Vegan Christmas Tree Cupcakes

It’s time to celebrate the holidays with this festive Christmas Tree Cupcakes recipe. Sure, vegan may look difficult, but they’re surprisingly easy and fun to make, and even more fun to eat! Take your holiday baking to another level with these towering Christmas treats! 

Looking for more festive holiday treats? Try these tasty Gingerbread Whoopie Pies.

Vegan Christmas Tree Cupcakes for your holiday baking enjoyment and your festive party platters!

Do you remember your first holiday baking project? I’m pretty sure my first one must have been sugar cookies. Making festive desserts for the holidays is so fun!

Key Ingredients

You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe, including substitution ideas:

  • Egg Replacer — I used Ener-G Egg Replacer for the cake. See recipe card notes for a substitution.
  • Vegetable oil — I used canola oil but you can substitute your favorite neutral vegetable oil.
  • Cake Mix — A Duncan Hines Cake Mix (French Vanilla, Yellow, or Strawberry work for this recipe) works best
  • Sugar cones — You’ll need 18 ice cream cones (the kind that come to a point).
  • Frosting — I used two 14 oz Duncan Hines Whipped Vanilla Frosting tubs.
  • Food Coloring — You’ll need some green food coloring. I prefer gel food coloring. You can use less gel food coloring than liquid, thus preserving the texture of your frosting.
  • Flaked coconut — We’ll add flaked coconut to create a snowy scene on each cupcake.
  • Candied decorations — Yellow Skittles sprinkles, and/or Christmas themed sprinkles

This recipe includes a few accidentally vegan products, including Duncan Hines cake mixes and Skittles that you can buy right at your local grocery store.

Marly’s Tips

Don’t want to use a store-bought cake mix? Use this vanilla wacky cake recipe as the batter for your cupcakes. Another great alternative is to use Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes.

How to Make Vegan Christmas Cupcakes

A friend asked me if I could help her make a vegan cake from a cake mix. Because, I guess not everyone enjoys the process of making a cake from scratch. I get that. So, that’s why this recipe includes a cake mix.

  1. Make the vegan “egg” by stirring together egg replacer with warm water.
  2. Mix in the water, vegetable oil, sugar, and applesauce.
  3. Add the cake mix, flour, and baking soda.
  4. Mix on medium speed for two minutes.
  5. Spoon the cake batter into prepared cupcake papers.
  6. Bake the cupcakes for 15 to 18 minutes.
  7. Frost cooled cupcakes with white frosting. and sprinkle with flaked coconut.
  8. Color the rest of the frosting with green food coloring.
  9. Spread green frosting over sugar cones, gently pulling the knife away to create wisps, resembling tree branches.
  10. Place an icing-coated cone on each cupcake.
  11. Decorate trees with a yellow Skittle at the top, attaching it with an extra dollop of frosting.
  12. Add candied decorations to the still-soft frosting to make the cones look like decorated Christmas trees.

Vegan Christmas Cupcake Flavors

I’m using vanilla cupcakes as the foundation for these cute treats, but there are no ends to the cupcake flavors. Below are some ideas for made-from-scratch and store-bought cake flavors:

  • Homemade chocolate vegan cupcakes — These cupcakes are easy to make and absolutely delicious to eat!
  • Easy pumpkin vegan cupcakes — Add pumpkin flavor and color to your holiday cupcakes.
  • Storebought cake mix ideas — Did you know you can veganize cake mixes to make your own cupcakes at home? Just check the box, but many cake mixes are made without eggs and dairy. That means you could make spice cake, red velvet cake, butter cake and more!

Storage Tips

Store cupcakes in a tall, airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 7 days.

Reader Reviews

★★★★★
What a cute idea. I love it!

June

Vegan Holiday Baking

If you love these vegan Christmas cupcakes as much as I do, here are some more some Vegan Christmas Cookies and delicious vegan holiday recipes you’ll want to try:

Why is This the Best Recipe?

