Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease or line a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside.
In a blender or food processor, place the eggs, oil, soaked and drained quinoa and vanilla, and blend or process until smooth. The mixture should become lighter in color. You will still see flecks of the quinoa, but process until it’s as smooth as possible.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs and oil mixture, and mix until well-combined. The mixture will be thick.
Divide the batter among the prepared wells of the muffin tin and spread into an even layer in each well using wet fingers.
Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the cupcakes are set in the center and spring back when pressed very gently in the center (about 19 minutes).
Remove the tin from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
The finished and cooled cupcakes can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen for storage of up to 2 months. Allow to thaw at room temperature before serving.
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Notes
How to prepare the quinoa.This recipe must be planned for, but it takes quite literally 1 minute of active planning. Rather than listing dry, raw quinoa as an ingredient and then instructing you to soak it for 12 hours, I’ve included the soaked and drained quinoa as an ingredient.Simply place about 1 1/2 cups (by volume, if you like) raw quinoa in a bowl or jar, and add enough tap water to cover by about in inch. Cover and allow to soak in the refrigerator overnight, or for up to 24 hours. Then, drain in a fine mesh sieve or nut milk bag, and measure the soaked and drained quinoa by weight for use in the recipe.