There's a secret we've been fostering for quite some time now. We love vegan cupcakes. More than "regular" cupcakes. Their flavor is intense, pure and did we mention there's none of that creaming and beating nonsense? They're literally as easy as 1, 2, 3! You're sure to be a hit at your next party if you come toting these!
These cupcakes get a little lift from the reaction between baking soda and vinegar and although it might seem a bit strange, it's one of the coolest things to see your batter lift in the bowl when you add the vinegar. This is a recipe that takes mere minutes to make and once you make it we're willing to bet that 8/10 of you don't go back to your standard chocolate cupcake ever again! Here's what you'll need:
3 cups all purpose flour (organic unbleached if you have it)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups natural cane sugar
1 2/3 cups water (or cold freshly brewed coffee)
1 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
4 tablespoons zested orange peel
1 tablespoon orange juice
4 tablespoons cider vinegar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix all dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Add water, oil, vanilla, orange juice, ginger and orange peel. Stir to combine. Add vinegar and stir quickly to combine. Things will be slightly foamy and lighter in color. Once the mix turns slightly darker again you know you've incorporated all the vinegar and you're set to pour it into muffin tins) or even two cake pans.Bake for 15 minutes for a medium sized cupcake. Allow to sit in pan for 5 minutes, remove and place on wire rack until completely cool.
Frosting
1 cup vegan margarine
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon orange juice
4 tablespoon soy milk
1/2 cup cocoa powder + 2 tablespoons
1/8 teaspoon salt
Blend margarine in a mixer until creamy, add in powdered sugar and mix to combine. Add remaining ingredients and mix until creamy consistency. You're ready to eat! Refrigerate any unused frosting for up to a week.
• Related: How To Stock a Vegetarian (or Vegan) Pantry
(Recipe originally published March 10, 2010)
(Images: Sarah Rae Trover)





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Comments (38)
Vegan cupcakes have been my favorite for so long. They really can't be beat!
i love vegan cupcakes. i eat eggs and dairy, but usually bake vegan. so easy.
I am a total omnivore, but I, too, love me some vegan cupcakes. My favorite are these rosewater and pistachio cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. SUPER delicious.
I heart heart heart vegan cupcakes! And I'm an omnivore too. They're SO much better. My copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is super stained and falling apart!
Something to note: Not all margarine is vegan. I didn't realize this for a while.. I felt REALLY stupid when I re-read the ingredients and saw "whey" in there. I swear I'd read them like 8 times to make sure. Anyway, Earth Balance is the brand I know for making vegan margarine. Thankfully most people that eat my cupcakes aren't vegan anyway!
I adore vegan everything, including cupcakes, but these look especially amazing.
Also, I love the parchment liners :)
Maybe I haven't eaten good vegan cupcakes, but I think that they taste artificial. I think it's the frosting that turns me off.
Maybe I should try these with non-vegan frosting.
lilies - That's an excellent compromise and with the recipe above, subbing in a few sticks of regular butter works out great!
lilies, i agree. i also despise the taste of margarine-based icing and i think subbing in butter will make it spectacular!
Can I use applesauce instead of the oil? It often works in dairy desserts but I'm afraid it might be required here because of the lack of fat on the ingredient list.
This is a good recipe if you use butter instead of oil. Healthier, too.
nathalie - You might be able to go half and half with it, but I think you're right, doing a full substitution would result in less than stellar results due to the lack of fat.
Palmetto - You can use butter with ok results (although it should be melted first), but will make your parchment paper or liners oily.
Margarine sketches me out--what can I use instead of it for the frosting? Whipping cream? The thought of making an icing with a cup of butter makes me cringe.
I totally know the basic cake recipe used here as "crazy cake" or "wacky cake".
I have a friend who calls these "1-2-3 cake" (because you're supposed to make 3 holes in the dry ingredients and pour vanilla in one hole, vinegar in the second hole, oil in the third and then water all over the top).
I loved making these when I was a kid and supposedly they were very popular in the 40s when they rationed things like milk, butter, and eggs.
There was a great article in the LA Time about crazy cakes recently:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/20/food/la-fo-crazy20-2010jan20
chow.baby - You can just make a simple glaze to coat the top, just (soy) milk and powdered sugar along with a a little vanilla will do the trick.
AND you can lick the bowl without worry of food poinsoning from nasty raw eggs.
cholestrol free, too!
