These Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes + Bourbon Vanilla Buttercream are the perfect way to indulge your sweet tooth this season without the dairy! They are filled with decadent, rich flavor and comes completely fluffy, moist, and incredibly airy. Whipped together in the matter of a few short minutes, these cupcakes are an easy treat for everyone involved—-adults that is! Enjoy these as traditional cupcakes or transform them into a cake! All vegan ingredients. Entirely oil-free.
This post contains affiliate links via Amazon + sponsored links by Wholesome Sweet.
OK, so when it comes to Red Velvet, you’re aware that this classic recipe is something truly special, especially around the Holiday season. There’s nothing like a delicious piece of Red Velvet ANYTHING which often comes paired with a beautiful Cream Cheese topping—-am I right?
Well, the awesome thing about this recipe is that although it doesn’t use the traditional Cream Cheese topping, this Bourbon Vanilla Buttercream doesn’t miss a beat at all when it comes to satisfying those taste buds. This buttercream is totally creamy, fluffy, and has a nice “rich bourbon-vanilla” taste. Of course, you can always omit the bourbon to create a traditional Vanilla buttercream for the kids to enjoy along with you! It’ll still taste just as satisfying.
Over the past year or so, I’ve really made it a mission to perfect vegan cupcakes and cakes. If I’m honest, those were the two type of desserts that I struggled with when starting this recipe development journey, however, I have learned a TON a long the way and wanted to include a few tips that might be of great help to you as well!
#3: ALWAYS KEEP THINGS FRESH!
I know that this is a common mistake, especially for those of us who aren’t daily bakers. Ensure that your ingredients (flours, etc.) are fresh and haven’t been sitting there for months improperly sealed, etc.
Also, ensure that your leaveners (baking power + baking soda) are fresh. This is super important and often is the culprit in flatter baked goods.
#4: DOUBLE PROTECTION IS BETTER THAN ONE!
While using cupcake liners are a huge lifesaver when making it easier to remove your cupcakes after they are ready, ensuring that you not only use high quality liners, but that you also lightly spray the inside of your liners with a cooking spray HELPS A TON! Don’t you just hate when your cupcake inevitably gets stuck on one of those cupcake liners?
#5: WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW THEM OUT. Haha.
Last but not least, always ensure that your batter is JUST RIGHT. With cupcakes, your batter should be slightly thick and not extremely watery. This allows them to come out fluffy and not too wet. Therefore, always slowly add in the wet ingredients (while mixing) to ensure that your batter isn’t too crazy liquid-y to the point that it looks like your scooping up milk. When it doubt, throw it out and start again. Trust me, it’s best that way!
Believe me, after making small adjustments (like the ones mentioned in my tips above), I began perfecting cupcakes, which has been the best feeling in the world! Haha.
Wholesome Organic Cane Sugar – A great sweetener option using all organic ingredients
Wholesome Organic Powered Sugar – The base of your buttercream
Cake Flour – Creates a nice airy, fluffiness to cupcakes, BUT all-purpose flour can be substituted
Almond Milk – Makes things nice + soft; Sub with your fave plant-based milk
Cocoa Powder – The epitome of Rich chocolate flavor
Vanilla – A great addition of flavor and marries everything together
Bourbon – A nice note of vanilla, oat, and caramel flavor
ACV — Mixed in with the milk to act as an acid agent for the leaveners to activate
Baking Soda + Baking Powder — Very important leaveners for your cupcakes. You can sub baking powder with arrowroot
Vegan Butter — Creates a beautiful fluffy, velvety buttercream
Vegetable Shortening — Together with vegan butter, creates a beautiful fluffy, velvety buttercream
Vegan Butter (melted) – The best sub for an oil-free cupcake. Can be subbed with vegetable oil
Red Food Coloring – The color agent that adds the beautiful redness to Red Velvet. Vegan-friendly
So, of course, I needed to take a moment to talk about my friends at Wholesome! If you’ve been an avid follower of Orchids + Sweet Tea, then you’re probably already familiar with their products since I use and list their products in my recipes pretty often!
I’m a huge believer in using quality, organic ingredients for my recipes and Wholesome believes in the same mission when creating their products.
As a whole, Wholesome believes in Real Taste, True Choices, and a Promise for a Better World, which not only affects us as consumers, but also the farmers and beekeepers which is so important. Of course, you can read more about their story on their site.
With these cupcakes, I used both Wholesome’s Organic Cane Sugar and Organic Powdered Sugar. Of course, you can choose to sweeten your cupcakes with a non-granulated sweetener such as their Organic Blue Agave as well. Either way, Wholesome has you covered with a variety of sweetener options which include Honey, Syrups, Molasses, Brown Sugars, Zero Calorie Sweeteners, and the list continues.
