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Vegan strawberry cupcakes made with fresh strawberries for a strikingly scrumptious strawberry flavor. They’re easy to make without any dairy or eggs! Top them off with strawberry flavored vegan buttercream for an ultimate strawberry dessert!

These vegan cupcakes are perfect to make when you need a dessert everyone will love but don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. While I love making vegan cake, cupcakes have a shorter bake time, and cool down quicker, so you can go from mixing to frosting in about half the time.

Vegan strawberry cupcake with strawberry icing and a fresh strawberry on top.

For that reason, these vegan strawberry cupcakes are my go-to easy vegan dessert.

vegan strawberry cupcakes with fresh strawberries bite shot
You can serve these vegan cupcakes with some fresh strawberries.

Strawberry cupcakes go perfectly with – what else? Strawberry frosting! I made a vegan frosting using coconut oil and added some strawberry purée to create this strawberry frosting.

Strawberry cupcake flat lay with vegan strawberry cupcakes frosted with pink strawberry icing, and lots of fresh strawberries scattered about.

Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes

The previous time I’d made strawberry cupcakes was also a flop.

So I was so glad after making this recipe for strawberry cupcakes (and yes, they also happen to be vegan) when everyone tried them and said how delicious they were.

That frosting! Yumm!

And the inside has so much strawberry flavor!

Can I eat another one?

I definitely was not disappointed with these cupcakes, and I don’t think you will be either!

Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes Recipe

Homemade vegan strawberry cupcakes recipe all natural with fresh strawberries.

You’ll need about 4 cups of fresh strawberries to start out with, with the leaves removed. Just put them into a blender and blend them up until they’re nicely puréed. You don’t need to strain them!

Here’s the ingredients you need to make these cupcakes:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup strawberry purée
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil (refined or unrefined is okay)
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 4 Tbsp of aquafaba (the liquid in a can of chickpeas)
Vegan strawberry icing on vegan strawberry cupcakes made from scratch.

For the frosting, you’ll also need:

  • 3 Tbsp strawberry purée
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil

Flour

I used all-purpose flour in this recipe (wheat flour). You could use a gluten-free flour mix instead of wheat flour, although I haven’t tried it myself.

Sugar

I did use refined sugar to make these strawberry cupcakes. In my opinion, the sweetness is nice for special occasions but next time I make them, I’ll try using a non-sugar sweetener like agave syrup.

Baking Soda

The baking soda helps the cupcakes rise and get fluffy in the oven. My cupcakes rose a LOT – I filled the muffin tins about 1/4″ or 1/2 cm below the edge of the muffin cups.

Salt

A little bit of salt helps bring out the strawberry flavors.

a strawberry cupcake with strawberry icing and a fresh strawberry on top

Strawberry Purée

As I mentioned before, to make the strawberry purée all you need are fresh strawberries. I cut off any unripe parts of the strawberry where it was still green or white.

Put the strawberries in a blender or a food processor without any extra water. They will make a deliciously sweet & tart purée. If you don’t have a blender, you could also try chopping the strawberries up finely and then mashing them up with a potato masher.

Coconut Oil

I used coconut oil in this recipe because it has a bright taste that goes well with strawberries. Actually, after baking the strawberry cupcakes, I couldn’t really taste any coconut at all.

I used unrefined coconut oil. Refined will also work. If you want to try making this recipe without any oil, you could try replacing the coconut oil with apple sauce.

Apple Cider Vinegar

The ACV helps the cupcakes rise, when it reacts with the baking soda.

Since the reaction doesn’t last indefinitely, it’s important to preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, so that you can quickly put the cupcakes into the oven as soon as they’re in their cupcake molds.

Aquafaba

Aquafaba (from the Latin “water” and “bean”) is simply the gel-like liquid in a can of cooked chickpeas. It’s a wonderful egg substitute that has similar binding qualities to eggs, without the eggy taste.

You can use aquafaba as is or, as I did in this recipe, whip it with your hand mixer until it’s white and foamy, like whipped cream. It helped these cupcakes get super fluffy!

Learn more about aquafaba.

Vegan strawberry cupcake with strawberry cupcake, with a bite taken

Vegan Strawberry Icing

To make the frosting on these strawberry cupcakes, I used:

  • 3 Tbsp strawberry purée
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1 Tbsp vegan buttery spread (I used Earth Balance original)
  • 1 Tbsp non-dairy milk (I used almond milk)

We also topped our cupcakes off with more of those pretty fresh strawberries. Because you can never have too many strawberries!

The very best strawberry cupcakes, made with real strawberries, and no dairy or eggs.

Ingredients

For The Cupcakes

  • 4 cups chopped strawberries fresh or thawed
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • cup coconut oil
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 4 Tbsp aquafaba
  • 3-4 drops pink vegan food coloring (optional)

For The Frosting

  • 4 Tbsp strawberry purée
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • 1 Tbsp vegan buttery spread
  • 1 Tbsp non dairy milk I used almond milk

Instructions

  • Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put the strawberries in a blender and blend until you get a smooth purée.
  • Mix dry ingredients for the cupcakes: 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt.
  • Mix wet ingredients: 1 cup of the strawberry purée, 1/3 cup coconut oil, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, and one aquafaba egg. Combine them with the dry ingredients and stir until fully blended. Batter will be thick.
  • Scoop batter into cupcake molds and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Course Vegan Desserts
Cuisine American
Keyword strawberry cupcake recipe, strawberry cupcakes, vegan strawberry cupcakes
Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Additional Time 20 mins
Total Time 1 hr
Servings 1 dozen cupcakes
Calories 375
Author Shannon Hakala

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 375kcal | Carbohydrates: 66g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 163mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 48g
Print Recipe

See more vegan dessert ideas here!

Instant Pot Cheesecake | Vegan Muffins | Vegan Ice Cream
vegan strawberry cupcakes

6 comments
  1. 5 stars
    Just made these, today for my daughter’s birthday. Tasted one and it was delicious, going to head over and make the strawberry frosting now!

  2. Can someone please MAKe this gluten free and share what flour they used and how much and how it turned out. I want to make a batch for a tester to my sons first birthday and we have 2 people that are Gluten FRee so i want to make them GF as well as vegan. Pplleeassee

  3. 5 stars
    Greattttt recipe. Very light and fluffy. I used avocado oil and regular vinegar since it’s what I had on hand and they worked perfectly fine. I did add some vanilla as well since I’m a fan of that in my baked goods. Def recommend this!!

  4. 5 stars
    I made this yesterday and they were an instant hit in my household and workplace. I’ve already had many requests from both my husband and my COLLEAGUES to bake some more, looks like i’m baking another batch this weekend! Thank you so much for the recipe!

    1. Nathalia,
      I really appreciate you letting me know that you and your family & colleagues enjoyed the cupcakes. I hope the next batch is as good as the first!
      Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments.
      Shannon

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