As Thanksgiving approaches, I know all of you -- vegan or not-- are looking for great options to the same-old-same-old orange-colored dessert that typically graces your table. Well, I have one for you and every word of it is like a fresh, sweet, tropical kiss: Vegan Mango Cupcakes with Mango Buttercream Frosting.
Mmmm...As you already know, I love my vegan cupcakes, especially ultra-creamy, tender ones like these vegan vanilla cupcakes. After all, how can anyone not love portion-controlled indulgence?
And yes, I'll admit, these mango cupcakes are indulgent, and rich, although probably nowhere near as rich as a non-vegan version could be. Besides, all of us need a little indulgence every now and then, don't we? And what can be more comforting than a soft, fluffy cupcake covered with mounds of soft, fluffy frosting.
I use canned mango puree in these cupcakes because here in the United States, it's not easy for me to get my hands on the ultra-sweet and delicious Indian mangoes that these cupcakes so badly need. Try to use the puree of Alphonso mangoes (which is available at Indian stores) because this is by far the richest and most full-bodied and sweetest mango you'll ever taste, hands down. If you're lucky enough to live in India where mangoes are in season during the summer, use fresh mango puree by all means. Lucky you.
The mango buttercream for these vegan mango cupcakes is made with vegan butter (like Earth Balance) and shortening, with a dash of mango puree and trust me, one bite of this and you will feel like you've just died and gone to heaven. It's a beautiful, versatile icing and one that you can use to frost all kinds of cakes. You can leave out the frosting and still have a delicious cupcake, but why would you?
Here are the recipes for my Vegan Mango Cupcakes and Vegan Mango Buttercream Frosting. Enjoy, all!
Looking for more delicious mango recipes?
- Vegan Mango Cheesecake
- Vegan Mango Lassi
- Vegan Mango Bread
- Vegan Mango Curry
- Gluten Free Vegan Mango Waffles
Vegan Mango Cupcakes with Mango Buttercream Frosting recipe:
Mango Cupcakes With Mango Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
For the Mango Cupcakes:
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cardamom powder (use green cardamoms)
- 1 ½ cups mango puree
- ⅓ cup avocado oil or any neutral oil
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the Mango Buttercream Frosting:
- 16 tablespoon vegan butter (like Earth Balance, softened at room temperature)
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup mango puree
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Make Mango Cupcakes:
- Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Mix in the green cardamom powder.
- In another bowl, beat together until well-mixed the mango puree, oil, sugar and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a whisk just until you have a smooth batter. Do not overmix or overbeat.
- Divide the batter equally among 12 cups of a standard-sized muffin pan lined with cupcake liners. Smooth down the tops with the back of a spoon or spatula or you will have a lumpy top (it’ll still taste delicious, though 🙂 )
- Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven about 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Make Mango Buttercream Frosting:
- Cream the butter with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer, with the whisk attachment, until fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Now add the mango puree and vanilla and half the sugar. Beat until mixed, then add the remaining sugar and beat until mixed. This should take no more than 2 minutes altogether.
- Frost the cupcakes after they’ve cooled completely.
Jay
Hi Vaishali,
This is the first time I am visiting your blog and will be trying this recipe over the weekend. I want to make this as a sheet cake. What size pan should I use?
Thanks,
Jay
Vaishali
Hi Jay, Use a 9 by 12 rectangular pan, or two 9-inch cake pans. Good luck! 🙂
Jay
Hi Vaishali,
The cake turned out really well!!! Since I am not a baker in any sense, I was not sure of the end result, but there are only 4 and a half pieces left!
Thank you for the wonderful post.
Jay
Vaishali
Jay, that's really lovely. Thanks for letting me know, and so happy you enjoyed the cake. 🙂
Debbie Mallernee
Vaishali, I wonder if I could replace the canola oil with coconut oil, what do you think? These look absolutely delicious!
Vaishali
Yes, you absolutely can replace with coconut oil. Happy baking!
abc
Dear Vaishali,
We had Indian Style Thanksgiving dinner at my friend's place. It was a potluck. I took your Vegan Mango Cake and Badam Halwa to the potluck. Everyone from 3 year to 30 year liked those a lot. I even prepared your mango cashew cream as an icing for the cake. But I didn't get much time to soak cashews and thus mango cashew cream had raw cashew taste in it. However I had sprinkled almond and cashew pieces over the cake before putting in the oven and no one really missed any icing. Now I will be blending mango cashew cream with vanilla soy milk and will enjoy it as a milkshake for few days :).
