Thursday's Dish: Safe Cupcakes

It's been a long time since I've done a recipe post. Today was the day to bring in cupcakes for Alex's birthday celebration at school. We were instructed at the beginning of the year to keep in mind of the peanut/milk allergies in the class. I have learned a lot about food allergies, as well as what it can do emotionally to the kids, from my friend Kari over at Everyday with Food Allergies. So I wanted to do my best to meet everyone's needs as best as possible.

I was all set to make my cupcakes and ran to Safeway to get the Duncan Hines yellow cake mix that is apparently free of milk and peanuts. I stood there looking at all the cake mixes. They were cheap at $1 a box. So what was the hestitation. I have my own food issues. My husband has conditioned me after 12 years to not buy things with partially hydrogenated oils. These are all around bad for you in every possible way. You can read more here if you like. Every cake mixed had it listed as one of the top ingredients and Duncan Hines had it listed twice!

I could not bring myself to buy the mix. So I left. I was sure that I could find a recipe online that would be safe and easy to make. I mean cake has been around a long time before the days of milk and butter. Surely, I could find something suitable.

Here is the recipe I found--amazed at how utterly simple it was to make.

For Cupcakes:
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cold water
1 cup corn oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (check for ingredients)

On top:
I just sprinkled powdered sugar on top.

Make cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lined muffin tins with paper muffin thingys. Mixed first 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Mix water, oil and vanilla in large bowl. Whisk in dry ingredients. Divide batter among tins. Sprinkle cup chocolate chips over batter in each pan.
Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Made about 20.

So proud to have made safe cupcakes for everyone today!