These amazing spring festive vegan bunny cupcakes are perfect for Easter and other spring holidays! Soft, decadent, moist and absolutely adorable.
Vegan Bunny Cupcakes are absolutely adorable for the spring! And no, you don’t have to celebrate Easter to enjoy these spring festive vegan cupcakes!
We have made these two different ways now – with our vegan carrot cake cupcake recipe and with our vegan vanilla cupcake recipe.
Either way you make these, they are simple, classic, soft, moist and delicious!
Whether you need this recipe for a spring party or just because, it will be enjoyed by everyone!
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What ingredients do you need to make vegan bunny cupcakes?
In order to make this vegan vanilla cupcake recipe you need just 9 ingredients! You’ll need a few more, depending on the frosting that you choose.
Full amounts of each ingredients is listed In the printable recipe card below.
The ingredients that you need for these vegan vanilla cupcakes are:
- Flour – All-purpose flour (regular or Gluten Free 1:1 blend) because we wanted this recipe to be as accessible as possible for everyone.
- Carrots – a great way to get nutrients into your cupcakes, but also some additional natural sweetness from the ingredients as well
- Brown Sugar – Brown sugar is what we are using for moisture and sweetness. If you want to learn more about why your sugar may not be vegan, you can learn more by clicking on the link.
- Baking powder – added to cake for leavening purposes
- Applesauce – what we are using for our egg replacer.
- Salt – this helps enhance the flavor and while you may be tempted to reduce or omit, we encourage you not too
- Oil – You want to use a neutral oil – canola or vegetable. Oil helps the moisture in your cake but also helps by slowing down the formation of gluten that yields a very tender and fluffy cake – isn’t that what we all want!
- Vanilla Extract – we are keeping it simple with extract for this recipe since it’s an ingredient that most people already have in their pantry
- Unsweetened Dairy Free Milk– Using milk instead of water adds more flavor into the recipe. We have tried this with both oat and almond and there’s not much of a difference honestly. Use either unsweetened plain or unsweetened vanilla flavored milk, but you don’t want any sweetened milk in this already sweet recipe.
- Apple Cider Vinegar – Since there are no vegan buttermilks on the market, we use acid to mix with the dairy free milk to make a vegan buttermilk. Acid helps tenderize gluten and therefore making a softer cake.
- Vegan White Chocolate – We use vegan white chocolate in both the bunny face and the vegan white chocolate buttercream
SUBSTITUTIONS AND VARIATIONS:
- Apple Cider Vinegar – You can use white vinegar or lemon juice if that’s all you have
- Vanilla – to kick up the flavor a bit, try use vanilla bean powder or vanilla bean paste
Other frosting ideas are also available further down in the post.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
All of the ingredients have a purpose in making the most decadent and moist cupcakes – from the oil to the acid and leavening agents – they all give the perfect chemical reaction for the best cupcakes that are not dry.
Also – you really want to make sure that you don’t over mix. The longer you mix, the more gluten forms and leads to more dense cupcakes.
You can absolutely make this into vegan bunny cake. We’d encourage you to just follow the ingredients and steps in our vegan carrot cake or vegan vanilla cake recipe. Instead of toothpick, you will need wooden skewers for the ears instead.
By adding some acid to your batter, you are creating a vegan cake that is moist and delicious. It helps to break down the tough gluten strands, yielding in the most delicious vegan vanilla cupcake recipe. Don’t skip this step!
Yes. You can make this oil free. Replace the full amount of oil for more applesauce. It is very important to know that using applesauce does lead to a more dense cupcake.
HOW DO I MAKE THIS VEGAN BUNNY CUPCAKES LOOK EXACTLY LIKE YOURS?
We get it. No one likes “Pinterest fails”. You see something and think, “that’s out of my league, no way I’m trying that.” Take a deep breathe and instead say, “I’m going to following these steps and make the best cupcakes I’ve ever made.”
Step 1: It’s all about positive thinking.
