These vegan chai spice cupcakes are soft, fluffy, and full of warm spices. They also take only minutes to put together. While they’re perfect for fall, they are delicious all year long.
If fall were a cupcake, it would be this one! It's packed with spices like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and ginger. Sure chai lattes are delicious. But you can't beat these chai spiced cupcakes.
The good news is that you don't need any chai tea to make these fluffy cupcakes. The spices will be delivering all the flavor you need. And you simply top with my vegan vanilla whipped frosting and you have the perfect cupcake!
For more vegan recipes full of cinnamon and spice, try my oil-free apple crisp, vegan ginger molasses cookies, vegan apple galette and vegan Biscoff cookies.
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Why You’ll Love These Vegan Chai Spiced Cupcakes
- Warm spices: If you love the spices in chai tea, you’ll love these cupcakes.
- Fluffy texture: These cupcakes are light and fluffy, not dense like some other cupcakes.
- Not too sweet: These cupcakes are just the right level of sweetness.
If you love making cupcakes, try my Oreo cupcakes with cookies and cream frosting and my strawberry chocolate chip cupcakes.
Ingredient Notes
- Non-dairy milk: I use unsweetened soy milk but you can use any kind of plant-based milk you like, such as oat or almond milk. I would avoid coconut milk unless you’d like to add a coconut flavor to these cupcakes.
- Apple cider vinegar: You can substitute with lemon juice or white vinegar.
- Vegetable oil: You can a different neutral oil like canola oil or sunflower oil.
Please see the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and amounts needed.
How To Make Vegan Chai Cupcakes
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350°. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
Step 2: Combine the milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside. This will make a vegan buttermilk.
Step 3: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt and spices. Make sure the dry ingredients are whisked well to ensure there aren’t any clumps of spices.
Step 4: Add in the milk/vinegar mixture, oil and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Do not overmix the dry and wet ingredients or the cupcakes will lose their fluffy texture.
Step 5: Pour batter evenly into the prepared cupcake pan. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes.
Step 6: Let cool in the pan for about 3-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Frost these decadent cupcakes with whipped vanilla frosting and enjoy! I also like to give each frosted cupcake a dusting of cinnamon.
Expert Tips
- Make sure the dry ingredients are whisked well to ensure the spices are evenly distributed.
- For best results, do not overmix the batter or your cupcakes will come out dense.
Storage and Recipe FAQs
To make light and fluffy cupcakes, I recommend using white all purpose flour. If you really want to use whole grain flour, you can substitute up to half of the total flour with whole wheat flour.
Nope, this recipe calls for the chai spices, not tea, which makes them even easier to make.
Store these vegan cupcakes at room temperature for up to 3 days for best texture.
More Vegan Dessert Recipes
If you tried this Vegan Chai Spice Cupcakes Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Recipe
Vegan Chai Cupcakes
Equipment
- Stand mixer or electric mixer plus bowl
- cooling rack
- Muffin pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup non-dairy milk
- 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- Combine the milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside. This will make a vegan buttermilk.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt and spices.
- Add in the milk/vinegar mixture, oil and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Do not overmix.
- Divide the cupcake batter evenly into the prepared muffin tin.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes.
- Let cool in the pan for about 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Frost with whipped vanilla frosting.
Notes
- Store cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- Make sure the dry ingredients are whisked well to ensure the spices are evenly distributed.
- Do not overmix the batter or your cupcakes will come out dense.
Jen says
This is my new favorite cupcake. The combination of spices is amazing!