from  Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

You will need:

• 1 cup soy or rice milk
• 4 black teabags or 2 tablespoons loose black tea
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup plain or vanilla soy yogurt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• pinch of ground white or black pepper

For topping:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg or ground mace

Then you:
Preheat oven to 375 and line tin with cupcake liners. In a small saucepan heat soymilk till almost boiling, add tea bags, cover and remove from heat. Let sit for 10 minutes.When ready to use stir teabags and thoroughly squeeze to insure as much tea is dissolved in milk as possible.

In a large bowl wisk together oil, yogurt, sugar, vanilla and tea mixture until all yogurt lumps disappear. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and pepper into wet ingredients. Mix until large lumps disappear; some small lumps are okay. Fill tins full and bake about 20 to 22 minutes until a sharp knife inserted comes out clean.

Make sure cupcakes are completely cooled before adding topping, or the sugar will melt and not look pretty or powdery.

To assemble, sift confectioners sugar over cooled cupcakes first, then mix cocoa, cinnamon, and nutmeg together and sift onto each cupcake.

I, of course, did NOT top these delicious little items with the sifted mixture as suggested. I topped them with a good two inches of fluffy vegan chocolate butter cream. I personally believe these to be the greatest vegan cupcakes of all time, but the person for whom I baked them liked the frosting best, so you might want to take a que from Little Miss Overboard and whip up some of this stuff:

Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting

• 1⁄2 C. Non-Hydrogenated Shortening
• 1⁄2 C. Non-Hydrogenated Margarine 3 1⁄2 C. Confectioners’ Sugar, sifted if clumpy
• 1 1⁄2 t. Vanilla Extract
• 1⁄4 C. Plain Soymilk or Soy Creamer

Beat shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes. Add vanilla and soymilk, beat for another 5 to 7 minutes or so until fluffy.

I threw a little unsweetened cocoa powder in to make it chocolate.

Anyway, these numbers get a rave review from me, and I eat butter and eggs like all get out. The cakes bake up high and moist and I loved the clove. I actually think the first batch had too much (because I’m an idiot) but the second time I made them I was more careful. Of course, that time I over beat the batter and they got sorta chewy…and I made a vegan cream cheese icing that I wasn’t a fan of. I dunno…vegan cream cheese is really only good when you’re vegan and it has to be. Once you’re back on the fatty stuff it’s hard to go back.