Fluffy Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes
It doesn’t get much better than soft and fluffy Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes topped with creamy frosting! Most people who try these cupcakes are so surprised when they discover they’re dairy-free and egg-free. I’ve had some pretty dense and flavorless vegan cupcakes over the years, but with countless tries and much tweaking, I’ve finally come up with this never-fail cupcake recipe that always wows!
☆☆☆☆☆ Lynda commented: “These cupcakes were soooo delicious! Thank you Chef Ani!”
This Vegan Cupcake Recipe Has Never Failed Me!
I’m no stranger to dense, dry, and crumbly vegan baked goods. Unfortunately, vegan recipes often require a bit of tweaking to fix these issues (it’s hard when you’re trying to replace animal products like eggs, butter, and milk with plant-based alternatives!).
I had to kiss a lot of frogs when creating this vegan vanilla cupcake recipe, but at long last I discovered the perfect ingredient ratios for making moist, tender, and fluffy cupcakes every time.
This recipe is incredible, here’s why:
- Light and airy texture: There’s nothing worse than biting into a dense cupcake! This recipe keeps the cupcakes moist and fluffy by incorporating plant-based buttermilk, applesauce, and plenty of baking powder in the batter.
- Rich vanilla flavor: I know some people find vanilla too simple, but I think most of them haven’t had high-quality vanilla! This recipe will change your mind, and you’ll find yourself using the flavor a lot more in other vegan recipes.
- Flexible recipe: For this particular batch, I added a bit of cardamom to the batter, but that’s just one option. You can make a lemon frosting, drizzle vegan caramel on top, or just about anything else you can imagine.
I used Russian piping tips to create the pretty flower decorations on top of these cupcakes, but you’re welcome to spread the frosting on with a butter knife or offset spatula too.
The Main Ingredients
- Flour: I like to use King Arthur All Purpose Flour for this cupcake recipe. To prevent dry or dense cupcakes, fluff the flour with a fork before spooning it into your measuring cup. Then, level off the top with the back of a butter knife to prevent over-measuring.
- All-Natural Cane Sugar: I like to sweeten the cupcakes with natural cane sugar, but you can also experiment with other vegan sugar options.
- Baking powder: This helps the cupcakes rise and become light and fluffy. I like to use an aluminum-free baking powder such as Rumford.
- Oil: Adding a little oil to cupcakes keeps them soft, tender, and moist. I like to use vegetable oil, but you could also use avocado, coconut oil, or olive oil (although it may change the flavor of the final cupcakes).
- Non-dairy milk + lemon juice: The secret to making the BEST vegan cupcakes is to make your own buttermilk. I add fresh squeezed lemon juice to unsweetened almond milk or soy milk to create a mock buttermilk. (If you want to make almond milk from scratch, try my homemade almond milk recipe!)
- Vanilla: Vanilla bean paste will give you the best flavor when it comes to baking a cake or cupcake. The paste is extracted straight from the vanilla bean pod itself so it has a much more well-rounded and decadent flavor than most extracts, which are alcohol-based. That said, pure vanilla extract made from real vanilla beans works too!
- Applesauce: Since this cupcake recipe is made without eggs, the secret to achieving a soft and delicious texture is adding a little applesauce to the wet ingredients.
Chef Tip: When purchasing dairy-free milk for cupcakes, it is important to look for milk that doesn’t contain ingredients that will keep it from curdling after adding lemon juice. Go with an organic or natural almond milk. Don’t worry if your non-dairy milk does not curdle; the cupcakes will still be delicious.
How to Make the Best Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes
Making dairy- and egg-free cupcakes may sound intimidating, but I promise this recipe is so easy to follow! Here’s an overview of how the cupcakes are made, with plenty of tips from yours truly to ensure they turn out amazing.
Step 1: Make the Mock Buttermilk
Taking the time to curdle the non-dairy milk is an important step in this recipe as the mock buttermilk is what keeps the cupcakes so moist and tender.
To make your own buttermilk, add fresh lemon juice to either almond or soy milk and set aside until the milk is curdled before adding it to your batter.
Step 2: Make the Cupcake Batter
Always whisk together the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Then, add the wet ingredients to the dry (this prevents lumps from forming in the batter).
Be very careful not to over-mix the batter! Over-mixing can cause your cupcakes to sink in the middle, be overly dense, or turn out weirdly chewy.
Chef Tip: The moment you notice the flour mixture has come together evenly with everything else, stop mixing. Use a spatula to scrape the bowl’s sides and look for any dry flour spots. If you don’t find any flour on the sides, you’re good to go!
Step 3: Fill Your Cupcake Tins
I like to use an ice cream scoop for this step. You want to fill the cupcake liners only 2/3 full so the batter doesn’t overflow in the oven.
