It was about 7pm on a Saturday night. The night before my niece’s 6th birthday.
I’d had a busy week and though I had had it in the back of my mind to ask my sister if she wanted me to bake something I hadn’t got around to it.
So I decided to give my sister a quick call to confirm arrangements for the next day. I thought she might have ordered a cake as she has done that before.
My niece answered the phone and dropped the bombshell:
‘Please can you bring galaxy cupcakes for my birthday?’ she asked.
‘Uh…. I don’t really know what those are!’ I replied.
‘It’s easy – I can help you make them’ she volunteered.
‘I don’t think we have time to make them together cos it’s already quite late now’ I told the eager little baker.
As soon as I got off the phone I sprang into action, using google to find out everything about galaxy cupcakes and what the heck they even are! I discovered that they are usually midnight blue or some sort of dark blue swirl and usually decorated with glitter and silver stars and moons and planets.
Jaye proceeded to go to multiple shops desperately trying to find stars, moons, planets, anything to resemble a galaxy. And then we had to give up – because we couldn’t find anything like that. Not anywhere. Not on short notice anyway.
And then I thought: well what if I just make some midnight blue velvet cupcakes and do a blue sanding sugar for ‘glitter’. And then I’ll see if my sister can find some stars or moons or something near her place and we can just pop them on top of the cupcakes when we arrive!
And so it happened that my niece got her galaxy cupcakes.
So that was what inspired these blue velvet cupcakes. I won’t call them galaxy cupcakes here because other than the color, what makes cupcakes ‘galaxy’ versus not galaxy is the decorations.
When it comes to flavor, this is blue velvet!
So I decided to make another batch for the blog because they worked out so well.
I really went dark with the color here, it’s very much a midnight blue. But still very much blue. They look almost black in the pictures, but in real life they are definitely blue, just a very dark midnight blue.
You could use much less food coloring if you prefer to have a lighter blue color.
Just as with my red velvet cupcakes I matched the frosting instead of going for a contrast color.
And just as with red velvet, the flavor of blue velvet comes about through a very subtle blend of flavors.
So subtle you can hardly put your finger on it. Hints of vanilla, buttermilk and chocolate all merging together to create a unique blue velvet flavor.
Blue sanding sugar works wonderfully as a decoration here because it shines and sparkles and looks very much like blue glitter.
To make it, all you do is put in a couple of drops of blue food coloring into a jar with about 1/4 cup white sugar. Close the lid of the jar and then shake it vigorously so that the color spreads evenly through the sugar.
And there you have your sanding sugar! If it’s a little more than you need, you can just keep it in a sealed jar and use it somewhere else.
The blue food coloring used in these blue velvet cupcakes makes your tongue blue. Just a warning.
But it’s not every day you eat blue things right? So I reckon it’s okay!
These cupcakes are super pretty, wonderfully moist and spongey and make a deliciously colorful treat. Throw some silver stars and half moons and a few round silver balls on top and you have galaxy cupcakes complete with planets!
These blue velvet cupcakes are the most delicious when fresh but they will last a couple of days at room temperature as well.
If you want them to last longer, then keep them in the fridge (covered) where they will stay good for up to a week!
I think you’ll love these blue velvet cupcakes, they are:
- Rich
- Moist
- Spongey
- Midnight Blue!
- Easy
- Beautiful
And if you love cupcakes, you’ll probably also love our orange and walnut carrot cake cupcakes, our chocolate cupcakes with mint buttercream frosting and our vegan vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting!
So let me know what you think of these cupcakes! Let me know in the comments and rate the recipe if you’ve made it!
If you take any pics of your gorgeous creations, tag me #lovingitvegan on instagram so I can see them!
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Blue Velvet Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
- Yield: 12
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Rich, moist and spongey vegan blue velvet cupcakes topped with a delicious blue velvet frosting. Simple and easy to make, and delicious to eat!
Ingredients
- For the Blue Velvet Cupcakes:
- 2 cups (250g) All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup (200g) White Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (unsweetened)
- 1 cup (240ml) Vegan Homemade Buttermilk
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Olive Oil (or other vegetable oil)
- 1 Tbsp White Vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
- 2 Tbsp (28ml Bottle) Blue Food Coloring
- For the Blue Velvet Frosting:
- 3 cups (375g) Powdered Sugar (Icing Sugar)
- 1/3 cup (75g) Vegan Butter
- 1 Tbsp Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 1 Tbsp Blue Food Coloring
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and then add the sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder and mix.
- Prepare your buttermilk by squeezing half a lemon into a measuring jug and then adding soy milk (or other non-dairy milk) up to the 1 cup line. Allow to sit for a minute to curdle.
