These pretty pink vegan strawberry cupcakes are deliciously moist and packed with strawberry flavor! Topped with strawberry frosting.
We made a vegan strawberry cake and that was a huge success so it made perfect sense to try some vegan strawberry cupcakes too!
And these were just as good!
I initially thought I would try something a little different from the cake recipe. The cake recipe uses strawberry purƩe and a little strawberry flavoring and pink food coloring, but I thought it might be nice to try a strawberry reduction, so basically to put strawberry purƩe on the stove and cook it until it reduces by half.
I was hoping that it would intensify the strawberry flavor (and color) so that you could avoid the use of strawberry extract/flavoring and pink food color altogether!
Alas, (is it weird to use the word ‘alas’?) it was not a success. I didn’t think the strawberry flavor was any more powerful as a result of the strawberry reduction and the color didn’t hold either.
And considering it takes heaps more time to reduce strawberry purĆ©e rather than just using the purĆ©e as is, it didn’t seem like a worthwhile time investment.
Since these vegan strawberry cupcakes are pink, they would suit a romantic occasion quite well I reckon. So you know, there may be one of those coming quite soon (nudge nudge wink wink!).
Or if you’re reading this post when Valentines Day is not right on the horizon, well anytime is a good time for romance don’t you think?
How To Make Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Mix wet and dry ingredients into a batter. Don’t overmix.
- Divide between 12 cupcake liners and bake for 25 minutes.
- Transfer the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Prepare strawberry frosting and pipe onto the cupcakes once they’ve cooled completely.
Storing and Freezing
Keep them covered at room temperature where they will last for 2-3 days or covered in the fridge where they will last for up to a week.
They are also freezer friendly if you want to freeze them.
More Vegan Cupcakes
- Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes
- Vegan Banana Cupcakes
- Coffee Cupcakes
- Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes
- Vegan Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Vegan Lemon Cupcakes
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
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Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These pretty pink vegan strawberry cupcakes are deliciously moist and packed with strawberry flavor! Topped with strawberry frosting.
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 2 cups (250g) + 3 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup (200g) White Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 cup (232g) Strawberry PurƩe*
- 2 tsp Strawberry Extract*
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Canola Oil*
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Flax Egg (1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal + 3 Tbsp Hot Water)
- 1 Tbsp Pink or Red Food Coloring (optional)
For the Strawberry Frosting:
- 3 cups (360g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
- 1/3 cup (75g) Vegan Butter
- 1 tsp Strawberry Extract
- 2 Tbsp Strawberry PurƩe
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350Ā°F (180Ā°C).
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt.
- Then add the strawberry purƩe, strawberry extract, oil and vinegar.
- Prepare the flax egg by mixing 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed meal with 3 Tbsp Hot Water and allowing to sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add in the flax egg and the pink or red food colouring.
- Mix. The batter will be very thick, too thick for a whisk so just stir with a spoon until well mixed, being careful not to overmix the batter.
- Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners and divide the batter evenly between them.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, strawberry essence and strawberry purƩe to the mixing bowl of an electric mixer. Starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until the frosting is smooth.
- Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and decorate with slices of strawberry.
Notes
*To make strawberry purĆ©e add strawberries to the food processor (leaves cut off) and purĆ©e. I didn’t have as many strawberries this time as I did when I made my strawberry cake so I had to be quite exact with it. Around 10.5oz (300g) of strawberries purĆ©ed made enough for the cupcakes and frosting. But if you make a bit more, it’s awesome to just eat the leftovers as well.
*Strawberry extract may also be called strawberry essence or strawberry flavoring. If you can’t get hold of it, you can omit it, the strawberry purĆ©e will still provide plenty of strawberry flavor.Ā
*You can use any vegetable oil. We have even used olive oil in making these cupcakes but some brands can leave an aftertaste so a neutral flavored oil like canola oil or vegetable oil is preferable.Ā
*If you choose not to use the food coloring it won’t have an effect on the taste or texture, it just won’t be pink.
- Category: Dessert, Cupcakes
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cupcake (of 12)
- Calories: 361
- Sugar: 48.6g
- Sodium: 245mg
- Fat: 9.4g
- Saturated Fat: 1.4g
- Carbohydrates: 67.5g
- Fiber: 1.3g
- Protein: 2.6g
Keywords: vegan strawberry cupcakes
Can you make cupcakes ahead of time and freeze? How long would the freeze for? Thanks
Yes you can. They can be frozen for 2-3 months.
Is there anything that I could use in replacement of the flax egg?
You can try extra strawberry purƩe (3 Tbsp) or applesauce (3 Tbsp).
Can you make this as a small cake instead?
Hi Owens, yes you can. It makes a two layer 7-inch cake (bake for 30 minutes) or a three layer 6-inch cake (bake for 25 minutes).
These were really tasty but came out more like a muffin to me. Either way, great recipe!
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Hi! I used this recipe a week ago and my kids raved Over it :))
Was wondering how to make it Gluten free? Could I just replace the flour with GF flour 1-1 ratio? This would be very helpful to know .
Thanks !
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Hi Carolina, yes you can make it with a gluten-free all purpose flour blend in the same quantity as the regular flour.
