These easy chocolate cupcakes are an unreserved celebration of sweet, and good fun too.
It's school holidays here in New Zealand, and in the school holidays cupcakes just need to be made. There was no point in even asking what flavour they should be, as there would only ever be one answer.
My big girl is nearly seven and loves to be in the kitchen with me. I suspect her food knowledge probably rivals some adults sometimes! Whatever else she chooses to do with her life, I think it's predestined that she'll be a good cook and care a lot about food. Before she was born I couldn't imagine what her personality would be like, so I've been both pleased and perplexed about how like me she is. Children.
Yesterday we spent virtually the whole day together in the kitchen, chatting, explaining and slowly but surely getting breakfast, lunch and cupcakes made. I'm so thankful we had the time to potter together like this. She took pride in measuring precisely and smoothing the flour and sugar level, sieving and mixing, and of course the most important part of all was scraping out the bowl and licking the spoon.
The cupcakes themselves are rich, dark and very chocolatey, with a hard to put your finger on complexity that comes from a little balsamic vinegar. You'd certainly never guess they are egg and dairy free. The frosting is a coconut oil based vegan buttercream, made caramel flavoured with the addition of a bit of coconut nectar. Then finally just for fun we made some hokey pokey (or honeycomb to the rest of the world) to garnish. We've been talking about making hokey pokey for ages and this was the perfect opportunity. How exciting seeing the way it puffs and foams when the baking soda is added. Science and cooking, all in one.
Coconut oil has a much lower melting point than butter, so there are a few things to keep in mind when making the buttercream. Firstly, you need to start with solid coconut oil. If it's even partially melted to start with, put it in the fridge to firm up. It'll soften considerably as you start whipping and adding icing sugar, so work fast. Make sure you are frosting cupcakes that are completely cool. If you're piping it, your hands will also soften it very quickly. I recommend putting your cupcakes onto a dish that can be put in the fridge, piping the frosting, then immediately putting the cakes in the fridge to firm it up. The frosting softens again quickly at room temperature too so this probably isn't the best frosting recipe to use if you're lucky enough to live somewhere tropical. I can only dream.
Get the recipe

INGREDIENTS
For the cupcakes:
- 1 ½ cups self raising flour
- 1 cup sugar
- ⅓ cup cocoa
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup coconut oil melted if solid
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
For the frosting:
- ¼ cup coconut oil solid
- 2-3 cups icing sugar powdered or confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon coconut nectar or golden syrup
- 2-4 tablespoon plant milk I used coconut drinking milk
For the hokey pokey:
- 5 tablespoon white sugar
- 2 tablespoon coconut nectar or golden syrup
- 1 teaspoon baking soda bicarbonate of soda
INSTRUCTIONS
For the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 180C fanbake, and line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake wrappers.
- Sieve dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
- Add vanilla, balsamic vinegar, warm water and melted coconut oil and quickly mix until smooth. The warm water is used to prevent the coconut oil from immediately hardening and creating lumps.
- Spoon batter evenly into cupcake wrappers.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the surface springs back when lightly touched, and a skewer comes out clean.
- Cool to room temperature before frosting.
For the frosting:
- Put solid coconut oil in a mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) and briefly whip to soften.
- Add one cup of icing sugar and mix.
- Add the vanilla and coconut nectar and mix again.
- Alternately add more icing sugar and plant milk bit by bit until you have a consistency and quantity you're happy with. I used about 2 and ⅓ cups of icing sugar and 3 tablespoon of coconut milk. If it looks like the mixture is splitting, you can rescue it by adding more icing sugar and/or putting the whole mixing bowl in the fridge to firm up for about five minutes.
- Spread or pipe the frosting evenly onto your cupcakes, and refrigerate.
For the hokey pokey:
- Line a baking sheet with baking paper or a non-stick silicon baking mat.
- Put the sugar and coconut nectar into a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- Let the mixture gently boil for three minutes, keeping a very close eye on it and stirring occasionally to prevent burning. If you're using coconut nectar for the first time, keep in mind that it is darker in colour than golden syrup, which means the mixture could start to look burned before it actually is. If you don't cook the mixture for long enough it won't harden and you'll end up with toffee instead of hokey pokey.
- Remove from the heat. Immediately and quickly stir through the baking soda, mix well (while admiring the way it puffs and foams) and scrape out onto your baking tray to cool. Work fast, it hardens quickly. I spread mine a bit flatter with a spatula so that it would be easier to break into shards.
- Once cool and hard, use your hands to break into shards and garnish the cupcakes. Best added to cupcakes immediately before serving, to prevent softening.
Julie @ Hokey Pokey Cupcakes
Wow Amber . They look good. Hokey Pokey is my favorite.
Sina @ Vegan Heaven
This looks so delicious, Amber! I love the caramel frosting! 🙂
Amber
Thank you Sina!