Rich vegan chocolate cupcakes with a purple lavender buttercream frosting. These delicate floral cakes would make an excellent Mother's Day treat or as part of an afternoon tea.
Firstly, please excuse my non-professional icing skills. It's never been my forte, I'm afraid but I promise it tastes really good!
That's the most important thing, right?
I've also tested her recipe using gluten-free flour and it works very well, I'm pleased to report.
So feel free to use equal amounts of gluten-free flour for these cupcakes if you wish to make them gluten-free.
The cupcakes are rich, despite the chocolate flavour coming from just cocoa powder alone, and fluffy yet gooey. Chocolate cupcake perfection!
You could even serve these as part of a vegan afternoon tea for your mum.
📖 Recipe
Vegan Chocolate Lavender Cupcakes
Delicate lavender paired with bitter-sweet chocolate makes for a dreamy flavour combination in these pretty vegan cupcakes. This recipe has been tested with gluten-free flour too, if you prefer to make them gluten-free.
Ingredients
For the chocolate cupcakes
- 175 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder + ½ tsp bicarbonate soda
- A pinch of salt
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 225 g light brown sugar
- 275 ml hot water
- 60 ml sunflower oil, or other mild-tasting vegetable oil
- 1 ½ tsp apple cider vinegar
For the lavender buttercream
- 1 tbsp dried lavender buds + extra for decoration
- 125 g good-tasting dairy-free butter
- 250 g confectioner's sugar
- A small amount of natural violet food dye, optional
Instructions
To make the buttercream frosting
- Heat 2 tbsp of the dairy-free butter in a small saucepan with the lavender buds. Strain and allow the butter to re-solidfy in the fridge or freezer.
- Once the butter has set again, mix it with the rest of the butter in a stand mixer along with the powdered sugar and a small amount of purple food dye until you have a thick, fluffy buttercream. Keep refrigerated until use.
To make the chocolate cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 180c. / 350f. and line a muffin tray with 12 cases.
- Mix the first five ingredients together until well combined.
- Stir in the remaining wet ingredients until the mixture is smooth and lump-free.
- Divide the mixture equally between the 12 muffin cases and bake for 15 minutes. Use a cake tester or skewer to test the middle of the cupcakes come out clean. If not, bake for a further 5 minutes.
- Leave to cool before frosting.
- Transfer the frosting to a icing bag and pipe on top of the cupcakes. Decorate with dried lavender buds and serve!
Kristine Beal says
I would like to see this in an all US Measurement as I want to make these but am struggling with the conversions.
Aimee says
Underneath the ingredient list you will see "Metric / US" - click the US button to convert the measurements. Hope you enjoy the cupcakes!
Nadine says
The button to convert isn't there. Are you able to provide the conversions?
ReD says
Hi, do you think I can use essential oil instead of dry lavender?
Your recipe is great by the way.
Kiran says
Hi - I have a 7yro bday party coming up for my daughter and am wondering if I can make these into a cake shape instead? She wants a 2 tier cake. Do you think the icing would hold in teh middle layer?
Tara Renner says
Hi, here are American conversions:
175 g = 3/4 C
50 g = 1/4 C
225 g = 1 C
275 ml = approx 1 C or 10 oz
60 ml = 2 oz
I did attempt this recipe this morning for an Easter dinner. I don't know what I did wrong, but I ended up with a bowl of chocolate soup. Way too much liquid for the dry ingredients. Any suggestions? I decided to go with a box mix as I was running short on time, but I did use the icing recipe. I would like to try this again though, it sounds so good.
paulina l says
is it 125g butter + 2 tablespoons of additional butter? or is it 2 tablespoons of butter out of the 125g of butter? i'm planning on making this for my birthday on friday. so any help would be great! its my first time making cupcakes from scratch. thank you!
Aimee says
no it's not additional, just 2 tbsp from the overall amount. good luck, let me know how they turn out!
paulina l says
Thank you Aimee!!!