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:
Loved this recipe? ⭐️ Leave a star rating below! 📸 Snap a photo of your finished dish and share it with me on Instagram, tagging me @thevegspace or #thevegspace 📩 And get all my latest recipes in a weekly e-mail by subscribing to my newsletter.
📖 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.
Video
Nutrition
Free 4-Week Vegan Meal Plan
Have you got your hands on a copy of my meal plan yet? If not CLICK here to download a copy of my FREE 4 Week Vegan Meal Plan today!
Please note that all recipes and images on The Veg Space are copyright protected. If you would like to share the recipe, please use the share buttons provided. Do not screenshot or copy and paste the recipe, (even if credited to The Veg Space). Many thanks for your understanding
Nancy Perine says
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.
Hannah says
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! 😁
tori says
This looks so beautiful and I love the flavors going on. Thanks for sharing!
Carol says
Wowzers! I don't know how big your cupcakes are, but I got 21 out of this recipe, not 12! x
Kate Ford says
Oh wow! Sorry - yes I make quite big cupcakes! Hope they tasted good - and they freeze really well if you have too many!
Mira says
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
Candace says
I've only ever attempted vegan cupcakes once and it was a total disaster! Will be giving these a go
Kate Ford says
Hope these turn out well!
Michael S. says
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!
Kate Ford says
That's so great to hear, thanks!
Veronica says
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
Nikki says
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!!
Sofia says
Hi, I baked these today (still in the oven) will they keep until Friday?
Thank you!
Kate Ford says
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
francesco caselli says
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe! i love it
Kleanthis @ Yumbles Vegan Team says
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?
Kate Ford says
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
Denisedf Johnson says
Hi Kate, Vanilla cake recipe is amazing. what a testy cake. thanks for sharing this recipe. please keep share more others recipe.
Kate Ford says
That's great to hear, thanks so much! X
Kristyn Wakeford says
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
Kate Ford says
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
Rebecca - Glutarama says
People underestimate how difficult it is to make a beautiful bouncy light vegan sponge, these look delicious. I can't wait to try #recipeoftheweek
Corina Blum says
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!
Shadi Hasanzadenemati says
These look so good! And I love that silky creamy swirled buttercream!
Gloria says
Sometimes all you want is a simple vanilla cupcake to curb that sweet tooth. These sound delicious....and are pretty to look at too.
Kate says
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!).
Felesha Bell says
Although I'm not vegan, these cute little vegan cupcakes look perfect! I'll take three!!! 🙂
Claudia Lamascolo says
These sound moist and look tender. I love homemade scratch cake I bet these are over the top delicious!