Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes topped with Peanut Butter Icing

Move over Hershey, I think I found my new go-to chocolate cake recipe. I was flipping through my Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book looking for a recipe for chocolate cupcakes when I came across a recipe for vegan chocolate cupcakes. It intrigued me because it looked so easy and called for simple ingredients that I already had in my pantry. No eggs, no milk, no butter—so this was an inexpensive recipe as well. I was a little weary about how this recipe would taste, but I'm glad I gave it a try. It produced beautiful chocolate cupcakes with a flat top that is perfect for decorating. The flavor was delicious and the cupcakes were moist and had a great texture that I can only explain as bouncy. I topped these with peanut butter icing and they were divine.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
Source: Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cups water

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake tin with 12 paper cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
In another bowl, beat together oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water with a hand mixer on medium-high speed.
Add flour mixture and beat until smooth on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. (Batter will be very thin.)
Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full and bake about 20 - 25 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.

Peanut Butter Icing
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 stick butter (room temperature)
2 - 3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 - 3 tablespoons milk (or water)

Beat together peanut butter, butter, and vanilla until smooth with a mixer on medium speed. With mixer on low speed, add powdered sugar one cup at a time and milk one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Beat until smooth and fluffy.