Oreo Chocolate Cupcakes

A few weeks ago at RamAir's 35th anniversary party, unknown to me at the time and the guest of a friend of a friend, was Yasmina Magdy.  I later learned via good old Twitter that she is the vegan and cruelty-free lifestyle Newcastle blogger of The July Journal.  Having a peak through her blog, I found some posts on food, most recently including a recipe for vegan-friendly chocolate cookies, a guide to a vegan barbecue, and the below recipe for vegan Oreo chocolate cupcakes, which Yasmina adapted from a recipe posted by Sarah from The V Nice Life.  A lot of the time, I want to try recipes but struggle to find time to gather together the ingredients to make one of them or I just don't quite have time.  Luckily, it didn't take me too long to be able to try this recipe as I decided to (almost secretly) make a batch to take to a friend's house for a lazy Saturday afternoon of watching Rent and playing card games.  My family also tried a few and actually liked them, despite being surprised at the lack of eggs or any other animal-derived ingredients!

Ingredients (to make 12 cupcakes)

100g vegan margarine, such as Pure
100g caster sugar
1 banana, mashed
75g self-raising flour
25g cocoa powder

For the frosting:
225g icing sugar
100g vegan margarine
4 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5-6 crumbled Oreos

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.  Line a tin with medium-sized paper cupcake cases.
2. Whisk together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.  Use a fork to mash up a banana, and whisk in the mashed banana with the self-raising flour and cocoa powder.
3. Divide the mixture into 12 cupcake cases and bake for 10-14 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.  Transfer the cupcakes onto a cooling rack.
4. For the frosting, whisk the margarine and icing sugar together.  Add the cocoa powder and vanilla extract and whisk until the mixture reaches a smooth, buttery consistency.
5. Once the cupcakes have cooled, spread the icing onto the cakes and crumble the Oreos over the cakes.