Step 2: You need to follow some really important tips that we’re going to share with you on how to make the best allergen friendly bunny cupcakes that actually looks like it came from a bakery. Your guests (and yourself) are going to be blown away.
Here’s our tips for making this cupcake recipe look exactly like ours in the picture:
- Follow the instructions pretty please. Cake baking is a science, especially when making a dairy free/vegan cake. The sifting and exact ingredient amounts are very important. Every step has a purpose to ensure the perfect dairy free vanilla cupcake.
- Make sure that you evenly distribute the cupcake batter.
- Do not overfill the cupcake tins. You should only fill them ½ way. Otherwise they will rise too much and spill out a little.
- When the cupcakes are cooked, remove from oven and place on a cooling rack to allow the cakes to cool evenly.
Tips for piping:
- We used an open star piping tip.
- Use a piping bag and a large round tip and pipe frosting in a circular motion from the inner middle to the outer edge.
Tips for bunny ears:
- Make sure you are only drawing on wax paper so it easily comes off.
- Don’t go heavy on the chocolate.
WHAT ARE SOME OTHER VEGAN FROSTING IDEAS FOR THESE VEGAN BUNNY CUPCAKES?
One great thing about cakes is that you can mix and match frostings! We absolutely love doing this. Some ideas for vegan cake frostings are:
- Vegan Vanilla Frosting
- Vegan Buttercream Frosting
- Vegan Chocolate Frosting
- Vegan Strawberry Buttercream
Leave a comment below and tell us what frosting flavor you want to see next!
Pin these Vegan Bunny Cupcakes recipe for later!
Vegan Bunny Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ¾ cup dairy free milk
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil (*See post for allergies)
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups shredded carrot
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (regular or 1:1 Gluten Free Blend)
- 4 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ – 1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans) (*Omit for nut allergy)
Vegan White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting + Bunny Shapes
- 9 oz vegan white chocolate, divided
- 1 cup vegan butter, softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon dairy free milk
- red food coloring
- 48 vegan mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners.
- In a large bowl, add apple cider vinegar and dairy free milk. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add in brown sugar, oil, maple syrup, applesauce and vanilla. Beat until combined.
- Add in shredded carrots. Blend together again.
- Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and nutmeg. Beat together just until combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.
- Add nuts, if adding. Fold until just combined.
- Place in cupcake wrappers until ½ full.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- While baking make frosting below or choose another option from the post.
- Let cool to touch and then use frosting of choice to decorate.
Frosting
- Melt vegan white chocolate in the microwave on 15 second increments stirring after each. Place 4 oz in a small bowl and with the remaining melted chocolate, divide in two separate bowls evenly. Let cool for 10-15 mins until it is no longer warm to touch.
- While waiting to cool, in a large bowl, cream vegan butter with a hand mixer or stand mixer until whipped. Turn mixer to low and slowly add the cooled 4 oz of white chocolate, mixing until well combined.
- Next add in powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until well combined. Then add salt and vanilla extract. Finally, turn mixer down once more and add dairy free milk to frosting. Slowly increase the speed of your mixer and let run for 30-60 seconds until desired piping consistency is reached.
For the Bunny Faces
- Lay out a sheet of wax paper on a baking sheet. Place 1-3 drops of red food coloring into one of the remaining bowls of white chocolate and stir to turn pink.
- With a piping bag with a fine tip, add the remaining white melted chocolate and make 48 circles about the size of a dime. In another piping bag with a fine tip, add the pink chocolate and make 24 triangles slightly smaller than the circles. Lastly, with the white chocolate make 48 2-3 inch oval outlines, then lay down. toothpick so 2 inches is sticking out. Fill in with the remaining pink chocolate. Let cool completely.
To Assemble
- Make sure cupcakes are completely cool before pipping. Pipe a flat circle of frosting on the top of the cupcake. Push in 2 bunny ears. Add two chocolate chip eyes, one pink triangle for nose, and two white bunny cheeks. Repeat with remaining cupcakes! Serve!
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