Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes

Technically I am not supposed to eat dairy; I don't digest it well. For awhile (before I got pregnant) I was pretty good about not eating dairy, but that didn't stop my love (or cravings) for it. Once I was pregnant I found that I could digest it a lot better, so I was back on the dairy bandwagon. And I love it too much to give it up again. With that said, I try to limit my dairy, and I always look for good recipes that don't have dairy. A lot of vegan recipes fall under that category, but I am not a big fan of the flavor. When I found this recipe I decided to try it out, and it turned out really good.

The recipe is originally from this site: http://www.cookingandme.com/2012/11/vegan-avocado-chocolate-cupcakes-eggless-cakes.html#

And the frosting isn't vegan (or dairy-free!) so you'll have to find another frosting recipe if you want a true vegan cupcake.

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
6 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sugar
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped avocado (approx. 2 small avocados)
2 cups water
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line or grease 2 cupcake trays and set aside.
2. Chop up the avocado and add to a blender or a food processor.
3. Top off with oil, water, vanilla, vinegar, and sugar.
4. Blend well until the avocados get puréed completely.
5. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, and salt in a bowl. Slowly add the wet ingredients while whisking.
6. Gently whisk together until you see no traces of the dry mixture in the batter.
7. Fill cupcake trays about 3/4 full.
8. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean or with dry crumbs. Tops may crack., but that's okay.
9. Cool completely before icing.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Ingredients:
1 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon zest

Directions:
Beat together all the ingredients until stiff. If the frosting is too dry, add some milk (by the drops) or butter. If it's too runny, add more icing sugar.