Gorgeously light and fluffy vegan vanilla cupcakes topped with creamy strawberry vanilla frosting. Perfect little packages of yum!
Ever since making our vegan chocolate cupcakes I’ve had cupcakes on my mind!
Big time!
I couldn’t wait to make more. So I decided to make these gorgeous vegan vanilla cupcakes with strawberry vanilla frosting.
And they came out so well.
I was especially thrilled with the frosting. I wasn’t sure how it would work out to use strawberry flavoring, but it did the job incredibly well and provided the most beautiful pale pink color, and the flavor was awesome. It reminded Jaye of a strawberry milkshake.
You’ll love these cupcakes for their beautiful color, light and fluffy texture and lovely blend of flavors.
Cupcakes are so easy they’re my new favorite thing. So much easier than full cakes (though I love making cakes!), because they bake in less time and you don’t have to cut out parchment paper for the cake pans.
The only tricky part for me was in transferring the batter to the cupcake liners, my first batch of cupcakes was very messy, until I figured out that the best method was to transfer the batter to a jug with a pouring nozzle and pour it neatly into each cupcake liner.
Messiness problem solved.
The great thing about these cupcakes is that the flavors are so mild and blend so beautifully together. You’ve got the light flavors of vanilla blending with the sweet scented flavors of strawberries.
The texture of these vanilla cupcakes is also perfectly light and spongey.
Decorating
Decorate them with some fresh chopped strawberries if you’re serving them right away. If you want to keep them (they keep very well in a covered cake container in the fridge for up to a week), then don’t use fresh fruit for decoration as the strawberries will run and the cakes will become soggy.
Alternatively decorate with vegan sprinkles or dried coconut.
Make Them Gluten-Free
For a gluten-free version of these cupcakes, check out our vegan gluten-free vanilla cupcakes.
Make A Layer Cake
This recipe can adapt to a three layer 6-inch cake. Bake time is 20 minutes.
Storing and Freezing
These cupcakes keep very well in a covered container at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the fridge for up to a week.
They can also be frozen (frosted or unfrosted, but don’t add any fresh strawberry decoration if you’re freezing them) for up to 3 months.
More Delicious Vegan Cupcakes
- Vegan Lemon Cupcakes
- Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes
- Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
- Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes
- Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes:
- 1 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour (220g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 cup Soy Milk (240ml) or other non-dairy milk
- ⅓ cup Canola Oil (80ml) or Vegetable Oil*
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar
Strawberry Vanilla Frosting
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 3 cups Powdered Sugar (360g)
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tsp Strawberry Extract
Decoration:
- Fresh Sliced Strawberries optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake liners.
- Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt.
- Then add the soy milk, vanilla extract, oil and white vinegar.
- Mix until just mixed, using a hand whisk to get rid of any big lumps. Don’t overmix, tiny lumps are fine.
- Pour the batter into a jug that allows for easy pouring and pour evenly into the 12 cupcake liners, ensuring that all the batter is used up.
- Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Check the cupcakes at 20 minutes and if a toothpick inserted into the center doesn’t come out clean, then put them back in for a further 5 minutes.
- Move to a cooling rack and allow to cool thoroughly before frosting.
- Prepare the frosting by adding the vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and strawberry flavoring to an electric mixer bowl. Begin mixing on low speed, gradually increasing speed until you have perfectly smooth frosting.
- Decorate with fresh strawberry slices before serving (optional).
Video
Notes
- We have also made these with a light olive oil (as in the video) and they worked great! But for more consistent results across brands canola oil or vegetable oil is a better option.
- These cupcakes keep very well in a covered container at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the fridge for up to a week.
- They can also be frozen (frosted or unfrosted, but don’t add any fresh strawberry decoration if you’re freezing them) for up to 3 months.
Hien says
I couldn’t find strawberry flavoring. How can I compensate? Do I double up on the vanilla extract (4 tsp) or would that be too overpowering?
Alison Andrews says
I would just replace the strawberry flavoring with some non-dairy milk and leave the vanilla quantity the same. 🙂
Paulina says
Forgot to rate! 5* for sure! ?
Alison Andrews says
So glad to hear they came out so well! And thanks for the rating! 🙂
Paulina says
Thank you so much for this recipe. I have a friend who can’t eat dairy or egg and I made these for her today. I bake cupcakes often and was worried about baking with no egg. Well I shouldn’t have!! They turned out spongy and moist. I made them with almond milk. The frosting tastes just like normal buttercream. I didn’t have any strawberry essence so just left half as vanilla and added cocoa powder to the other half to make it chocolaty.
Jackie says
I just made these for a friend’s birthday and they taste great!
Alison Andrews says
Great stuff! Thanks for posting!
Trina says
I can’t wait to make these!
What is strawberry flavoring though? Lol
Alison Andrews says
Cool! Strawberry flavoring is just like strawberry essence so it’s like vanilla essence or extract. You’ll find it with the vanilla extract and orange extract and lemon extract and all the food dyes. ?
