Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes

Have you ever seen such gorgeousness as these vegan red velvet cupcakes? Or is that just me blowing my own trumpet since I made them and all.

Well I was mighty impressed with how these turned out. Not least because I finally found a shop that sells gorgeous cupcake liners. Oh my – these have just changed my life I tell you!

I finally understand! I finally get how you only need to fill your cupcake liners 2/3rds of the way full! This is because they are deep enough that you can do this! Oh the revelation! And how gorgeous are they?

Well you know, it’s been a long time since I ate non-vegan cake. I mean like over a decade. So I really can’t remember what it’s like. So it’s not like I’m going to eat a non-vegan red velvet cupcake alongside one of mine and compare them or anything.

So even though I knew these were very good, I wasn’t sure if they were comparatively as good as some ridiculously light and fluffy non-vegan cupcakes.

Well….any doubts I might have had were banished after Jaye took a batch of these to work. He called me from the office to tell me that they had disappeared from the kitchen before the department secretary had even had a chance to send out an email about them.

And when he next crossed the office, people were flipping out about how good these were! He hadn’t even mentioned yet that they were vegan! Light, fluffy, moist, simply perfect! These were some of the words used. He said people were like congratulating him on how good they were. This was music to my ears.

So yes dammit – they match up very very well. Woohoo!

I was first of all going to pair these with a white frosting, I thought red and white would be very pretty. But then at the last minute I decided to go with double red velvet, because why not?

And it worked out so extremely well, I was enormously pleased with it.

I was first thinking that it might not bring much to the party, like it might just be frosting dyed red, you know? Like it might not add much flavor. And yes, that’s true, the color doesn’t add to the flavor.

However, what does add to the flavor of red velvet is those hints of chocolate and vanilla. So I added some vanilla and some cocoa to the frosting and the richness and red velvet deliciousness comes through fabulously.

This recipe is adapted from my vegan red velvet cake, which has always been a huge hit whenever I’ve made it.

And as I explain over on that recipe, I don’t think beets belong in a cake. It’s not like I didn’t try it – I did – and it was the most yukky thing I’ve ever thrown into the trash. Congrats to anyone who gets beets to work, but it’s not me.

In fact I have some strong opinions about what belongs in baking. Don’t give me cauliflower frosting or black bean brownies, no, no thank you (though I quite easily got my head around chickpea water for chocolate mousse – I’m inconsistent I freely admit it).

And on that note, don’t give me beets in red velvet cake. So purists who can’t stand a bit of food coloring there’s no need to troll my page. I’m pretty happy about the ingredients I used here.  

These vegan red velvet cupcakes with red velvet frosting are simply amazing! They are:

• Light
• Fluffy
• Moist
• Topped with Red Velvet Frosting
• Rich
• Spongey
• Vibrant
• Beautiful
• Shareable
• Insanely good!

I’d love to know what you think of these vegan red velvet cupcakes!

If you have any questions or comments about this recipe, please post them down below.

If you make these cupcakes, let us know how they turned out! And take a pic why don’t you and tag it #lovingitvegan on instagram so we can pop by and see it! Thanks a million!

4.7 from 3 reviews

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes

 

Print

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

45 mins

 

Gloriously light and fluffy vegan red velvet cupcakes with red velvet frosting. Perfectly spongey and moist, vibrantly red, and fabulously vegan.

Author: Loving It Vegan

Recipe type: Dessert, Baking

Cuisine: Vegan

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• For the Red Velvet Cupcakes:
• 2 cups (250g) + 3 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
• 1 cup (200g) White Sugar
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (unsweetened)
• 1 cup (240ml) Vegan Homemade Buttermilk
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Flax Egg
• ⅓ cup (80ml) Olive Oil (or other vegetable oil)
• 1 Tbsp White Vinegar (or Apple Cider Vinegar)
• 2 Tbsp (28ml Bottle) Vegan Red Food Dye
• 
  
  
• For the Red Velvet Frosting:
• 3 cups (375g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
• ⅓ cup (75g) Vegan Butter
• 1 Tbsp Soy Milk
• 1 Tbsp Vegan Red Food Dye
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
3. Prepare the buttermilk by squeezing half a lemon into a measuring jug and then filling with soy milk up to the 1 cup line and allowing to sit for a minute to curdle into buttermilk.
4. Prepare the flax egg by mixing 1 Tbsp of ground flaxseed meal with 3 Tbsp Hot Water and allowing to sit for a minute to become gloopy.
5. Add the cup of buttermilk, the vanilla extract, flax egg, olive oil, vinegar and red food dye to the mixing bowl and whisk with a hand whisk to combine into a smooth batter.
6. Line a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake liners and divide the batter evenly between them.
7. Place into the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
9. Add all frosting ingredients to your mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk starting on slow and gradually increasing speed until thick, smooth and creamy. If your frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar, if it's too thick, add a little more soy milk.
10. Frost on top of your completely cooled cupcakes and serve.

Notes

*Nutritional information is for 1 cupcake including a generous amount of red velvet frosting.
**Recipe adapted from my Red Velvet Cake.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 Cupcake (of 12) Calories: 365 Fat: 9.8g Saturated fat: 1.5g Carbohydrates: 66.9g Sugar: 47.9g Sodium: 255mg Fiber: 1.2g Protein: 3.2g

3.5.3226