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Indulge in these lovely strawberry-stuffed cupcakes. Made with fluffy, vegan vanilla cake and fresh strawberry filling, they’re easy, delicious, and dairy-free.

This recipe makes 12 strawberry vanilla cupcakes.

Table of Contents

(click the links below to skip to the section you’re looking for)

• Vegan Cupcakes
• Strawberry Filling
• Vegan Frosting Recipe
• Cupcake Decoration
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Video
• Nutritional Information
• Contact Me with Questions
• Similar Recipes

When I started blogging in 2010, I had a vegan cupcake blog called ieatcupcakes.com. All I ever posted about were cupcakes. So, I’m basically a cupcake expert, haha.

Ingredients you need for Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• 1 cup (234g) of non dairy milk
• 1 tablespoon (15g) apple cider vinegar
• 1 ½ cups (195g) unbleached, all-purpose flour
• ⅔ cup (150g) organic or vegan sugar
• ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
• 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
• 2 pinches of salt (optional)
• ⅓ cup (68g) safflower oil
• ½ tablespoon (6g) vanilla extract

How to make White Cupcakes

prep time: 10 min | bake time: 18 min

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC).

Line a cupcake or muffin pan with 12 paper liners.

Mix 1 tablespoon (15g) apple cider vinegar into 1 cup (234g) of non-dairy milk. Set it aside to thicken.

Sift and whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. They include 1 ½ cups (195g) flour, ⅔ cups (150g) organic or vegan sugar, ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda, 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder, and 2 pinches of (optional) salt.

Mix ⅓ (67g) safflower oil and ½ tablespoon (6g) vanilla extract into the bowl with the plant milk and vinegar.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl if there are spots that still look dry. Stop mixing the moment you stop seeing flour.

Scoop cupcake batter into the cubbies of the cupcake pans that you lined with cupcake papers. To make sure that you make all 12 cupcakes, only fill the cupcake papers about ⅔ of the way full. Then if you have any extra batter after all 12 are filled, you can add a little more to each one.

Bake the cupcakes on the rack that’s most in the middle of the oven. Set the timer for 18 minutes. While you wait for them to bake, start making your strawberry filling.

If you’re doubling this recipe, try to bake all 24 cupcakes on the same rack in the oven, if possible.

Check the cupcakes after 18 minutes using the toothpick test. Stick a (clean) toothpick inside the center of 1 or 2 of the cupcakes and if it comes out clean, they’re ready. If it has crumbs or batter on it, then set the timer for 3 more minutes and then check them again. Repeat this until the toothpick comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 10-15 minutes and then transfer each one to a cooling rack to cool completely. Make the frosting while they cool.

Ingredients for Easy Strawberry Filling

• 10 strawberries (around 1 pint)
• 1 teaspoon (6g) of organic or vegan sugar

How to make Fresh Strawberry Filling for Cupcakes

prep time: 15 minutes

Wash and dry 5 strawberries. If you’re making heart garnishes for the top like I did, save the prettiest strawberries for that and do those first.

Destem the strawberries, and chop them up.

Transfer them to a bowl.

Sprinkle a teaspoon (4g) of vegan sugar over them, and stir it all.

Chill in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble the cupcakes.

Fluffy Vegan Vanilla Frosting

prep time: 20 minutes

Follow the instructions for my vegan buttercream frosting recipe, but use only half the amount of ingredients and use only vanilla extract. If you don’t like math, I’ve done it for you below.

• ½ cup (88-114g) vegan butter or margarine
• ½ cup (100g) organic palm shortening
• 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
• 3 cups (360g) organic powdered sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons nondairy milk or creamer, room temp (optional)

If you prefer a low-sugar frosting, use the instructions for my ermine frosting that I used when I made my low-sugar cupcakes. Just omit the 3 ingredients that color the frosting.

Fill a piping bag fitted with your favorite tip with the frosting. My favorite tip is the 1M large open star tip.

Set aside until you’re ready to frost the cupcakes. (If you made ermine frosting, you might want to chill it so it doesn’t get too soft to pipe.)

How to Make Strawberry-Filled Cupcakes

assembly time: 10 minutes | decorating time: 10 minutes

Cut a hole in each cupcake. I use an apple corer to do this. If you don’t have a corer, use a filet knife or a paring knife. You want the strawberry filling to be right in the middle, so don’t press the corer all the way in. Halfway is good.

Remove the piece of cupcake you cut (if the corer didn’t already remove it).

Remove some of the cake from the piece that was removed.

Fill the cupcakes with a spoonful of the diced strawberries you made earlier.

Replace the piece of cupcake you removed back into position. If it’s sticking up, remove a little more of the cake from the bottom of it. It’s ok if there are gaps or if the piece of cupcake is sticking up a tiny bit, because the frosting will cover up any issues like that.

Pipe frosting on the top of each cupcake, taking care to hide the piece you cut out and put back in.

Chill the cupcakes in the fridge until you’re ready to serve them. You can also freeze them if you’re making these a day or 2 in advance.

