I’ve got stuff to do today to stay on track. Seriously. I do.

But first let me tell you about these cupcakes.

I’ve been looking for an eggless replacement for my yellow cake recipe for two years. It’s been on my mind more often lately because of monsters like these. Sorry for the Fox News link, but at least it doesn’t have the undercover video. I’ll tell you all about where eggs come from one of these days, but not today. There’s no time today because you need to make these cupcakes.

New Go-To Cupcake*
makes 12 regular cupcakes or 36 minis

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease a 12-cup muffin pan or line it with little paper cups.

1 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. of salt
1/2 c. granulated sugar
   Whisk these together in a bowl. It’s the lazy way to sift.

1/4 c. brown sugar (I’m pretty sure this is the key.)
1/3 c. oil
1 c. some kind of milk (I used soy.)
2 t. vanilla
   Whisk these together in another bowl. I actually whisk them in a 2 c. measuring cup because I am LAZY and don’t like to wash anything I don’t have to.

   Pour the wet into the dry and whisk until relatively smooth.

   Fill each muffin cup 2/3s full – it comes out perfectly. You can get 36 minis out of the same amount of batter if you don’t lick the spoon. And bake 24 minutes for the regular size and 12 minutes for the minis. You’l know they are finished, because they will be beautifully golden and nicely rounded on top.

Now make the frosting. This cupcake is an all-purpose wonder. I’ve put straight up buttercream on top, floofy chocolate buttercream and most recently, salted caramel buttercream. *swoon*

Buttercream Frosting all Kinds of Ways
Makes enough for one batch of cupcakes. Doubles easily.

The gold standard is:
1/4 c. Earth Balance in the stick (Organic Valley’s Butter is also a winner)
1/4 c. vegetable shortening
2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 t. vanilla

   You’ll need an electric mixer to get this good and fluffy. Beat the Earth Balance and shortening together until it’s a little lighter in color. Then start adding the powdered sugar 1/2 a cup at a time, beating until each addition is mixed. Beat in the vanilla and add food coloring if your child is obsessed with pink. For a more floofy frosting that you can pop in a pastry bag and squirt out like clouds, beat in a couple tablespoons (GRADUALLY or you’ll get accidental frosting soup) of your milk of choice. If you manage to have leftovers, store it in the ‘fridge for later.

   For chocolate add: 3 T. cocoa powder and 1-2 T. some kind of milk
   For salted caramel add: 1/2 t. caramel extract or a big spoonful of caramel sauce and 1/2 t. salt (maybe more depending on how much you like salt)

   You can also substitute 1/2 c. cream cheese (Tofutti’s vegan version works great if you can get it) for the shortening.

Now frost those cupcakes. And eat them up.

*This is an edited adaptation of a recipe from Vegan Cupcakes take Over the World. I haven’t actually seen the original recipe so it is possible that I put it back how it was supposed to be.