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Let me tell you about these lovely Vegan Lemon Cupcakes. Over the years, I’ve done my fair share of vegan baking. For health reasons and for the sake of variety, I’ve always loved to mix up my baking and make vegan treats. Then, when my son Luke was a baby and I was breastfeeding, he was diagnosed with multiple protein intolerances (a step above MSPI) and I couldn’t have any dairy, so my vegan baking game was on.
I know most of the ins and outs of vegan baking and have tried almost any substitution of which you’ve heard. Coconut oil is a popular substitution for butter, but sometimes you just don’t want coconut flavor. You want butter flavor. For these lemon cupcakes, I used Earth Balance Vegan Soy-free Buttery Sticks.
Besides vegan, these buttery sticks are also made with expeller-pressed oils, have no trans fats, are non-GMO, and certified Kosher.
Let’s talk more ingredients, shall we? You all know I’m not into using too much sugar in my desserts. I wanted these to be sweeter than my normal desserts (that tend to be on the less-sweet side), so I used xylitol (a natural sweetener made from plants that can be substituted 1:1 for sugar) for these. I don’t use it often in my recipes because I like the keep my ingredients lists simple and with ingredients that are easily recognizable by most. Once in a while, though, I want a sweeter dessert, so I turn to xylitol. I even used it to make a sugar-free powdered sugar. Feel free to use regular sugar if you prefer, though.
These are also on the healthier side because I used whole grain whole wheat pastry flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is lighter than regular whole wheat flour, but still has the benefits of whole grains.
Now that we’ve talked ingredients, let’s talk taste. These have the most lovely lemon flavor! If you are a lemon lover, these are for you. Even with the whole wheat flour, these cupcakes have a light crumb and the vegan buttercream frosting (also made with the Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks) is the stuff dreams are made of.
Spring is here and I couldn’t be happier about the sunny days ahead. Let’s celebrate spring’s arrival with these Vegan Lemon Cupcakes. Are you in?
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Vegan Lemon Cupcakes with Vegan Buttercream Frosting
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
These healthy vegan cupcakes are sugar-free, whole grain, and have incredible lemon flavor.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal + 1/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 lemons, zested
- 1/2 cup Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks, at room temperature
- 1 cup xylitol or organic sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2–3 drops lemon essential oil 1 teaspoon lemon extract (optional)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (such as almond milk)
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- for the frosting
- 3/4 cups Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks, At Room Temperature
- 3– 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (homemade sugar-free variety or regular)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1–2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1–2 drops lemon essential oil (optional)
- zest from an extra lemon, for garnish, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with liners.
- Mix the flaxseed meal and water together and set aside to allow it to gel.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- Zest the lemons and set the zest aside in a small bowl.
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter until it’s creamy. Add the xylitol or sugar and beat on medium speed until the mixture is fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the flaxseed+water mixture (which should be gel by now) until it is incorporated. Add the vanilla extract, lemon essential oil, and lemon zest until incorporated.
- With the mixer on low speed, add in half of the flour mixture. Then slowly add the milk and lemon juice. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat until combined.
- Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full and bake in the preheated oven until the tops are set, 20-24 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, beat the Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks on low until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar until combined, and then increase the speed and beat until fluffy. Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and lemon essential oil (if using). Add an additional tablespoon of lemon juice if the frosting seems to thick or you want extra lemon flavor.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: dessert
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 326
- Sugar: 46g
- Sodium: 242mg
- Fat: 17.5g
- Carbohydrates: 57.8g
- Protein: 2.6g
If you love vegan baking, you will want to check out the Earth Balance Vegan Cupcake Challenge. What a fun way to test out your vegan baking skills!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Earth Balance. The opinions and text are all mine.
Ooh these look amazing!! My hubby loves lemon more than anything, and we’re currently avoiding dairy and eggs so they sound great. However at one point you mention they are also gluten free, but the recipe clearly calls for wheat. Did you have a gf substitution (wondering how oat flour would do?) to mention or was that just a typo? Thought I’d mention it because one of my girls is on a gluten-free diet so we are always on the lookout and seeing that mentioned got me excited. Wouldn’t want any new gluten free-ers to get confused by your recipe! I do think I might need to make these for the rest of the family though…. And maybe try the oat flour!
I mentioned that the vegan buttery sticks I used were also gluten-free. I just edited and took that out as I can see how if someone is reading quickly might misread it. Have you tried subbing 100% oat flour for wheat flour before? Sometimes I don’t love the flavor change, but it I have done it successfully. I’m not sure how it would work in this recipe, though. Please let me know if you try it!