  • Using a store-bought cake mix keeps this recipe simple, even though it looks intricate and complex
  • Sugar cones make a tall foundation for Christmas trees, meaning this is surprisingly simple to make
  • Fun candies, like Skittles, and sprinkles, add decorations to your Christmas trees, and these can be added on by every member of the family

You can also share these Confetti Cookies and Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies as part of a gift bag. Or make this Vegan Pecan Pie for your holiday dessert table!

Festive and fun Vegan Christmas Tree Cupcakes

That’s it for these vegan Christmas cupcakes!

Christmas Tree Cupcakes for your holiday baking enjoyment and your festive party platters!

Vegan Christmas Cupcakes

These vegan Christmas cupcakes may look difficult, but they're surprisingly easy to make with some accidentally vegan ingredients…and fun to eat!
5 from 4 votes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 18
Calories: 307kcal

Ingredients

Egg Replacer

Cake Batter

  • 1 ½ cup water
  • cup vegetable oil
  • tablespoons applesauce
  • cup granulated sugar
  • 1 Duncan Hines Cake Mix French Vanilla, Yellow, or Strawberry work for this recipe
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Decorations

  • 18 sugar ice cream cones
  • 2 14 oz Duncan Hines Whipped Vanilla Frosting
  • Green food coloring
  • Flaked coconut
  • Candied decorations – Yellow Skittles sprinkles, and Christmas themed candies

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F/177°C. Line a muffin pan with cupcake papers.
  • In a small bowl stir together the egg replacer with 6 tablespoons of warm water. Set aside
  • In a mixing bowl add the water, vegetable oil, applesauce, sugar, and egg replacer. Mix by hand or with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined.
  • Add the cake mix, flour, and baking powder. Mix on medium speed for one minute.
  • Spoon the cake batter into prepared cupcake papers. Bake in heated oven 15 to 18 minutes, until done.
  • Frost cooled cupcakes with white frosting. and sprinkle with flaked coconut. Set aside.
  • Color the rest of the frosting with green food coloring, using enough to achieve the desired color of green. Use a butter knife to spread the green frosting over the sugar cone, gently pulling the knife away to create wisps, resembling tree branches. Make these random so it will look natural.
  • Place a green icing-coated cone on each cupcake. Place a yellow Skittle at the top of each cone, attaching it with an extra dollop of frosting. While the frosting is still soft, add candied decorations to make it look like decorated Christmas trees.

(The products above contain sponsored links to products we use and recommend)

Notes

You can substitute vegan chocolate cupcakes.

Egg Replacer

You can order Ener-G Egg Replacer or use this as a substitute: 2 tablespoons potato starch, 1 tablespoon tapioca starch, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon baking soda. This is a very similar formula to the egg replacer mentioned above.
Calories: 307kcal | Carbohydrates: 53g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 258mg | Potassium: 61mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 32g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 95mg | Iron: 1mg

The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

This post was originally published in 2018 and was updated to include new photos, new text, and an updated recipe in 2020.

6 Responses to Vegan Christmas Tree Cupcakes

  1. Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyCarl Reply

    Wow these look amazing! Saving this for Christmas this year! My girls will love it!

    • Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyMarly

      So happy you like it, Carl!

  2. Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyWilliam Reply

    Very fun for the kids

  3. Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyNina Javez Reply

    5 stars
    these are so cute, the cones are made of cake as well, correct?

    • Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyMarly

      Hi Nina. Actually, I used sugar cones (the kind used for ice cream cones) and put a thin coating of frosting over that. It’s pretty clever, I admit. I love how festive these christmas cupcakes look!

  4. Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyJune @ How to Philosophize with Cake Reply

    5 stars
    What a cute idea! I love it. They do look really impressive, but sound easy enough…I bet they’d be a great addition to, say, a holiday layer cake too 😛

Rate / Comment

Your email address will not be published.

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.