Chocolate Cake and Frosting- With NO butter or milk?! Yes!!

Chocolate Cupcakes and Frosting- no milk or butter!

Cole has his preschool birthday party tomorrow and he gets to bring a treat to celebrate with his classmates.  He asked for chocolate cupcakes, green frosting and pirate flags- done!

I am always looking for new recipes and I think I just might have found one that I will use forever more. BOTH the cake AND frosting recipe doesn't use any milk or butter, crazy right?!  Best part is the cake is super moist and the frosting is creamy- perfection.

Here is how I made them-

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a microwave safe bowl measure 1 1/2 c water.  Add 4 ounces or 1/4 cup chocolate chips to the water and microwave for 90 seconds.  Stir and microwave another 90 seconds until chocolate is melted.  Whisk together, adding 1/3 c cocoa powder until smooth.  Set aside.

In my mixer I beat 1 c oil, 1 c sugar, 1 c brown sugar, 3 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla.  Mix on high for about 3 minutes- it will become light and fluffy.

In another separate bowl, stir together 2 1/2 c flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder and a dash of salt.  

Add the flour mixture and chocolate mixture alternately to the oil mixture in the mixer, stirring well after each addition.  When all ingredients have been added, keep mixing for another solid minute to combine.

I made cupcakes which the recipe made 30 of ... I baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and let cool.  If you decided to make a sheet cake instead increase your time to about 35-40 minutes. 

For the frosting I used this ...

 

yes, organic all vegetable shortening.  It is non-hydrogented too, which means it doesn't have any of the bad fats in it, hooray!!

In a bowl I used 1 cup shortening, 16 ounces (1/2 my 2 pound bag) of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla.  I beat it well until it was smooth and added the coloring.  Done!

Frost, decorate and enjoy!!