Purple Haze Cupcake

"Excuse me while I kiss the sky".
My husband sings Jimi Hendrix tunes to my girls as they walk to school in the mornings. They giggle and act like they don't to know him, while he pretend riffs.

When I frosted these little cupcakes this afternoon, I was wanting them to be a deep purple, but when the natural food coloring brought me to this hazy gorgeous lavender, I thought of my husband singing to our girls.

"Acting funny but I don't know why".
The first batch of mini cupcakes came out moist, but a tiny bit crumbly.
 I couldn't quite give up on them though, because they were delicious and airy, but just couldn't keep it together.
I carried a tray of them with me that afternoon in search of critique.
Confirmed by friends...delicious...but it was a little like you couldn't get a grip on them.  They were just too delicate.
But a cupcake needs to stand up under its delicious frosting and I had to try again.  It only took a little more olive oil, and putting the batter in the refrigerator to chill , to get the perfect consistency.

My daughter went into a a euphoric state over the redone cupcake.

Like a cupcake junkie.

But here is the thing.  

There is no junk in these groovy little cupcakes.

Purple Haze Cupcake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

I used mini cupcake tins with liners but of course you could line a regular size cupcake tin as well. Yields 36 mini cupcakes.

In a medium bowl, whisk together:

1 3/4 cups organic pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup of organic evaporated cane juice

In seperate bowl combine:

1 cup organic rice milk

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup of olive oil

2 tablespoons of best quality vanilla

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry until just incorporated with no lumps.

Add and give a final mix:

1 tablespoon hot water

Put batter in the refrigerator and allow it to chill for at least 30 minutes to an hour.

Pour chilled batter into prepared cupcake tins 3/4 of the way full.

Bake at 350 degrees in the center of the oven for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes and clean.  The tops should feel just slightly springy.

Remove tins from oven and let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack.  I find that if I let them cool on the rack for about 10 minutes and then move the whole tin to the freezer for about 10 minutes, it allows the cupcakes to release easily.  Also the cupcakes need to be completley cool to frost, so this works for that too!

*For this cupcake I used Pamela's gluten free vanilla frosting mix.  Found in health food stores.  It is organic confectioner's sugar with 3% cornstarch and vanilla powder.
The recipe calls for Earth Balance vegan buttery spread and a non-dairy milk (I used organic rice milk).
For the gorgeous lavender, I used India Tree natural food decorating colors, which is made with vegetables like beets, cumin and red cabbage.  They sell it in whole foods.
A little goes a long way and the colors are gorgeous and so much fun!