Frugal Baking: Choc-chip Cupcakes

Every mother who is looking to save a bit and wants to impress is looking for the perfect home-made cake recipe for her child’s next birthday party. I finally found a delicious Victorian sponge cake recipe from one of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks that I made two years in a row for Daughter#1. It's very decadent and not very cheap to make, but so worth it. So I thought I found my recipe for all future birthdays, until we discovered (the hard way) that Daughter#2 is allergic to eggs. Initially she also had a wheat allergy (tricky combination- toddlers are fussy enough as it is!), but thankfully she's outgrown that. I’ve been trying to find the ultimate egg-free cake for her second birthday and gave this recipe a try today. Interestingly, it’s derived from a World War II recipe during times of egg and milk rationing, so it’s egg-free, can be dairy-free and it's cheap to make. If you've read my previous post on organizing your pantry and stocked up on essentials you should have all the ingredients except for choc-chips/cocoa and white vinegar (cider vinegar is also acceptable).

I’ve adapted the recipe slightly by omitting cinnamon and since I didn’t have cocoa, I used choc-chips instead. Also, I tried baking them as cup cakes, but this can be made into a cake too.  

CHOC-CHIP CUPCAKE RECIPE (Adapted from Veteran Affairs Canada)

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C (350 deg F).

Ingredients

Combine dry ingredients:
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup choc-chips (use 3 tablespoons cocoa if you want to keep it dairy-free)

Add:
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of white vinegar*
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I prefer Canola)
1 cup of lukewarm water

Combine all ingredients and fill a paper-lined muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 mins.

The recipe doesn’t seem to need any frosting with choc-chips, but as a chocolate cake one could dust it with icing sugar or make a rich butter icing.

* The science behind including vinegar- the acidity of vinegar reacts with baking soda and produces carbon dioxide, which gives the batter the lift it needs.

Yes, that's my daughter's hand, ready to pounce!