These vegan Christmas cupcakes bring together the classic holiday flavours of chocolate and gingerbread in these soft and delicious dairy free cupcakes. The true standout however is all the ways you can decorate them for a festive feel. Think poinsettia flowers, Christmas wreaths, and little messages – you’ll have so much fun creating these easy designs!
One of my favourite things about Christmas baking is how much fun it can be to get creative and decorate. Whether you’re creating pretty iced sugar cookies or adding candy canes to everything like these peppermint brownies, I can pretty much guarantee it’s more fun with a little festive flair.
These easy cupcakes are the perfect base for us to let our creativity go wild. I’ll show you a few decorating options that are pretty simple to create with just a few tools, but honestly use this as your inspiration not as a strict guide.
Of course the cupcakes themselves have to taste good, and these are a fun combination of rich chocolate and gingerbread spices. They are so yummy that even if you want to keep the icing simple, you still need to be making these in December!
Key Ingredients
This recipe is based on my vegan gingerbread cupcakes recipe with the addition of cocoa powder to give it that rich chocolate flavour.
Note all ingredients and their quantities are laid out in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Dairy free milk – I use oat milk generally in my baking but I’ve also used soy and almond milk interchangeably and they work just fine.
- Apple cider vinegar or white vinegar – used to create a vegan ‘buttermilk’ which is going to cause a chemical reaction when baking that helps ensure these cupcakes are super soft and have that perfect texture.
- Plain flour – also known as all purpose flour in the US.
- Cocoa powder – always use a good quality cocoa powder for the best, rich, chocolate flavour. I’ve used Cadbury Bournville cocoa powder my entire life because it’s made from the same beans Cadbury uses to make their chocolate so you know it’s going to taste good. For those in the US, this is a Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
- Bicarbonate of soda/baking soda and baking powder – it’s essential that we use both here to create a soft and light cupcake, especially as we’re not using any eggs.
- Spices – for that classic gingerbread taste we use a combination of ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
- Canola oil – any flavourless oil will work here, but the oil helps ensure the texture of the finished cupcake is really soft and moist.
- Dark brown sugar – brown sugar not only adds flavour but helps keep the cake moist. You can substitute with regular light brown sugar but the dark brown sugar just helps with that rich molasses flavour you’d expect from gingerbread.
- Golden syrup – another essential ingredient in my eyes to ensure the flavour of the cupcakes. This is a common ingredient in Australia and the UK, but in the US if you can’t find it, you can replace it with molasses.
- Vanilla extract – just a bit helps enhance the richness of the chocolate flavour.
See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the ingredients needed for the frosting or read the full post for the vegan vanilla buttercream frosting which includes a more detailed breakdown and step-by-step photos and instructions.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Get started by making the chocolate gingerbread cupcakes.
Step 1: Start by making your ‘buttermilk’ by combining the dairy free milk and the vinegar in a small bowl and setting aside. Next, sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl and again set aside. I often do this by just whisking them together until they’re combined and aerated.
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl mix together the canola oil, dark brown sugar, golden syrup and vanilla until combined. It will separate a little bit as the oil and golden syrup resist each other so add a little bit of the milk mixture to the bowl and continue whisking until it’s smooth and all combined.
👉Tip! When measuring your golden syrup, lightly spray your measuring cup with canola oil. The golden syrup will slip right out and you wont end up with a sticky mess. Simple but really effective.
Step 3: Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with the milk mixing until the cupcake batter comes together. You want to only mix until everything is just combined as overmixing will result in a dense cupcake.
Step 4: Scoop the batter into your muffin pan that’s been lined with cupcake liners, ensuring you’re only filling them up half way. Bake in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched.
Step 5: Set the cupcakes aside to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting and decorating.
Decorating the cupcakes
When it comes time to decorate, make a batch of vegan vanilla buttercream. You can do other flavours if you like but this is what is going to work best for holding the piped designs and being easily coloured.
To get started, you’ll also need a few key tools and equipment that is going to make decorating this cake much easier.
- An electric mixer or stand mixer for making the buttercream.
- Piping tips: #66 or #70 (for the leaf), 4B, 1M.
- Piping bags.
- AmeriColor food colouring gel in green and red (or any food colouring of your choice).
- Gold ball sprinkles.
