Gorgeous vegan peppermint cupcakes with a pink swirl peppermint frosting! Moist, light and fluffy and loaded with peppermint flavor.
I’m pretty pleased with myself I must admit. I reckon I really knocked it out of the park with this pink swirl in the peppermint frosting, don’t you think?
These vegan peppermint cupcakes are perfect for Christmas baking. They are light and fluffy with a delicious peppermint flavor, and they’re so easy to make too.
The recipe is a simple adaptation from my vegan vanilla cupcakes – a winning recipe if there ever was one!
And if you love peppermint then you’ll also love our vegan peppermint bark and vegan peppermint fudge.
How To Make Vegan Peppermint Cupcakes
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Add soy milk, vanilla extract, peppermint extract, oil and vinegar and mix into a batter. Don’t over-mix.
- Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners and divide the batter evenly between them.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Transfer the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
The Frosting
The pink swirl in the vegan peppermint frosting is actually too easy. All you have to do is separate your frosting into two bowls and then add a couple of drops of pink (or red) food color to the one bowl and mix it in, so you have a bowl of pink and a bowl of white.
Now you just put roughly equal amounts of each into your piping bag and then just go for it! Every cupcake will have a slightly different amount of each color but the swirl will be there.
You can either put in the white frosting into your piping bag first and then just add the alternate color into the middle. Or you can place half the color on one side and then half the color on the other side. It’s not perfect (pretty messy in fact) but it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t need to be perfectly lined up to come out with a nice swirl.
And then top with some crushed peppermint candy canes for the perfect peppermint topping!
Storing and Freezing
Keep them covered at room temperature and they’ll stay wonderfully fresh for a few days, or keep them covered in the fridge if you need them to stay fresh longer, in the fridge they’ll stay good for up to a week!
You can also freeze them either frosted or unfrosted for up to 3 months.
More Delicious Vegan Cupcakes
- Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Vegan Oreo Cupcakes
- Vegan Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes
- Vegan Lemon Cupcakes
- Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Peppermint Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Peppermint Cupcakes:
- 1 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour (220g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 cup Soy Milk (240ml) or Almond Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Peppermint Extract
- ⅓ cup Canola Oil (80ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
For the Pink Swirl Peppermint Frosting:
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 3 cups Powdered Sugar (360g)
- ½ tsp Peppermint Extract
- 2 Tbsp Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
- 2-3 Drops Pink Food Coloring or Red food coloring
For Topping:
- Peppermint Candy Canes Crushed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt.
- Then add the soy milk, vanilla, peppermint, oil and vinegar and using a hand whisk, whisk it up briefly to remove any big lumps (tiny lumps are fine!). Don't overmix.
- Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners and divide the batter evenly between them.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Transfer the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Add the vegan butter, powdered sugar, peppermint extract and soy milk to the bowl of an electric mixer and beginning on low speed, gradually increase speed until the frosting is thick and smooth.
- Divide the frosting into two bowls. Add a few drops of pink or red food coloring to one of the bowls and mix it in to get a nice pink color.
- Then add roughly equal amounts of each color frosting on either side of a piping bag or syringe and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, getting the pink swirl.
- Top with crushed candy canes.
Notes
- Keep them covered at room temperature and they’ll stay wonderfully fresh for a few days, or keep them covered in the fridge if you need them to stay fresh longer, in the fridge they’ll stay good for up to a week!
- They are freezer friendly (frosted or unfrosted) for up to 3 months.
- Nutritional information includes frosting.
Peppermint always takes me back to being a kid and having peppermint mice at the Christmas fair in school so having to make something to take to work I made this as a 3 cake penguin playground and used blue food colouring instead of pink for ice/snow. It is absolutely delicious but took forever to bake (I ended up having to do 45 minutes a cake) so will definitely keep it to cupcakes in future 🙂
I made this cupcakes today. Everyone who had one loved them. Thanks for sharing your recipes.
Wonderful! Thanks for the great review Pauline! 🙂
Question: What is the best way to store these cupcakes? I also saw that there is no flax egg in these. Is that correct?
Hi Pauline, yes it’s correct there is no flax egg needed in these cupcakes. Store them covered at room temperature where they will stay good for a few days or in the fridge, also covered, where they will stay fresh for up to a week.
What recipe size alterations/baking time alterations would you suggest for making this into a two layer round cake? Thank you!
Hi there! This recipe will adapt to two 7″ round cake tins exactly as is just increase the baking time to 30 minutes. If you want to make it for 8″ cake pans it would be 1 and 1/2 times the recipe, just be careful with the calculations! You could double it for 9″. 🙂
Thank you so much! I just love all your recipes; I make them all the time, and I’m always so excited when you post new things! Thank you for being an awesome vegan baker/cook and sharing your wonderful recipes!
Thanks so much for your kind words Vivi! So happy you enjoy the recipes. 🙂
What do you use for vegan butter? Is it like a margarine?
Yes, it’s margarine basically, you get vegan made buttery spreads like Earth Balance (US) and Nuttelex (Australian), other countries may not have a vegan made product but usually will still have a dairy-free margarine that is good for baking so it depends where you are. You can make your own vegan butter that tastes divine and works great in baking.
Thanks- I made one of your recipes before and the vegan butter I used was so oily so I think I need to explore other options!
Very festive looking but mostly delicious!