Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes (One Bowl)

5 from 1 vote

These red velvet cupcakes are moist, perfectly sweet, and easy to make using aquafaba as an egg substitute, with substitution options provided. The one-bowl recipe incorporates unsweetened applesauce to cut back on fat. Topped with homemade cream cheese frosting, they are sure to delight!

Prep Time20

Cook Time25

Cooling Time10

Total Time55

Method: Baking

Course: Cupcakes

Servings: 21 Cupcakes

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:

1 and ¾ cups sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
6 tablespoons aquafaba
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup hot coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon red food coloring gel

ADD ONS:

1 and ½ cups Oreos coarsely chopped
As needed few Mini Oreos

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

½ cup butter unsalted, softened
4 oz cream cheese softened
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 to 2 and ¼ cups confectioner’s sugar
¼ to ½ cup crushed Oreo optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325F/200C. Line two 12 cup muffin pans with muffin liners and lightly grease it non-stick cooking spray.
In a large bowl add the dry ingredients one by one, mix together, make a well and set aside.
To the dry ingredients add all the wet ingredients except for the red coloring and beat well.
Then add the red coloring (as much as needed to get the bright red color) and beat well.
Once the color is fully incorporated thoroughly stir in 1 cup of the crushed Oreos and mix well. It’s a runny batter so don’t panic.
Use a ⅓rd measuring cup to scoop out the batter and fill each muffin cup with the eggless red velvet cupcake batter. I was able to fill 21 muffin cups for this measurement.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean. Mine was done in 23 minutes.
Remove the pans from the oven and leave it on a wire cooling rack for it to cool completely before frosting. Frost the cupcakes as needed and top it with some of the reserved crushed Oreos and top each eggless red velvet cupcake with a mini Oreo.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING PROCEDURE:

In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugar, until light and creamy.
Mix in the vanilla extract and beat well.
Add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time and beat well after each addition until you incorporate all the sugar and the frosting is smooth and creamy.
You may choose to stir in some powdered Oreo mixture into the frosting for an unique twist. Be careful that you don’t overmix or else you might end up with a grey color frosting.
Store the frosting in an air-tight container and refrigerate it for a few hours to firm up a bit before frosting.

Notes

The preparation time of 20 minutes is only to get things ready to bake the cupcakes. I have not included the time needed to make the frosting and to frost the cupcakes.
If you want to make these eggless red velvet cupcakes vegan try this vegan red velvet cupcake recipe.
I'm pretty sure that you can make these cupcakes gluten-free if you use gluten-free baking mix. I have tried it in various recipes as measure to measure replacement for all-purpose flour with great success. I will update my experience in this particular recipe after I try it for myself.
For hot coffee, I stirred in 1 teaspoon of instant coffee granules into ½ cup of hot water. Adding hot coffee is not a must, you can omit it. My personal experience is that the flavor of coffee and chocolate work well together.
If you don't have aquafaba you can used 2 flax eggs or another half cup of unsweetened applesauce or even increase the quantity of buttermilk by another half cup.
Experiment with the quantity of red food coloring you use. As mentioned earlier I made these eggless red velvet cupcakes in addition to the red velvet Oreo cake and felt that it was too much red color action happening so controlled the quantity in the cupcakes.
You can also omit crushed Oreos in the recipe if you don't have it. You don't have to change any other measurements if you choose to omit it. Earlier I had baked eggless red velvet Oreo cake and I had leftover Oreos so decided to use it while make these eggless red velvet cupcakes. Also if you choose to use Oreos do not powder it in a food processor like I did it but chop it coarsely with a knife so that you can actually see freckles of Oreo in the baked cupcakes.
While baking the red velvet Oreo cake I had made a huge batch of cream cheese frosting which was more than enough for the cakes and had plenty of leftovers that I used for these cupcakes too. So I have given half the recipe for the cream cheese frosting that I originally made in the hopes that it would be enough for these cupcakes.
The nutritional information below is for plain cupcakes only and not for cupcakes that are frosted.

Taste & Texture

The taste and texture of these eggless red velvet cupcakes were outstanding. They were perfectly sweet, thanks to reducing the sugar from my previous eggless red velvet cake recipe.
Replacing half the oil with unsweetened applesauce cut back on the fat without compromising the flavor. The cupcakes were moist yet not dense, with a light, sponge-like texture achieved by using apple cider vinegar.
Topped with homemade cream cheese frosting, these eggless red velvet cupcakes were absolutely divine.

Nutrition