If you're looking for the best vegan frosting & cupcake recipes check out "vegan cupcakes take over the world".
Can I substitute natural cane sugar and cider vinegar somehow? I can't find those ingredients in where I live.
Can I make this as one large cake with the same recipe?
I'm with Mona. I'd rather not run out and get cane sugar. Can I use regular sugar?
Mona D & BetsyGinDC - You can sub in standard granulated white sugar without any problems and you should be able to find the cider vinegar (usually labeled apple cider vinegar). It's a staple in almost every corner of the world. If worst comes to worst you can sub in a white vinegar, but the taste might leave a little tang, you might amp up your orange peel to cover.
engill - It works in two standard 8 or 9 inch pans, I would assume you could bake it in a rectangular bakeware without any issues. The middle is the last thing to come together on it, so make sure that the middle doesn't leave a dent when touched as your judge for time left in the oven.
Excellent! I may make these cupcakes tonight. Thanks Sarah! (I already have all the ingredients including cider vinegar on hand.)
YES VEGAN CUPCAKES REPRESENT! :D
For all y'all who are not cool with margarine - Earth Balance Vegan "margarine" is non-hydrogenated and tastes deliiiiicious and works great in baking.
Believe it or not, in here we don't have apple cider vinegar or white vinegar. :) Our cuisine normally doesn't include vinegar and salads only require regular apple vinegar.
Mona D - It should be available somewhere, it looks to be a main ingredient in Tursu (depending on if you use lemon juice or vinegar) so it should be in existence, but I'm not sure where to look for it, my Turkish isn't up to par these days!
Mona- I would guess that your 'regular apple vinegar' is the apple cider vinegar that the recipe is calling for.
I would try it with any fruitbased natural vinegar, with out hesitation.
Let us know how it works out for you!
I used butter in the frosting and it worked out fine. Gawsh the frosting was to die for! We thought the cupcakes were a bit too gingery and not chocolatey enough, but seriously, we could eat this frosting straight, light fluffy, incredible!
I want these right now!
Made these last weekend for my best friend's birthday. I didn't tell anyone they were vegan until after they had eaten and everyone loved them!
These look delicious! I have a delicious sweet balsamic vinegar. Do you think that would work as a substitute for the apple cider vinegar?
iamlilysmom - My first reaction is no, but there's no reason not to give it a try. I might suggest using the darkest cocoa powder you can find however to help balance it out!
I make a similar cake sometimes when I am in a rush as you can mix all the ingredients in the cake tin and virtually always have the ingredients in the cupboard
I "eat in both worlds" but I am a wee bit lactose intolerant so I try to cut back on dairy wherever I can.
The key to really fluffy, not weird tasting vegan frosting is to use half earth balance vegan butter (the sticks, the formula is a little different from the tub and holds its shape better) and half earth balance shortening.
I make this type of cake all the time, but will try it with ginger and orange! Rad.
I made these a couple of weeks ago. The cake part was quite nice, though I did add chocolate chips. I un-veganized the frosting with cow butter and milk, and it is now one of my favorite frostings ever.
Just made these with Splenda (have a diabetic in the house)...oh man were they tasty, you wouldn't even know that they were sugar free!!
Just traded out the margarine and soymilk for actual butter and milk in the frosting. Also halved the amount of sugar in the frosting and substituted with finely ground Splenda (all Splenda doesn't work for icing)... we still have to limit the amount that goes on for our diabetic, but she can manage a little bit of sugar in her diet.
You really never would have guessed that there was so little sugar in it.
**also, no cider vinegar to be had in the house, used regular white, instead to great results.
What kind of lovely wrappers are those hugging your cupcakes??
iamlilysmom - I was thinking that, too. I always have a bottle of balsamic vinegar on hand. Though I know I could get cider vinegar here, I still wouldn't want to spend the money on that only for one recipe, as I don't think I'd use it otherwise. But the suggestion to use really dark cocoa w/ the balsamic, now that makes sense! :) Can't wait to try it out.
One question: doesn't the acid in the orange juice curdle the milk in the frosting? I don't really like soy milk and don't cook with it, so I have no idea if it curdles the way regular cow or other dairy milk does. Also, though I'm not vegan I'd like to try the frosting with almond milk instead. Any suggestions? Thanks!
@heatherskye; parchement paper cut into squares.
SO GOOD!