Perfect Vegan Cupcake (high altitude)

I've adapted sea-level recipes for dairy-free, egg-free cupcakes before, but they usually end up sunken and stuck to the muffin tin (or stuck to the paper liners, even worse). So, I went on a hunt for a really good cupcake/muffin that would work at high altitude. (I'm not sure what separates a cupcake from a muffin. I've reduced the sugar from the original cupcake recipe, bringing these dangerously close to muffin territory.) These can be frosted for dessert, or filled with power ingredients like nuts and raisins to make a breakfast or snack. Most recently, with autumn on its way and apples falling from the trees, I made these with apple chunks and walnuts, cinnamon and allspice, and brown sugar instead of white. It tasted like fall and it was delicious.

Fig & Poppyseed Muffins (High altitude baking)

There’s nothing like that moment when you first check on the progress of your cake or muffin or bread as it bakes in the oven. What will it be: a flat, disappointing brick, or a softly rising mound that promises air bubbles and lightness of crumb inside?  Those of us at high altitude always have a little extra trepidation: the thin, dry, low-pressure air up here wreaks havoc on sea-level baking recipes, which rely on a finely-tuned balance between pressure inside and pressure outside the rising surface of the loaf or cake. I have made plenty of bricks, plenty of cakes that rose too fast and collapsed back in on themselves or overflowed their pans, and plenty of perfect and delectable desserty confections that are indistinguishable from their sea-level counterparts.