Easy Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes
These super fresh and light vegan strawberry cupcakes are full of real strawberries and are incredibly easy to make! Topped with a dairy free strawberry buttercream for an amazing vegan cupcake recipe that all eaters will love, vegan or not!
This post is sponsored by Florida Crystals. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make The Banana Diaries possible!
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!
- Freeze dried strawberries: Instead of using strawberry puree or reserves, we’re making things super simple by using freeze dried strawberries instead!
- 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.
- Vegan butter: If you’re nut-free, make sure that the brand you’re using is nut-free as well.
- Flaxseed meal: This will be our vegan egg replacement. However, I have tried this recipe using applesauce, and it works just as well!
Why we’re using freeze dried strawberries instead of fresh:
You might be wondering why we’re using freeze dried strawberries instead of fresh. While I love using strawberry reduction in my vegan strawberry cake, I wanted to offer a recipe that is a bit less time consuming, while still using real strawberries.
Freeze dried strawberries still offer a wonderful strawberry flavor (they are real strawberries after all!) while saving time in the kitchen.
How to make strawberry cupcakes (overview)
Here’s how to make these amazing vegan strawberry cupcakes:
- Whisk together the dry ingredients:
This is simply your flour, leavening agents, and salt. Sugar is actually not a dry ingredient, and you’ll see why in the next step!
- Cream together the vegan butter and Florida Crystals Organic Raw Cane Sugar:
I used a stand mixer with paddle attachment, but you can also use a large bowl with a hand mixer. The key is to cream the vegan butter and sugar together until fluffy, when the sugar has nearly emulsified into the butter. This means it’s properly creamed.
- Add in the remaining wet ingredients:
This is your ground flaxseed “egg” and vanilla extract. Mix until just combined.
- Finish the strawberry cupcake batter:
Add in the dry ingredients and dairy free milk in increments, mixing on medium speed. Then fold in the freeze dried strawberries.
- Bake the strawberry cupcakes:
Fill the cupcake liners in your cupcake tin about 2/3 of the way full. I use a large cookie scoop for ease. Then you’ll place the cupcakes into the oven to bake! Be sure to use the toothpick test to see when the cupcakes are done.
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.
Like the cupcakes, 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 both @the_bananadiaries and @floridacrystalssugar on Instagram and Pinterest!
For the full instructions and ingredient measurements of these vegan cupcakes, please click here!
