By Eve Fox, Garden of Eating
Via Simply Recipes
Makes 10 cupcakes (or 12 fairly small ones) – if you want to make a cake, double the recipe and cook in two 8-inch round cake pans for 35-40 minutes
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup organic cane sugar (I use vanilla sugar – it adds an extra yum factor)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup of medium strength brewed coffee
1 teaspoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) olive oil
Unbleached cupcake liners (I prefer to use unbleached paper liners as I suspect some of the bleach must get transferred to the wet batter as it heats up.)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners (you can also grease the tin instead but the liners are definitely easier and will prevent anything from sticking.)
2. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl until there are no visible clumps. If you've got particularly clumpy cocoa or sugar, you can always sift the dry ingredients into the bowl, too.
3. In a small to medium-sized bowl, mix together the coffee (or water plus coffee granules), vinegar, vanilla extract, and olive oil.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just to combine (mixture will be rather lumpy.)
5. Ladle the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about two-thirds of the way full. Put in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Remove from oven and cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool completely on a rack. Once cool, frost with the frosting of your choice and serve.
A few frosting options if you don't have one you like already (but please note that I haven't tried these recipes):
Vanilla frosting with a whipped cream-like consistency
Cinnamon cream cheese frosting
Buttercream frosting (fair warning: the recipe calls for 4 sticks of butter and 2 pounds of sugar just to frost 24 cupcakes or one 9-inch cake)
