You guys, these vegan cupcakes are some of THE BEST cupcakes I’ve ever had! Not only is the chocolate cake so amazingly moist, but it's filled with coconut salted caramel sauce and topped with silky salted caramel buttercream. OH MY GOODNESS!
Are you drooling yet? I sure am! They’re perfect for birthdays, parties, or you know, anytime you're craving chocolate cake, which happens to be pretty much every day for me.
How to make vegan salted caramel chocolate cupcakes
When developing these vegan cupcakes, I used my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe as the base. I've taken out the egg and replaced it with a flax egg - a combination of ground flaxseed and water. I've also taken out the sour cream and milk and replaced them with Chef's Choice coconut milk and some vinegar to add acidity to react with the baking soda.
To make vegan chocolate cupcakes, sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, instant espresso, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Mix in the flax egg, coconut milk, coconut oil, vinegar, and vanilla extract. Dish the batter out into a muffin tin lined with paper liners and bake them for about 20 minutes.
After the chocolate cupcakes cool completely, I cored out the center using a piping tip - a secret chamber for the salted caramel! You could also use an apple corer or a pairing knife to core out the cupcakes. If you have absolutely nothing to core it out with, you could poke a hole using a chopstick, wiggle it around, and inject the caramel through a piping bag.
Traditional caramel vs vegan caramel
Traditionally, caramel is a combination of butter, sugar, and heavy cream. On the other hand, there's a variety of vegan caramel recipes out there. Some use coconut milk, others use puréed dates.
The one I used for my vegan salted caramel chocolate cupcakes recipe is a mixture of coconut milk, cane sugar, coconut sugar, and sea salt.
I haven't had many vegan caramel sauces, but this salted caramel sauce by Nature's Charm is by far my favorite caramel sauces ever! As in favorite of all caramel sauces, both vegan and traditional. College me would've eaten the whole jar with a spoon in one sitting! Probably accompanied by a batch of warm brownies and a tub of vanilla ice cream.
How to make vegan salted caramel buttercream
How to make buttercream without butter? Vegan butter!
Vegan butter is hard to come by in Japan. My local store has margarine, but none are dairy-free. So whenever I need vegan butter for a recipe, like my vegan chocolate banana cupcakes, I like to make my own cultured European style vegan butter.
The texture of the vegan buttercream is silky, and pipes beautifully, as you can see! And I think it goes without saying that adding salted caramel to buttercream makes it irresistible.
These vegan chocolate cupcakes are truly one of the best cupcakes I've had! The cake is super moist, the salted caramel buttercream is so silky, and the salted caramel oozes out when you bite into it... How can anyone resist these cupcakes?!
They would be perfect for any occasion so get in your kitchen and make a batch!
Craving more coconut? Try my vegan cream stew! It's so hearty and full of coconut milk.
Want more desserts? Check out this list of gluten-free dairy-free desserts - there's vegan recipes in there too!
Vegan Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
Chocolate cupcakes
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 1½ cups (180g) cake flour*
- ¼ cup (32.5g) all-purpose flour*
- ⅔ cup (56g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons (2g) instant espresso powder
- 2 teaspoons (12g) baking soda
- 1 teaspoon (4g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (4g) fine salt
- 1 can (400ml) Chef's Choice coconut milk
- 5 tablespoons (75ml) water
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) ground flaxseed
- ½ cup (120ml) refined coconut oil, melted
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) vinegar
- 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
Filling
- ¼ jar (100g) Nature's Charm Coconut Salted Caramel Sauce
Salted caramel buttercream
- 1 cup (225g) unsalted vegan butter
- 1½ cup (188g) powdered sugar
- ½ jar (200g) Nature's Charm Coconut Salted Caramel Sauce
Topping
- ¼ jar (100g) Nature's Charm Coconut Salted Caramel Sauce
Instructions
Chocolate cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 338°F/170°C, and line a cupcake pan with paper liners and set aside.
- Mix together the water and ground flaxseed in a small bowl or dish and set aside to let it thicken.
- In a large bowl, sift together the sugar, cake flour, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, instant espresso, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the coconut milk, thickened flaxseed mixture, coconut oil, vinegar, and vanilla to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Separate the batter into 24 paper liners (each cupcake will have about 8 teaspoons/40ml of batter) and bake in the preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes. If you stick a toothpick in the center of a cupcake and it comes out clean, they're ready to come out of the oven. Let them cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before taking them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Filling
- Core out each cupcake using a large piping tip, apple corer, or a pairing knife. Fill the holes with salted caramel sauce.
Salted caramel buttercream
- Beat the vegan butter using an electric mixer for 3-5 minutes until it's fluffy. Add the powdered sugar little by little, beating after each addition. Beat in the salted caramel sauce until smooth.
- Put the buttercream frosting into a piping bag and pipe onto each cooled cupcake.
Topping
- Drizzle each cupcake with some salted caramel sauce.
Notes
Disclosure – Thank you to Nature’s Charm for sponsoring this post! It’s a delight to be working for people and a business I find inspiring. I love the values the company is built on, and am proud to be collaborating with them!
Anindya Sundar Basu says
salted caramel is my favourite flavour and can have it in any form. will love to try this
Ai says
Salted caramel is amazing, isn't it? One of my favorites too 🙂
Angela says
Just beautiful looking, I would be afraid to eat it. Who am I kidding, salted caramel has no chance against me - yum!
Ai says
Thanks Angela! I couldn't stop myself once I started eating haha
Erika says
These cupcakes look so moist and delicious. I will have to try them. 🙂
Ai says
Thanks Erika! Hope you like them 🙂
Natasha McCracken says
Oh my! I absolutely love salted caramel...everything! These cupcakes look divine! Can't wait to try out this recipe for my next potluck!
