Nobody needs my dedication to butter, milk, buttermilk, cream, crème fraîche, sour cream, or eggs clarified here; we all know I get a little twitchy when the fridge is low on any. These vegan cupcakes are not an abnegation of anything, but a celebration, as they should be. What has surprised me the most since I happened on the first vegan cake recipe here, the Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, a couple years ago is not what it is “missing” — you’d never know — but what it does astoundingly better than cakes with any of my usual crutches: it’s even more moist and plush. Who knew that eggs in cakes were sometimes a …hindrance? Definitely not me.

Armed with this knowledge, I was eager to apply it to a classic white cake — plus some sprinkles, as I think we need all of the joy and color we can get right now. Confetti cakes can be a bit of a struggle; the egg whites make them seem more stiff and dry. They’re sensitive to overmixing and overbaking. This cake skips the eggs entirely, uses oil instead of butter, and the result is one-bowl, five minutes from measuring to baking, magic. It’s also really hard to mess up. I tried swapping fats and milks, I’ve even overbaked it, and it did not care. Plus, the texture is even perfect cold from the fridge, which is rarely the case of cakes with butter in them. You are in for such a treat.

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