Mini Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Lemon Glaze

I made these cupcakes for a community gardening group that came to our house to help us fix up the yard.  We spent the afternoon chopping back ivy, pulling weeds, and covering the front yard with compost so it will be ready to plant with beautiful flowers and herbs.  We took a break in the late afternoon for Sweet Potato-Black Bean Chili, roasted veggies marinated in balsamic vinaigrette, and these cupcakes.  I wanted to make everything vegan since I wasn't sure what the folks at the garden party would like, and the meal turned out really well!  These cupcakes were fantastic - despite the lack of dairy products, they were super moist and flavorful.  They taste pretty much like these Martha Stewart cupcakes, but are just a bit more fragile - I had to be very careful getting them out of the pan. If I made these full-sized, I would definitely use cupcake papers rather than just spraying the pan.

I'm not a big fan of margarine, so I went with a simple glaze rather than a faux buttercream.  I like the way the sour lemon glaze sets off the richness of the chocolate.

Mini Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes (from Love and Olive Oil, via Sweetest Kitchen)
Makes 24 mini cupcakes

1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons almond meal
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and spray 24 mini muffin cups (or 12 regular-sized muffin cups) with oil.
2. Whisk together the coconut milk, oil, vanilla, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and beat on slow speed with the mixer until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups, and bake until a tester comes out clean (15-ish minutes?). 

Lemon Glaze

Whisk together about 1/4 cup powdered sugar and some lemon juice until smooth.  Add more lemon juice or water as needed to get a glaze consistency.  Dip cooled cupcakes in the glaze.