Not to sound braggy, but these vegan vanilla cupcakes are kind of perfect. Light and airy with a delicate crumb and dainty domed tops, they’re everything a cupcake should be. And don’t even get me started on the vanilla and chocolate buttercreams, thick and creamy and just the right amount of sweet. I could eat both flavors by the spoonful.
Getting to this point however, well, let’s just say I was in it for the long haul. Countless batches of cupcakes and bowls of frosting were made and thousands of calories were consumed. At some point, maybe the fourth batch in, I wondered what I was doing with my life. I ate more cupcakes than a woman of my size should in good conscience . All of them good, but only one was great.
A few things I learned about cupcake making along the way:
First thing, vegan butter is not for me. Besides the occasional schmear of Earth Balance on a scone or piece of cornbread, I’m very anti-vegan butter in baking. Maybe it’s the smell? Maybe it’s the fact that it’s full of soy. I just prefer to steer clear, which left me with my preferred baking oil, unrefined coconut. Not shockingly, the strong coconut aroma and taste doesn’t work with cakes or frostings. Enter, refined coconut oil. Think of it as the unrefined stuff’s odorless and tasteless cousin. It behaves the same way as refined – solid at room temperature, liquid when heated – making it perfect for both the cakes and buttercream.
Second thing, I hate muffin-like cupcakes. Hate ’em! A cupcake should be light and soft, not dense and chewy, which poses a challenge when subbing oil for real butter. Oil automatically lends itself to a more muffin like cake, meaning I really had to play around with flour ratios to achieve a cakier cake. (That’s totally a thing.) Reducing the overall amount of flour helped a lot. I highly recommend investing in a kitchen scale to accurately measure your flour. There’s a reason professional bakers list weights in their recipes as opposed to cups. Creating a DIY cake flour with the addition of corn starch also helped. Thoroughly sifting the flour, cornstarch, and requisite baking powder and baking soda was the real game changer though. Everything is sifted together 5 times. I know, I know, 5 times! It’s a lot, it’s like, five extra steps. But it truly makes a difference. (Take it from Joy the Baker)
Third and final thing, it is totally possible to make a classic American buttercream from refined coconut oil and powdered sugar, assuming you use a hand mixer. It’s essential for breaking up the coconut oil (even my fancy schmancy stand mixer doesn’t come close). The end result is just as good, if not better than the buttery stuff. Leftover frosting can even be stored in the fridge. It will harden when chilled, but will soften again when brought to room temperature. Pretty cool, right?
So there you have it, lessons learned in the quest for vegan cupcake mastery. Make a batch with chocolate frosting. Make one with vanilla. Make ’em both! Just make ’em and say hello to your fave cupcake recipe.
- 200 grams unbleached all purpose flour*
- 1 cup organic granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup plain, unsweetened almond milk (warmed to room temperature)
- ½ cup organic refined coconut oil, melted**
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup organic refined coconut oil, solid
- 1½ cups organic powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened, natural or Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons plain, unsweetened almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup organic refined coconut oil, solid
- 1½ cups organic powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon plain, unsweetened almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- sprinkles for topping (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Add lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to almond milk and set aside. Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt into a large bowl. Sift flour mixture 4 more times. (Do not skip this step, thoroughly sifting the flour is essential to achieving a light, cakey texture.)
- In a large bowl combine sugar, vanilla extract, almond milk and melted coconut oil. (Before adding almond milk make sure it is at room temperature or else it will cause the coconut oil to harden. Warm in the microwave in 10 second increments if it is cold to the touch.) Thoroughly whisk together all ingredients.
- In three additions, add flour mixture to wet ingredients, whisking thoroughly after each addition to break up any clumps. Line a standard muffin tin with cupcake liners. Using a ¼ measuring cup, divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cupcakes will only be very lightly golden on the top.
- Remove cupcakes from tin and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting.
- Combine coconut oil, cocoa powder, almond milk, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Add ½ cup of powdered sugar and beat on medium-high with a double whisk hand mixer. Add remaining cup of powdered sugar in 2 increments. Continue to beat on medium-high until buttercream is light and fluffy.
- Repeat process described for Chocolate Buttercream.***
- Frost cupcakes using an offset spatula or knife. Top with sprinkles. Cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. If it's particularly warm in your kitchen, keep cupcakes in the fridge and remove about 20 minutes before you plan to eat them to allow the buttercream to soften back up.
** Refined coconut oil is solid at room temperature. Unlike unrefined coconut oil, it does not have a strong coconut smell or flavor.
*** If your powdered sugar and cocoa powder are at all lumpy, sift them through a fine mesh sieve (whatever you used for the flour & cornstarch) before adding to the coconut oil.
**** If coconut oil is too soft/melty, place in the fridge for five minutes and then continue to beat with the hand mixer. Even once thoroughly mixed, you may notice a few tiny clumps of coconut oil in your frosting (only visible in the chocolate buttercream). It's ok, cover them up with sprinkles!
These look delicious! Buttercream icing is my favorite:-) Pinned. Thank you for joining the Sunday Fitness & Food Link-Up!!
Thanks for having me, Angela!
“I ate more cupcakes than a woman of my size should in good conscience.”
Haha this is ok sometimes!!! Taste testing cupcakes sounds like a fun way to spend the day in my opinion.
I could come over and help you next time!!!!! 😉
Thanks for the tip about the coconut oil. I’m actually not a big vegan butter gal myself and I always use unrefined coconut oil in everything – I didn’t realize there would really be a difference.
These look scrumptious! I think trying these gluten-free would just be sad, so I will make these on my next cheat day.
Thanks so much for sharing these at Healthy Vegan Fridays – I’m pinning these!
LOL, I’m not gluten free but we had to institute a “no cupcakes during weekdays” rule in our house. It was getting out of hand!
These look good and I appreciate the flour listed in weight. I’m gonna try a batch of these. I’ve been trying to nail down a good vanilla cupcake recipe with no eggs and am hoping these work for me. Can’t seem to get the texture I am looking for. 1/2 cup oil seems like a lot but I’ll have to give them a try to see. Thanks!
Hi Erin, I hope you make them! I think you’ll see with most cupcake recipes that a 1/2 cup of oil/butter is pretty standard. They’re definitely not a health food!
Ok, I’ll have to give them a try and I’ll report back. I’m hoping these work as my daughters bday is coming up and I have yet to find a solid vanilla cupcake recipe. Thanks for sharing!
How do you warm the milk to room temp?
I nuke mine in the microwave for about 15 seconds or let it sit out on the counter for a good hour to come to room templ
Would this also work as a sheet cake?
Hi Bess, I’ve never made it as a sheet cake but I have doubled the recipe to make a two layer cake using 9″ round cake pans, so it should work.
Can you substitute tapioca starch (or something else) for the corn starch?
Hi Liz, I’m not totally sure as I’ve only used tapioca starch in recipes specifically calling for it. I did some poking around on the web, and one site said that substituting another starch – like tapioca or arrowroot – for cornstarch in cake flour could result in the cake cooking faster and being more moist. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I wonder if “more moist” could also mean more dense, which we don’t want.
Another site recommended potato starch as the best substitute, working as an easy 1:1 sub. Let me know if you try any of these alternatives out.