Vegan Tangerine Cupcakes

If you follow this blog, you will remember that I’m not a huge fan of chocolate. I’ll take a good piece of chocolate cake or cupcake now and then, but given the choice I’ll take fruit dessert any day of the week. So…. because I love fruit more and because my dear friend who I’m still sad moved to Iowa needs dairy-free recipes, I’m posting this one today. This recipe is vegan which I don’t mind vegan or non-vegan, but it was full of fruit flavor and that is what I care about. My next attempt at home I will try substituting some Splenda (maybe half) and applesauce for oil. This will save on calories, but I know these substitutions don’t always make it as yummy as the real thing. I like to try the full fat version first before rendering judgement. This is a food pet peeve of mine – people “reviewing” recipes with poor reviews and then they mention that they substituted half the ingredients for something else.

These cupcakes would be great for breakfast with or without icing, dessert or brunch. I weighed almost all of the ingredients and would highly recommend doing the same. It has simplified my time and dishes in the kitchen as well as made everything more “picture perfect” because it comes out the exact same every time. But just in case, I put volume measurements as well.

Tangerine Cupcakes
12 cupcakes

2 and 1/4 cup (10.5 oz) AP flour
1 cup (7 oz.) sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup of peeled, diced clementines or tangerines (I used 2 tangerines)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil (or canola)
1 cup orange juice or tangerine juice

Icing:
2 and 1/4 cup (9 oz.) powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
3-4 Tb. of freshly squeezed OJ

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease and flour a 12 cup muffin pan or use liners.
2.These are created just like muffins using the muffin method. So, in a great, big bowl mix the dry stuff: flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the wet stuff: clementines/tangerines, vanilla, oil and OJ.
4. Dump the wet stuff into the dry stuff and gently fold and stir until just barely combined. You may see a few specks of dry flour and that is okay.
5. Fill each cup until it is to the top and nearly full. I used my large cookie scoop and did a heaping scoop of it.
6. Bake for 15- 18 minutes. They will be just barely browned and wonderfully crowned. Take them out when they pass the toothpick test with no crumbs.
7. Cool on wire rack. After 10 minutes, I usually take any muffin or cupcake out to sit on the rack to cool more.
8. Once completely cooled, you can add the icing. Mix the sugar, salt and OJ together. I topped each one as we ate it. So the icing stayed separate from the cupcake until consuming. The icing is spreadable and runs a little, which I liked.