinegar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
How to Make Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes:
0. Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180 C. Line or grease a cupcake tray and set aside.
1. Chop up the avocado and add to a blender or food processor.
Top off with the oil, water, vanilla, vinegar, and the sugar.
2. Blend well until the avocados get pureed completely.
3. Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Well, ideally you should sift them together so please do that and don’t be like me.
4. Tip the wet ingredients into the dry.
5. Gently whisk together until you see no traces of the dry mixture in the batter.
6. Pour into the lined cupcake tray about 3/4 of the way.
7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out with dry crumbs. The top may crack a bit, that’s totally fine.
I felt like the cupcakes weren’t too sweet on their own so I whipped up some lemon-flavoured buttercream to frost the chocolate avocado cupcakes. The m measurements are rough since I don’t follow a standard recipe for frosting.
Recipe for Basic Buttercream Frosting (Not Vegan): Beat together – 1 cup of icing sugar + 1/4 cup of softened butter + 1/2 tsp vanilla + 1 tsp lemon zest until stiff. If the frosting is too dry, add some milk (by the drops) or butter and if it’s too runny, add more icing sugar.
Pipe on to the cupcakes once they are completely cooled. I also added some finely grated chocolate over it to make it look prettier 🙂
These cupcakes are a bit on the dense and spongy side but absolutely delicious, especially when paired with the frosting. See what I mean?
You can also make this into a cake in which case this quantity will give you one 8″ cake.
Note: I use Valrhona Cocoa Powder for all my baking, which explains the deep colour of my cupcakes. Use any cocoa powder you have in hand, but you may not get the deep brown colour you see here.
Would adding a little more vinegar and baking soda help to make it rise a bit more? I don't really my cakes super dense- that's what I like brownies for 🙂
I love the idea of using avocados instead of egg replacements and artificial/processed ingredients- that's what's holding me back from taking the vegan plunge
Hi, Nagalakshmi!
I want to know what is the function of the vinegar? Is it to add the sour taste? Thanks before..
vinegar acts as a rising agent in cakes
I'm probably one of those 1000s of your followers that doesn't leave a comment or like but keep looking and trying recipes from your blog regularly (almost two years now)! This time I thought I have to do this.. A BIG THANKS for all these wonderfully inspiring recipes, posts and pictures.. everytime I see your blog I want to start one too (no other blog has had that effect so far) Hope to get into the band-wagon soon 😉
thank you so much for the very sweet words sashi 🙂
Shamelessly going to steal the recipe from u.I love avocados I want to have it right away thanks for sharing.
Love that frosting very much….and the deep brown color of the cupcakes…!
sounds very interesting with avocado, sure would have been very soft 🙂
I have been using the avocados a lot these days as really they are like catalysts adding a lot of silk to the end result but never adding their taste itself! I`ve tried them in rotis, parathas, egglesa cakes and even in brownies!! Great clicks as usual. How are you doing Nags? its been some time.
Shobha
doing great! thanks for dropping by 🙂
wow cute cupcakes,luks gargeous…
super inviting and tempting
Hi Nags, I am a silent reader of your blog and I don't blog but I take pictures of things I eat or cook. I haven't found inspiration to do anything more with my interest. Back to these fab cupcakes. These look great. Do you ever experiment with flour in baking? Can I use a different kind of flour or even wholemeal or spelt flour to make these? Will it make a difference in texture or how much they rise? Do you buy Valrhona Cocoa in store or online? I can't find it easily in Sydney, is there somewhere I can buy it cheap online?
Will give a try for sure.nice recipe..
Cupcakes looks simply stunning and super moist.
Cup cakes with Avacados sounds interesting.
They look so delicious. Am just curious , do they have any hint of the avocados in them .
Abt the avocados , when u say they ripened to a mush – was this the right consistency to use them to bake. In my place we do not get avocados often and they cost an arm and a leg. They always tasted so odd too … i mean raw… Do i have to leave it to brown before we actually use them for a guacamole or a cake?
the cake has absolutely no taste of avocados in them 🙂 and yes, you need to make sure the avocados are ripe before using them, whether in a cake or for guacamole. they need to be soft when you press gently and give in a bit (not squishy though). here's a great link that gives amazing tips on how to buy the perfect avocado each time: http://www.nwedible.com/2012/05/never-buy-a-rotten-avocado-again.html
I recently made this, too. I wanted to make cupcakes but had no wrappers. Yours looks delicious! 🙂
Wow .. Lovely lookin cupcakes
i loved the design on the top ! is it butter know?
it's buttercream