Thanks a lot for wonderful, tasty, less heavy recepies which are healthier than dairy sweets 🙂
Vaishali
Hi Mukta, your thanksgiving potluck with friends sounds like a lot of fun! So happy that you cooked and liked the recipes. Thanks for letting me know!
abc
hi Vaishali, can u suggest frosting recipe using tofutti cream cheese?
Vaishali
Mukta, here is a recipe with tofutti: https://holycowvegan.net/lemony-vegan-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese/
abc
Hi Vaishali, I am left with only 1/2 tsp vanilla. Can I skip it and att 2 tsp of cardamom powder?
I have only one 9 inch square pan. I will have to half the recipe.
Thanks
Vaishali
Yes, just use the vanilla you have and no need to increase cardamom. You'll be fine.
Anonymous
What pan size did you use to bake the cake?
Vaishy
Anon, just a regular muffin tin with standard-sized cups. If you bake it as a cake, use two 9-inch round pans.
Anita
Vaishali, this is a superb recipe and very reproducible. I recently baked 70 of these for a United Way bake sale and they disappeared like crazy. Thank you!
Vaishy
Thanks for the feedback, Anita. So glad you liked them!
Vaishali Honawar
Lakshmi, nice and healthy substitutions. Thanks for the feedback. And yes, you can bake the 2 small pans together in the middle rack of the oven.
Lakshmi
Hi Vaishali,
Thanks for the very simple, yummy recipe. I made the following changes
Used whole wheat flour
Replaced white sugar with brown sugar
And used 1/3 cup applesauce and 2 tbsp oil ( instead of 1/3 cup oil).
The cupcakes turned out really great. Maybe next time will try using 1 cup wheat flour and 1/2 cup all purpose flour.
I have a doubt - if baking the above recipe in 2 small pans,can I bake them together?
Lakshmi
Anonymous
This recipe is amazing! I doubled the recipe and used a 9x13 pan to make it into a cake. It turned out very soft, moist, delicious and really changed my opinion about vegan cakes. I used less sugar as my store-bought Alphonso mango pulp was too sweet already. I received lots of compliments on the cake and will make it again. Thanks Vaishali!
- Priti
Melina
OH MY GOD!!! These are sooooooooo yummy!!!! I've already had three (in a space of thirty minutes). I had very sweet frozen mangoes that I didn't know what to do with and I recalled bookmarking this recipe. I pureed them, but they didn't make quite enough so I used pineapple for the rest (just 1/4). Soooooooo good!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd gladly use more mango in the frosting next time! thanks so much.
AgnostiChica
Thank you for this awesome recipe, Vaishali 🙂 I used fresh homemade mango pulp as we're still in the tail end of the mango season here in India. What a blast of flavor this was! Perfect deep gold cupcakes and no binder too. Thanks again!
Vaishali Honawar
AgnostiChica, happy you liked them! Thanks for the feedback. 🙂
Sapana Behl
Looks great!!I want to try this cake ! Can I post it with a link back of your space.
I am your new follower !
Keep blogging!
Anonymous
Love your website. I baked these cupcakes, looked yummy.. tasted good too when i tried them hot but as soon as they cooled down ( I kept them in fridge after an hour of baking them).. they tasted bitter in the end. The bitter taste was only appearing at the very end, otherwise the initial taste was perfect.
There was no problem with the icing.
I dont know what went wrong . 🙁
Can you please suggest ?? Please help. I dont wanna go wrong next time.
Vaishali Honawar
Hmmm, I wonder what could have caused it. In my experience there has been no bitter taste. Could it have been the mango pulp you used? I sometimes find that the canned mango has a bitter aftertaste, especially if it was sitting around in the store too long.
Anonymous
So, my mom & I both were pretty skeptic but this turned out really good. I made mine with fresh mango instead of canned. I didn't have enough to make the icing, but next time I will be prepared! Love it! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Anonymous
Hi vaishali , is there any substitute for baking soda in this recipie ??
Im baking it right away but dont have baking soda in hand..
Vaishali Honawar
No, you need to be precise while baking. You could leave it out but you won't get the right texture,