Unbelievably Vegan White Chocolate Cupcakes
The moist tender and moist vegan white chocolate cupcakes that don’t taste dairy free!! Topped with dairy free buttercream fondant snowflakes, these white chocolate cupcakes make the perfect vegan Christmas cupcake treat!
The cutest vegan Christmas cupcakes
I know I’ve said that I love my vegan vanilla cake, but man. I think I have a new favorite.
These vegan white chocolate cupcakes are so dang fluffy and light, yet entirely (and secretly!) dairy free and can be gluten free.
I really have never had a better tasting cupcake. Seriously, I’m that obsessed.
The cupcake base, inspired by my vegan white chocolate cake, is tender and moist, and the Christmas inspired fluffy vegan buttercream is the perfect complement to these white chocolate cupcakes.
If you make any holiday cupcake this year, I highly recommend these. Top with some fun vegan sprinkles, and you have a cupcake that’s full of holiday cheer and fit for any Sugar Plum Fairy (or Nutcracker!).
How to make white chocolate cupcakes vegan (overview)
One reason I always recommend people try out cupcakes if they’re intimidated by cakes is because vegan cupcakes yield the same desired flavor and elegance, yet are super easy (and relatively quick!).
There’s no need to crumb coat or worry about stacking several tiers of cakes. These vegan white chocolate cupcakes are truly a testament to elegant yet shockingly easy.
The full recipe and instructions to these white chocolate cupcakes is found down below in the recipe card. However, let’s go over the main tips here:
- Use room temperature wet ingredients This is so crucial to making sure that your dairy free white chocolate cupcakes are super light and tender. Using varying temperatures in wet ingredients will mess up the texture of the cupcakes. Allow some time for the wet ingredients to fully come to room temperature.
- Cool the vegan white chocolate before using. Much like how you don’t want cold vegan buttermilk going into your cupcakes, you also don’t want piping hot vegan white chocolate to go into the batter. Once you melt the vegan white chocolate, you’ll let it cool for a few minutes at room temperature before using.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients. It’s so crucial to use a whisk here, as this will help evenly distribute the leavening agents throughout the flour. This will also ensure an even bake.
- Look for lightly golden tops. Another trick if you don’t have a toothpick to check the doneness of your vegan cupcakes is to look for the coloring and do the bounce-back test. You can carefully remove the cupcakes from the oven for a moment (near the end of the bake time), and use your oven mitt to lightly touch the cupcake to see if it bounces back. If it does, they’re finished and ready to be cooled, but if they feel too soft still, then they’ll need a few more minutes.
- If your cupcakes are sticking to the liners. They really shouldn’t with this recipe, as there is some oil from the vegan white chocolate that helps to peel away the liners. However, to ensure this doesn’t happen, allow the cupcakes to cool in the cupcake tin for 10 minutes. This moisture helps the liner easily release from the cupcakes, even with an oil free recipe.
The number one trick for moist and fluffy vegan cupcakes
Do not over mix the batter!
If you over mix the batter, you’ll collapse the bubbles that start to form from the baking soda
reacting with the apple cider vinegar in the vegan buttermilk.
This reaction is what helps create those super fluffy and moist cupcakes that have your jaw on the floor (despite the cupcake being vegan!).
Make sure that you mix just until the dry ingredients have been fully incorporated. After that, begin to divide the batter into the cupcake tins!
How to decorate vegan Christmas cupcakes
I personally love white chocolate cupcakes as the base of these Christmas cupcakes. It’s such an underrated flavor, and to me, really reminds me of holiday cheer.
You can, of course, use a different cupcake base if you just want to make Christmas cupcakes. I suggest my vegan gingerbread cupcakes, or perhaps my vegan chocolate cupcakes (both oil free).
For the topping to these cupcakes, I rolled out Wilton uncolored fondant and pressed snowflake cookie cutters into them. I got the idea from Wilton’s blog on snowflake Christmas cake decorations.
Place them into the vegan buttercream that has been piped onto each cupcake. Then use some extra sprinkles or decorative sugar for sparkly sugar plum fairy-inspired cupcakes.
You can also top the cupcakes with vegan Christmas trees made from ice cream cones and buttercream fondant, like on my hazelnut cake!
You’re just going to absolutely love these easy vegan white chocolate cupcakes. You won’t even believe that these white chocolate cupcakes are eggless and dairy free! The perfect holiday cupcake!
As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there.
Happy Christmas cupcake decorating!
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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
Unbelievably Vegan White Chocolate Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 27
- Total Time: 37 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
The moist tender and moist vegan white chocolate cupcakes that don’t taste dairy free!! Topped with dairy free buttercream Christmas trees, these white chocolate cupcakes make the perfect vegan holiday cupcake treat!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240ml) dairy free unsweetened milk, room temperature
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1/3 cup (67 grams) vegan butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1/3 cup vegan white chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1 3/4 cups (230g) all purpose flour with 1 tbsp arrowroot starch or cornstarch*
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 batch of vegan white chocolate buttercream
Instructions
- Please read through all instructions before beginning.
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 12 cup-cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Measure out all ingredients. Combine the dairy free milk and vinegar together to create the vegan buttermilk. Set aside to curdle. Make sure that the vegan butter and white chocolate are melted and cooled to room temperature. You don’t want hot ingredients going into the batter!
- Whisk the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, arrowroot starch, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
- Make the batter: In a large bowl, whisk together the vegan buttermilk, vegan butter, vegan white chocolate, and vanilla extract. Add in the dry ingredients, and use a silicone spatula to fold the flour until there are no more clumps of dry ingredients left, being careful not to over mix the batter.
- Bake the cupcakes: Use a large cookie scoop or a spoon to fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 of the way full. Place the cupcake tin into the oven and bake for 27-30 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean. Another way to test this is the tops of the cupcakes should be lightly golden and the cupcake should spring back at a light touch.
- Cool the cupcakes: Remove from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool completely before making the vegan buttercream frosting.
- Make the vegan white chocolate buttercream: Follow the instructions for making the white chocolate buttercream.
- Decorate the cupcakes: Pipe the buttercream onto each cupcake, and decorate as desired.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Gluten Free: Swap in gluten free 1:1 baking flour, such as Bob’s Red Mill in the blue bag.
My flavor was nice although I didn’t get a strong white chocolate taste. My tops got hard though and I’m not sure why. They got a little dry (I baked them 25mins and probably could have done 20mins. Any idea what I did wrong? Substitutions I made were monkfruit sweetener for the sugar, regular buttermilk since I’m not strictly vegan and gluten free flour. Thoughts? Thanks!