Super Moist & Fluffy Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes

Name: Super Moist & Fluffy Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2/3 cup (144 mL) vegan buttermilk, room temperature; 1 3/4 cup (225 g) cake flour or sifted gluten-free 1-to-1 baking flour (if doing gluten-free, add in 1 tsp arrowroot powder); 1 3/4 tsp baking powder; 1 teaspoons baking soda; 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp (120 g) granulated sugar or coconut sugar (see Notes); 1/3 cup (80 g) vegan butter, melted and cooled to room temperature; 1/4 cup (60 g) unsweetened applesauce or dairy free yogurt, room temperature; 1 1/4 tablespoon pure vanilla extract + 1/8 tsp vanilla powder; 3/4 cup vegan sprinkles; 1 1/2 cups (339 g) vegan butter, room temperature; 4 cups (480 g) powdered sugar; 1-2 tbsp dairy free milk; 1 tsp vanilla extract; Extra vegan sprinkles for decoration

posted by Britt Berlin on Aug 3, 2022 2 comments »

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These incredibly sweet and fluffy vegan funfetti cupcakes taste just like classic funfetti cupcakes! With a super moist and tender cake filled with vegan sprinkles, these vegan funfetti cupcakes are ready in under 30 minutes for the perfect birthday dessert!

Funfetti just completely embodies the birthday celebration spirit, so why not make the absolute best vegan funfetti cupcakes for your birthday (or for that of a loved one or friend!)?

These vegan funfetti cupcakes are the birthday cupcakes to make if we’re omitting the birthday cake (although I have a great vegan birthday cake recipe! And a vegan funfetti cake recipe too!).

Of course, vegan vanilla cupcakes and vegan chocolate cupcakes are always amazing and perfect for any celebration. We can’t forget red velvet cupcakes too. But the extra sprinkles in these vegan vanilla cupcakes just make you think birthday!

The best part? These cupcakes are made in just one bowl, baked in less than 30 minutes, and are undetectably vegan, egg-free, non-dairy, and easily gluten free too!

They’re quite literally the perfect cupcake recipe. Just super moist, fluffy, light, and tender. Who wouldn’t want one of these cupcakes for their birthday?!

vegan funfetti cupcake with liner pulled off

vegan funfetti cupcake with bite taken from it

Ingredients & Substitutions:

Flour: I recommend using cake flour here. However, you can also use all purpose flour with 1 tbsp cornstarch. I also have recommendations down below for how to make these vegan cupcakes gluten free!
Sugar: Not all granulated cane sugar is vegan in the U.S.- some cane sugar is unfortunately processed with bone char. To ensure that your sugar is vegan, I recommend using Florida Crystals (my favorite) or using another organic brand.
Baking powder & baking soda: This helps our cupcakes to rise.
Vegan buttermilk: This is a combination of dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar. I recommend using either soy milk or almond milk for the non-dairy milk. However, you can also use oat milk if you’d like!
Vegan butter: For the cupcake, you can swap in coconut oil or another neutral oil. For the vegan vanilla buttercream (my favorite recipe!), I recommend sticking with the vegan butter. Miyoko’s is my absolute favorite vegan butter, but Earth Balance also works and is a great nut-free option. Make sure to use salted Miyoko’s butter. Otherwise, you can add in 1/8 tsp of salt to the flour mixture if your vegan butter is unsalted.
Applesauce: You can also swap in dairy-free yogurt here too. This replaces the eggs found in a traditional vanilla cupcake recipe.
Vanilla extract: This helps to give our vegan funfetti cupcakes their flavor!
Sprinkles: I have a ton of options for which vegan sprinkles to use, and share the specific brand I used here down below in the FAQ section, so read on!

Overview: How to make vegan funfetti cupcakes:

You’re just going to love how easy these one bowl funfetti cupcakes are to make! Here’s a quick overview of the steps:

Start by lining a muffin pan or cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Then preheat the oven and make sure to measure out all of your ingredients. This helps to keep you organized and make sure you didn’t miss anything!

Next, you’ll whisk together the wet ingredients first. That’s the vegan butter, sugar, applesauce, and vanilla extract. Add in the flour and remaining dry ingredients (save for the sprinkles), along with the vegan buttermilk, and whisk just until combined.

vegan funfetti cupcake batter in a medium bowl

Next, fold in the vegan sprinkles JUST until they are evenly distributed.

Fill our cupcake liners up only 2/3 of the way to ensure that they don’t overflow over the edges. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Finally, once your cupcakes are cooled completely, make the vegan buttercream frosting, and frost your vegan funfetti cupcakes!

Recipe FAQ’s

Can I make these gluten free funfetti cupcakes?

You can absolutely make these vegan funfetti cupcakes using gluten free flour! I have tested these funfetti cupcakes using King Arthur’s Measure for Measure gluten-free flour blend. This one contains xanthan gum, which is important, and it’s also the same weight as 1 cup of all purpose flour; this means that you can use either the gram measurements or the US cup measurements.

Another option is using Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Baking Flour. However, 1 cup of this blend weighs more than 1 cup of all purpose flour. This means that you’ll need to use the US cup measurements, and then multiply that by 140 g (the weight of 1 cup of Bob’s GF flour) to yield how many grams you’d need: 245 g.

Pro tip: Add in 1 tbsp cornstarch to the flour to take away any grittiness from your gluten-free flour blend!

Which sprinkles are vegan?

As you might know, not all sprinkles are vegan. Some sprinkles do contain animal products, which means they are not vegan. However, there are some sprinkles that are 100% vegan, which is what I always use!

For these cupcakes, I specifically used Sweetapolita’s vegan rainbow crunchy sprinkles. I also love their birthday party sprinkles, which I used for my vegan funfetti cake! These sprinkles are great because the color doesn’t fade when you bake them, which often happens with other vegan sprinkles, like Whole Foods’ brand.

Other vegan sprinkles include:

Watkins
Go Supernatural!
Whole Foods 365 (I do NOT recommend this for baking- only for decoration)
Let’s Do Organic Sprinkelz Organic Confetti
Color Kitchen Rainbow Sprinkles

Is the Pillsbury funfetti cake mix vegan?

No, unfortunately, the Pillsbury funfetti cake mix is not vegan, as it contains dairy. So even if you sub out the eggs, the mix still contains dairy, which is an animal product, and therefore is not vegan. However, this vegan funfetti cupcake recipe is just so easy to make, it’s as easy as box mix!

Can I make these cupcakes ahead of time?

Yes, you can absolutely make these funfetti cupcakes ahead of time! If you’d like, you can make the vegan funfetti cupcakes one day before. Store them covered at room temperature overnight after they’ve completely cooled. The following day, make the vegan buttercream, and top with sprinkles!

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!