Once you have all your tools assembled, split the buttercream into 3 separate bowls and dye one green, one red and leave one white. All the designs you see in my photos have used a combination of these three colours.
Tip! To get the colours super bright, let it sit aside for a little bit to allow them to develop for an even richer colour.
To make the poinsettia;
I actually love the fact that this recipe allowed me to combine my love of cupcakes with my love of plants and Christmas decorations!
Create the poinsettia by first adding three green leaves to the top of the cupcake. Next, using the same tip pipe red leaves in a circle around the outside of the cupcake. Add another layer around the inner circle, overlapping the first.
Add some gold ball sprinkles to the centre of the flower to finish them.
To make the Christmas wreath;
Use a knife to spread white buttercream over the base of the cupcake. Using a 4B piping tip, pipe dabs of the green buttercream around the cupcake in a circle.
Using a small round piping tip, pipe a bow using the red buttercream. It doesn’t need to be perfect, and you can practise on a piece of baking paper first! Decorate the wreath with small gold ball sprinkles.
Other design ideas;
- Simple holly – this may just be my favourite! Use a 1M piping tip to pipe a rose swirl on the cupcake using the white buttercream starting from the centre and swirling out. Use the leaf tip with the green to pipe 2 leaves then finish with the red buttercream with a small round piping tip to add 3 red dots.
- Christmas Tree – spread white buttercream over the base of the cupcake. Using a 4B piping tip, pipe a large blob, followed by a smaller one, and then a final small one on top. Finish with sprinkles for decorations.
- Joy – spread white buttercream over the base of the cupcake. Using a small round tip, pipe your favourite festive words on the cupcakes. I like ‘Joy’ as it’s very simple to do! You can also do the bows like we added to the wreath (I wish now I’d done that!).
Remember, decorating your cupcakes should be fun – don’t worry about them being perfect. This is a great holiday activity for friends and family to do together so make sure you enjoy the process!
Storage Instructions
These cupcakes are of course best eaten within the first 2-3 days of making them and taste best at room temperature.
If the temperatures are a bit hot in your home however, I’d recommend keeping them in the fridge but letting them come to room temperature again before eating.
You can freeze unfrosted cupcakes for 3 months, wrapped well with plastic wrap and in an airtight container. Let them defrost in the fridge overnight or on the kitchen counter for a few hours. Make a fresh batch of buttercream and I guarantee they’ll taste just like fresh ones!
If you do make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below! And tag any of your creations on Instagram with @eightforestlane as I would love to see.
More Christmas Cupcakes:
Vegan Gingerbread Cupcakes
Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes
Celebration Cupcakes
Harry Potter Butterbeer Cupcakes
Christmas Cupcakes (Dairy Free & Vegan)
Ingredients
For the chocolate gingerbread cupcakes:
- 1 cup dairy free milk such as oat milk or almond milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- 1 ½ cups plain flour/all purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅓ cup canola oil
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup golden syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the buttercream:
- ½ cup (125 grams) dairy free butter
- 3-4 cups icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon dairy free milk
- pinch salt to taste
- red and green food colouring
- sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F and line a muffin tin with 12 patty cases, and a second tin with 2 patty cases.
- In a small bowl combine the vinegar and dairy free milk. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and spices.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the canola oil, brown sugar, golden syrup and vanilla until combined. It will separate a bit so add a bit of the milk mixture and whisk until combined.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the oil and sugar mixture, alternating with the rest of the milk until cupcake batter comes together, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Spoon mixture into patty cases ensuring they are only ½ full before placing them in the oven for 20 minutes or until lightly springy to touch. Let cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
- Make the buttercream frosting. Using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment fitted, beat dairy free butter and vanilla for 1-2 minutes until creamy.
- Add in 3 cups of icing sugar and beat on medium until combined. As mixture thickens, add in the dairy free milk a little at a time until the mixture is smooth and creamy but still thick enough to stand up on its own.
- Separate out some of the buttercream into two smaller bowls. Add a few drops of green gel food colouring to one, and red to another, mixing well until you get your desired colour. Leave one bowl white.
- Decorate the cupcakes as you like. See the blog post for more detailed instructions for the specific designs.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a guide only and is calculated using automated online tools, therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy. We encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe.
This recipe was originally published in December 2020 and has been updated in 2025 with new photos and more helpful information. The recipe remains the same!
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