Re-attempting coffee cupcakes

I've had the urge to bake a lot recently, so last weekend I thought I'd give the ill-fated coffee cupcakes I've made before here another whirl. I have to say they did look fairly good this time...

I had assumed that where I went wrong last time was that I hadn't whipped the batter enough, as they're dairy free and just use eggs and air to give them height, and thought maybe I'd been a bit overzealous with the mixing like a mad thing folding in of the flour. So this time, armed with my trusty food processor (a gift from Mum ad Dad for christmas!) I set to thinking that extra whipping would resolve my problems. Sadly not. This time the sponge was just as flat, incredibly dense and foam-like as before.

I'm not sure what it is I'm doing wrong. I swear by the recipe book* they come from, but I just can't get this recipe to come out right. So, by a process of elimination I reckon it's got to be due to the cooking time (you can't work by colour as I usually do as they don't brown), temperature (maybe my fan oven is a bit hot?) or I just need to keep whipping!

I think next time I might just cheat and add some baking powder or use self-raising flour to try and get some rise in them. Either that or I'll use a standard coffee cupcake recipe and substitute in dairy-free marg instead. However I am determined to perfect the art of the dairy-free cupcake!!

This weekend I'm planning on attempting my first ever macarons, so wish me luck!

Alex

*please note this is an amazon associate link