With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, these vegan vanilla plum cupcakes are the perfect sweet treat to make for a partner, family member, or simply just to treat yourself!
I need to firstly talk to you about the texture of these beauties because, let me tell you, it’s something quite special! They’re honestly the fluffiest, most perfect vegan cupcakes I’ve ever made in all my years of baking! I couldn’t actually believe that they were completely vegan! (Neither could my boyfriend!) If you’re an avid vegan baker, then you’ll no doubt be familiar with some of the struggles that come with it! Plant based baking experiments can often result in cakes being too gooey, dense or dry… not these!
This recipe is in collaboration with South African stone fruit, which are currently available from most supermarkets. I’ve become somewhat obsessed with these South African plums over the past couple of weeks and can’t even tell you how many punnets I’ve eaten! With the perfect balance of sweet and sour flavours and juicy taste, they’re the perfect sweet snack to satisfy mid-afternoon cravings. They also work really well in these cupcakes to compliment the delicate sweetness of the sponge.
South African Stone Fruit
I wanted to share a few interesting facts about South African plums before we get into the recipe! They’re powerful immunity boosters and are a good source of vitamins and minerals. In addition, they’re counter-seasonal, therefore you can get hold of these when the European produce isn’t. This way we can enjoy delicious sunshine fruit all year!
What will I need to make vegan vanilla plum cupcakes?
- Gluten free self raising flour: this is something that I’ve been using in a lot of my baking recipes lately. It really helps to achieve that light and fluffy texture, which can be especially tricky to master in vegan baking.
- Vegan butter: this recipe calls for vegan butter and will also work with light dairy free spreads as well.
- South African Stone Fruit: a key addition to this recipe and pretty much the star of the show! These add a delectable burst of fruity flavour into every mouthful, as well as keeping the cakes really moist.
- Coconut or caster sugar: you can use either of these depending on whether you’d like the recipe to be refined sugar free.
- Non-dairy milk: as we’re not using eggs, non-dairy milk helps to add extra moisture to your cake batter.
Why you should make these
- Perfect homemade Valentine’s Day gift
- They’re completely vegan!
- They’re also gluten free!
- Delicious!
- Light and so, so fluffy!
- Require minimal equipment
- An excellent way to make use of your South African stone fruit
- They’re quick and easy to make!
Vegan Vanilla Plum Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegan butter
- 1/2 cup caster sugar/coconut palm sugar
- 1 cup GF self raising flour
- 1 cup oat milk mixed with 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 South African plums- chopped into small chunks
- Dash vanilla extract
Frosting
- 3 tbsp vegan butter (stick kind works best here)
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- Dash freeze dried berry powder or pink food colouring
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180c and line a cupcake tray with paper cases.
- In a mixing bowl, cream together the vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then whisk In the milk and vinegar mixture and vanilla.
- Fold through your dry ingredients to create a smooth batter. Using an ice cream or cookie scoop, divide the mixture amongst the cases for an even result.
- Add a few pieces of chopped plum into the centre of each cake and bake these for approximately 25 minutes.
- Once your cakes are cooked through and golden in colour, allow to cool completely on a wire wrack.
- Meanwhile, beat your vegan butter until pale, then gradually incorporate the icing sugar. Mash your blackberries and berry powder (if using) into your butter cream. You can add extra icing sugar to thicken if required.
- Pipe or spread the frosting onto each of your cakes and garnish with toppings of choice!
