Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes 🧁🍫

A deceptively wholesome way to ring in the new year.

What do you feed a half human, half bat?

This was the question that I faced when Taylor Trensch, star of the Encores! production of Bat Boy (he crushed it), came to dinner a few weeks ago. And the answer, it turns out, isn’t live cow or live cat. It’s vegan food. Bat Boy’s a vegan and so I cooked a scrumptious vegan dinner of cashew hummus (appetizer) and vegan dan dan noodles (entree) and when I researched a dessert, I stumbled upon these chocolate vegan cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Vegan cupcakes may not scream out to you as a “MUST MAKE” but you would be shocked — shocked, I tell you — by how good these are. They’re moist, they’re fluffy, and most importantly they don’t give themselves away: nobody will ever know they’re vegan. And they’re so easy to make, you do it all in two bowls, no mixer required.

Before we get to those cupcakes, though, a bit about Christmas. I just got back from a week in Bellingham, Washington where I had a grand old time with Craig and his family. Not only did I receive a kitchen blowtorch and a fire blanket from Craig’s mom, Julee…

I also cooked my first-ever Prime Rib!

Never have I been more nervous to cook something. Usually my recipes are relatively frugal — you won’t find truffles or caviar around these parts — and I’ve avoided buying expensive cuts of meat because if you overcook ‘em, you’re out $200 and everybody hates you.

But I’m relieved to say that Alison Roman’s Low-and-Slow Rib Roast with Anchovy and Rosemary was an absolute banger. It’s pretty hard to screw up: you rub the roast with a paste that you make with garlic, anchovies, and rosemary, you pop it in a 250 oven for a few hours until it comes up to 110, then you take it out and it can hover for up to 4 hours before you blast it at 500 to get the outside brown and the temp up to 125 for rare. I can’t tell you how exhilarated I was to slice into it and see this….

(I’m realizing the irony now of sharing these images in a post about vegan chocolate cupcakes. Oops!)

I served ‘em up with hasselback potatoes and roasted carrots and everybody swooned. As for a jus, I deglazed the roasting pan with red wine and beef stock, thickened with a slurry of corn starch and water, and finished with butter. For dessert? David Lebovitz’s ginger cake, of course.

Hey: for a Jewish dude from Boca Raton, I’m proud to have pulled off this Christmas dinner. Still, I’m a latke maker at heart.

• What Nancy Silverton Can’t Live Without (The Strategist);

• The 43 Best Restaurants in New York (Grub Street);

• Obsessed with these plates… maybe for my birthday? (Misette).

Okay, back to the cupcakes. I recommend making these with Valhrona cocoa powder, since it’s the premiere ingredient and you want it to sing.

I also recommend putting your batter into a large measuring glass to make it easy to pour into the cupcake liners.

Otherwise, these are easy peasy and would probably be really fun to put out on New Year’s Eve. Decadent-seeming, but not so rich because… vegan. Plus if you put colorful sprinkles on, everyone will consider them festive.

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes

Makes 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

· 1 cup soy, rice, or oat milk

· 1 teaspoon vinegar

· ¾ cup sugar

· ⅓ cup vegetable oil

· 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

· 1 cup flour

· ⅓ cup cocoa powder

· ¾ teaspoon baking soda

· ½ teaspoon baking powder

· ¼ teaspoon salt

For the chocolate glaze:

· 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

· ¼ cup cocoa powder, sifted

· 3 tablespoons soy or rice milk

· Sprinkles (I like pink on chocolate, but you do you)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray, line with cupcake liners, and spray again.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the soy/rice/oat milk, vinegar, sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla. In a second bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until all of the large lumps are gone.

3. Pour the mixture into a large measuring glass then use that to pour the batter into the 12 muffin liners, filling them each 2/3rds full. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack or your stovetop.

4. To make the glaze, just whisk together all of the glaze ingredients, spoon over the cupcakes, and sprinkle with your sprinkles. That’s it!

Veganchocolatecupcakes

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Hope you liked this new newspaper format… I’m still noodling around but I’m taking inspiration from other food newsletters that love.

Have a great last day of 2025 and here’s to a delicious 2026!

Your pal,

Adam