Chocolate Cupcakes - Plant-Based & Refined Sugar Free

All food makes me happy, but chocolate cupcakes just hit differently. These are so indulgent and have been a lifeline for me over lockdown! 😋

Makes 8 cupcakes:

INGREDIENTS:

Cake:
🧁 60g (75ml) Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
🧁 80g Ground Almonds
🧁 150g Oat Flour (oats mixed in a blender until a fine flour forms)
🧁 100ml Oat Milk (or milk of choice)
🧁 50g Maple Syrup
🧁 130g Coconut Sugar
🧁 30g Cacao Powder
🧁 1/2 tsp Sea Salt

Icing:
🧁 50g Cacao Butter
🧁 25g Almond Butter (or nut butter of choice)
🧁 25g Cashew Butter (or nut butter of choice)
🧁 120g Maple Syrup
🧁 25g Cacao Powder
🧁 2 tbsp Oat Milk (or milk of choice)

Optional Topping: Handful of Cacao Nibs

METHOD:
1). Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius
2). Mix the maple syrup, coconut sugar, olive oil, oat milk together in a bowl.
3). In a separate bowl, mix the oat flour, ground almonds, salt and cacao powder together. Add this to the wet ingredients and mix.
4). Split the mixture into 8 cupcake cases and bake for ~30 minutes (or until a skewer just comes out clean).
5). Whilst the cupcakes are baking, make the icing by melting all the ingredients in a bain marie over a medium heat, stirring regularly until it is a smooth consistency.
6). Put the icing in the fridge to cool for ~ 2 hours (until it is thick enough not to run down the sides of the cupcakes).

7). Once you've taken the cupcakes out the oven and left to cool, spread the icing over the top of each cupcake. If using cacao nibs, sprinkle these on top of the icing. 

8). Enjoy! 💚