vegan mofo - the end! chocolate pumpkin cupcakes

it's the end of vegan mofo {aka the vegan month of food} 2011!  what a month it's been.  i have logged so many enjoyable hours discovering new blogs & getting to know some new amazing folks in the vegan community.  my google reader is so full every morning now and i love catching up over my morning coffee.  not to mention, i've had so much fun with my "cupcakes or kale" theme.  i think some new readers have found me this month too {hello there!!} which is wonderful.  i hope you say hello soon if you haven't yet!

without further ado, here is my final post for mofo this year.  i'm finishing it off with cupcakes because i love them.  and they contain pumpkin.  i love pumpkin and have been looking forward to some pumpkin cupcakes for a while now.  it's probably a little late to call this a halloween recipe because everyone had their parties this past weekend, but if you have friends dropping in tonight to help with trick or treaters these would be great.

{cupcakes, naked}

{chocolate pumpkin cupcakes}

this cake is light and fluffy with the slightest hint of pumpkin and spice.  i couldn't wait for them to cool and ate one up warm from the oven.  they're also a great naked cupcake.

chocolate pumpkin cupcakes with half the sugar frosting
adapted from VCTOTW's pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes
makes one delicious dozen
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1 cup organic cane sugar
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

preheat your oven to 350f.  combine the pumpkin, oil, sugar, milk & vanilla in a large bowl and mix well to combine.  in another bowl sift together the remaining ingredients.  add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and combine until no lumps in the batter remain.  the batter will be just a bit thicker than standard cupcake batter because of the pumpkin puree.  scoop batter into a liners in a muffin tin and bake for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  wait until fully cooled and then ice.

half the sugar vanilla frosting
1/4 cup earth balance vegan margarine
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp almond milk
1/4 tsp each cinnamon & nutmeg

whip up the earth balance and incorporate the sugar, flour, milk & spices.  ice cooled cupcakes as you please.  this batch of frosting is a lot smaller than what i normally ice my cupcakes with, but given that it's halloween and we're all bound to be snacking on vegan candy, i thought less was more here.  plus you get to focus on the super moist chocolate pumpkin cake this way too.

ashlae gave me the idea to cut my frosting with a bit of all purpose flour.  this adds some body to the frosting, cutting the amount of sugar needed to stiffen it up.  genius.  the frosting is still sweet but shouldn't give you a toothache if you eat 2 cupcakes in a row.  not that i would know from personal experience or anything...

{distracted by awesome pumpkin stem curls}

{cupcakes, frosted}

{cupcakes, queued}

{happy halloween}

congrats to all the mofo bloggers out there!  this cupcake's for you.