vegan lemon cupcakes

My favourite season is finally here: summer, yay! The season of long and warm days and short nights, bright blue skies, hot weather, cold ice cream and just enjoying and relaxing.. It's been a looong wait but now I can just chill and take it easy. 

The last few days have been super hot. I've been at the dog park at 8.30 am before it's too hot for our puppy to be outside for long. What a better way to start your day that seeing your best friend enjoy when you throw the ball and just lounging in the grass. And when we get home he usually sleeps on the floor (when not chewing his favourite shoe) while I browse different recipes on the internet.

This time I chose to make lemon cupcakes with buttercream frosting. And since I'm very interested in vegan baking, I made these cupcakes totally vegan. The recipe is very quick and easy to make. If you want the cupcakes to be very lemony, use two lemons. The combination of sour cupcake with sweet a buttercream is delicious, but if you are unsure about the taste use only one lemon.

The buttercream is made of margarine and it tastes different than using butter. If the buttercream is too sweet, add a pinch of salt or lemon juice. 

This recipe makes about 12 cupcakes.

The recipe:

185g/1.5 cups flour
0,5 tsp. baking soda
0,5 tsp. baking powder
1,5 dl/3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 dl/ 0.3 cup vegetable oil
1 dl/0.5 cup soy yogurt
1,5 dl/0.7 cup soy milk
1-2 lemon zest and juice

1. Preheat the oven to 175c/350F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together and then all the wet ingredients.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients little by little, but avoid overmixing.
4. Fill the liners about two-thirds full and bake about 18-20 minutes.
5. Remove the cupcakes from the muffin tin and place on a wire cooling rack.

For the buttercream frosting:

110g/0.5 cup margarine (room temperature)
300g/2.3 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp soy milk

1. Cream margarine until it's lighter and fluffier. Add powdered sugar. If your sugar is very lumpy you should shift       it. Start with a low speed, then gradually increase the speed.
2. Add vanilla and soy milk. 
3. Beat until white and fluffy. Remember to taste your buttercream that it's perfect :)

Happy baking!