Step 4: Bake
Cupcakes only need to bake for 15 to 20 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when the tops are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Avoid over-baking your cupcakes, because that can make them super dry and crumbly!
Step 5: Make the Frosting
Using vegetable shortening and vegan margarine keeps the frosting firmer so it mimics the texture and richness of buttercream.
Earth Balance and Spectrum Organic Vegetable Shortening is my preferred combination for making vegan frosting. It’s essential to whip the two together for 10 minutes to create a light and fluffy texture.
Chef Tip: Never try to frost a warm cupcake! You’ll just end up with a greasy mess. Always allow your cupcakes to cool completely. I suggest giving them a few minutes to rest in the tin, and then you can remove them to rest on a wire cooling rack. This helps them cool faster than if you left them in the tin.
Step 6: Frost and Decorate as Desired
The sky is the limit when it comes to decorating your cupcakes! You can get so creative with the design and colors that you use.
The amount of sugar can also be altered if you prefer a sweeter or neutral flavor. Countless piping bags, piping tips, and decorating techniques can be used to make beautiful cupcakes.
For these photos, I used Russian piping tips. They’re large piping tips that have intricate designs to make beautiful flowers from the sugar icing.
Chef Tip: Amazon has an excellent selection of Russian piping tips. I purchased mine in a pack, so I have many different tips for various shapes.
Why Did My Vegan Cupcakes Sink During Baking?
Reason #1: Opening the oven door. Baking is all about chemical reactions, from mixing ingredients to the oven’s heat. When you open the oven door, you can lose around 25 degrees of heat. The rush of cold air stops your cupcakes from rising as much, and they sink instead.
Keep the oven door shut while you bake, and wait to check the cupcakes until the end of the baking time. If a toothpick comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it, you are good to go!
Reason #2: Over-mixing the batter. We talked about over-mixing a bit earlier, and this is one reason to be careful. Over-mixing vegan cupcake batter will aerate it too much. The air dissipates during baking, making your cupcakes sink.
Reason #3: Using expired baking powder. Expired dry ingredients can be hit or miss. Whether it’s a rising agent or a seasoning, the product will get less potent — and less effective — over time. Just know that if you gamble with expired baking powder, your prize might be sunken cupcakes.
Reason #4: Setting the oven too high. When your oven temperature is too high, your cupcakes will rise too fast. The rising agent uses up all of its “energy” in the first few minutes, and the muffins or cupcakes sink under its own weight for the rest of the baking time.
More Easy Vegan Cakes and Cupcakes
Vegan Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
- Prep Time: 40
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 12 cupcakes 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
It doesn’t get much better than these soft and fluffy vegan vanilla cupcakes topped with creamy frosting! Most people who try these cupcakes are so surprised when they discover they’re dairy-free and egg-free.
I’ve had some pretty dense and flavorless vegan cupcakes over the years, but with countless tries and much tweaking, I’ve finally come up with this never-fail cupcake recipe that always wows!
Ingredients
Dry:
- 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup all-natural cane sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
Wet:
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/3 cups plant-based milk (organic unsweetened almond or soy milk)
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Frosting:
- 1/2 cup vegan margarine (I like Earth Balance)
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I like Spectrum)
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla powder
Instructions
- Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
- In a medium-size bowl, mix together the plant-based milk and fresh lemon juice. Let sit for a couple of minutes until the milk is curdled. Add the oil, applesauce, and vanilla. Gently stir to combine.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cardamom. I recommend sifting your dry ingredients to eliminate any lumps.
- When the oven is ready, pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, and stir to combine. Be careful not to overmix, as this will create a denser cupcake.
- Transfer the batter to the cupcake tins (an ice cream scoop makes this easy!). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack.
- Make the frosting: With an electric mixer, whip the margarine and shortening until light and fluffy. This usually takes about 10 minutes. This is a crucial step.
- Add the lemon extract and mix again until incorporated.
- Sift the powdered sugar and vanilla powder with a sieve. Add the sifted sugar to the electric mixer a little at a time and continue to whip for another couple of minutes.
- Frost the cupcakes as desired and enjoy!
Notes
To store: Frosted cupcakes can last up to a week in the fridge in an airtight container and for several months in the freezer.
To freeze: I like to freeze the unfrosted cupcakes and then make up a fresh batch of frosting when I want to serve them. Or you can experiment with freezing the whole frosted cupcake.
To make this recipe gluten-free: Use a gluten-free 1-to-1 baking flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur’s). Also double check that your baking powder is gluten-free. Most brands these days use a plant-based starch, but you may run across some that use a gluten base (Rumford is my favorite for cupcakes!).
These cupcakes were soooo Delicious!
Thank you Chef Ani!
Thank you so much for your kind review! I am so happy you enjoyed the cupcakes!