Achieving the red color requires some form of ‘dyeing’ your batter. In this recipe, I chose to use a Vegan approved food coloring to make things easier, however, there are other great ways to achieve the same color without any extra chemicals:
When it comes to making a beet puree, you simply roast them and place them in a food processor like you would any other type of puree (sweet potato, pumpkin, etc.).
The awesome part is that by using pureed beets, you can come out with a naturally, perfect red color for any red velvet recipe that you chose!
Very easy to whip together. Literally one-bowl needed for cupcakes.
Ready in less than 30 minutes TOTAL—-including prep.
Warm and comforting with EVERY SINGLE BITE.
Super moist + fluffy on purpose.
Loaded with decadence and delicious Holiday flavors.
All dairy-free, vegan, + entirely oil-free.
Makes for the perfect sweet treat for adults + kids alike (minus the Bourbon).
Did I mention—–just delicious?
When tightly wrapped + refrigerated, these cupcakes can be stored for 3-4 days. However, you can freeze them for up to 6 months (unfrosted) and then thawed, heated, and then cooled before adding buttercream.
Absolutely! You can always bake these cupcakes the night or day before and let them cool, tightly wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use. The buttercream frosting can also be made prior and tightly wrapped and stored in the fridge as well. When ready to serve, let cupcakes sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour, frost, and enjoy!
In all honesty, I tend to use Cake Flour by itself when I decide not to mix it in with All-Purpose Flour. Using Cake Flour alone makes your cake/cupcakes even more soft, fluffy, and moist! Of course, you can always use All-Purpose Flour solely if you don’t have Cake Flour.
When it comes to ingredients, especially in baking, it’s always best to have cold ingredients at room temperature to ensure that the mixing process is more seamless and even. Please note that microwaving your butter last minute if you forget to leave it out at room temperature isn’t recommended. Microwaving often changes the consistency of the butter which doesn’t create a nice ‘creaminess’ when mixed.
Absolutely! You can always use the same measurements of the ingredients to create a nice single layer cake OR double the ingredients for a beautiful 2-layer. The bake times will vary slightly (only a few minute longer), but the transition is pretty easy + simple.
Although both Red Velvet + Chocolate Cake contain cocoa powder, there is a distinct difference. Unlike Chocolate Cake, Red Velvet contains a combination of vinegar and ‘buttermilk’, which is super important for the texture and taste. In addition, Red Velvet is a lot more rich and fine in taste as opposed to Chocolate.
As mentioned earlier in the post, Red Velvet often comes paired with a Cream Cheese Frosting. However, there are so many other pairings that work perfectly with Red Velvet, such as: Classic Vanilla, Bourbon Vanilla (as this recipe), Chai, White Chocolate, and Cookie + Cream.
Did you know that there were interesting facts about Red Velvet? Yup and of course I had to share my finding from Food and Wine:
These Easy Pumpkin Chai Cupcakes are a delicious flavor battle between two classic flavors—-pumpkin + chai.
These Vanilla Cupcakes with Sprinkles are the best + most favorite cupcakes I’ve made. Soft, fluffy, + extra moist, these cupcakes are bursting with bold vanilla flavor in every bite.
These Best Banana Cupcakes + Maple Buttercream are classic flavors that never get old, but together they are even more PERFECT!
These Homemade Vegan Funfetti Sprinkles Cupcakes are a tasty, healthier option to your classic childhood favorite—funfetti Birthday Cake!
Tag @orchidsnsweettea_ on Instagram and hashtag it #orchidsandsweettea
Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes + Bourbon Vanilla Buttercream.
LOVE THIS RECIPE?
LET US KNOW!
These cupcakes look adorable–great piping work!
Love the details in this recipe! You are so thoughtful in your explanations and really make it easy for people to succeed. Thank you – these look super cute 🙂
Every time I see your recipes I am one step closer to becoming vegan myself. Although I still have a long way to go but I must say you are a wonderful cook!
Red velvet + vegan means these cupcakes are equal to a healthy meal right? 😉 Mmmmm!
I love how you frosted these cupcakes! What kind of pastry tip did you use?
These were really good! Such a huge hit with my family!
wow these are so gourmet looking right out of a beautiful magazine very stunning and I am sure they taste as great as these look
These cupcakes are so pretty! Love that they are vegan too, pinned x
These are definitely my idea of cupcake heaven! They were so yummy that it was really hard to want to share.
These cupcakes look amazing. I never would’ve thought of using the beet puree for coloring. So healthy too!
Yassss it’s vegan! I eat plant-based, so I am super stoked to find your vegan recipe for red velvet cupcakes. I am not much of a baker, but I think I’ll learn for this recipe. 😉
Too perfect! Now I have something to make for my red velvet-loving vegan friends!