If you are following me on Instagram, you know that last month I visited the Texas Veggie Fair for the first time and spent the entire day with my mouth full of vegan cupcakes. While I definitely am not vegan, I loved finding soft and delicious baked goods that contained no eggs or milk. I immedaitely came home and started researching how to make my own. I even started off small and made these Vegan Sweet Potato Cranberry Cookies. What? You’ve got to keep it festive! That’s why these cupcakes have homemade cranberry sauce in the middle. You’re welcome.

I love how unassuming the cupcakes look when they come out of the oven. Besides some teeny dark red spots, they just look like standard chocolate cupcakes. The bite into fruit is a total surprise. The cranberry tastes amazing with the moist cake, too. I am definitely making these again for Thanksgiving.

Recipe: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Cranberry Filling

What You Need for the Filling:

• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

What to Do:

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the sugar and lemon juice.

2. Add in the cranberries and cinnamon, stirring frequently, until the berries begin to make a popping noise and begin to become sauce like.

3. Remove from the heat and set aside.

What You Need for the Vegan Cupcakes:

• 1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup granulated sdugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup brewed coffee
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. In a mixer or large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. Add in the coffee, vanilla, and olive oil until well combined.

4. Fill up cupcake liners 1/3 of the way with the chocolate batter. Top each of these with a heaping teaspoon of cranberry filling. Use the remainder of the batter to cover the cranberry completely. Do this until all the batter is gone.

5. Bake for 18 minutes.

6. Let cool and then frost with chocolate icing. (Confession time: I used pre-packaged chocolate icing because I was running out of time. I originally planned to use a cranberry buttercream, but it was a disaster.)