- Add the curdled buttermilk, vanilla, olive oil (or other vegetable oil), white vinegar and blue food coloring.
- Use a hand whisk to remove the lumps but don’t over-mix.
- Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners and divide the batter evenly between them.
- Place into the oven to bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding all the ingredients to a mixing bowl for an electric mixer and starting off at slow speed, gradually increase the speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.
- If your frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add a tiny bit of soy milk at a time and mix until you get the right consistency. The consistency should be very thick to allow for piping on the frosting.
- If you want to use some sanding sugar to decorate, add a couple of drops of blue food coloring to about 1/4 cup of white sugar in a jar. Close the lid of the jar and shake the jar vigorously so that the blue dye distributes evenly resulting in perfectly even blue sanding sugar.
- Sprinkle on top of the frosted cupcakes.
Notes
*Nutritional information is for 1 cupcake of 12 including a very generous amount of frosting.
*Recipe adapted from my Red Velvet Cupcakes.
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cupcake (of 12)
- Calories: 355
- Sugar: 47.9g
- Sodium: 255mg
- Fat: 9.6g
- Saturated Fat: 1.5g
- Carbohydrates: 65.3g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 2.9g
Hi! I’m excited to try this recipe for my partners birthday. He wants this in a certain cake tin – should I oil and/or flour the pan since I won’t be making cupcakes and liners? Thanks!
Hi Adrienne, I usually spray with non-stick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. All the best! 🙂
Thank you! Making this today!!
Do you think these would work if I just completely omit the food coloring? Thanks a bunch!
★★★★★
Hi Robyn, they would work, but the color of course would be very different. If you do make them that way, then I would add in 2 extra Tbsp of non-dairy milk to replace the liquid food coloring.
I overbaked them at 25 minutes but at 15 minutes they were good! I may have overmixed the batter as well.
I haven’t tried this but am considering. Is there supposed to be flaxseed egg like in the red velvet cupcake recipe?
Hi Lisa, no it’s correct as written, no flax egg needed.
Got it! I’m new to vegan baking. Why is none needed?
Also, I tried the red velvet ones and it tasted bad…could this be because I accidentally used red wine vinegar instead of white or apple cider?
I sometimes use egg replacements and sometimes not. If you want to make these the same way as the red velvet cupcakes with just the different food coloring you can do it. Red wine vinegar is definitely not the right one to use, but I can only think it may have reacted badly with another ingredient in order to cause the taste to be bad, that (tasting bad) is still a weird thing to happen.
These were easy to make and very tasty! I think I’ll skip the cocoa moving forward as the cupcakes were rather grey/brown, rather than blue (and I added a LOT of blue food coloring) and the frosting ended up kind of a teal color. I’m not a huge chocolate/cocoa fan anyway, so hopefully, it will not affect anything to leave it out.
★★★★★
the soya milk is it sweetened or unsweetened?
I usually use the regular sweetened variety, but either one will do fine, as it won’t make much of a difference either way. 🙂
Try Butterfly pea Powder, I tried it for a mermaid smoothie bowl I made and it came out a nice deep blue. It is all natural so it might be a good alternative.
★★★★★
How did you use it?
This recipe looks amazing! What blue food coloring did you use for this recipe? I’ve been looking for food coloring but haven’t found one that is vegan. Thanks!!
Hi Catherine, I use Foster Clark’s as they have confirmed to me that their food colors are vegan.
These were awesome, great flavor and texture! I made them into “galaxy” cupcakes for a birthday party and were a hit. Not only do they turn your tongue blue, but you’ll be pooping blue for days after…. 😉 always a nice surprise! Keep the amazing recipes coming! I’m addicted to your blog!
★★★★★
Hahahaa! Yes, ALL the nice surprises!! So glad you liked them Rosie!
Hi there! Is it possible to substitute green colouring in the spirit of st Patty’s day? Prepping for a party. 🙂
I’m sure! But in my experience using green food coloring, you can use quite a bit less food coloring to get a great green color, check out my key lime cake for an example: https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-key-lime-cake/ This cake could easily be adapted to cupcakes as well just by adjusting the baking time down to 25 minutes.
Beautiful 😀
★★★★★
🙂
Do you have any way of substitute the blue colouring with a more natural ingredient … the recipe looks great but I try to not give anything artificial to my kids…
Hey Daniela, for this shade of blue I think artificial is the only way to go. Natural colors don’t tend to hold when exposed to high heats. I’ve seen blueberries used in other recipes but the end result was not at all blue. Using blueberries in this recipe would change the whole recipe though so if it is something that appeals to you, I would rather look for a recipe that uses blueberries and is formulated around that. All the best!
Very pretty and so useful as a decorative touch to any party
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