German Chocolate Cupcakes - Allergy Friendly

Tomorrow is my son's 12th birthday. I wanted to make a dessert for him, and German Chocolate Cupcakes sounded like just the thing; except my son is allergic to nuts. I set out to make nut-free vegan German Chocolate Cupcakes, and these came out amazing. The cake is rich and moist and the topping is sweet and decadent. It is such a good combination.

I used both pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in the topping, because I wanted a more complex "nutty flavor". The pumpkin seeds are green, though, which may not be the look you are going for. You can easily leave these out and just use sunflower seeds.

As I was going to all of this trouble to make the cupcakes, toast the seeds, and make the frosting, I decided to make a lot of cupcakes. This recipe makes 32 cupcakes, so your sweet tooth will be set for quite awhile.

German Chocolate Cupcakes - Allergy Friendly

Cupcake Ingredients (Adapted From Moosewoods Dessert Cookbook):

3 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups vegan sugar
2 cup water
1 tsp instant coffee granules
3 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp white vinegar

Topping Ingredients (Adapted from Feed Me I'm Cranky's German Chocolate Cake Recipe):

2 cups soy milk
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegan sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup raw sunflower seeds (you will toast them)
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds (you will toast them)
3 cups shredded coconut

Cupcake Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. You can get earth friendly ones like, these Natural Brown Ones.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, and stir to mix well. When all the dry ingredients are incorporated, add the wet ingredients. I like to combine the wet ingredients in a large measuring cup and pour them all in at once. You will mix the water, coffee granules, vanilla, and white vinegar and pour that over the dry ingredients. Fold until it is just combined and there are no large clumps of flour. Pour into cupcake tins, lined with the cupcake liners until each is 3/4ths of the way full. Bake for 18 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking, make the topping.

First, toast the sunflower seeds and the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan over high heat. Shake often, so they don't burn. A cast iron pan also works very well for this. You will know they are done when they start to smell fragrant and are turning golden brown.

Next, put the soy milk in a saucepan and let it simmer for quite awhile. Stir it frequently and let it reduce to half the original volume. Next, mix the cold water with the cornstarch and slowly add that to the soy milk while stirring the whole time to avoid it clumping up on you. When this has thickened a bit, add the vegan margarine, salt, and sugar. Continue to stir as the margarine melts, the sugar dissolves, and it all incorporates.

Finally, remove from the heat and add the vanilla, toasted seeds, and shredded coconut. Let the topping cool before adding a nice spoonful to the top of each cupcake.

For 32 cupcakes. Nutritional information from caloriecount.about.com

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 83 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories  202 Calories from Fat  69

% Daily Value*

Total Fat  7.7g 12%

Saturated Fat  3.1g 16%

Trans Fat  0.0g

Cholesterol  0mg 0%

Sodium  230mg 10%

Potassium  133mg 4%

Total Carbohydrates  32.3g 11%

Dietary Fiber  1.8g 7%

Sugars  19.5g

Protein  3.1g

Vitamin A 3% • Vitamin C 1% Calcium 1% • Iron 13%

Nutrition Grade C-

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet