These vegan friendly vanilla cupcakes have a delicious whipped buttercream and are topped with fresh berries. Gluten-free option included.
As much as I love wearing chunky sweaters and sipping hot cocoa, I look forward to springtime. Spring and summer produce is my favorite, especially berry season, as you can probably tell by the plethora of berries I use in my recipes. #sorrynotsorry
Berries not only complement the flavor of these simple vanilla cupcakes, they are such a beautiful and all-natural decoration on top too! These are a spin off of this Vegan Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Buttercream, a popular recipe here on the blog.
Everyone needs to have a good go-to cake/cupcake recipe for special occasions and this one definitely fits the bill. It’s also delicious, whether you’re vegan friendly or not. Because it doesn’t contain eggs, the cake is even more tender and moist than traditional cakes, which can sometimes be dry or spongy. If you consume dairy, just substitute regular milk and butter in place of the dairy-free ingredients.
These cupcakes are pretty with a light dusting of powdered sugar, but if you’re wanting to cut back on sugar, crushed freeze-dried berries are also make beautiful natural sprinkles!
I hope you enjoy these! Click here to check out the other cake/cupcake recipes on the blog!
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Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes with Fresh Berries
- Yield: 14 cupcakes 1x
Description
These vegan friendly vanilla cupcakes have a delicious whipped buttercream and are topped with fresh berries. Gluten-free option included.
Ingredients
Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes with Fresh Berries:
- 1 recipe vegan vanilla cupcakes, below
- 1 or 1 1/2 recipe vanilla buttercream, below (naturally sweetened version here)
- 3–4 cups fresh berries of choice
- powdered sugar
or crumbled freeze-dried raspberries
, for sprinkling (optional)
or crumbled 
, for sprinkling (optional)Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes: (gf option below)
- 1 1/3 cups (317g) almond milk or other milk of choice
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar or lemon juice
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup organic cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup avocado oil
or other oil of choice
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
or other oil of choice
Gluten-Free Vegan Vanilla Cake:
- 1 1/4 cup milk of choice
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 1/3 cup (190g) gluten-free all-purpose flour (Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour
in the blue bag)
- 2/3 cup (68g) super fine almond flour
- 2/3 cup (145g) organic cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup avocado oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
in the blue bag)
Vanilla Buttercream:
- 1 cup softened dairy-free butter sticks, vegetable shortening
, or a combo of both
- 3–4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1–3 teaspoons milk of choice or water, if needed
, or a combo of both
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 12-cup muffin pan
with paper liners.
- Combine milk and vinegar in a small glass dish and set aside to sour.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour(s), sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir until thoroughly mixed.
- Mix in oil, vanilla, and sour milk, beating just until smooth.
- Fill muffin cups, about 1/4 cupful or 3/4 full. Place into the preheated oven and bake 16–20 minutes, just until cupcakes have domed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- Place the pan on a cooling rack for a few minutes then remove the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting. Makes 14–16 cupcakes.
with Vanilla Buttercream:
- In a medium bowl, beat softened butter until creamy. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, blending until well combined. Add enough powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency/sweetness. Beat in vanilla extract, and 1-3 teaspoons milk/water, if buttercream gets too stiff. Once everything is added, beat buttercream 2-3 minutes to make extra fluffy.
- Cover well and store at a cool room temperature for 2–3 days or in the fridge for up to 1 week.
- I used Wilton tip 1M
to pipe the buttercream on these cupcakes. Depending on how high you like your frosting, you may need an extra batch of buttercream.
to pipe the buttercream on these cupcakes. Depending on how high you like your frosting, you may need an extra batch of buttercream.- Category: dessert, vegan, gluten free
You may also enjoy these similar recipes:
Vegan Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Buttercream
Lemon Layer Cake with Fresh Berries
Berry Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Frosting
Thank you for an excellent recipe. I made the gluten free cupcakes and everyone enjoyed them.
★★★★★
Hello Mamas, have you tried coconut sugar in place of regular sugar? Also in place of oil could you use apple sauce? I’m making cupcakes for a very particular sissy:)
The photos of these cupcakes are beautiful!
Hi. Just wanted to ask why the gluten free version of the vegan vanilla cupcakes turned out so soft that if I hold the cupcake it falls apart… I followed the recipe and baked them for 20 mins. Any reason and solution for this?
Thank u in advance for your help.
Hi Mirna, sorry they fell apart on you. I’d love to try and help you with this, but need a little more information. Were the cupcakes done in the center when you took them out and did you let them cool before handling? It may take more than 20 minutes, depending on your oven. Also, what gluten free flour blend did you use?
Those are gorgeous! I cant wait to make them. Where did you get the liners? I love them?
Thank you Cheri! They are Wilton white wave liners and I got them at Michaels. You can also order them online: https://www.wilton.com/white-wave-cupcake-liners/415-0670.html
You my friend are incredible!!! These are my favorites….Love Love Love making these for my children….my daughter chose strawberries after picking at our local patch and couldn’t stop herself haha Thank you for sharing another perfectly delicious treat
Aw thank you! Your encouragement means a lot to me. I really appreciate it!
Such stunning cupcakes, I adore these for spring!
You are right every one needs a good cupcake recipe for occasions.
The food photography in this is incredible. Tempting pics.
Oh my this looks delish and your photos are stunning!
xoxo Christie
http://www.icanstyleu.com/blog/
Thank you Christie!
These sound delicious! Thank you for sharing! It’s so hard to find great vegan baked goods!
We have spoken about going vegan for some time. I think cupcakes would be a good start. I will have to try this recipe soon. I love berries.
I love berries! I’m not a vegan but this recipe is perfect. I’ll try to recreate this for our movie night this weekend.