If you’ve been reading my blog from the very beginning, you’ll notice I already made some ube cupcakes—but it’s been more than 5 years. While the last batch was good, the recipe I’ll be sharing today is even better.
Your first question may be: “What is ube?” Ube is a purple yam that has a slightly sweet and unique flavor. It’s very popular in the Philippines and is used in various desserts, the most prominent of which is halo halo.
People sometimes confuse ube and taro because they’re both purple, but the biggest difference is that ube is a yam whereas taro is a root vegetable.
This year, for Davis’ birthday, he requested ube cupcakes as his gift. I was pretty surprised because he typically requests something chocolaty—hence all the chocolate posts on my blog ;). Now that Davis is vegan, I knew I couldn’t use the same recipe as last time since it required eggs and butter. For me, that wasn’t a problem since almost all of the desserts I make are vegan anyways.
Without further ado, here is the vegan ube cupcake recipe!
Recipe below:
- 3.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1.5 cups non-dairy milk, unsweetened I used unsweetened soy milk
- 1 cup vegan butter I use Earth Balance sticks
- 4 Tbs orange juice
- 3 Tbs baking powder + 1tsp
- 2 Tbs white distilled vinegar
- 1 Tbs ube extract Available at your local Asian market/grocer
- 2 tsp agave nectar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- Preheat oven to 325F degrees and prep two muffin pans with cupcake liners.
- Using a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Slowly add in the ube extract and agave nectar. The sugar and butter mixture should be a deep purple color. Scrap down the sides and continue to mix.
- Combine non-dairy milk, orange juice, and vinegar.
- Alternate the wet and dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture until everything is well combined. Careful not to overmix.
- Using a 1/3 measuring cup, pour batter in to prepped muffin tins.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes (test by inserting a toothpick and if it comes out dry, it's done).
- Allow to cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting recipe:
You can make whatever frosting you like, but I just made a simple vanilla buttercream.
1 cup vegan butter, softened (again, I used Earth Balance sticks)
2.5 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth. Carefully add in powdered sugar, vanilla extract and pinch of salt. Beat on medium high for 5 minutes.
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