These deliciously light vanilla vegan cupcakes are so good no one will ever guess they are vegan! Topped with a generous swirl of fluffy vegan buttercream.
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 posts, with readers tagging me in their cake photos on instagram, asking me advice on Facebook, and tweeting their approval when they have tasted the finished product. Thanks so much - hearing from you and seeing your creations makes blogging worthwhile!
And because you like cake almost as much as I do, here's a new recipe for some in incredibly light, moist and fluffy Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes. These taste every bit as good as they look - I know I say it a lot, but I promise no one will ever guess these are vegan. Just take them casually into the office or school cake sale and watch people's faces when they find out they have just eaten a vegan cake..... mwahahaha!
As with most of my sponge cake recipes, I've used a combination of dairy-free yoghurt and dairy-free milk to replace the eggs. It sounds weird I know, and like it couldn't possibly work, but trust me, it does!
And of course dairy-free margarine is a super-simple butter replacement both in the sponge and in the buttercream. There are some top tips below for choosing the very best ingredients to make these little cupcakes as light and moist as possible.
What you need to make your Vegan Cupcakes
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 plant 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 tsp 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.
Vegan Cupcakes: 3 Top Tips
Here are a few tips I find make a big difference to my vegan baking:
1. Before icing, store the cakes overnight in an airtight tin or tupperware. This is the single thing that you can do to make your vegan cakes into showstoppers. Due to the chemistry of a vegan cake, they tend to develop a bit of a crispy crust as they cool from the oven. If you store them overnight in an airtight container, 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. Try it, it works!
2. 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. In the absence of eggs, this step really does give your cakes a boost so don't hold back. A good food mixer really helps - I leave mine on for 2-3 minutes at this stage, which feels like an age, but the results are worth it.
3. 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 don't be tempted to use that decade-old bag of flour lurking at the back of the cupboard - chuck it and buy a new one!
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Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 150 g dairy-free margarine
- 225 g caster sugar
- 150 g dairy-free yoghurt (I used plain soya)
- 150 ml dairy-free milk (I use soya or oat)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 300 g self-raising flour
- 1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the buttercream:
- 185 g dairy-free margarine
- 375 g icing sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp 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.
These sound moist and look tender. I love homemade scratch cake I bet these are over the top delicious!
Although I'm not vegan, these cute little vegan cupcakes look perfect! I'll take three!!! 🙂
These cupcakes look sooo good. It's funny that people expect vegan cakes to be somehow inferior, but the right recipe tastes the same (better!).
Sometimes all you want is a simple vanilla cupcake to curb that sweet tooth. These sound delicious....and are pretty to look at too.
These look so good! And I love that silky creamy swirled buttercream!
These little vanilla vegan cupcakes look so so good! I wish I could pick one up and bite into it right now. Thanks so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice!
People underestimate how difficult it is to make a beautiful bouncy light vegan sponge, these look delicious. I can't wait to try #recipeoftheweek
Hi Kate
I am attempting to make your vanilla cupcake but when I added the yoghurt and milk to butter and sugar mix it has just gone thick and curdled rather than smooth no matter how much i beat it, what have i done wrong please
Kristyn
Hi Kristyn, this usually sorts itself out when you add the flour - have you got that far? It often does look a bit curdled after adding the milk & yoghurt but all sorts itself out once you add the flour. Kate
Hi Kate, Vanilla cake recipe is amazing. what a testy cake. thanks for sharing this recipe. please keep share more others recipe.
That's great to hear, thanks so much! X
Those cupcakes look delicious and are so fast to make. I am eager to use blueberries cut into pieces as well next time. What do you think?
Sounds lovely! I usually use frozen blueberries so they stay whole rather than turning to mush as they cook. And if you toss them in flour before adding them to the mix they tend to stay evenly spread through the cakes rather than all sinking to the bottom! Kx
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe! i love it
Hi, I baked these today (still in the oven) will they keep until Friday?
Thank you!
Hi there, sorry too late for you now, but if anyone else is wondering yes they keep well for a few days if stored in an airtight container or tin. Hope you enjoyed them! Kx
Hey, has anyone actually made these? Why are some of you giving it 5 stars if you haven made it yet? smh 🙁 recipe looks great I will give it a go, thank you
I always think this! I want to know what the buttercream tastes like I’ve not found one that doesn’t taste like chemicals from the shortening!!
Thank you so much Kate! I loved these and enjoyed making them too! Made it for my brother (who never enjoys vegan baked goods) and he gobbled them up!
That's so great to hear, thanks!
I've only ever attempted vegan cupcakes once and it was a total disaster! Will be giving these a go
Hope these turn out well!
Hiya Kate thanks for the recipe I want to try it but could only find Alpro Greek style yogurt at the shops do you think it will work? Thank you xx
Wowzers! I don't know how big your cupcakes are, but I got 21 out of this recipe, not 12! x
Oh wow! Sorry - yes I make quite big cupcakes! Hope they tasted good - and they freeze really well if you have too many!
This looks so beautiful and I love the flavors going on. Thanks for sharing!
I made these for a 1 year old birthday who is dairy free. Such an easy recipe and the cakes look great! They taste so creamy you can't tell there is no dairy nor eggs! Thank you for this recipe, will definitely be looking at your other recipes! 😁
Hello! I really enjoyed wandering through your web site. So many yummy looking items. The Easy Vanilla Cup Cakes caught my eye. The biggest problem was changing the grams to cups. Once I handled that, I was off to the races. The cup cakes turned out very very yummy. I even managed to save a few to share with friends! Thanks for sharing. I'll be back.
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?
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!
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!
Kate, thanks a lot! The cake is so delicious. I love the creamy top part
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.
I love this vegan cupcake 😍 I tried this and was astronished by the taste.
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.
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
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.
Fantastic, great to hear it Elizabeth!
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
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
Hi Kate, Thankyou for sharing this lovely recipe!!
Can I use a dairy butter and milk for these? I just can’t use egg?
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
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 😊
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!