Purple Rain Vegan Cupcakes.

These "Purple Rain" Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Blueberry Frosting are your go-to April dish this month. Turn to them for any of the following occasions that you happen upon:

You've been appointed to host a Royal Wedding Tea Party. They're purple. It counts.

You're charged with providing an Easter-y dessert. Pastel is not really so bad when it's got this chilly tone to it, and these will add a little bit of style to the rest of the Easter Glitter Circus. 

You're really into Earth Day - you could add a touch more blue to represent an ocean and they are vegan with fruit frosting - very in touch with the planet if you ask me. For a savory Earth Day dish, try my Earthy Risotto.

For these rich vegan chocolate cupcakes with glossy tops, I started with a recipe from Oh She Glows and made the following adjustments:

- 1/4 cup Kelapo coconut oil instead of 1/3 cup olive oil: Kelapo recently sent me a sample jar of their Virgin Unrefined Coconut Oil to test and this was the perfect tester recipe. Coconut oil is my preferred baking oil.

- 3/4 cup sugar instead of 1 cup. My body doesn't tolerate sugar well (instant headache and general feeling of imbalance), so I will almost always cut back on the stuff when I can. The rich taste of chocolate shines right through and gives this a dark chocolate flavor. 

- 1/2 tsp baking powder, I noticed there was no baking powder in this recipe and wasn't sure if that ingredient was missing, so I decided to be safe and added some.

- No almond extract, as it was optional.

- For the "Purple Rain" frosting, I added in some blueberry juice (2 tbsp frozen organic blueberries, defrosted) pressed in a citrus hand juicer. The defrosted berries gave off more blueberry "water" and were easier to juice than fresh blueberries. You could also try lavender, but I could not find any at my market.

- I used a small "raindrop" puddle of frosting on the top of each cooled cupcake and loved the way that looked so much that I didn't even bother frosting the entire top.

I don't make cupcakes often, but this recipe turned out so well and the apartment smelled  like a bakery and my husband raved about the flavor all night, that I may have to whip these up on the regular.

They were moist, fluffy, decadent, with a fine texture and delicate crumb. I am deeming this the ultimate vegan cupcake recipe,  and you should go visit Angela's blog right now to get familiar with it.