Ai says
Thanks Natasha! I hope you and your potluck friends like them!!
Harriet says
I would love to make your cupcakes. Could you suggest an alternative to coconut oil, because I don’t like the taste of it.
Ai says
Hi Harriet! I list refined coconut oil which doesn't have the coconut flavor or scent. It's different from extra virgin coconut oil which smells and tastes very much like coconut, which I think is what you don't like. If you can't find refined coconut oil, I'd go with another neutral oil like grapeseed oil. Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Shari Eckstrom says
Beautiful pics. Now I just need to figure out how to make these keto. 🙂 They look amazing.
Ai says
Thanks Shari! I know next to nothing about keto.. is it possible to make a keto cupcake?
Beth says
This is such a creative and clever idea, plus your piping looks so even and professional! I suppose I will have to make several batches just for me, just to practice ... hee, hee. Do you have a suggestion for a gluten-free flour that might work for these?
Ai says
Thanks so much Beth! I haven't tried making these gluten-free, but I generally use the 1 to 1 GF flour blend by Bob's Red Mill when I make gluten free desserts. Let me know if you try them out!
Patrice says
These look lovely and would be great when my vegan family members come to visit. Your detailed description was making me hungry!
Ai says
Thanks Patrice!
Kat (The Baking Explorer) says
They look absoutely divine!
Ai says
They really were!
Nart | Cooking with Nart says
These look so good! I could do with a few now!
Angela Greven | Mean Green Chef says
Chocolate and caramel for the win! Picture perfect cupcakes and I love the use of coconut oil it's such a healthy alternative. Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Ai says
Thank you Angela! I always use oil in my chocolate cakes, but decided to go with coconut oil since I used coconut milk and coconut caramel 🙂
Sonila says
Salted caramel, salted caramel, salted caramel....i can dream saying these words:). It just makes me smile!! Yumm! You really make amazing cupcakes!
Ai says
Thank you so much Sonila❤️
Lathiya says
The cupcakes looks fabulous. With the caramel filling and that vegan buttercream is indeed amazing.
Ai says
Thank you Lathiya!
Ana says
Do you have any recommendations for using this recipe for a cake instead of cupcakes (baking time, how many cake layers one batch would make?)? Thanks!
Ai says
Hi Ana! Good question. I've never tried making these cupcakes as a whole cake, but if I had to guess, I'd say it would make two 8 or 9-inch cakes baked at the same temperature for about 30-35 minutes. Let me know how it turns out! Fingers crossed for you!! 😉
Amy says
The taste was wonderful but my cupcakes sunk in the middle, like little concave bowls. I wonder what I did wrong?
Ai says
Hi Amy! Sorry the cupcakes sank😕 Cupcakes can sink for a few reasons: if the recipe contains too much sugar, if you've overmixed the batter, or if your oven temperature isn't high enough. The cupcakes rose to a flat surface for me so I would rule out the first possible reason. You could have overmixed the batter, which adds too much air into the cupcakes causing them to puff up and sink like a souffle. Or, your oven may run a little on the cool side. All ovens run differently, even with the temperature set to the temperature the recipe calls for. My new oven ran 25°F cooler so I needed to calibrate it so it runs properly🥲 I hope this helps!🤞🏻 Feel free to comment or email me if you have any other questions! Thank you so much for trying my recipe and leaving me a comment and rating! I truly appreciate it🙏🏼❤️
Viviane says
Hi Amy, I was reading this recipe because I would very much like to try it! The sugar / flour ratio as currently written in the recipe is very high. I tried an online recipe with similar ratio in the past and had the same experience with sinking middle... I added a comment to that effect and to the 8 teaspoons batter in each cup, which seems very little. I think there might be typos in the recipe. I was reading through the comments to find out more but you are the only one who tried it and left a comment. I'm going to wait for corrections before making this.
Ai Willis says
I've replied to your other comment, Viviane😊
Viviane says
I'm not rating this recipe as I have yet to try it. It looks fabulous but a couple things jump at me when I read it. Your Sugar to flour ratio is so high, that does not sound like a normal ratio to me. Typically the sugar / flour ratio should be 1:1 or a little less sugar. In this recipe, the sugar to flour ratio is 1:0.53!! If you add the cocoa powder to the flour you still get a high ratio of sugar to 'four', 1:0.67.
The other red flag is the amount of batter you instruct to put in the cups, 8 teaspoons! That's about 1/8 cups and would barely fill up the bottom. Could you please check the text and make sure there aren't any mistakes or typos? I'm not comfortable going through with this recipe as is, even is it looks incredible on the picture! Thank you 🙂
Ai Willis says
Hi Viviane. Thank you for your comment! The recipe is correct. Yes, if you calculate the ratio by weight, it is 1:0.53, or 1:0.67 with cocoa. However, by volume, it's 1:0.875 or 1:1.21 with cocoa. If baked properly, these cupcakes will have a flat top, making it easier (in my opinion) to decorate. Feel free to experiment with the ratio if the recipe written as is makes you feel uncomfortable. I also have a vegan chocolate banana cupcake recipe, or, if you don't need it to be vegan, this moist chocolate cupcake recipe that you might want to try instead. Happy Baking!
Viviane says
Thank you so much! I can't wait to try and will let you know how it goes!
Ai Willis says
Fingers crossed they turn out without sinking! Please keep me updated. If they sink, I will remake them and troubleshoot.
Val says
I just made the frosting and the taste is amazing! However, it was a bit soft even after putting it in the fridge for 10 minutes. You can pipe basic swirls but my rosettes fell apart. I will make this again and maybe use less caramel to see if the consistency is firmer.
Ai Willis says
Hi Val! You may have added too much caramel. If you do try it with less caramel, I'd love to know how they turned out!