Used this recipe to make 24 mini cupcakes and cooked them for 12.5 minutes and they came out great! When I make this next I will try using it with less sugar, as I like things a bit less sweet. But this would be a crowdpleaser for sure!
I also made my own strawberry lemonade icing using vegan cream cheese, powdered sugar, strawberry puree, and lemon juice and it was the perfect tangy touch for this sweet strawberry cupcake!
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Wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing Kirsten!
This was really amazing and tastes great ! I even added some chopped strawberries and they came out delicious. Only thing I will say is that the frosting might be suuuuper sweet for some. I tried to make the frosting thicker by adding more sugar but it didn’t turn out. Anyhow, thanks so much, great recipe!
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Hi! Alison. Iām going to cook these delicious cupcakes, but I just wonder that I have baking powder and no baking soda. Do you know if it is ok. Thanks!
Hi Eve! In this recipe the baking soda is quite crucial as it reacts with the vinegar to create the rise. Baking powder is not nearly so strong. You could possibly try it using 3 tsp of baking powder, but I haven’t tested it this way.
Hi! I will be making these cupcakes today for my husbandās birthday. These look delicious and Iām looking forward to making them! I have one question. Do I add the dry ingredients and wet ingredients all in one bowl or do I need to do separate bowls and add the wet ingredients to the dry once each are ready? Does that make sense?
You add the wet ingredients to the dry and then mix everything into a batter. No need to use a separate bowl.
I have a question about about the amount of flour. It says 2 cups then lists the grams then shows plus 3 TBSP. Is 250 grams the total amount or is it separate from the 3 TBSP?
Also, my batter was very thick compared to your photos. Mine donāt get a smooth rounded dome like yours because they are thick.
Hi Jennifer, the two cups of flour weigh 250g so it’s an additional 3 Tbsp of flour to that, so the total weight would be around 275g since the weight of each Tbsp of flour is between 8 and 9 grams. If your batter is really thick (thicker than what you see in our photos) then it’s likely you are using a bit too much flour. Use the spoon and level technique for measuring flour, which is to spoon it into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it in.
These are everyone’s favourite cupcakes now, I just have to keep making them!
I never add food colouring though. They turn out super pink without any so I’ve never seen the need for it. And just as a note, they’re also delicious with raspberry extract — I ran out of strawberry and subbed for raspberry instead š
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Wonderful Amanda! Thanks so much for sharing!
This is an exceptionally good recipe. Came out just beautiful! I was looking around for a cake recipe to use up some strawberries and this is the simplest one I found. The others required a strawberry reduction, fussy ingredients, creaming of butter, a stand mixer. This one uses just a bowl and spoon, the strawberries are simply pureed and it still comes out light, fluffy, deliciously strawberry-ish! It exceeded my expectations. I did use a measuring scale. I skipped the strawberry essence and the flavour is still full of strawberry. In fact I can’t imagine it being better if I had used strawberry essence. Thank you! This is going to be a staple in our house.
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So happy to hear this, thanks a million!
Hi, I am looking forward to trying this recipe! I just wanted to double check the amount of flour as I use grams – is it 250g total or is it 250g + 3 tablespoons? Thank you š
It’s 250g PLUS 3 Tbsp so that adds another 27g.
These were fantastic, thank you so much š I didnāt add enough food colouring so they were a funny purple colour but tasted perfect. I think you could probably get around 16 cupcakes out of the batch as mine were quite big. Great recipe!
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Thanks so much for sharing Sarah!
I will try to use juice from boiled beetroot for coloring. Hopefully it will work.
Hi Alison! What color do you think these will be without the food coloring? I’m trying to make mini strawberry bundt cakes just with a glaze of some sort, so I don’t think I want them bright pink. Haven’t found a recipe -specifically- for a vegan strawberry bundt cake that looks particularly great, so I may end up playing around and modifying a different vegan fruity cake thing, or a nonvegan strawberry bundt cake recipe, and if you have any suggestions for that from your blog I’d appreciate it too! Thanks (:
Hi Heather, without food coloring it’s more just like a vanilla cake in color with a subtle hint of pink. The color doesn’t come through very strongly without the food coloring.
Is there any way of using something other than strawberry extract because no place sells it around where I live.
You can leave it out or replace it with vanilla extract. š
Hi.. Something I recently learned for fruit flavored frosting is to get freeze dried fruit (little bag of freeze dried snack strawberries or even have them in the baby food isle!)… Smash them up good or mix in food processor with some powdered sugar, and then use that as the powdered sugar in the frosting!! I have seen several kinds of feeeze dried fruits in snack bags even at the dollar store. Works great!! Then you don’t have the watered down part from the fruit either. Love your recipes btw.. Have substituted Gluten free flour with success!!
Hi Brandy, thanks for sharing! I think freeze dried strawberries would work great! Unfortunately I can’t ever find them here but if you can get them I think it would be great. So glad you like the recipes! š
Brandy/Alison,
I’m making these for a GF friend. I saw in a later comment to use a GF All Purpose flour. Do you have suggestions for which brand is best?
Thanks!!
I’m a fan of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour. But any blend will likely do fine too.