These light and fluffy vanilla vegan cupcakes are so good no one will ever guess they are vegan! Topped with a generous swirl of vegan buttercream.
🍴Why you will love this recipe
So it seems you're all hungry for vegan cake recipes, (and I don't blame you!) - my Vegan Victoria Sponge, Vegan Coffee & Walnut Cake and Vegan Carrot Cake are consistently amongst my most popular recipes.
So here's a recipe for some in incredibly light, moist and fluffy Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes. These taste every bit as good as they look - fluffy, moist and piled high with buttercream - no one will ever guess these are vegan.
A combination of vegan yoghurt and plant milk replace the eggs. It sounds weird I know, but it works so well! And of course vegan block margarine is a super-simple butter replacement both in the sponge and in the buttercream.
📝 What you need
Ingredients
Dairy-free margarine Make sure you use a good-quality block margarine, rather than a tub of spread. My favourites are the new Flora Plant Butter or Naturli Block. A block margarine has a far lower water content than spread, which is so much better for baking.
Dairy-free yoghurt I use unsweetened soya yoghurt for baking - it has a much higher protein content than other plant yoghurts, so is the best egg replacer. However if you can't or don't want to use soya, a good unsweetened oat or coconut yoghurt will also work well.
Dairy-free milk Again, I use unsweetened soya due to its protein content, but any oat or nut milk will work well.
Self-raising flour If you don't have any self-raising flour to hand, don't panic - you can make your own! Just use 300g plain flour with 4 teaspoon baking powder. (You will still also need the bicarbonate of soda listed in the recipe).
Vanilla extract Use the best quality vanilla extract that you can - it really makes a difference to the flavour.
👩🏽🍳 How to make your vegan cupcakes
For a full, printable recipe with ingredients and detailed instructions, scroll to the bottom of this page 👇🏼.
Beat together the vegan butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix together the dairy-free milk, vegan yoghurt and vanilla extract and stir through the 'butter' and sugar.
Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and mix slowly until just combined. Divide the mixture between 12 cupcake cases and bake for 15-18 minutes.
Beat together icing sugar, vegan butter, dairy-free milk and vanilla extract until soft and fluffy. Pipe or spread over each cupcake and decorate as required.
👩🏽🍳 Top Tips and FAQs
Before icing, store the cakes overnight in an airtight tin or tupperware. The moisture from the middle of the cake works its way to the edges and the whole cake becomes moist and soft, and the crispy edges turn deliciously soft.
Beat lots of air into your 'butter' and sugar. It is tempting to mix the butter and sugar until they are, well, mixed. But in fact you want to mix them long and hard until they are pale, soft and fluffy - I leave the mixer on for 2-3 minutes at this stage, which feels like an age, but the results are worth it.
Use good quality ingredients. I've mentioned above about block margarine - that will make a big difference. But also make sure everything is fresh and in date. Did you know that bicarbonate of soda and self raising flour have use-by dates? Their efficiency at giving your cakes their rise drastically reduces after that time, so chuck out that decade-old bag of flour lurking at the back of the cupboard!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, the cakes themselves freeze well but the buttercream doesn't, so you can make the cakes well in advance, then just defrost and add the icing on the day you serve them.
If kept in an airtight container these vegan cupcakes will be fine for 2-3 days. They are very moist and soft so don't dry out.
Vegan block margarine replaces the butter in both the cake mix and the buttercream, and a mixture of dairy-free yoghurt (soya or oat) and dairy-free milk (soya, oat or nut) replaces the eggs. These replacements work so well that vegan cupcakes taste almost identical to non-vegan.
🍽 If you liked that...
.... you might also enjoy these vegan recipes from The Veg Space:
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📖 Recipe
Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 110 g dairy-free margarine
- 165 g caster sugar
- 110 g dairy-free yoghurt (I used plain soya)
- 110 ml dairy-free milk (I use soya or oat)
- 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
For the buttercream:
- 140 g dairy-free margarine
- 280 g icing sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon dairy-free milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC (fan) / 350ºF / Gas Mark 4. Prepare a 12-hole muffin tray by lining each hole with a paper muffin case.
- In a food mixer or large bowl beat together the margarine and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the yoghurt, milk and vanilla extract until smooth. Sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and fold in slowly until just combined.
- Divide the mixture between the 12 cake cases, then bake for 15-18 minutes until an inserted skewer or knife comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack, and if possible leave in an airtight container overnight to ice the following day.
- In a food mixer or large bowl, beat together the margarine and icing sugar, add the vanilla extract and milk and beat again until pale and fluffy. If the buttercream is a little stiff, add a few drops more milk and beat again.
- Pipe a generous swirl of buttercream on the top of each cupcake.
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
Video
Nutrition
Free 4-Week Vegan Meal Plan
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Arianna says
I recently found i I was diary and egg intolerant so I didn’t think I’d find any good cake recipes but this is the amazing, it’s so fluffy, soft and the best cake I’ve ever made. My partner loved them too and asked me to make it again. Safe to say this is now my to go recipe to use
Kate Ford says
That's great to hear, thanks Arianna! Have a look at my other cake recipes too - they all use a similar method.