Vanessa says
Thanks for sharing your great recipe Alison. I’m new to vegan baking but the cupcakes turned out much better than expected. Do you have any suggestions on how to cut down the sweetness of the frosting while maintaining the piping consistency? Are there other frosting recipes that could be used instead that taste less sweet?
Alison Andrews says
Something like a vegan cream cheese frosting should be less sweet if you want to look around for a recipe like that (I don’t have one as I can’t get vegan cream cheese) and if you can get hold of vegan cream cheese where you are. 🙂
Emma Feeney says
Can i use coconut flour instead of all purpose or self raising?
new to the vegan world with a daughter with many allergies and shes begging me for cupcakes!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Emma, is the reason for using coconut flour that you want to make it gluten free? If so, then try my gluten free vanilla cupcakes recipe. Coconut flour doesn’t work as a substitution here as it’s completely different in how it behaves in baking.
Sarah says
Hi, these cupcakes come out perfect every time. Can I use lemon juice instead of the vinegar to make lemon cupcakes? I will likely add lemon zest to the batter as well and combine with your lemon frosting ?
Alison Andrews says
I’m sure that would work great! I will be posting a lemon cupcake recipe soon too! 🙂 I used lemon zest and some lemon essence in mine. I think using lemon juice instead of vinegar would work fine, but I did still use vinegar with mine, the combo of lemon zest and lemon essence worked like a charm!
Sarah says
Hi Alison, the cakes came out beautifully! And so lemony! I used 2 Tbsp of lemon juice in place of the vinegar, added the zest of 1 lemon and a tsp of lemon essense just to make sure the lemon came through. Finished with your lemon buttercream & decorated with candied lemon slices… they really are devine!
Alison Andrews says
That sounds SO awesome!! Enjoy! 🙂 🙂
Leia says
Hi!
What a fun recipe to make with my 2 kids. I was itching to bake asap but didn’t have all the ingredients so I substituted lime juice for the vinegar. And I used 1/2 coconut sugar, 1/2 white sugar. Then my kids and I added small chopped up strawberries in each cupcake and it was super tasty.
The only thing is they were a bit dry and stuck to the paper more than I would hope. Any suggestions? Something I did wrong because of the substitutions?
Keep it up!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Leia, that sounds awesome, what a great idea to put strawberries into the cupcakes as well! The cupcakes are supposed to be perfectly moist, but I have found that they can stick to the liners when they are still warm and usually peel away perfectly when they’re cooled all the way. Not sure if this is relevant. If your cupcakes tasted a little dry then the only thing I can suggest is to weigh your flour (in case you didn’t) as using even a small amount too much can make the difference. Thanks so much for posting!
Ailish says
Yummmm. I made these late last night because I couldn’t wait to try them. I love the icing and the quantity is perfect for the cupcakes. I didn’t have strawberries so I put a couple of fresh raspberries on top and they looked so professional and perfect!
Alison Andrews says
Brilliant! So glad to hear! Thanks for posting Ailish!
colleen says
Amazing cupcakes. I was concerned about the olive oil flavor, but wow these were SO good!
Alison Andrews says
So glad to hear Colleen! Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
Nika says
Hello,
Could I replace the non-dairy milk with water? Thank you in advance
Alison Andrews says
Hi Nika, I haven’t tried it like that so I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t think it would be a good option, as the plant milk adds a creaminess to the batter that water wouldn’t. You can use any type of plant milk though.
Alex says
These look wonderful! I have a question about baking them! I’m thinking of doing these as a cake, instead of cupcakes. Have you done that? And would that just increase the baking time?
Thank you so much!!
Alison Andrews says
Yes we have done that! Check out our vegan vanilla cake: https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-vanilla-cake
Amy says
These look incredible! I’m going to attempt to bake them this weekend, but will be using gluten-free flour. I only need it to be GF and DF, not necessarily vegan, so do you think I could use an egg to counteract the GF flour? Or would you still recommend I stick with applesauce (as per your suggestions on the cake version of this recipe)?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Amy! I have just this second posted a new blog for gluten-free vanilla cupcakes: https://lovingitvegan.com/gluten-free-vegan-vanilla-cupcakes-matcha-green-tea-frosting/ So please check out that recipe! I honestly have never tested this with an egg so I have no idea how that would work, though of course you could experiment. Since it comes out sooo well though with the applesauce etc, that would be my recommendation. 🙂
Lin says
Hello- I dont see any mention of applesauce in the recipe. I was going to make this but now I’m afraid since the post is from 2 years ago some of the info may have been deleted?
Alison Andrews says
There isn’t any applesauce in this recipe. The comments above are referring to making this recipe gluten-free and referring to the gluten-free version of this recipe which uses applesauce.
Karen says
Easy, beautiful, delicious – exactly as per your recommendation
Edit says
Great recipe, I changed a bit, my is gluten free refined sugar free 🙂 replaced half sugar with cacao powder and added some soy creamcheese and melted choc to frosting, yam!