Easy to make vegan strawberry cupcakes recipe with pistachios and a very simple pumpkin spice frosting. Its the perfect eggless dessert made in 30 minutes using cake mix.
Disclaimer – This post was originally sponsored by KitchenAid. All opinions are my own.
Once in a while, I take a shortcut during the cooking / baking process
Once in a while, its okay to take a shortcut, right?
Once in a while, its okay if you use a shortcut to bake a beautiful piece of cupcake.
I am always hard on myself and insist I make everything from scratch.
Food tastes better to me when its made from scratch. I can taste every ingredient in it.
But, I have come to discover that I haven’t been blessed with the baking genes. So, I take shortcuts
This time, I bought made strawberry cake mix and added my own flair to it.
The Results?
Well, judge for yourself….
I got lucky because I found a cake mix that had all vegan ingredients. To it, I added finely crushed pistachios and apple sauce.
That’s all! I didn’t have to try and figure out what kind of flour or non-dairy product to use in the cupcake. Can you believe how easy it is to make these drool-worthy vegan cupcakes?
Incidentally, I also made this easy strawberry cake using cake mix and it came out so good!
The applesauce made the cupcakes very moist. There is a slight nuttiness to them because of the pistachios which made it a perfect taste match to the pumpkin spice frosting!
You can also choose to add aquafaba which is the vegan answer to eggs.
If you want to make these cupcakes for Valentine’s day, switch the frosting to a strawberry or vanilla frosting. You can even try it with a chocolate or buttercream frosting.
My frosting skills not withstanding, I have to say that these strawberry cupcake tasted so gooooood. I used my homemade vegan buttercream frosting to decorate these cupcakes.
In some of the cupcakes, I added finely diced strawberries just to experiment. Oh my! Can I just tell you how amazing they tasted!! I couldn’t get over how delicious the artificial strawberry flavor played with the real strawberries! So, if you have fresh strawberries lying around, I suggest you try adding them to the cupcakes. You will not regret it.
These vegan strawberry cupcakes were so delicious that I didn’t even wait to do the frosting on them. I ate them right out of the oven and even burnt my mouth as I devoured them.
What is your idea of THE perfect cupcake?
Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes using Cake Mix
Ingredients
For The Strawberry Cupcakes
- 2 cups strawberry cake mix
- ½ cup pistachios unsalted, finely ground
- ½ cup apple sauce
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup water + 2 Tbsp more
- 1 tsp maple syrup
For The Frosting
- 1 cup confectioners sugar I used vegan sugar
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 2 drops vanilla essence
- 1 Tbsp almond milk
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice
- 2 strawberries finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place cake mix in a bowl and add the pistachios
- Add the apple sauce (or aquafaba), vegetable oil and water. If it feels too dry, add 2 Tbsp of water
- Add maple syrup and mix everything
- Line cupcake tray with cupcake liners. This will make about 20 cupcakes
- Fill up the cupcakes liners with the strawberry mixture. I filled up about half way
- Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until they past the knife test
- Remove from the oven and let them cool
- While the cupcakes are in the oven, prepare the frosting.
- I used my vegan buttercream frosting recipe. Instead of the food coloring, I put 2 tsp of pumpkin spice
- Only frost these strawberry cupcakes when you are ready to serve
Oh girl, I am 100% with you on the lack of baking skills and in particular, my decorating skills. I can’t use a pastry bag to save my life. Love what did with a mix. And more importantly, what a fantastic cause. I’d get in the kitchen to bake and brave the pastry bag to help find a cure for cancer.
Thank you, Michelle. So happy to hear that. It is a great cause and I am glad to be helping it in my very small way. Can’t wait to see your cupcake recipe.