Questions and Answers

Can I make them ahead of time and freeze them?

Since these are fresh strawberry filled cupcakes, I do not recommend making them ahead of time or else they might get soggy when you defrost them. Instead, make the vanilla cupcakes ahead of time, let them cool completely, wrap each one in cling wrap, transfer them all to a ziplock freezer bag and freeze them. and freeze those. Then you’ll have less work to do on the day you want to serve them. These cupcakes are best eaten fresh and not stored.

Can I make these cupcakes with a fruit filling other than strawberries?

This recipe can easily be converted to a peach-filled, raspberry-filled, or pineapple-filled cupcake recipe. Follow the same instructions using any fruit of your choice. I would avoid fruit that browns when it touches air like bananas, apples, and pears.

Would strawberry filled cupcakes be good for a children’s birthday party?

From my own experience, children LOVE strawberries, so I think these would be great for kiddos. However, you might want to consider decorating them in a more kid-friendly way like these cute pig cupcakes I decorated when I made these for a bakesale.

Ingredient Substitutions

For the frosting ingredients substitutions, see that frosting recipe.

• Nondairy Milk: Since you can’t taste the milk in this recipe, I buy 365 brand soymilk or almond milk from Whole Foods because it’s organic and cheap. Another resource for inexpensive plant-based milk is Grocery Outlet. I personally think that soy milk is the best milk to use for baking. Something about the protein content in it really works well with the chemistry. But that said, I’ve used every plant milk you can think of, and they all work fine.
• Apple Cider Vinegar: If you don’t have this, you can replace it with a tablespoon of distilled white vinegar, lemon juice, or lime juice. You just need some sort of acid to interact with the baking soda.
• Flour: I always use unbleached, organic, all-purpose flour because it’s super cheap at Costco. However, you can replace it with almost any flour you have at home. To make these cupcakes gluten-free, use a gluten-free flour blend.
• Vegan Sugar: I use organic sugar because it’s super cheap at Costco and fairly light in color. For the sugar in this recipe, you can use any number of sugars, as long as they’re vegan: sucanat, coconut sugar, raw sugar, organic sugar, or demurara. If you’re not sure if your sugar is vegan, you can contact the company and ask, but basically, just avoid conventional white sugar or granulated sugar, and you should be ok.
• Baking Soda: Out of baking soda? Replace the ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda with an extra ½ tablespoon (7g) baking powder.
• Baking Powder: I use the non-aluminum baking powder, because I need all the brain cells I have left. Out of baking powder? Replace the teaspoon (5g) baking powder in this recipe with an extra quarter teaspoon (1-2g) baking soda.
• Safflower Oil: I recommend using safflower, sunflower, avocado, or coconut oil for baking cakes because those oils are made for high heat. However, you can use any other oil such as vegetable oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, etc. People even make cakes with olive oil, but I don’t recommend it.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla flavoring, vanilla extract, and vanilla powder can be used interchangeably. Just make sure you add powdered vanilla with the dry ingredients and vanilla extract or flavor with the wet ingredients. It’s important to keep the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separate until the very last minute. As soon as they touch, the rising agents will activate, and you want that rising action to happen in the oven.
• Strawberries: The strawberries aren’t really replaceable if you want strawberry filled cupcakes. You could fill the cupcakes with strawberry jam instead, but then you wouldn’t have the pretty strawberry heart garnish on top.

Video

Nutrition Facts

This nutritional information is for one strawberry-filled vanilla cupcake with piped vanilla frosting and a strawberry slice garnish. The piggie cupcakes will have different nutritional information since they have less frosting.

• Servings: 12
• Calories: 417
• Fiber: < 1g
• Saturated fat: 4g
• Total fat: 21g
• Cholesterol: 0mg
• Sodium: 159mg
• Sugars: 43g
• Total Carbohydrates: 56g
• Protein: 2g
• Calcium: 45mg
• Potassium: 64mg
• Iron: 1mg

Comments or Questions about this Strawberry Filled Cupcakes Recipe?

If you make this recipe for vanilla cupcakes with strawberry filling, I would love it if you’d snap a pic, post to instagram, and tag me @vegandollhouse. It seriously makes my day/week/month!

Please message me (instagram or email) if you have any questions or feedback about the recipe.

Similar Recipes

If you like strawberries, you might also like my strawberry shortcake parfaits and my vegan strawberry ice cream. Both recipes use fresh strawberries, like this one.

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I use mostly organic ingredients when I cook. I realize that not everyone has the disposable income to buy only organic ingredients. So, I only specify organic on the ingredients that matter: when buying the organic version is the only way to ensure that an item is vegan.

This post links to items I used when I made this recipe. If you click on the purple Buy Now button on a product page, you will go to a website (like Amazon) where you can buy the same product I used. Sometimes, the store you purchase from (Amazon, Etsy, etc.) will pay me for referring you. This costs you nothing extra, and I would never recommend a product that I don’t use. These affiliate programs help me buy the ingredients to create these recipes for you. Read more about this in my privacy policy.

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