Baby Shower Cupcakes (Vegan Friendly)

KristinV's Note:

I made these cupcakes for my sister-in-law's Baby Shower. She wasn't finding out what the sex of her baby was until the birth so I used that for the frosting idea (see the picture). I am a strict vegetarian who rarely gets to enjoy special occassion treats so these are vegan so I get to join in the fun :)

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 12 cupcakes

• 1 ½ cups soymilk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 ¼ cups plain flour
• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1⁄3; cup canola oil
• ¾ cup sugar
• 6 teaspoons vanilla essence (or extract)
• ¼ teaspoon almond essence
• ½ cup Copha (melted)
• 6 cups icing sugar (sifted)
• red food coloring
• blue food coloring

Directions:

1. For Cupcakes:.
2. Preheat oven to 180C and line muffin pan with paper liners.
3. Whisk 1 cup soy milk and the vinegar together and let sit a few minutes until curdled.
4. Beat together the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar, 2 tsp vanilla and the almond essence in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt and mix until no large lumps remain.
5. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20 to 22 minutes till done. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.
6. FOR THE FROSTING.
7. In a bowl mix melted Copha, remaning salt, remaining vanilla, and about 1/3 of the icing sugar.
8. Add remaining soy milk and remaining icing sugar alternately. Mix until smooth and creamy.
9. Divide frosting into 3 bowls. Make one pink, one blue (desired shade) and leave one white.
10. When Cupcakes are cooled use a piping bag to frost 6 cakes pink, 6 blue and use white icing for question marks.