Dairy Free Cupcakes

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Birthdays and special treats like cupcakes should be something everyone enjoys, this is why I have created these dairy-free cupcakes, but not just dairy-free, these cupcakes are egg-free, wheat and gluten-free, and nut-free as well. Making them absolutely perfect for birthday parties where there may be children with food allergies.

Dairy Free Cupcakes decorated with vegan buttercream and a flour in a white cupcake stand.

Why This Recipe Works

  • These vegan cupcakes are free from the most common allergens: Dairy, Wheat, Gluten, Egg, Nuts oh and fish and seafood as well,
  • Made from pantry basics (other than the gluten-free flour)
  • An easy recipe to make, no cake mixers or electric beaters required.

Ingredients you will need

These gluten free dairy free cupcakes are made with 8 ingredients. You will need: dairy free gluten free flour, dairy free milk, apple sauce, caster sugar, oil, baking powder, vanilla and a pinch of salt.

ingredients for dairy free cupcakes laid out on a bench with text over lay

Ingredients Substitutions and Notes

  • Oil: You need mild flavoured oil, I like to use a light olive oil
  • GF Flour: If you do not need these cupcakes to be gluten-free you can sub the gf flour for plain flour
  • Caster Sugar: I tested this recipe a number of times, i found the result was much better with caster sugar than regular sugar, particularly if you are using a gluten-free flour
  • Apple Sauce I like to look for a no-added-sugar apple sauce, in this recipe the apple sauce acts as a binder so that egg is not required.
  • Dairy-Free Milk: This recipe will work with all milk alternatives, Soy, Almond, Rice, Hemp

I am an ambassador for Countdown supermarket, they support my blog by providing ingredients for recipe creation and testing. I used caster sugar, olive oil, apple sauce, and almond milk from their range in this recipe.


Step by step instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius, (make sure to reduce the temp to 160 degrees celsius if you have a fan forced oven)
  • Pop 12 cupcake liners into a 12 cup tray. I find it best to spray the muffin liners with oil for this recipe, the apple sauce makes the batter a little stickier than a traditional cupcake batter but with the spray of olive oil the cupcake liner peels off the cooked cupcake really easily.
  • In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients
  • In a medium bowl whisk together the wet ingredients
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together until combined try not to over mix the batter
  • Portion into the cupcake liners, don't over fill, you want cupcakes to be a little lower in height than say a muffin, depending on your cupcake size you may get up to 15 cupcakes from the batter
  • Bake for 25 mins, they are cooked when they are lightly golden and when you press the centre of the cupcake it springs back.
  • Cool and then ice, my vegan strawberry frosting is perfect with these cupcakes
6 photo collage of the process steps for making dairy free cupcakes

Despite being free from eggs, and gluten the texture of these dairy-free cupcakes is really good and very cupcake-like.

dairy free cupcake cut in half to show the texture

Top Tips

These are my tricks for making gluten-free dairy-free cupcakes perfectly every time

  • Make sure you spray the cupcake liners with a little oil, this will mean the liners will peel off easily when the cupcakes are cooked, making for easy eating and no cupcake left stuck to the liner
  • Make sure you use a mild flavoured oil, a strong flavoured oil such as extra virgin olive oil will overpower the cupcakes
  • Caster sugar gives a much better result in this recipe than regular granulated sugar

FAQs

How to make dairy-free cupcakes

To make a cupcake recipe dairy-free you can substitute milk for a dairy-free milk alternative. If the recipe calls for butter and sugar to be creamed, you can substitute the butter for full-fat dairy margarine. If the cupcake recipe calls for melted butter you can substitute the butter for a mild flavoured oil

How to make egg-free cupcakes

Apple sauce can make a great substitute for eggs in baking recipes. The naturally occurring pectin in apple sauce acts as a binder. Substitute ¼ cup of apple sauce for 1 egg.

How to make gluten-free cupcakes

To make a gluten-free cupcake you will need to use a gluten free flour. Typically a gluten free flour that is a mixture of flour types works best. If you are substituting gluten free flour for plain flour in a recipe sometimes you need a little less. ie 2 cups of plain flour may only need 1 and ¾ cups of gluten free flour.


Other Recipes You Might Like

If you need recipes that are free from gluten, dairy and egg my vegan chocolate chip cookies could be perfect.

Or if you would prefer a more traditional cupcake recipe my vanilla cupcakes are really easy.

dairy free cupcakes topped with vegan butter cream and a flower sitting on a pink plate
My dairy free cupcakes topped with my vegan strawberry butter cream!

If you made my dairy free cupcakes  or any other recipes on the blog please :

  • leave me a comment and a star rating below to let me know how you got on, I love hearing from you.
  •  FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK,  INSTAGRAM,  PINTEREST to see more kid-friendly food and what I’m getting up to.
dairy free cupcakes frosted with pink icing and a flower in a white cupcake holder

Dairy Free Cupcakes

These dairy free cupcakes are more than just free from dairy they are vegan and gluten-free as well, making them perfect for children with allergies
Print Pin Rate
Course: Baking
Cuisine: American
Keyword: dairy free cupcakes, vegan cupcakes, gluten free vegan cupcakes,
Servings: 12 cupcakes
Calories: 155kcal

RATE THIS RECIPE

4.72 from 45 votes

Equipment

  • 2 bowls
  • Whisk

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

  • 1 ¾ Cups gluten free flour 230g
  • ¾ Cup caster Sugar 150g
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 pinch salt

Wet Ingredients

  • ¾ Cup milk alternative 150g, Soy, rice, almond,
  • ¼ Cup oil 55g mild flavoured oil
  • ¼ Cup apple sauce 75g
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius, (make sure to reduce the temp to 160 degrees celsius if you have a fan forced oven)
  • Pop 12 cupcake liners into a 12 cup tray. I find it best to spray the muffin liners with oil for this recipe, the apple sauce makes the batter a little stickier than a traditional cupcake batter but with the spray of olive oil the cupcake liner peels off the cooked cupcake really easily.
  • In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.
  • In a medium bowl whisk together the wet ingredients.
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together until combined. Try not to over mix the batter
  • Portion into the cupcake liners, don't over fill (three quaters full is perfect) , you want cupcakes to be a little lower in height than say a muffin, depending on your cupcake size you may get up to 15 cupcakes from the batter
  • Bake for 25 mins, the cupcakes are cooked when they are lightly golden and when you press the centre of the cupcake it springs back.
  • Cool on a rack and then decorate if desired. My vegan strawberry frosting is perfect with these cupcakes

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 17g | Calories: 155kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 94mg | Potassium: 4mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 14g | Calcium: 70mg | Iron: 1mg

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