Delicious vegan raspberry cupcakes that are fluffy, light, and easy to make. Consisting of vanilla cupcakes filled with raspberry coulis and frosted with dairy-free raspberry buttercream, perfect for Valentine's day and birthdays!
Preheat your oven to 180°C (356°F). Line a 12-hole cupcake tin with 12 cupcake liners, or 24 small bun cases.
To make the vegan "buttermilk" add the soya milk and apple cider vinegar to a medium bowl or jug, stir and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
Add the flour, sugar, soft baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a large bowl and whisk to make sure everything is evenly mixed. Add the sunflower oil and vanilla extract to the bowl/jug with the vegan buttermilk and stir to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together until combined - do not over-mix.
Distribute the batter amongst the cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes. Check they are done by piercing them with a toothpick or a knife, the knife should come out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool further for 30 minutes.
Filling
Add the raspberries, sugar, lime juice, and water to a saucepan and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat. Whisk the mixture from time to time to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature for 15-20 minutes.
Use a cupcake corer (or apple corer) to cut out centers in the cooled cupcakes, reserve the pieces that you remove. Fill each cupcake with raspberry filling and place the reserved cuts back on top of each one.
Transfer both buttercreams to a piping bag fitted with an open star nozzle. Alternate between raspberry and vanilla buttercream when filling the bag to give a swirl effect. Pipe the buttercream on top of each cupcake.
Storage instructions
These cupcakes are best served at room temperature. If you're keeping them for more than a couple of days, refrigerate them in an airtight container for up to 5 days. I recommend taking them out of the fridge for at least 2-3 hours to bring them to room temperature before serving. Especially if you’re topping them with vegan buttercream which stiffens up when chilled.
Notes
Nutritional information is based on filled cupcakes without frosting.
Don't overmix the cupcake batter. If there are a couple of pockets of flour still visible, that's totally fine!
Don't overfill the paper liners. Make sure you fill the cupcakes liners ¾ ways.
Cool the cupcakes to room temperature before filling. You can pop them in the fridge on a plate for a few minutes to speed up the cooling time.
If you don't have a cupcake corer, you can use an apple corer to remove the centers of the cupcakes for the raspberry filling.