Marion says
They were delicious and my first attempt at a vegan cupcake. I think I curdled the mixture but they were still light and fluffy. Will decorate in the morning.
Kate Ford says
Lovely - yes don't worry at all if the mixture looks 'curdled' - it isn't, and as soon as you add the flour it comes right back together. Kate x
Megan says
This recipe is PERFECT, my friends could not believe it was vegan! Will be making it again definitely.
Beth says
These look absolutely fantastic. I love the texture of them. Texture is important to me, especially in vegan baked goods. They can be a little off sometimes.
Toni says
Everyone at my house was surprised that this is vegan!! It is so good and amazing!! Thanks for the recipe!
Shadi says
I Just tried this recipe and my family loved it. It was so easy and the flavors were fantastic.
Jo Bowman says
Hello, do you have an opinion on Stork block margarine please? Just wondering if it would work in this recipe?
Kate Ford says
Hi Jo, yes I really like Stork block, works really well in baking - go for it! Kate x
Jaimini says
Best vegan cupcake recipe ever!
I was in the mood for some mini Vicky sponges and came across this recipe and OMG this was so most lightest, fluffiest vanilla cake I have ever had that. To quote Jim Carey... B-E-A-Utiful!
Thank you so much for this amazing recipe! Definitely my go to recipe now 😊
Kate Ford says
That's so lovely to hear, glad they turned out so well. I make these all the time for cake sales and kids parties.... never fails!
Jenn y says
Hi Jaimini,
If you loved these cupcakes, you will really love Kate's Victoria sponge.
Trisha says
Hi Kate, Thankyou for sharing this lovely recipe!!
Can I use a dairy butter and milk for these? I just can’t use egg?
Kate Ford says
Hi Trisha, yes absolutely - this is a vegan recipe so I used non-dairy, but it would work absolutely fine with dairy if you eat it. Kate
Louise Mitchell says
Hi there,
This is not a comment intended to be publish at all! More looking for advice. I made these at the weekend (my first attempt at vegan cupcakes) and the cakes collapsed. As well as over spilling but putting that down to needing large muffin cases like in other comments. Some also burnt.
Any suggestions on the collapsing/ over spilling? I wonder if there was too much bi-carb in the mixture? I followed the guidelines as said. My bi-cab was also in date.
Will give another attempt soon.
Many thanks,
Louise
Kate Ford says
Hi Louise, good to hear from you and sorry about the exploding cupcakes! It sounds to me like you might have simply overfilled the cases - they should be about half full with batter as they do rise a lot. The bicarb does give them a really good lift and that's what makes them so light and fluffy. Hope that helps and good luck with the next attempt! Kate x
Elizabeth Marshall says
Just made these today and they turned out wonderful 🙂 I am s chuffed as my last two attempts of vegan cakes sank in the middle, but these didnt. Like a previous comment the amount made me 20, not complaining though, more to eat. Thank you.
Kate Ford says
Fantastic, great to hear it Elizabeth!
Fiona says
I wish I had known that this recipe was for 12 large cupcakes. Because I used normal cupcake size, it was a bit of a disaster! They tasted ok though.
Kate Ford says
Oh no sorry to hear that Fiona, yes mine were the size in the photos. Hope you can have another go sometime - if you need to adjust the recipe, when you go to 'print recipe' it gives you the option to scale up or down the recipe automatically with the + and - buttons, so if you're using smaller cases you might want to adjust. Kate x
AstroTalk says
I love this vegan cupcake 😍 I tried this and was astronished by the taste.
Zepheniah says
I've tried your vegan Victoria sponge and goes down a treat with the kids and adults who are not even vegan, therefore I thought I'd give the cupcakes a go. As with the cake I use Flora Buttery and Oat milk which seems to make all the difference in taste. Have tried with Soya milk and Stork also. The cupcakes are a delicious smaller version of the sponge cake. They taste great and easy to make. The recipe makes 12 large cupcakes but hey I'm not complaining..... He he. I love all of your recipe ideas and can't wait to try more.
Abbaticchio says
Kate, thanks a lot! The cake is so delicious. I love the creamy top part
Taza says
I have made these a few times and always turn out great! Everyone that has tried them has loved them, vegan or not, you really cant tell! I use baking powder instead of bicarb as I find bicarb leaves a bit of a tang and have tried adding half and half coconut based plain yoghurt with the soya yoghurt for a creamier taste. I have made lemon versions grating some lemon zest in (1 lemon worth) and they are so good! Another time I swapped 2 tablespoons of flour out for 2 tablespoons of cocoa and they still came out nice and light!
Definitely the best vegan cake recipe I've found so far, will have to try more of your recipes!
Sara says
Just made a batch and got some left over mix. Can I freeze this mixture for next time or does it all have to be cooked then frozen?
Kate Ford says
I would cook them then freeze - the raising agents won't work nearly as well if they have been frozen and defrosted, but these cakes freeze really well - I often cook a batch to keep in the freezer. Enjoy!