Vegan gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting are rich and dense gingerbread spiced cakes topped with sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting. They’re made with simple, healthy ingredients, naturally sweet and perfect for Christmas!
If you’re new around here, you may not know that gingerbread is by far my favorite Christmas flavor.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying no to a classic sugar cookie, and these peanut butter blossoms are like, thiiiiiiisclose to gingerbread cookies for the top spot in my Christmas dessert rankings.
But overall, gingerbread is just SO Christmas to me, it’s forever number one when it comes to holiday baking.
In the past I’ve shared a whole bunch of gingerbread sweets.
- Gingerbread baked oatmeal for a simple, make ahead Christmas-y breakfast
- Nut free gingerbread granola for a crunchy, sweet and spiced holiday snack that’s a little too addictive
- Fun little gingerbread truffles, with a sweet and spiced filling coated in chocolate
- An actual bread version of gingerbread, super dense and satisfying and loaded with spice flavor
- Chocolate chip gingerbread bars, rich and gooey and full of melty chocolate chips
- Soft batch gingerbread cookies that are super gooey and chewy
- A fancy, decadent gingerbread cheesecake! So lush and creamy, cheesecake is my favorite dessert so this is a must for me at Christmastime
- The classic, my ALL time favorite Christmas cookies, fun and decorated little gingerbread people
After seeing that list, you might think I’m out of gingerbread ideas. But I could eat gingerbread alllllll day. So today we’re making vegan gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!
All I want for Christmas is a whole batch of these to myself.
Ingredients for vegan gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
- Rolled oats: you’ll blend the oats into flour, which gives the cupcakes their dense, satisfying, almost fudgy texture.
- Almond flour: a bit of almond flour helps keep the cupcakes from being too heavy.
- Pumpkin pie spice + ground ginger: the warming spices bring out the gingerbread flavor.
- Medjool dates: you’ll blend the dates with hot water to make a paste, which naturally sweetens the cupcakes.
- Applesauce: unsweetened applesauce adds moisture and softness.
- Molasses: molasses is essential for anything gingerbread and gives great rich flavor.
- Nondairy milk: a bit of milk brings the cupcake batter as well as the frosting together. I use unsweetened almond milk for neutral flavor, but any nondairy milk should work.
- Raw cashews: you’ll soak the cashews in water for a few hours (or overnight), which helps them blend to an ultra lush and creamy texture in the frosting.
- Apple cider vinegar: vinegar sounds strange but gives the cream cheese frosting that little bit of tang that’s so perfect with all the other spice and sweetness going on.
- Date sugar: date sugar gives the frosting a bit of sweetness, totally from fruit. You could also use stevia or coconut sugar, though I have only made this recipe with date sugar.
Tips for making vegan gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
- Measure the rolled oats before blending into flour. I always list the amount of oats used BEFORE they’re blended for flour. So in this case, you’ll measure out 1 1/2 cups of whole, rolled oats, then put those 1 1/2 cups into your blender to make flour.
- Use silicone liners for easy removal. I use these silicone liners and HIGHLY recommend something similar to avoid the cupcakes sticking to the pan.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely. After baking, let the cupcakes cool in the pan before carefully turning them out to cool completely while you make the frosting.
These vegan gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting are perfectly sweet and spiced, and the combination of the dense, almost fudgy cake and the light, creamy, rich frosting on top is seriously perfect. The gingerbread flavor is so strong, thanks to the molasses and spices.
Joe and I have a tradition of baking lots of goodies on Christmas Eve, and these are definitely now on that list. So good!
Xo,
Sara
Vegan Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Gingerbread cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats, blended into flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 cup date paste – 15 medjool dates blended with 1 cup hot water
- 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/2 cup nondairy milk – I used unsweetened almond milk
Cream cheese frosting
- 2 cups raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 2 hours or overnight
- 2/3 cup nondairy milk – I used unsweetened almond milk
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp date sugar – you could also use liquid stevia drops (to your taste) to keep the texture totally smooth and the color light
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix the oat flour, almond flour, pumpkin pie spice and ground ginger.
- Add the date paste, applesauce, molasses, and nondairy milk, and stir into a thick batter.
- Portion slightly less than 1/3 cup of batter into each lined cup, and bake the cupcakes for 30 minutes.
- Be sure to let the cupcakes cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before carefully turning them out to cool completely. They're pretty soft and delicate as it is, but they'll firm up quite a bit as they cool.
- To make the frosting, combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. You'll need to stop it once to scrape down the sides and make sure everything gets incorporated.
- Spread or pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and enjoy.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator.
Sara, these look so good AND they’re so cute! I love that you and Joe have a Christmas Eve tradition of baking together. <3 Any ideas for a gingerbread mug cake like the pumpkin spice and chocolate chip? 🙂
Thank you!!! So happy with how they came out, gingerbread always makes things just a little more fun. And omg that sounds so good I’ll add it to my list for next year, but for now maybe go with the chocolate chip version, take out the chocolate and just add like 1 tsp of molasses and the gingerbread spices (I do pumpkin pie + ground ginger) to your taste!
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