Vegan Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

I have been wanting for awhile to create a cupcake recipe that was vegan. Either the time or patience to do it had gotten the best of me, and now that I've finished the task I am slightly disappointed that I didn’t complete this recipe a lot sooner.

This recipe is easy, no fancy ingredients and if you don’t tell anyone - they wouldn’t even know that it is vegan. So there is no dairy or eggs in this recipe. I love the strawberry sauce that is inside of the cake, it balances the richness of the chocolate and the sweetness of the buttercream.

This recipe is broken down into 3 parts: cake, filling and icing. It makes 6 cupcakes, feel free to double recipe if needed.

Cake Recipe - Based Loosely from Ina Garten’s - Beatty’s Chocolate Cake

1/4 cup hot water

1/2 tsp espresso powder

3 tbsp of good cocoa powder

2 tbsp canola oil

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla paste or extract

1/4 cup full fat non-diary milk

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup PLUS 3 tbsp of unbleached all purpose flour

Pre-heat oven to 350F, make sure oven rack is in the middle of the oven. Place 6 cupcake liners in cupcake tin.

In a bowl, whisk hot water and espresso powder until powder dissolves. Add in vanilla paste, salt, oil, sugar, non-dairy milk, apple cider vinegar and cocoa powder. Whisk well. Add in baking soda, baking powder and flour - whisk well.

Pour cake batter into baking cups - only 2/3 full. Do not overfill cupcakes. Bake for 12-14 minutes (mine took 13.5 minutes) until toothpick comes out clean from center of cake. Let cool on a rack before filling and frosting.

Strawberry Filling

If you don’t have time just buy strawberry preserves with less sugar

1 lb (16oz) bag frozen strawberries - thawed in fridge overnight

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

2-3 tsp water

Blend the thawed strawberries in a food processor or blender. In a sauce pan add pureed strawberries with 2 tbsp of sugar over medium heat. In a separate small bowl add 1 tbsp of cornstarch to cold water. Once cornstarch has completely dissolved, add to strawberries. Whisk strawberry sauce well. Let cook over low/medium heat until sauce thickens and reduces by at least half - about 30-40 minutes. Let cool then refrigerate until needed.

Strawberry Buttercream

4oz (1 stick) vegan butter like SmartBalance - room temperature

pinch of salt

pinch of cream of tartar (if you don’t have - no worries)

1/2 tsp of vanilla paste or extract

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tbsp of strawberry sauce or jelly

The process of making vegan buttercream is very easy, only one must make sure to really aerate the butter and sugar to lighten the frosting. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter for 2 minutes. Use a spatula to scrape down bowl if needed. Add in powdered sugar in three increments, scraping down the bowl and mixing on medium high speed for at least 2 minutes each time. This will “fluff” the buttercream, lighten the color and texture without having to add too much sugar.

After adding in all of the sugar, add the strawberry sauce, salt, cream of tartar and vanilla. Make sure to again mix the buttercream well. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use. Remember that the cold from the fridge will make the frosting stiff, before icing the cupcakes, let frosting come to room temperature and mix on high speed in mixer again - the consistency will be much butter this way.

Putting Together

Take the cupcakes and use a cupcake corer (a small knife works too) to take out the center of the cupcake. Add strawberry filling to top of cake. Use piping tip or pastry knife to smooth on buttercream. Serve cupcakes room temperature for best flavor.

Happy Valentines Day all you lovelies!!