Small Batch MOIST Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes – NO food coloring!

These ultra soft and moist small batch strawberry cupcakes are quick and easy to make- and no strawberry reduction needed! Using fresh strawberries and a homemade strawberry frosting, you’ll never believe these cupcakes are vegan!

Why you’ll love these vegan strawberry cupcakes:

If you’ve tried my vegan strawberry cake, then you need to add these cupcakes to your line up. They’re soft, fluffy, tender, and full of strawberry flavor.

Not to mention, they’re incredibly easy to make, and the perfect recipe for spring time birthdays, graduations, weddings, Mother’s Day, and more!

And like all recipes on The Banana Diaries, these cupcakes are fully vegan, down to the sugar, which we’re going to discuss.  

Key ingredients:

Here’s what you need to make these vegan strawberry cupcakes:

• All purpose flour: I have not tried these cupcakes with a gluten-free 1:1 baking flour, but you’re more than welcome to test that out!
• Fresh and freeze dried strawberries: We’re using both here- the fresh strawberries for the cupcakes, and freeze dried for the frosting!
• Florida Crystals Organic Raw Cane Sugar: As I mentioned earlier, sugar is not always vegan- but Florida Crystals sugar is, which is why I use it exclusively! Florida Crystals is completely vegan-friendly, USDA-certified organic sugarcane sustainably grown in the U.S. (it’s actually the only brand of organic raw cane sugar made from sugarcane sustainably grown here!). 
• Florida Crystals Organic Powdered Raw Cane Sugar: Another common culprit of turning a vegan bake into a non-vegan one is the powdered sugar. Florida Crystals Organic Powdered Raw Cane Sugar is certified vegan, which is extremely important, as not all powdered sugar brands are vegan. 
• Dairy free milk: You can use soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, or any non-dairy milk that you’d like!
• Baking powder & baking soda: This helps give our cupcakes rise.
• Neutral oil: This can be sunflower seed oil, avocado oil, or even (I’ve tested this!) olive oil!
• Dairy free yogurt: One of my favorite vegan egg substitutes, yogurt is perfect for creating that super soft texture.

Why don’t we have to reduce the strawberry puree?

When I was developing my strawberry cake recipe, I saw a lot of recipes use a strawberry reduction, strawberry jam, or strawberry jello pudding mix. And I really wanted to be different. I knew that you could achieve that same delicious strawberry flavor with just real strawberries and not a lot of effort.

So I developed my strawberry cake, which is what these vegan strawberry cupcakes are based off of!

The reason for using strawberry puree is often to avoid adding too much moisture and throwing off the ratios of ingredients. Seeing as these are vegan cupcakes, we actually have a bit more room to play around with ratios (since we’re not in need of dividing an egg into eighths haha!).

Plus, with not needing to make a strawberry reduction, you now don’t need to spend extra time hovered over the stovetop, and constantly measuring to make sure you’ve created precisely the amount reduction needed.

So these cupcakes just use strawberry puree, but don’t worry- there’s plenty of strawberry flavor!

Easy Vegan Strawberry Frosting:

This is one of my absolute favorite parts about the recipe! This dairy free strawberry frosting is an absolute dream. If you’ve ever made buttercream before, then it’s quite similar.

We’re using freeze dried strawberries, Florida Crystals Powdered Sugar, and vegan butter. Again, the beauty of using Florida Crystals is that you already know it’s guaranteed to be vegan- this is why it’s my favorite sugar to use, whether it’s powdered or granulated sugarcane. 

The reason why we’re using freeze dried strawberries over fresh strawberries is because freeze dried has already removed all of the water for us- if we were to simply puree strawberries instead, we’d end up with a split buttercream (which is no fun, and not recoverable, I might add!). 

Once you’ve made your frosting, you’ll simply pipe the strawberry buttercream onto each cupcake. This is where you can decorate with fresh strawberries if you’d like!

I cannot wait to hear what you think about this recipe! If you make it, please be sure to leave a comment down below, and tag @the_bananadiaries on Instagram and Pinterest!

Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!

If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

Print