These Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes are moist, fluffy and super tender muffins topped with classic vanilla buttercream frosting. They are easy and quick cupcakes that can be made in 30 minutes. Those are vegan, dairy-free and egg-free.
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WHY MAKE THIS RECIPE
It’s a 30 minutes dessert recipe. This is an easy dessert that goes together in just 30 minutes. It’s prepared in less than 10 minutes and baked in around 20 minutes. That’s all. Muffins get cooled down in no time and you can either refrigerate the frosting or not as it can be used straight away.
Oh, if you’re a fan of fluffy and healthy desserts, check out those: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes, Vegan Gluten free Strawberry Cake, Vegan Chocolate Cake, Vegan Gluten-Free Carrot Cake.
It only requires a few basic ingredients. These easy Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes use basic ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry: flour, oil, sugar and milk. Those together with some leaving and some powdered sugar for the frosting is all you need to make these festive vegan cupcakes.
It’s not overly sweet. I love sugar as much as anyone but I don’t like my dessert recipes super sweet. So these vanilla muffins are not too sweet and perfect to top with the Vegan Vanilla Buttercream frosting in this recipe.
RECIPE INGREDIENTS
INGREDIENTS NOTES AND SUBSTITUTIONS
Flour. Plain all-purpose flour is what I usually use for those vegan funfetti cupcakes. To make it gluten-free, substitute all-purpose flour with all-purpose gluten-free flour at a ratio of 1:1.
Cane sugar. Cane sugar is much less processed and it’s more flavorful. It turns your muffins darker, which is something I don’t care about. But if you’re looking for the perfect pale vanilla muffin, I recommend you swap the cane sugar for white sugar and remove one tablespoon from the cup since white sugar is sweeter.
Plant-based milk. There is almost one dairy-free milk for everyone. I use almond, oat and soy milk for baking. Notes on vegan buttermilk bellow.
Sprinkles. Use good quality sprinkles or they will bleed as soon as you add it to the batter, and melt while baking.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE THE CUPCAKES
- To make the funfetti cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350ºF/ 175ºC and line a cupcake pan with liners. Prepare your buttermilk, combining the milk and the lemon juice in a mixing bowl. Stir the mixture and let stand for 2 minutes.
- Add the oil and the vanilla into the buttermilk bowl and mix well.
- Sift in the flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder.
- Whisk until well combined. Don’t over mix. Add the sprinkles.
- If you haven’t done it yet, line the cupcake pan with muffin liners.
- Divide the batter evenly into the cupcake pan, filling ⅔ of the way up.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes. Cool the tray on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Then remove muffins from the tray and let them cool completely.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE THE FROSTING
- To make the vanilla buttercream frosting: Start by softening the butter. Use and electric hand mixer or stand mixer.
- Add the vanilla and whisk until everything is well combined.
Finally, frost your cupcakes and top with sprinkles.
RECIPE FAQs
If you want to save a fresh batch for later or just need to make them a few days in advance, just follow those easy tricks. For unfrosted cupcakes: let them cool completely and then store in a container with a thigh-fitting lid and leave them on the counter for up to 2 days. If it’s hot and humid, store them in the fridge. For frosted cupcakes: place them in an airtight container and keep them in the fridge. Bring them to room temperature before serving.
For unfrosted cupcakes: individually wrap the cooled cupcakes in plastic wrap, store in an airtight container or freezer bag and freeze them. For frosted cupcakes: arrange them in a tray and place, uncovered, in the freezer for an hour or until the frosting has hardened. Once the frosting is hard, individually wrap them, place in an airtight container and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Bring them to room temperature before serving.
I’ve made vegan buttermilk with soy milk and almond milk. Soy milk is my favorite to make buttermilk, but both work nicely. Not all the non-diary milks will curdle when adding vinegar or lemon juice.
Sure! You can easily halve or double this vegan cupcakes recipe. To halve the recipe, so that you get 6 cupcakes instead of 12, just divide the ingredients in half.
If you need to make a double batch instead, double the ingredients. Check for doneness after 20 minutes in the oven, bake for 5 more minutes if the muffins are not fully baked.
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RECIPE
Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes
Equipment
- Medium or big mixing bowl
- Silicone spatula
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
- 12 hole cupcake pan
Ingredients
For the Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ cups plant based milk (almond, oat, soy), at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ cup vegetable oil (canola oil, olive oil, sunflower oil)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup sprinkles
- 2 tablespoon sprinkles , for garnishing
For the Vegan Vanilla Frosting:
- 1 cup vegan butter , at room temperature
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes
- To make the Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350ºF / 175ºC and line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, mix the vegan milk with the lemon juice to make vegan buttermilk. Gently stir and let sit for two minutes. The milk curdles and reaches a buttermilk-like texture and taste.
- Then, add the oil and the vanilla extract. Whisk until combined.
- Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and sugar, and mix with the wet ingredients. Beat gently for 30 seconds until well mixed. You can either stir the mixture with a whisk, large spoon or a hand mixer. Add the sprinkles and gently fold with a spatula. Don’t over mix.
