The 👑 Queen 👑 of Vegan Cupcake Options:
The Sprinkles Vegan Red Velvet Cupcake

Of all the vegan cupcakes I have tried all over the country, my favorite comes not from a vegan bakery but Sprinkles–the world’s first cupcake bakery!

During a recent visit to a book store I perused their long-awaited cookbook, excited to see that my beloved vegan red velvet cupcake and vegan cream cheese frosting was in there!  And because I wasn’t about to buy the book for just one vegan recipe, I snuck a picture of the recipe with my phone. Slightly naughty, I know. But I’ll share it with you (below)–because I know you love that cupcake too.

So now I can trying making my favorite vegan cupcakes myself. But before I give the cupcake recipe a try, I first headed to the new Sprinkles window outside of New York’s Penn Station. I needed a few for comparison.

The window, next to Penn Station’s entrance on 7th avenue near 32nd street, only takes credit card, which you will have to carefully take out inside of your bag as there are always a slew of day mayors and creepsters preying about the station. And you’re basically on the street in a cupcake daze. 

Of course I intended to bring them home… but I ate one on the train. My gosh, they are good! Will mine be as good? Let’s find out! The recipe and my notes are below. 

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Sprinkles amazing vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes: 

Bowl 1: (medium) Dry stuff
1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Bowl 2: (small) Wet stuff
2/3 cup plain soy milk
1 and 1/2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon red gel food coloring

Bowl 3: Stand-up mixer bowl
2/3 coconut oil
1 and 1/4 cups coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1.) Preheat oven to 350 and get the pan filled with liners. Set up mixer with paddle attachment.
2.) Whisk dry stuff together in bowl and set aside.
3.) Mix all wet ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. [I used unsweetened soy milk though recipe called for sweetener soy milk. I used 1/2 teaspoon of red gel food coloring.]
4.) Beat the sugar and coconut oil in mixer medium-high until “light and fluffy,” about 2-3 minutes. [I wasn’t sure what consistency or temperature of coconut oil needed to go into mixer bowl so I opted for a half-melted. My mixture never really go light and fluffy, so perhaps it was solid.]
5.) Add the applesauce and beat medium-low until creamy, 1-2 minutes.
6.) Slowly add half the flour mixture, beating until just blended.
7.) Add the soy milk mixture, beating until just blended.
8.) Add the remaining flour, beating until just blended.
9.) Divide evenly in cupcake pan. [My batter was pretty thick. I may have lost some of the soy milk mixture in a sloppy pour into the mixer.]
10.] Bake for 16-18 minutes until tops are just dry to the touch.

The Cream Cheese frosting:
8 oz container of vegan cream cheese
3 and 3/4 cups Confectionary sugar, sifted
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted but not warm
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 fine sea salt

1.) Beat vegan cream cheese in mixer with paddle attachment until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. [I was excited to try Kite Hill‘s cream cheese in this recipe and was very pleased with the outcome!]
2.) Reduce speed to low. Add 1 cup of confectionary sugar and mix till incorporated. Repeat until all sugar in incorporated.
3.) Slowly add liquid coconut oil; mix until creamy.
4.) Add vanilla & salt; increase speed to medium and mix until thoroughly blended, 1-2 minutes.

The batter. Very creamy and yummy, despite my adding the half-melted coconut oil in the beginning. It could have been a tad sweeter. Next time I will add a bit more sugar to make up for it that sweetened soy milk, though the recipe has almost a 1:1 ration of flour:sugar. That’s pretty high already. 

They looked beautiful, albeit a bit more like brown velvet give my reduction of gel food coloring.

And there they are. To the left, Sprinkles. To the right, the Vegan Victuals.

Ok, this is where the wine affected my picture taking abilities. The innards were quite similar. The Electrician did the taste taste and he believed them to taste very much alike, though he pointed out the loose-ness of my frosting. This may have been the result of using non-hydrogenated Tofutti-ish vegan cream cheese. 

I must say that the frosting was absolutely amazing. A wonderful tang. I will use it again, no doubt.

Overall, this was a good first try at this recipe. I will try it again soon with some small tweaks. Thank you, Sprinkles, for an amazing vegan option and for sharing the recipe of that amazing vegan option.