Valentine’s Day Cupcakes with Strawberry Icing, Vegan + Gluten-Free
Valentine’s Day is a holiday of many treats. Last year I shared sweet and savory breakfast of PB Pancake Heart Sandwiches. This year I decided to make a classic treat- Vegan, Gluten-Free Valentine’s Day Cupcakes with Strawberry Icing.
The cupcakes are super simple to make. I added cocoa powder to half the batter to make some of the cupcakes chocolate, and both flavors were the perfect base for strawberry icing.
As regular readers of the blog know, I usually don’t use refined sugar in my recipes. I’m happy to use maple syrup, agave, etc. at home and only indulge in refined-sugar filled goodies if I’m out at restaurant that happens to have vegan treats (and yes, I do always end up in a sugar coma afterwards). Today’s cupcakes are sweetened with coconut palm sugar (less sugar “buzz” then refined sugar) but the icing is totally sugar-y. If you’re looking for a less sugar-filled icing I highly recommend using the coconut whipped cream from this recipe and adding a little maple syrup and frozen strawberries.
For those of you looking to get your sugar on, here’s the strawberry icing recipe:
- 1.5 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)
- optional- 1-2 tbs non-dairy milk, added as needed to help blend
- 5-8 frozen strawberries
- Combine powdered sugar and butter together in blender until completely smooth. Add milk as needed if blending is difficult.
- Blend in strawberries until desired pink color is reached. Transfer to bowl and let sit in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before using.
- 1½ cups all purpose gluten-free flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- dash of salt
- ⅔ cup coconut palm sugar
- 1 small banana, mashed
- ¼ cup + 2 tbs coconut oil, softened
- ¼ cup + 2 tbs applesauce
- ¼ cup + 2 tbs non-dairy milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- optional- cocoa powder
- Preheat oven to 325°. Line a mini muffin tin with baking cups.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a small bowl, stir together coconut sugar, banana, coconut oil, applesauce, milk and vanilla extract. Add contents of small bowl to large bowl and mix (by hand or with electric mixer) until smooth.
- For chocolate cupcakes, add cocoa powder as desired (I used about ½ cup for half the batter).
- Spoon batter into baking cups so they are about ¾ full. Bake for about 15-18 minutes, until edges are firm.
- Let cool completely before adding icing. Enjoy!
What beautiful little Valentine’s inspired cupcakes! Love that they are vegan and gluten free especially.
Just made these tastes great! Thank you for the recipe
Awesome!! So happy to hear you enjoyed the cupcakes! 🙂
I’m finding my icing is coming out runny. Any idea as to why? Or how to fix this?
Did you use milk to help it blend? A little too much milk could make it runny. Or perhaps letting it sit in the fridge for a little bit will help. Let me know how it goes!
I don’t have applesauce, could I use bananas instead and how much banana do I have to use?
Hm, I haven’t tried this recipe using bananas but I imagine it would work! Perhaps just one mashed banana? Let me know how it goes!
Are the frozen strawberries supposed to be thawed? I used them frozen but they stayed in chunks and would not blend to make the pink color.
What kind of blender do you have? I used them frozen but I should have mentioned that I used a high-power Vitamix and it might be difficult for lower power blenders!
Can you use fresh strawberries instead of frozen?
Using frozen strawberries helps the icing stay solid. I haven’t tried it with fresh, but I would recommend refrigerating the icing after you make it to firm it up before using it. Let me know how it goes!!
The bit in the comments about the vitamix is really annoying. I have one but made the frosting in my stand mixer like I would with normal buttercream and ended up with the nice non-buttercream sticking to the bowl and chunks of strawberry puree on top. I’ve finally got it to blend-ish on high speed but it looks nothing like the photos.
After lots of beating I have an ugly emulsion that looks like a broken buttercream.
That’s probably because it went in the stand mixer first. I always have success with this recipe in the blender!