These are hands down the BEST vegan banoffee cupcakes I have ever had!! Maybe even the best vegan cupcakes I’ve tried altogether! In case you have no idea what it is – Banoffee is a portmanteau of the words banana and toffee! The harmony of these two flavours is most often celebrated in a classic English dessert called Banoffee pie. This wonderful dessert includes bananas, cream and a thick caramel sauce, which is exactly what these cupcakes have!
These cupcakes can be made all year round as there is never a bad time for cupcakes! As a hobbyist baker, my favourite type of desserts are those that require the least effort but have the biggest payoff and these vegan banoffee cupcakes are no exception. They are dairy-free, nut-free, completely vegan and they can be whipped up in a few short hours. Let’s jump right in!
If you’re not a fan of banoffee then not to fret – check out my other recipes here!
As always, here are my top tips to nailing these wonderful cupcakes. If you’re still not sure what you’re doing – feel free to drop a comment down below or send me a DM on instagram!
Baking tips:
These cupcakes are fairly easy to make, however, I know I’ve made some silly mistakes on easy recipes before so here are some tips and tricks to make sure your cake is picture perfect!
1. Do follow the recipe as described! Vegan baking can be very sensitive and sometimes mixing things in the wrong order or not having ingredients at the correct temperature can prove fatal.
2. As mentioned above, make sure all your ingredients are room temperature (unless otherwise stated). Using warm soy milk for example will allow the cake batter to be warm before it hits the oven. This allows the cake to cook more evenly.
3. Don’t skip the salt. I know it seems odd adding salt to desserts but when all the elements are sweet, you need a pinch of salt for balance.
4. It is essential you use overripe bananas! When bananas ripen, their starches turn to sugar. They also soften and become much easier to mix into a cake batter.
5. I sometimes only have larger cupcake (muffin size) cases available in which case I’ll just multiply the recipe by x1.5 and it yields 12-15 larger cupcakes. Do bake for 3-5 minutes longer in the oven though!
6. To achieve the spiral effect of the caramel in the photos, add the caramel to a smaller piping bag (or ziplock bag if you don’t have those) and cut a 3mm hole in one corner. Use this to pour the caramel in circular motion directly above the cupcakes.
7. The caramel is the most certainly the trickiest part. It can burn quite easily and you must keep your eyes on it at all times. Use a silicone spatula to move the caramel around. As this is a dry caramel, there’s less risk of crystallisation and we don’t have to worry too much about cooking off any water.
Do use a high fat vegan block butter and the solid cream part from a can of coconut milk. If you use a lower fat butter or coconut milk instead of cream, the caramel will be too liquid at room temperature and it will just drip off your cupcakes.
If you’re in the UK, I’ve provided a list below with some of the key ingredients I’ve used…
Ingredients:
- My go-to vegan block butter is the one from Naturli.
- For the plant milk, I used Alpro soy milk but you can use another other of the plant milks such as oat or rice if you need to be soy/nut free!
- For the coconut cream, buy these cans of coconut whipping cream. If you don’t have access to cans of coconut whipping cream then chill some cans of coconut milk in the fridge overnight and then scoop out the cream from the top of the can! Avoid cans with too many preservatives.
For this recipe you’ll need:
- 12 case cup cake tray
- 12 small-medium cupcake case
- piping bag and nozzle
Vegan Banoffee Cupcakes
These vegan banoffee cupcakes are a banana lover's dream! Luscious caramel buttercream piled high above fluffy banana cupcakes, topped with extra caramel and a slice of dried banana, these cupcakes are utterly irresistible!
Ingredients
- Cupcake ingredients:
- 240g plain flour
- 140g caster sugar
- 200ml soy milk
- 2 super ripe medium bananas (~200g)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 100ml vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- pinch of salt
- Caramel buttercream:
- 250g vegan block butter, softened (75%+ fat)
- 300g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 80g caramel (see below)
- pinch of salt
- Caramel:
- 180g caster sugar
- 150g coconut cream (from a chilled can of coconut milk)
- 80g vegan block butter (75%+ fat)
- 2 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)
- pinch of salt
- 60g dried banana chips
Directions
- Step 1 Cupcakes:Pre-heat the oven to 170C (340F).
- Step 2 Prepare a cupcake tray with 12 small-medium cupcake cases.
- Step 3 Sieve together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, soda and salt) in a large mixing bowl.
- Step 4 Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl with a whisk. Once smooth, whisk in all the other wet ingredients (soy milk, caster sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla and apple cider vinegar)..
- Step 5 Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and carefully mix until incorporated. Be careful not to overmix.
- Step 6 Scoop the batter into each of the cupcake cases until they are 2/3rds full.
- Step 7 Bake for 20-25 minutes. Use a toothpick at the 20 min mark to check that the inside of the cakes are cooked and then remove them from the oven. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and then place onto a cake rack to cool completely. While you wait for the cupcakes to cool, prepare the caramel.
- Step 8 Caramel: Pour the caster sugar into a heavy-bottom pan on the stove and turn on a low-medium heat. Leave the sugar to melt for 5 minutes. Once you start seeing the edges melt and turn an amber colour you can gently agitate the sugar to make sure it’s all melting evenly.
- Step 9 Once you have a completely liquid amber-coloured sugar, add in the butter 20g at a time. The sugar will fizzle and splash so be very careful and stir the butter until it completely melts. Don’t add more butter until the previous chunk has been completely incorporated.
- Step 10 Once all the butter has been added, stir on a low-heat for 2-3 minutes to cook off some of the water and bring the temperature back up.
- Step 11 After 3 minutes, turn off the heat and add in all the coconut cream. Stir rapidly so the caramel doesn’t burn and keep stirring until the coconut cream is fully blended into the caramel. Then add the vanilla and a pinch of salt.
- Step 12 Finally, pour the caramel into a glass and set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Step 13 Buttercream: Add softened vegan butter to a mixing bowl and use an electric whisk to cream it until pale and fluffy.
- Step 14 Start adding the icing sugar in one tablespoon at a time. Once it is all added, add the vanilla and a pinch of salt.
- Step 15 By this stage the caramel should be cooler so add roughly 1/3rd of the caramel into this buttercream and save the rest for pouring later!
- Step 16 Final construction: Pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes using your preferred piping nozzle (I like to use a 18mm circular tip).
- Step 17 Spoon 1 tbsp of caramel onto each of the cupcakes.
- Step 18 Finally add a slice of dried banana and serve!
Hello, would this recipe work if I converted the cake to a 8 inch layer cake? Thanks!