Chocolate Cupcakes - take 2!

I've made these cupcakes too many times to count but I love them because they are very forgiving and still usually turn out no matter what you may or may not change. I barely had 1 1/4 cup unbleached white flour left in my cannister so I had to add 1/4 cup oat flour.  I'm thinking I just might do this on purpose next time as it seemed to make it a little bit denser and "fudgier" which I liked! I used 3 tbsp. olive oil + 2 tbsp. applesauce instead of 3 tbsp. canola oil + 3 tbsp. of pureed baby prunes and 1 cup of soy milk instead of the cold water.  I'm surprised how neutral olive oil can taste in so many recipes. I threw in an extra tablespoon of  Cuisine Camino cocoa powder (5 tablespoons instead of 4 and still included 1 tbsp. of decaff instant organic coffee).  I'm thinking that the strong flavor of cocoa possibly works well to neutralize the olive oil flavor in this case.

For the crowning glory  I whipped up a batch of quick "lemon" icing -- squeezed some fresh lemon, 3 tablespoons of earth balance (whipped organic) and of course powdered sugar.  Whipped organic margarine on it's own doesn't seem to produce a super stiff icing but firm enough that it doesn't run off the cupcake. Ideal mixture for those days you don't want to pull out the decorator and/or need an Eiffel Tower size topping!  Not that I don't love cupcakes that are top heavy - I surely do. My grandson LOVES icing and in fact loves it so much that he thought it would make a great hair gel!  I was tidying up my cupcake mess when he came running to me "Mema do you like my new hair?" Pictured below is him with his lovely icing hair gel. Needless to say count 1,2,3 and he was floating with his rubber ducky in the tub getting a new do!

He was due for a haircut anyhow but this kinda of speeded it up!  He agreed to the cut - he's used to it as we go from curls to smooth to curls quite often.  Takes him about 3-4 months to get same amount of curls back that were just shaved off!

Back to my cupcakes though -- the final touch was a mini-ginger cookie and last but not least a swirl of  Cuisine Camino chocolate (chips melted with a bit of earth balance margarine and thinned to right consistency with soy milk).  I used the trusty mini plastic bag with tip cut off  for that part. These mini ginger cookies are a real gem that I found at Giant Tiger recently.  They're made in Canada and appear to be made with only vegan ingredients.  Doesn't say vegan on the box but I can read all the ingredients clearly and they are straight forward and nothing weird! Brand name is Hollandia.  A 400 gram tub was only $2.77 the day I bought it.  I'm quite sure that Bulk Barn also carries the exact same cookies as I purchased 100 gm there and ingredients and taste are identical to Hollandia brand.  They charge 66 cents a 100 gm so works out to about same price.