Best Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
These amazing and easy vegan red velvet cupcakes taste just like the real deal! This is the easiest vegan cupcake recipe and yield the most perfect red velvet cupcakes, vegan or not! Topped with a perfectly tangy and sweet vegan cream cheese frosting for the best vegan cupcake around!
Why you’ll love these easy vegan red velvet cupcakes:
If you love a good vegan red velvet cake recipe, then you’re going to be absolutely obsessed with these amazing red velvet cupcakes. You won’t even be able to tell that these red velvet cupcakes are indeed vegan, eggless, and dairy free.
They just simply taste like the best dang cupcake you’ve ever had!
In college, I used to work at Georgetown Cupcakes, and we had the absolute best red velvet cupcake in all of DC. It was the most sold out cupcake flavor of all. So I truly do know what makes a good red velvet cupcake, and this vegan red velvet cupcake really is the best!
Here’s why you’ll love these cupcakes:
- The cupcakebatter itself is so easy to make. You don’t even need a hand mixer- just a whisk will do!
- From start to finish of making these red velvet cupcakes, the process is about 30 minutes. And that’s including only a 5 minute prep time!
- The texture of these vegan cupcakes is unbelievable: truly so fluffy, moist, soft, and light yet rich with flavor.
- You get all of the classic red velvet cake flavors that we know and love: light hint of cocoa followed by sweet and a lift from the tang of the buttermilk. It’s truly a masterpiece of flavors!
- The cream cheese frosting is good enough to eat on its own. And we have two different ways to make it!
The secret ingredient to the best red velvet cake
Have you ever wondered what makes an amazing red velvet recipe? The secret ingredient is actually in the vegan buttermilk.
Using vegan buttermilk instead of regular dairy free milk makes all the difference. Buttermilk gives you that light and fluffy, velvety texture that’s associated with red velvet cake.
At this point in time, no one sells a vegan buttermilk. However, we can easily make our own that’s nearly identical to a classic buttermilk!
Simply combine dairy free milk with a little apple cider vinegar (all measurements are found in the recipe card below), and let the mixture sit for a few minutes at room temperature to curdle.
I have recently discovered that Forager Project‘s probiotic dairy free drinkable yogurt (the unsweetened version) acts very similarly to buttermilk, so if you see that in stores, you may use that as well!
How to make vegan red velvet cupcake recipe with step by step photos
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
Here’s how easily you can make these secretly vegan red velvet cupcakes:
- Prep the vegan buttermilk.
Simply combine the dairy free milk with a teaspoon apple cider vinegar and let the mixture sit.
- Then whisk together the dry ingredients.
This is the flour, cocoa powder, leavening agents, and sea salt. If you’re using beet powder instead of a liquid vegan red food coloring, then you may add it in here or in the wet ingredients. Either works!
- Next, make the rest of the batter.
Whisk together the vegan butter, sugar, dairy free yogurt, vanilla, and vegan red food coloring. Once your wet ingredients are completely mixed, add in the dry ingredients and whisk again until just combined.
- Bake the cupcakes.
Fill each paper liner in the cupcake tin about 2/3 of the way full with batter. Bake the red velvet cupcakes then allow them to cool in the cupcake tin or muffin pan for about 10 minutes. Then transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the cream cheese frosting.
Once you’ve made the frosting, you’ll fill a piping bag with piping tip and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes!
Two different ways to make vegan cream cheese frosting:
I will be the first to admit that making a vegan cream cheese frosting is a bit trickier than making a standard cream cheese frosting. We have much more consistency in making a vegan buttercream that’s identical to a regular buttercream.
The reason being is that while we’ve come a long way with making a phenomenal vegan butter that truly stands to match a regular butter in baking, we still need some work with a cream cheese that does the same.
There is so much variety in textures and flavors of different vegan cream cheese brands that you just don’t see with conventional dairy cream cheese. Typically, each brand is really quite similar, so you won’t see much variation in results if you use different brands of cream cheese.
For the longest time, I made a vegan cream cheese frosting using vegan cream cheese, but I’d only recommend one brand: Violife foods. I’ve found their cream cheese to be the most consistent in texture and taste to conventional cream cheese. That being said, it’s not found in every single place on the earth.
So then does that mean that those who don’t have access to Violife shouldn’t make vegan cream cheese? Absolutely not.
Therefore, we have two different ways to make vegan cream cheese frosting:
- Option 1: Use a vegan cream cheese (such as Violife Foods) to make a classic vegan cream cheese frosting.
- Option 2: Swap in dairy free yogurt (such as Forager Project) and you’ll yield a very similar and fluffy tangy yet sweet cream cheese-like frosting (which I actually at times think is closer to the real deal!).
Either of these options will work in frosting your vegan red velvet cupcakes!
These vegan red velvet cupcakes are perfect for:
- New Year’s Eve parties
- Christmas Eve and Christmas dessert
- Valentine’s Day
- Mother’s Day
- Birthday parites
- Baby showers
- Bridal showers
- Graduations
- Wedding cupcakes (instead of a vegan wedding cake!)
- And so much more!
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
Best Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These amazing and easy vegan red velvet cupcakes taste just like the real deal! This is the easiest vegan cupcake recipe and yield the most perfect red velvet cupcakes, vegan or not!
Ingredients
- 150 grams unsweetened dairy-free milk, room temperature
- 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 188 grams all-purpose flour or 1-to-1 gluten free flour with 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 57 grams vegan butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 125 grams granulated sugar or coconut sugar
- 125 grams unsweetened dairy free yogurt, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 oz vegan red food coloring or 2 tbsp beet powder
- 1 batch Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Please read through all instructions before beginning.
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup cupcake tin with liners. Measure out all ingredients before beginning. In a small bowl, combine the dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix together and set aside to curdle.
- Whisk the dry ingredients: In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Set aside.
- Make the batter: In a medium bowl, use a whisk or hand mixer to mix together the melted vegan butter, sugar, dairy free yogurt, vanilla, and red food coloring. Mix until completely combined. Then add in the flour and curdled dairy free milk, and whisk the flour into the batter just until combined.
- Bake the cupcakes: Divide the batter evenly into each cupcake liner, filling each cupcake about 2/3 of the way full. Place the cupcake tin into the oven to bake for about 25-27 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the oven.
- Cool the cupcakes: Allow the cupcakes to cool in the cupcake tin for 10 minutes. Then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely before making the vegan cream cheese frosting.
- Make the cream cheese frosting: Add vegan butter and vegan cream cheese to a large bowl and beat together with a hand mixer. Add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time, continuing the beat the mixture until it’s a thick buttercream. Add in vanilla and continue to beat until desired texture.
- Frost the cupcakes: Spoon the vegan cream cheese frosting into a piping bag and frost each cupcake. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Vegan cream cheese frosting: If you can’t find a good vegan cream cheese near you, you can sub in 1/2 cup of dairy free yogurt (such as forager project) in place of 1 cup of vegan cream cheese.
Storage: Store any leftover cupcakes in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Keywords: vegan red velvet cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes, easy red velvet cupcakes
