by These Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes are amazingly moist, fluffy and ever so light in taste! And, simply because one can never have too much chocolate I’ve topped them with a dollop of dark chocolate glaze.
Every once in awhile my daughter brainstorms and decides to go on a 30 day vegan challenge which this year happened to coincide with her birthday. Don’t get me wrong, personally I have nothing against veganism! Its simply that this fairly last minute announcement had me dashing all over town one Sunday afternoon trying to find a vegan cake and to no avail!
Most bakeries I had visited offered gluten free alternatives but alas no vegan cake or cupcakes!
Thankfully my resolve had not ended there and once at home I turned to the almighty Google in search of a not to complicated vegan chocolate cake.
When I came across these Fail Proof Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes by Angela at Oh She Glows, I knew I had stumbled across the perfect birthday treat.
I made a few switch ups simply to compensate for ingredients that I didn’t have on hand. I decided to keep my almond milk for my morning cup of coffee and substituted it with canned coconut milk instead. Also I replaced the grapeseed oil with canola oil.
Angela from “Oh She Glows” topped her vegan cupcakes with a salted buttercream made with vegan butter, which sounds absolutely delicious and I’ll definitely be looking into vegan butter soon! In the meantime, this simple chocolate glaze poured over the vegan chocolate cupcakes is too irresistible to pass up!
In fact they are so irresistible that I simply had to make them again for Valentine’s Day and topped them with sprinkle hearts to mark the occasion!
Weather you’re vegan or not you”ll find these cupcakes so easy to put together, incredibly delicious and will disappear so quickly.
No one will ever guess they’re vegan 🙂
Unless you tell them of course 🙂
Chocolate Vegan Cupcake Recipe
Equipment
- 1 12 cup muffin baking pan
- 12 cupcake liners or double up on liners if they have pretty patterns
- 2 12-inch piping bags
- #22 piping tip
- #1M piping tip
Ingredients
CHOCOLATE VEGAN CUPCAKES
- 1 cup canned coconut milk (well stirred then measured out)
- 1 cup pure cane sugar (I used Redpath sugar)
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (gluten-free flour also works well)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
VANILLA FROSTING
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons plant based butter (softened)
- 4 cups of powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoons almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- sprinkles (of your choice)
- icing colour of your choice (I used royal blue by WILTON)
Instructions
CHOCOLATE VEGAN CUPCAKES
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line a 12 cup, cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the coconut milk, sugar, oil, vinegar and vanilla until combined.
- In another bowl, whisk together the the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and the salt just until there are no more clumps.
- Slowly beat in the flour mixture in with the wet ingredients just until smooth and you no longer see any bits of flour.
- Spoon the batter evenly into the 12 cupcake liners, filling just about two-thirds full.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 22 to 25 minutes. (Mine were ready in 22 mins.)
- When ready the cupcakes should spring back easily when gently pressed down or when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
VANILLA FROSTING
- Place the softened butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and sift in the powdered sugar.
- Start mixing on low speed and gradually increase until the butter and sugar come together.
- Mix in the milk and vanilla and when incorporated turn the mixer on high and continue beating for at least 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. (the longer you beat the icing, the fluffier it becomes)
- If you're tinting the frosting, dab a little colour of choice into the mixed frosting. (use a toothpick inserted in the concentrated icing gel to add the colour into the prepared icing)
- Note that the icing colour is optional. If you're new to using icing colouring, be sure to use a little at a time until you have the desired shade.
PIPING THE FROSTING
- Prepare two piping bags. One inserted with the #22 tip and the other with the #1M tip. Fill each of the piping bags with equal amounts of frosting.
- For the first layer of frosting, pipe small rosettes along the outer borders using the #22 tip.
- Repeat with a second layer of frosting using the #1M tip, creating one large rosette.
- Top with your favourite coloured sprinkles, serve and enjoy.
Those cupcakes look delicious, I made a vegan chocolate cake once and it was amazing, would never know it was vegan. This is a great vegan treat and Happy Birthday to your daughter.
Thank you for the sweet wishes !!! These babies were amazing 🙂
Thanks Suzanne, I think now I might just have enough confidence to try baking a whole vegan cake! They’re so incredibly delicious ?
Thank you, thank you, thank you Marisa! My niece is a vegan and it is my custom to send her care packages. She will absolutely love these cupcakes.
Hi Bella, these vegan cupcakes are everything a great cupcake should be, fluffy, moist and absolutely delicious. As an added bonus they’re super easy to make. Your niece will adore them 🙂
These are the prettiest cupcakes I’ve ever seen! I have a cousin’s birthday coming up and she’s turning sweet 16. I can’t wait to make your Vegan Chocolate cupcakes. I plan on cutting a heart out of strawberries to add to the top 😉
Ellie I am sure she will love them and the heart shaped strawberry will add a lovely touch. Happy sweet 16 to your cousin 🙂
These look great. I’m a bit puzzled about the vinegar, as I have never seen that in any kind of chocolate cake recipe before.
Hi Stefan, vinegar is used quite often in Vegan baked goods not only for its leavening agent in combination with the baking soda but also as a flavour enhancer. I have used white vinegar before especially in red velvet cupcakes but this is the first time using Apple cider vinegar and it worked just beautifully. The cupcakes had risen perfectly and are so yummy!! Thanks for your comment?
Interesting the use as a flavor enhancer. For leavening I’d simply use baking powder instead of soda.
Your photos are so drool worthy! Love that this is vegan… I will be giving it a try!
Thank you Annika, I am sure you will love them! ?
I wouldn’t have guessed Vegan when I saw these, but they look incredible! My Mom used to make a chocolate cake that had a tablespoon of vinegar…now I’ll have to see if I can find that recipe!
Mollie
I too would never have thought they would have risen so beautifully and really moist as well! I’m so glad I gave them a try! Hope you find your mom’s recipe and get a chance to put it up on your blog!?
Marisa,
They look great! Well done. 🙂
I am glad to hear you like them and thanks so much?
Hi Marisa,
You’re so welcome! 🙂
Hi Marisa! These look sooo yummy!! Vegan is something that I have been experimenting with myself, and I must say that I haven’t been disappointed. Everything I have tried has tasted delicious. Happy belated birthday to your daughter and thanks for sharing your recipe!!
Hi Rosa, these vegan cupcakes have surpassed all my expectations and am looking forward to trying out more recipes! Thanks so much for dropping by and commenting ?
those cupcakes are moist and fluffy looking! Just lovely Marisa!
They really are Lynn and they’ve surpassed all my expectations! Thanks so much for you comment?
Lovely
Looks good. I was looking to see if these were made with black beans. Sounds delicious.
There is no black beans in this recipe but totally delicious! Hope you get to give them a go, they are so worth it ?thanks for dropping by?