Imagine tender cupcakes topped with a decadent buttercream that you can enjoy almost guilt-free. Enter these whole grain, vegan maple cupcakes topped with a rich, buttery frosting that’s not only free of butter, but also refined sugars! Yes, both the little cakes and the buttercream are sweetened exclusively with pure maple syrup.

These amazing vegan maple cupcakes were created by my good friend Ricki Heller of RickiHeller.com. She is a cookbook author, professional recipe developer, holistic nutritionist and anti-candida crusader with expertise in plant-based, sugar-free, and gluten free diets.

This is one of her earlier recipes, which is wheat-free but not gluten-free, and it was inspired by none other than a good quality, pure maple syrup:

Growing up in Quebec, I assumed maple syrup was as common as my father’s ex-girlfriend (well, that’s what my mom used to say about her, anyway). So I never really thought much about maple syrup as anything but a substitute for sugar, used whenever a certain type of sweetness was required; it never occurred to me to showcase the auburn ambrosia as the primary flavor in its own right. Not until, that is, I received an amazing sample of Coombs Family Farms Pure Organic Maple Syrup in the mail. I was agog as soon as I inhaled the stuff and immediately set about creating.

The resultant vegan maple cupcakes have an incredibly light crumb and a warm, decadent maple aroma. Ricki uses coconut oil rather than butter in both the single-serve cakes and the frosting, and rather than powdered sugar, she adds a bit of dairy-free milk powder to bring the topper together.

Special Diet Notes: Vegan Maple Cupcakes

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan / plant-based, and vegetarian.

