Really Dense Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes with a wonderful Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

My mil's birthday was yesterday and we needed  an eggless recipe - the first eggless recipe I have tried and I think everyone seemed happy to eat these lovely cupcakes and they were approved by my son too! My family has always been very supportive of my baking and have eaten whatever I have put in front of them - when I first started out my cakes were very amateurish and kiddie looking and I didn't think they tasted great but were always met with rave reviews from my hubby and his parents. Back in time, I didn't know you could get whipped cream in India and didn't know fine sugar and butter would make a lovely cloud like, ethereal and fluffy white mousse like mass with which I could decorate my cakes and cupcake with but I have definitely come and long way from there  :)!

So there really easy chocolate cupcakes have one key to their softness - stir in the same direction - do not change directions. This should make about 11-12 cupcakes. Bake for about 18 minutes but check after 15 - since one of my cupcakes got slightly burned from the corner.

1.5 cup flour
1/3 cup good cocoa powder - like Hersheys
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup fine sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup buttermilk (milk + 2 tsp lemon juice)

Sieve the dry ingredients. I used a hand mixer to mix the sugar and oil. Then added the buttermilk and vanilla extract. Then to this I added the dry ingredients and mixed it together with a spoon. I found that I needed to add a couple of teaspoons of milk to this to make the consistency right. The vinegar was added in the end and mixed and immediately poured into the cupcake liners. But I had switched off the oven b'coz od some incessant bells and the cupcakes still rose inspite of discovering it after a whole 5 mins of the cupcakes being inside - maybe coz the oven was already hot - I don't know but my guess is that the recipe was good?

Vanilla Buttercream frosting:

1/2 a vanilla bean
3:1 sugar and butter ratio - depending on how much frosting you want to make i.e. 3 cups sugar and 1 cup butter
2 tablespoons whipping cream

Whip together with electric mixer to form a cloudy mass. I frosted the cupcakes by piping the frosting on and then added some chocolate chips on top to give a nice contrast on the top.

The pictures were taken in the evening so aren't very bright but should be on soon.

And the carrot cupcakes got over before I could take any pictures... so am going to bake a batch soon to have them on here!