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Low-Fat Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes
I was going to try these vegan cupcakes just before the end of the low fat baking event, but had to bake it now itself. The reason being, the other 2 experiments to lower the fat was not that satisfactory. Thankfully it was edible (and healthy), so I did not end up nourishing my trash can. So I resorted to this eggless vanilla cupcake recipe from the Allergy-Free Cookbook by Alice Sherwood. (I have also updated in the event announcement that recipes which are already low in fat can be sent).
Yield: 6 regular size cupcakes and 11 mini cupcakes.
2 In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the sugar.
3 Add all the remaining ingredients and beat until you have a smooth, liquid batter.
4 Using a ladle, pour the batter 3/4ths full. Approximately 3 tablespoons of batter for large cupcakes and 1 and 1/2 tablespoon of batter for the mini cupcakes.
5 Bake until risen and firm to touch. Approximately 12-13 minutes for the mini cupcakes and 15-16 minutes for the large.
6 Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Frosting is optional. I did not frost the entire batch. Made a very small batch of chocolate ganache using 1/4 cup mini chocolate chip cookies and 2 tablespoons milk. Heat the milk, don’t let it boil. Add the warm milk little by little until the chocolate chips melt and is very smooth. The chocolate chips did not melt enough. So I heated some water in a saucepan and place the bowl of chips on the saucepan and kept stirring it with a whisk and it melted from the heat in no time. If you add excess milk, keep the frosting in the fridge until you get the correct consistency to frost the cupcakes.
I was pleasantly surprised with the good taste of these vegan cupcakes. Earlier I have baked something similar and it was literally awful and I had to throw the cake. The other recipe used more oil, soy milk instead of water and white vinegar. The soy milk gave a sticky texture, the use of vinegar was very obvious. So I was relieved to see a recipe with just 2 tablespoons of oil and water. That’s why I went with apple cider vinegar this time. I wouldn’t say that these cupcakes taste exactly like the regular vanilla cupcakes, but it’s definitely very good for a low-fat, egg free and dairy free vegan cupcake. The next time I will probably reduce the quantity of sugar by at least 2 tablespoons, especially if I decide to frost it.
As for the texture, it is not light. At the same time it’s not dense or moist either. It’s somewhere between light and dense. It’s solid and not crumbly, so I should probably try this in a round/square cake pan to make a good layered cake with icing and stuff.
2 It was a little sweet for me even without the frosting.
3 I forgot to refrigerate the cupcakes on the first day, so I felt it was sort of sticky on the top on the second day. I think the sugar released out moisture and made it sort of sticky. The inside was good though.
4 To make vegan ganache, use vegan chocolate chips and any other non dairy milk.
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[...] The recipe for the vanilla cupcakes are adapted from Madhuram’s Eggless Cooking site (click here for the original recipe), and the frosting is from a recipe I found on VegWeb.com. My first batch [...]
These tasted quite nice, quite light, but just a little sticky, a slight uncooked taste. I used normal sugar and not brown sugar, could that be the reason? I cooked them for about 17 mins.
Mina, I think it’s the recipe. A couple of others too did not get it right. Maybe I should try it once again and see how it comes because we liked it the first time and I’m not sure why others are not getting it right.
would be very helpful if when you go to print the recipes if they were in a recipe card format.
For most of the recipes I have tried from your website, I find some smell coming after the items are cooked. Could it be because of using excessive baking soda or could it be bcos of the canola oil? Also for this particular recipe I get some strong taste in mouth after eating one muffin. Something like an acid taste. I strictly follow the measurements you give. I also read your notes before starting with any preparation. Just not sure where I am going wrong..
Hi Anusha, I think it should be because of the baking soda or baking powder. If either is not mixed thoroughly (even minute lumps), or even little bit excess gives an unpleasant after taste. Here onwards try sifting the flour, bp/bs together even when I have not mentioned it in the recipe. This will ensure even spreading of bp and bs. Also baking soda tends to clump, so be sure to break it off and then measure it and level it off.
Hi Madhuram,
I tried a recipe a while earlier and it had a strong acidic taste. Only later did I realize that I had used “baking soda” instead of “baking powder”. This is probably where Anusha went wrong too? just taking a guess..
-Sharmila
That might be it Sharmila. Recently somebody else too mentioned in the Almond Butter Bread recipe that it was bitter and what could be the reason and I had written about using the leavener right and they wrote back that they used one instead of the other.
Thanks for the suggestion Madhuram..
Will try and let you know.. Thanks again..
I will try out the options you suggested.. I don’t think I interchanged BP or BS anytime.. I look into your receipe and the ‘not required’ B away..
You’re welcome Anusha.
Hi,
I am very much disappointed with the receipe( low fat vegan vanila cupcakes). I donno what went wrong with my procedure but the cupcakes were horrible. They were hard, sour… Wat not. Please suggest me how do I get soft and yummy cupckes. I love eggless cakes, cupcakes/muffins.
Please suggest me to excel in preparing them. I guess ur receipes are awesome, so want to try everthing on this site.
Thanks
Bindu
Bindu, I really don’t know what the problem is because some other visitors too mentioned that they did not get it right. This being a low fat cupcake I think it has its own limitations. May be everybody is expecting a lot from a low fat cupcake. If you see my observation about the cupcakes in the Taste section I have clearly stated that it does not taste like the usual vanilla cupcakes and I have written about the texture too. For more fluffy and soft vanilla cupcakes you have to have at least 1/2 cup of butter or margarine. I will try to post one such recipe shortly.
Thanks Madhu,
please however help me out to make yummy and delicious cupcakes and cakes. My daughter is 8 months now and as she grows big i wanna do more and more. if u dont mind can u please give me ur personal mail id so that i can ask u for anything instead of posting here even silly things. Hope to c ur reply soon.
