These vegan strawberry cupcakes are sweet, light, fluffy, packed with fresh strawberries, and topped with vegan strawberry buttercream frosting!
Easy vegan strawberry cupcake recipe
This is my go-to strawberry cupcake recipe, served at dozens of parties over the years, and both vegans and non vegans cannot get enough!
With a moist and fluffy texture, they taste just like fancy bakery cupcakes.
Yet at the same time, this version is completely plant based, egg free, and dairy free, including the luxuriously thick and creamy strawberry frosting.
Also try this Vegan Chocolate Cake
Ingredients for the vegan dessert
Here’s everything you need to make your own simple vegan strawberry cupcakes.
Gather together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, diced strawberries, pure vanilla extract, salt, sugar, optional oil or almond butter, and water.
The vegan cupcakes work with spelt flour, white flour, or some brands of gluten free all purpose flour. Oat flour yields yummy results that are more dense and do not rise as much as traditional cupcakes.
We have not tried whole wheat flour or pastry flour and do not recommend almond flour, rice flour, or coconut flour here.
If you want flourless keto strawberry cupcakes, follow this Keto Blueberry Muffins recipe instead, substituting diced strawberries for the blueberries.
Melted coconut oil is my favorite option for the cupcakes. You can make oil free cupcakes by substituting softened almond butter, macadamia nut butter, or cashew butter. Or for low fat cupcakes that taste like strawberry muffins and are great for a healthy breakfast, swap out all of the oil for mashed banana or vegan yogurt.
You may turn them into vegan peanut butter and jelly cupcakes by using peanut butter instead of almond butter and topping the finished cupcakes with strawberry jam.
Go with either granulated regular sugar or packed coconut sugar for best results. If you wish to experiment with liquid sweeteners like pure maple syrup or sugar free options like xylitol or a monk fruit blend, please be sure to report back with results.
The basic strawberry cupcake recipe calls for no eggs, and water stands in for the milk.
Leftover strawberries? Make Strawberry Bread or Strawberry Mousse
Strawberry shortcake cupcakes recipe video
Above – watch the step by step recipe video
How to make the best vegan strawberry cupcakes
Wash and dice your strawberries, discarding the stems.
We chose to go with diced strawberries here instead of strawberry puree, to avoid the baked cupcakes turning purple.
Whisk the water, oil or nut butter, and pure vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Let this mixture sit while you measure out the dry ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin tin or cupcake tin with liners, or grease the cups very well. Silicone muffin cups are also fine to use.
Stir the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.
Combine the dry and wet ingredients, and stir until just evenly mixed. As a general rule to prevent a tough texture, it is important to not overmix cupcake batter.
Carefully stir in the strawberries, then divide the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Fill each cup only about two thirds of the way full. The recipe makes a dozen cupcakes.
Place the pan on the oven’s center rack, and bake for twenty minutes or until the cupcakes rise and appear golden in color. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out mostly clean.
Remove from the oven, and let the cupcakes cool fully before frosting so that the icing does not melt when it comes into contact with a hot cupcake.
If you can wait, I recommend refrigerating overnight, only very loosely covered. The cupcakes are even sweeter the next day, with a light texture. Liners will peel off easily after sitting a day as well.
Top with strawberry buttercream. Or turn them into chocolate strawberry cupcakes by covering the strawberry pastries with vegan chocolate ganache.
Do you prefer mini strawberry cupcakes to large ones? Simply bake in mini cupcake pans for ten minutes or until the cupcake centers are no longer wet.
Homemade vegan strawberry frosting
Feel free to top your cupcakes with any favorite store bought or homemade vanilla or strawberry icing. Many grocery store brands of frosting are surprisingly vegan, including Pillsbury cream cheese frosting. The mini strawberry cakes are also lovely when frosted with softened coconut butter.
If you have a few extra minutes, you can make your own vegan strawberry buttercream frosting by following the recipe directly below.
Blend one cup of freeze dried strawberries in a food processor until the berries form a fine powder texture.
Using hand beaters or a stand mixer, combine the freeze dried strawberry powder with one cup of salted plant based butter, one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, and three cups of powdered sugar (or erythritol for sugar free frosting).
Whip the frosting ingredients until thick, smooth, and fluffy.
Spread the vegan strawberry frosting onto the cupcakes with a knife or spoon. Or scoop it into a piping bag or pastry bag. I used this 8B star decorating tip.
Decorate your homemade cupcakes with sprinkles, freeze dried or fresh strawberries, lemon zest, mini chocolate chips, or these Chocolate Covered Strawberries.
Baking tip: This fluffy frosting recipe works well on strawberry cake as well as cupcakes.
Serving and storage tips
The fancy vegan strawberry cupcakes travel well and are perfectly fine to leave out on the counter for a few hours if serving at an event.
I brought these frosted cupcakes to a pink and red themed Galentine’s Day party with girl friends a few months ago. They are also a wonderful dessert option instead of traditional red velvet cake for Valentine’s Day, bridal showers, baby showers, weddings, summer barbecues, or birthday parties.
Store leftover cupcakes in a covered container for up to a day or in the refrigerator for up to five days. Be sure to let them cool fully before storing.
You can freeze leftovers in an airtight covered container for up to three months. It is best to freeze cupcakes without any icing. Frost the strawberry desserts after thawing.
The recipe was adapted from these Healthy Blueberry Muffins
Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp oil or almond butter, or mashed banana for fat-free
- 2 cups flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups diced strawberries
- optional vegan strawberry buttercream frosting recipe above
Instructions
- The recipe works with spelt, white, oat, or some brands of all purpose gluten free flour. A keto option with almond flour is included above.To make the vegan strawberry cupcakes, preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease or line a cupcake tin. Whisk the wet ingredients (excluding strawberries) in a large bowl. Stir all dry ingredients together, then pour wet into dry and stir until just evenly mixed. Gently stir in the strawberries. Portion the batter into the cupcake tins. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out mostly clean. Let cool fully before frosting and storing.View Nutrition Facts
Notes
Have you made this recipe?
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Easy Homemade Cupcake Recipes
Kristin says
Hi, can I sub another sweetener like maple syrup for the sugar?
CCK Media Team says
Go with granulated sugar for best results. If you wish to experiment with liquid sweeteners like pure maple syrup, please be sure to report back with results.
Ruby B. says
Hello .. have you ever made this into a cake instead of cupcakes?
CCK Media Team says
Hmm we haven’t but will put it on our list to try. Let us know if you try it first. Katie does also have a strawberry loaf cake if that might be closer to what you are looking for!
Diane Sayre says
There’s no flour listed in the ingredients.
Diane Sayre says
I see the flour now. Sorry.