Vegan Dark Chocolate And Cherry Cupcakes

These cupcakes are so unbelievably moist and soft, filled with a delicious cherry filling and topped with a luscious dark chocolate ganache. These are super easy to make and the best part is that these are vegan! Let's talk about the ingredients first:

• Oil : You can use any flavorless oil like sunflower oil or vegetable oil.

• Coffee : Coffee just deepens the chocolate flavor. You cannot taste the coffee at all. But if you still don't want to use it just use some hot water instead.

• Vegan yoghurt : It adds a lot of moisture to the cake and also holds the crumbs together by replacing the eggs.

• Vinegar : It will help to activate the baking soda and make the cake fluffy.

• Vanilla : Please don't use artificial vanilla or vanilla essence. I would highly recommend using a good quality vanilla extract. It makes a difference trust me.

• Dark chocolate : Use a good quality dark chocolate. Anything more than 50% will work. It's going to give you a deep and intense chocolate flavor. Just don't go too dark or the frosting will taste bitter as it does not have any added sugar.

• Coconut milk : Please make sure that you use canned coconut milk and not the one that you get in a carton for the ganache.

• Cherries : For the filling, you can use fresh or frozen cherries.

Servings : 12-14

Ingredients :

For dark chocolate ganache :

• Dark chocolate - 250g

• Canned coconut milk - 250ml

For chocolate cupcakes :

• Oil - 160ml

• Granulated sugar - 182g

• Strong hot coffee - 96ml

• Vegan milk - 160ml

• Vegan yoghurt - 72ml

• Vinegar - 2 tsp

• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

• Cocoa powder - 56g

• Flour - 240g

• Baking powder - 1 tsp

• Baking soda - 1 tsp

• Salt - 1/4 tsp

For cherry filling :

• Cherries - 180g

• Sugar - 45g

• Fresh cherries to add on top (optional)

Instructions :

For dark chocolate ganache :

1. Roughly chop up the dark chocolate and add it to a bowl.

2. Heat the coconut milk on the stove or in the microwave until it's steaming hot. Then pour it on top of the chopped chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes. Then give it a good mix with a spoon or a whisk until the chocolate is fully melted and everything is well combined and smooth. If the chocolate does not melt completely, you can heat the mixture a bit more till it's fully melted.

3. Let the mixture come to room temperature and then place it in the refrigerator for 2 hours (give it a mix after every 30 mins) or overnight so that it thickens.

For chocolate cupcakes :

1. To a large bowl, add in the oil along with the sugar and whisk using a hand whisk till it's well combined.

2. Add in the strong hot coffee, vegan milk (I used soy milk), vegan yoghurt, vinegar and vanilla. Whisk everything together until it's well combined and smooth.

3. Now, sift in the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Whisk everything together gently until it's just combined and smooth. But be careful not to overmix the batter.

5. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F and line a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake liners.

6. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way with the batter using an ice cream scoop or a spoon and bake for 20-22 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7. Let the cupcakes cool in the tin for 5 mins then transfer them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

For cherry filling :

1. Finely chop the cherries. To a heavy bottom saucepan, add the chopped cherries along with the sugar.

2. Place the saucepan on medium-high heat and let the cherries cook for 5-10 minutes. Stir occasionally so that the bottom does not burn and everything cooks evenly. You will notice that the cherries have released a lot of liquid.

3. Once most of the liquid is cooked off and the mixture is thickened, take it off the heat.

4. Transfer it to a separate bowl and allow it to cool completely.

For assembly :

1. Using an apple corer or a spoon, make a little hole at the center of each cupcake.

2. Place the cherry filling into a piping bag and snip the tip. Fill the holes that we created with the cherry filling.

3. Place the chocolate ganache into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle (or any nozzle of your choice).

4. Pipe a swirl of ganache on top of each cupcake.

5. Top each cupcake with a fresh cherry and some chocolate shavings. Serve and enjoy!

6. Keep the cupcakes refrigerated.