Per Wiki, Diwali, also known as Deepavali or “festival of lights”, is a five day Hindu festival celebrated in India, Nepal and a number of other countries where Hindis gather with their families to celebrate the end of the harvest season. I am not an expert on Diwali by any means…but through the years I have worked in many multi-cultural environments and had the pleasure of learning about different customs/holidays many of which have delicious foods that accompany them.

This year, Diwali began on Tuesday November 13th.   My co-worker organized a “Diwali Potluck Lunch” the Friday prior for our work team. I knew I could not make any Indian cuisine that would stand up against the dishes my Indian co-workers were going to bring, so I made some vegan coconut cupcakes.    I used the recipe on Chef Chloe’s website for the cupcakes themselves and improvised on the icing since I did not have any coconut oil.

Vegan Coconut Cupcakes (adapted from Chef Chloe’s recipe)
1 3/4 unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
1 cup of coconut milk
1/2 cup oil (I used olive oil since that is what I had on hand but original recipe stated canola oil)
2 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350, prepare cupcake pan with cupcake liners (I ended up with enough batter for 19 cupcakes).

In one bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt). 
In a second bowl, mix together all of the wet ingredients (coconut milk, oil, vanilla, vinegar).   
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing (by hand) until just combined.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for about 15 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.  Cool on wire racks.

Coconut glaze icing (my own creation)
To ice the cupcakes, I made a quick glaze from 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of coconut milk.  These measurements are simply a guide…feel free to add more or less powdered sugar depending on how thick you want the glazed.   Drizzle on top of the cupcakes and then sprinkle with coconut.