Bye
Bindu
You’re welcome Bindu. Feel free to ask any of your questions here because it will be of use to others too. You can also use the forum to post your querries and if you want to keep it private use the contact form to send me a mail.
Hi Madhu,
Can you please clarify me the below doubts I have:
1) Can I mix all purpose flour and Wheat flour to prepare cakes/cupcakes? or strictly all purpose flour?
2) Why do we use apple cider vinegar( i mean is it for taste or anyother use of it) and can we use in any cake/cupacakes preparation?
3) Iam bit confused with the baking time…am I supposed to bake exactly as u mentioned or can i increase the time if iam not sure whether its baked or not.
If I have more queries will get back to you. Please reply me ASAP ( coz iam trying my cupcakes again today
thanks
Bindu
Bindu, you could mix both the flours but it is going to take some time to get used to that taste. Again it will not taste exactly like the baked good you eat in stores. If you want that taste you have to use only all purpose flour. I have been using whole grain flours for quite sometime now, so we are used to that taste and we actually prefer that to the all purpose flour.
2) Apple cider vinegar or any vinegar is used as an egg substitute. It requires some experience in egg free baking to decide which recipe will be good if vinegar is used.
3) Again this will also come with experience because the baking time will depend upon your oven, the ingredients you are using and to identify from looking if the cake/cookie is done etc. For instance, I feel that in my oven the goods baked 3-4 minutes earlier than the time specified in the original recipe. So in most of my recipes I would have mentioned the original time mentioned in the recipe and how much time it took for me actually. So maybe you can keep the original time as the base and start checking 2-3 minutes before that. For instance if a muffin requires 20 minutes maybe you can check around 18 minutes. When you start baking regularly you will come to know how you oven is fairing and you can decide accordingly.
4) I would suggest you not to try that low fat cupcake again. Instead try some other cookies or this vegan chocolate cake.
http://www.egglesscooking.com/2009/02/16/whacky-vegan-chocolate-cake/. Actually that recipe can be used for cupcakes too. I think you would get around 8 cupcakes but bake for 13-15 minutes.
yummy delicious !an unbelieveable meal!
Madhuram,
I made these yesterday, my first time making cuopcakes and they were great! I’ve never been able to bake because of ym severe egg and peanut allergies, so keep these coming! My husband loved these too! My only complain- they came out a little too moist and mushy- I found a bit of a strange after tases,like pancake batter- any idea why?
Amira I guess the soymilk makes it sticky and the lack of butter too.
[...] tried and tested methods of various recipes. I decided to try two recipes: a variation of the Low-Fat Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes and a variation of the Eggless Carrot Muffins (with Bananas) – both turned out, not only [...]
[...] tried and tested methods of various recipes. I decided to try two recipes: a variation of the Low-Fat Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes and a variation of the Eggless Carrot Muffins (with Bananas) – both turned out, not only [...]
My hubby and I made these on a whim tonight and we LOVED them!! Followed the recipe to a tee and they came out excellent!! By the way this was our first vegan recipe to try and we will now try others too!!
Thanks Brandy.
Can I use something else besides baking powder? And i know u can use baking soda then some tartar cream or something but I don’t have that tartar cream
please help soon 
It’s not possible Brianna.
Hello..just made these..Used dark brown sugar..thought it could do with some more sweetness..maybe next time I will increase the amount..Well what I am not sure about is, the cake stuck to the liner more than store-bought cupcakes..now is it because of something I did or is the cupcake more moist than the store bought ones?
Meenakshi please remember that these are low fat cupcakes, so comparing it to store bought cupcakes wihich is laden with butter is not suggested. You may want to grease the cupcake liners generously with non stick cooking spray and also let the cupcakes cool completely before you can remove it from the liner. Anyhow I too am going to try this recipe again because the feedback is not good on this one in general.
Hi. I want to try different vegan cupcake recipes and yours is definitely on the list. I have two questions before I go at it though. 1) Do you have a rough estimate of the amount of calories? 2) Do you think I could add vanilla protein powder to the recipe? If so, should I alter another dry ingredient? Thank you. Happy I found this.
Nicole, I would suggest you to try some other recipe before trying this one because some of the readers haven’t got it right.
hi,
i tried your recipe it turned out nice n soft but the sponge wasnt that good and there was a slight bitter taste….can we substitute cold water with soda water and lessen the amount of vanilla …..as i think that the bitter taste was due to it…..pls tell…
Did you use baking soda and powder interchangeably?
no,i didnt….
Can I buy and store apple cider in the fridge for some months? Because I get them everyday during fall. During other seasons it is not regularly available.
I meant that I used apple cider vinegar in that recipe instead of white vinegar and not apple cider itself. Apple cider does not keep good for months even in the fridge. Usually they will have it on the pack saying that it’s best consumed within a week or so after opening.
hiya if i wanna make a chocolate cupcakes do i have to reduce the amount of flour?
Yes, you should use cocoa powder for some of the all purpose flour.
hi. I m tryng it for the first tym so i want to know can i use white sugar instead of brown. thnx
You can use it Nishita, but one word of caution before trying this recipe. If this is your first baking experiment I would definitely recommend you to try some other recipe or the eggless vanilla cake recipe instead. This recipe is quite a tricky one because it’s low fat and does not taste exactly like the store bought cupcakes. I don’t want you to be disappointed with your very first baking.
Thanks a lot. Now I’ll try the vanilla cake and then this one. And one more thing i want to clarify that i hav OTG microwav(up and down rods) so what’s the baking time?
I’m not familiar with those type of ovens Nishita. If it’s a microwave oven then the baking time should be lesser than what I have mentioned but at the same temperature I guess.