Spring green mini vanilla cupcakes

These are perfect cupcakes to make with kids- the batter is easy to throw together and it's not too messy- until you get to the decorating part:) Choose a fun cupcake paper liner, maybe with a spring-like theme- I chose mini flower cupcake liners. Don't be afraid to get messy with the decorating! The recipe comes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and is just the basic "Golden Vanilla Cupcakes" recipe, the first one in the book. I decided to make them green to have more fun. I made them with some little kids while I was babysitting and they had so much fun with the decorations!

Ingredients:

1 cup nondairy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbs cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract, caramel extract or more vanilla extract

1. Pre-heat oven to 350ºF and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

2. Whisk the milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside a few minutes to get good and curdled.

3. Beat together the milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla and other extracts, if using, in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until no large lumps remain. Add a few drops of food coloring if you want to use it.

4. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way and bake for about 15-18 minutes for mini and 20-22 minutes for regular size or until done (they're done when a toothpick comes out clean). Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

I just made a simple frosting with powdered sugar and water and food coloring. Mix about a cup of powdered sugar with a little water and keep adding sugar or water until you get to the desired consistency. This is a really easy frosting to make but it is a little messy- but easy to clean up!

Here are some of our decorated cupcakes: