Let’s get one thing out of the way first. These vegan chocolate cupcakes aren’t healthy. I mean, come on, they are cakes and cakes, by definition, aren’t healthy. They may be loaded with antioxidant-rich dark chocolate and instead of eggs they use healthy beetroot purée but saying they are healthy would simply be lying!
Two things they definitely are though are chocolatey and indulgent so if chocolatey indulgence is what you are after you’ve come to the right place. If you are on a diet or trying to be good, avert your gaze – it’s for your own good! These cupcakes were a real labour of love. I took my banana cupcakes recipe as my starting point thinking that it won’t be a big job turning them into chocolate cupcakes. After all, all I needed to do is replace bananas with beetroot purée, add some chocolate to the mix and maybe up the sugar (to compensate for cacao’s bitterness), right? Boy, I’m glad I didn’t realise how wrong I was at the time or else I would not be here now sharing this recipe with you. Getting the proportions right took me so many goes that I’ve lost count and the trouble was that while none of my attempts have proved inedible (which is a shame as I couldn’t possibly bring myself to bin them, which can only mean one thing – a larger jeans size 😉 ), but the texture or flavour wasn’t quite on the money until now. I am pretty happy with these and so were all my neighbours who have helped me test them, even though none of them are vegan. These beauties are intensely chocolatey, moist and just the right amount of sweet. And those of you who go ‘bleugh’ as soon as they hear ‘beetroot’, do not rule them out just yet as they DO NOT TASTE LIKE BEETROOT at all, promise. All that the mighty beetroot does is gives them much desired moist crumb without the need for any eggs.
150 g dark (70%) chocolate 125 ml / ½ cup almond milk chopped pistachios, for decorating (optional) pomegranate seeds, for decorating (optional) 2 tsp cacao powder, for decorating (optional)