- Fill the cupcake liners evenly with batter ⅔ full.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean. Do not over bake or the muffin will be dry.
- Remove cupcake pan from the oven and let cool down a bit. Carefully, they are very tender now, remove muffins from the try and place on a wire rack to cool.
For the Frosting:
- To make the frosting: While the muffins are baking, prepare the frosting. In a mixing bowl, add the butter. Beat the butter until soft and creamy.
- Then, add the vanilla, give it a stir and add the powdered sugar, sifted. Beat until well mixed.
- Use it immediately or refrigerate. If you’re dealing with hot/ humid weather, place the frosting in the freezer for 15 minutes before topping your cupcakes, it will thicken a bit more.
- When your cupcakes are cooled, place a 2D tip in a piping bag and fill the bag about ¾ with the vanilla frosting. Frost your cupcakes and top with sprinkles. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Additional Info
Funfetti is my favorite and these look perfect and so decadent! Thanks for such a fabulous recipe!
You’re so welcome, Crystal! And thanks for the comment!
I love the look of this recipe and I’m going to give it a try this weekend for a friend’s birthday! She is vegan and is a funfetti lover!
Hi, Freya! I’m so happy that you like the recipe, it’s a soft and moist cupcake, your friend will love it! Thanks for commenting!
I love this recipe! Every time I make it my niece goes crazy about it!
Thanks so much, Tavo. Glad your niece enjoys the cupcakes!
These babies are so beautiful! I’m going to make myself a big batch of some gluten-free funfetti cupcakes.
I’m so happy you like the recipe Ksenia, let me know how it went for you when you make it. These are super-easy-to-make cupcakes, you’ll love the simplicity of the recipe! Thanks!
I LOVE baking cupcakes for all of my friend’s birthdays, and I have always bought cupcakes for my vegan friends because I didn’t think I could come up with a good tasting vegan cupcake recipe on my own. So glad I saw your recipe!! Bookmarked, thanks so much for this 🙂
Hi Chatleen, I’m sure your friends will love this recipe. Let me know when you try it. Thanks for the sweet comment!
These cupcakes were such a hit! The crumb was perfect fluffy and tender, and they turned out so moist. Definitely a new favorite! I will make them again soon!
Hi Amanda! Thank you for sharing your kind review and comments! I’m glad you’ve found a favorite! Thank you for using my recipes!
You are not kidding! A fabulous 30 minutes dessert. Easy to make and delicious. Winners in our eyes.
Hi Silvia, I’m a fan of 30-minute recipes and this is one of them! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
These cupcakes are just adorable! My daughter can’t have dairy, so I have been trying to find a cupcake recipe that works for her… these are just perfect!
Hi Aleta, thanks for the sweet comment, hope your daughter loves it! You’ll find lots of dairy free recipes here, feel free to look around!
I’m bookmarking these for my grandson’s birthday, which is several months away but these cupcakes are so cute I feel like I’m really planning ahead – and my daughter-in-law will appreciate it if I make the GF version.
Hi Beth, either way, vegan or gluten free, are delicious, I’m sure your grandson will love them!
These vegan funfetti cupcakes are simply delicious! Thank you for the so very well explained recipe!
Thanks so much for sharing your review, Enriqueta! I’m glad you loved the cupcakes!
Those cupcakes look really great. I wanted to eat them right now. They will be on our menu very soon indeed. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
You’re welcome Kate! Thanks to you for taking the time to write this comment! I really appreciate it!
Was looking for a good cupcake recipe for my daughter’s birthday. These look perfect. Also loved the fact that you gave a gluten-free option. Am trying these next before the birthday once.
Hi Aditi, yes, these cupcakes are vegan and gluten free, and super easy to make. Your daughter is going love them. Thanks for choosing my recipe!
That looks OMG amazing! I didn’t know there was vegan buttermilk. I’ve never seen it anywhere. Could you give some brand names? I know you can do it yourself by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar for every cup of plant-based milk and let it stand for 10 minutes to allow it to sour. But sometimes you’re in a hurry. Thanks for your recipe!
Hi Naiby, I can’t recommend you any vegan buttermilk brand since I make my own. As you said, making buttermilk is as easy as mixing vegan milk with lemon juice or vinegar and letting it sit for a few minutes to curdle. You can do it while you measure and prepare the rest of the ingredients so it’s ready once you start making the recipe.
My daughter is now vegan, I can’t wait to make these for her! She is not allergic to gluten, can I swap the gluten-free flour for just all-purpose flour?
Yes, you can perfectly substitute GF flour for all-purpose flour at a ratio of 1:1. Thank you Brianna!
Cupcakes are always a hit. You can never go wrong with funfetti. These will be perfect for the next sleepover with the grandkids.
They’re super easy and totally fool proof, Gloria. Let me know how it went when you try the recipe! Thank you!