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.
I’ve used lots of recipes over the last few years but this is by far the best. I make these for people at work (I’m vegan and only cook what I can eat!) and time and again people are shocked and can’t believe these are really vegan cupcakes. Super easy and works everytime. Easily adaptable with flavours and different toppings. Absolutely brilliant.
Thanks so much Caroline!
My kid has a dairy and egg allergy so I often look at vegan recipes for baked goods. This is going to be my go-to for cupcakes for sure! They taste better the next day, so I make them the night before. I did not make these with the icing (used store bought since I had it handy) but I probably will next time. The only change I made was oat milk instead of soy, since I typically use oat milk for sweets and soy milk for things like stews and such. Very moist, will be looking at other cupcake recipes on the site!
Great! I’m so glad you enjoyed them Brooke!
Hi! Thank you so much for the recipe! Here are the changes I made – I used olive oil and oat milk and the crust turned out to be reaaally crunchy. Do you think that must be it? Or maybe my oven..? Otherwise great taste 🙂 Thanks again!
So glad the taste was good Maddy, I think it is more likely to be the oven temp being too high, I recommend an oven thermometer, and/or a slightly too long bake time.
I’ve been making these for about 2 years. People RAVE about my cupcakes and always ask me to make them. It’s one of the easiest recipes ever and so SO delicious. Definitely be careful and precise when measuring the baking soda and vinegar and you’ll be set! And there’s a lot of vegan icing options at the store if you wanna save time. 🍓
Thanks so much Vallerie! 🙂
Great recipe, thank you! I’ve noticed that all of my cakes have a lingering taste of baking soda (no matter the recipe) and I was wondering if you’ve ever encountered this? I have no idea what’s going wrong.
Hi Summer, I would try a different brand of baking soda and see if that helps!
I’ve had this issue before and now try to use baking powder more commonly instead of baking soda – I substituted about 2.5-3 teaspoons of baking powder for the baking soda in this recipe and cupcakes turned out great!
Hi can I use vegan butter rather than oil?
Hi Kay, I don’t find it as good as oil for moisture, it may make the cupcakes more dry.
I love these cupcakes!!
Has anyone done mini cupcakes? How does the bake time differ? Haven’t done mini cupcakes before.
My mini cupcakes I baked 10-12 minutes
Hello. Yes I just made the small ones in the petit four tray and cases. It worked really well. I found they needed about 15 minutes in the oven. Hope this helps.
I love these cupcakes 🧁
Thanks Dee!
I made these today for a vegan guest and only had coconut milk.. great recipe! Really light and fluffy and so easy! 👍🏻💕💕
Awesome! Thanks for the great review Clare!
Just made these tonight for an event tomorrow. This is a really great recipe! You would not be able to tell it’s vegan, so great for non vegan people too. Definitely the best cake/cupcakes I’ve ever made. I ended up making a simple blueberry compote (just blueberries and some water) that I added to the frosting and I put a small amount inside the cupcakes. Soooo delicious, I would highly recommend this version. It paired very nicely with the vanilla flavor of the cake.
That sounds delicious! Thanks so much for sharing Katy!
Made these for my daughter who has food allergies. Her first time being allowed cupcakes and she was delighted. They tasted amazing, I used coconut oil instead of the recommended oil. I’m just wondering if I were to use this recipe to make a vegan cake would I need to adjust measurements or cooking times? Thanks
Hi Sandra, so happy to hear your daughter loved the cupcakes! We have made the cake version of these cupcakes, check out our vanilla cake.
Can coconut milk be switched for soy milk?
Yes you can use coconut milk.
Thank you! These were so easy to make and super tasty. Needed to make something fast and had no strawberry extract or fresh strawberries, however added a bit more vanilla for the frosting and decorated with redcurrant which gave them a pleasant albeit sour kick. They were a crowdpleaser and will be bookmarked promptly 🙂
So happy you enjoyed them Katerina! Thanks so much for sharing!
Hello, I haven’t made these yet but sound amazing. I’m making them for a wedding and wonder if they can be frozen just for a couple of days.
Thank you
Gail
Hi Gail, yes you can freeze them temporarily and then thaw in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.
Hi, Just wondering can I turn this recipe into a marble cupcake, or do you have a marble cake recipe? Hope you can help thanks.
Hi Tahira, I don’t have any recipes for marble cupcakes so far, but I think you could do it if you used a mix of this batter and the batter from our chocolate cupcakes.