Egg-free Eggless Strawberry Muffin Cupcake Recipe

Life is Good: berry, berry good!

What a fun time we had with our 7-year old Goddaughter recently. We invited her, along with her 4-year old sister, mom & dad for a "cupcake decorating party". I always wanted Godparents when I was a kid. I think I just wanted two more people to shower love and attention on me. Not much has changed!

Whitney's favorite color is pink, so I made Strawberry cupcakes (they are muffins without frosting!). We decorated them with cream cheese frosting, Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips, marshmallows, sparkling sugars, and homemade gummy candy.

It was a lovely time spent together. Such a simple thing to do, but we did it together. I discover more and more that it is not about what you do, but who you spend the time with that matters.

I believe in giving credit where credit is due. I am never one to use another's recipe and then try to pass it off as my own. (Gosh, that bugs me when people do that!) I have been using this vegan strawberry cupcake recipe since I found out our 5-year old had an egg allergy. I have adjusted it slightly. I am so grateful for the cooks and chefs before me who shared their recipes and made the transition to eggless baking easier for me.

Eggless Strawberry Cupcakes & Muffins 

Ingredients: 
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

8oz frozen strawberries including juice, thawed and mashed with a fork (I use organic)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use Madagascar)

1/2 cup canola oil 

1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar (I use plain old multi-purpose Heinz)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and sugar.

3. In another bowl, mix the oil, vinegar, and vanilla together. 

4. Add the strawberries (and any juice from the container) to the oil mixture, mashing the strawberries with a fork, and stir to combine.

5. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients and stir together being careful not to over mix.

6. Using a soup spoon, put one heaping spoonful into each muffin wrapper/liner.

7. Bake for 22-28 minutes (depends on your oven, the weather, and where you live...start checking them at 22 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

8. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. When cool, you can frost the cupcakes or leave them plain as muffins.

NOTES: The brilliance of this recipe is that the oil and vinegar combination replace the eggs. Eggs aren't for taste, but rather consistency. The vinegar reacts in the batter to make them soft. The vinegar does not make them taste sour like you might think, though the batter does taste a little tart. I have made these many times and everyone really enjoys them. I have adapted this recipe into a blueberry muffin cupcake recipe, too The original recipe says that you can make this into a loaf, like a strawberry bread, but I have never tried it.

You can find my cream cheese frosting recipe here. (Scroll down halfway through the post. This post also includes my go-to egg-free carrot cake recipe.)