Vegan Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
These vegan chocolate chip cupcakes are cute, dainty and super easy to make. Vanilla sponge cakes filled with dairy-free chocolate chips and topped with fluffy vanilla buttercream. Perfect for birthday parties, buffet tables or afternoon tea.
Another day, another cupcake recipe! I do love me a good cupcake and have many different variations on my blog. But nothing beats a classic!
Today I’m sharing my recipe for chocolate chip cupcakes. I used a plain vanilla sponge base and homemade dairy-free vanilla buttercream. This recipe is adapted from my vanilla cupcakes recipe, with the choc chips being the only difference.
This recipe is great because it’s so easy to adapt to your preference. You can use white chocolate chips, add cocoa powder to the batter to make double chocolate cupcakes, or you can use chocolate buttercream instead of vanilla buttercream. Anything goes!
These are really easy to make and I think they’d be a great addition to any snack table or party buffet. I hope you enjoy them!
Ingredients you’ll need for this recipe:
- Soy milk. I recommend using unsweetened, organic soy milk for best results.
- Apple cider vinegar. This is used in conjunction with the soy milk to create vegan buttermilk. It help the cupcakes to become soft and fluffy while keeping them moist inside. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, you can use an equal amount of lemon juice or white vinegar instead.
- Self-raising flour. This is also known as self-rising flour, a.k.a. plain flour with some raising agent added!
- Bicarbonate of soda. Also known as baking soda. This helps to give the cupcakes a little extra height.
- Caster sugar. For sweetness, of course. Granulated sugar will work too.
- Oil. I recommend using a neutral-flavoured oil such as rapeseed or sunflower. Oils like coconut or olive oil tend to be quite overpowering in my experience. You can also use an equal amount of melted vegan margarine if you prefer.
- Vanilla extract. For extra flavour.
- Vegan chocolate chips. See below for my recommendations!
- Vanilla buttercream. You can make your own using vegan margarine, icing sugar and vanilla extract, or you can buy some ready-made. Betty Crocker has a dairy-free range of ready-made frostings, as does Tesco Finest.
Where to find vegan chocolate chips
Anytime I post a recipe using dairy-free chocolate chips I almost always get a comment asking me where I buy them. For this recipe, and many of my other recipes, I use the Moo-Free ‘milk’ chocolate baking drops. I buy them from my local Tesco store, in the free-from section.
Some of my other favourite chocolate chips are:
- Asda dark chocolate chips
- Morrison’s dark chocolate chips
- Dr. Oetker dark chocolate chips (only the jumbo version are milk-free)
If you can’t find any suitable chocolate chips, you can of course make chocolate chunks instead. Simply take a bar of your favourite vegan chocolate and chop it up into small pieces before adding to the cake batter.
How to make vegan chocolate chip cupcakes
Step 1:
Preheat your oven to 180°C (or 160°C if you’re using a fan oven) and line a cupcake tin with 12 paper liners.
Step 2:
Mix together 280ml of soy milk and 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice). Let it sit for 5 minutes or so to thicken and curdle. This will act as your vegan buttermilk.
Step 3:
In a large bowl, mix together 230g of self raising flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 180g of caster sugar.
Add in the buttermilk from earlier, along with 6 tablespoons of oil and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Mix well until you have a smooth cake batter. Make sure to check the bottom of the bowl so there are no lumps of dry ingredients left behind!
Step 4:
Add 80g of dairy-free chocolate chips to the batter and gently fold them in. If you’re using jumbo chocolate chips, I’d recommend lightly coating them in flour before adding them to the batter- this will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cupcakes.
Step 5:
Divide your cake batter equally between your 12 paper cases. I used a piping bag, to help me do this quicker.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick through the middle comes out clean. Leave them in the tin to cool for around 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let them cool completely.
For the buttercream
Prepare the vanilla buttercream by mixing together 150g of vegan margarine and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Measure out 500g of icing sugar and mix it into the margarine, a little bit at a time, until smooth.
If your buttercream is too thick, add a splash of plant-based milk to loosen it and if it’s too runny, add more icing sugar.
You could also add a small amount of cocoa powder to the mixture if you’d prefer to have a chocolate buttercream instead.
If you don’t feel like making your own buttercream, you can use something like Betty Crocker’s vanilla buttercream icing or Tesco Finest Madagascan vanilla frosting. Both are vegan-friendly and are great to have on hand when you’re baking in a hurry.
Assembly
Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with your nozzle of choice and pipe some onto each cooled cupcake.
Top with some extra dairy-free chocolate chips and enjoy!
FAQ:
Store them in an airtight container and they’ll last for up to 4 days. They can be stored in or out of the fridge.
Yes. These cupcakes can be frozen, frosted or unfrosted, in airtight containers or freezer bags for up to 2 months. To defrost, transfer them to a wire rack and leave at room temperature for an hour or two until completely thawed. Do no refreeze.
More vegan cupcake recipes:
I hope you enjoy my vegan chocolate chip cupcakes. If you make them yourself at home please let me know how it goes by leaving a rating and/or comment below. Happy baking! xo
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Fluffy vanilla cupcakes with dairy-free chocolate chips throughout.
Ingredients
- 280 ml Unsweetened soy milk
- 1 Teaspoon Apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
- 230 g Self-raising flour
- ½ Teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 180 g Caster sugar
- 6 Tablespoons Oil or melted vegan margarine
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla extract
- 80 g Dairy-free chocolate chips (plus a little extra for topping)
Vanilla buttercream:
- 150 g Vegan margarine
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 500 g Icing sugar
Instructions
-
Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C for fan ovens) and line a cupcake tin with 12 cases.
-
Mix the soy milk and apple cider vinegar together in a small mug or bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes or so to allow it to thicken. This will act as your dairy-free buttermilk.
-
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and caster sugar. Add in the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract. Mix well until you have a smooth batter.
-
Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
-
Divide the batter between your 12 cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Vanilla buttercream:
-
Mix the margarine and vanilla extract together in a large bowl.
-
Stir in the icing sugar, a little at a time, until it's all used up. If the buttercream is too stiff, add a splash of plant-based milk. If it's too soft, add more icing sugar.
-
Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with your tip of choice and pipe a little onto each cooled cupcake. Top with extra chocolate chips.
Recipe Notes
- Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
RO
Thursday 3rd of November 2022
Does it need to be soy milk. Or could oat milk be used instead? Many thanks.
Chloe
Thursday 3rd of November 2022
Hi Ro, oat milk should work fine. I only write soy milk because that's what I test the recipes with. Hope you enjoy!