Pomegranate & Passionfruit Cupcakes Recipe | Ve + GF

Today’s seasonal recipe is courtesy of a surprise I got doing my food shop. To me, this flavour sounds like it should be a summertime experience. But passionfruit and pomegranate are both in season right now and I thought it sounded like an incredible flavour combination to make a bake with. For anyone over Halloween and not quite ready to embrace the Christmas flavours, today’s recipe is a seasonal pomegranate and passionfruit cupcakes recipe with a passionfruit glaze icing.  

A couple of years ago I did a series where I cooked with nothing but seasonal ingredients, which FYI  is making a 2022 comeback, and that series made me pretty clued up on what is and isn’t in season. Now imagine my surprise when I click on the seasonal tab when doing my online shop and see passionfruit there, right next to the pomegranate. The pomegranate wasn’t a shock, but passionfruit, in my brain, is a summer ingredient. Mango and passionfruit anything screams it’s August and here’s some sorbet to me. I completely forgot that they have two seasonal spikes, one in summer and another in winter.  now, it isn’t August, and sorbet isn’t on my radar at all right now, so I opted for an easy seasonal bake instead.  

Suggested Post: What’s in Season in Autumn?

Nutritional Information  

Each cupcake contains 10% of your daily vitamin E, 3g of protein, 4g of fibre and 231 calories.  

Ingredient Choices and Substitutes 

This cupcake recipe contains no ‘weird’ vegan ingredients. You won’t need a specific egg replacer or random flours, and the steps are incredibly easy even for inexperienced bakers.  

I’ve opted for a mix of gluten free self raising flour and oat flour as I don’t like the texture of GF bakes made exclusively with gluten free self raising. So, the oat is for the softer texture and the GF is to help them rise as they should. You can use just GF self raising if you wish, but they may end up a little on the dry side. If you don’t need this recipe to be GF, swapping both flours for regular self raising flour will work perfectly.  

As for the dairy free milk, feel free to use any of your choice. I made mine with vanilla soy milk for some added sweetness and recommend using a sweetened milk alternative, but any milk will work.  

Icing  

When I was making these, I had some passionfruit leftover and opted to use them to make the icing. It’s easy to make, simply blend them and mix with icing sugar, but if you’d prefer a more traditional icing, sub for a simple vegan buttercream. 

Storage and Keep 

Keep in an airtight container in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight and they should keep for 4-5 days. Do not freeze or attempt to reheat them. 

Vegan Pomegranate & Passionfruit Cupcakes Recipe 

Simple gluten free and vegan vanilla cupcakes recipe with passionfruit swirl and fresh pomegranate.

This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, nut free and vegan. It can be soy free depending on your choice of dairy free milk.

5 from 1 vote

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Vegan Pomegranate & Passionfruit Cupcakes Recipe

Course Dessert, Snacks

Cuisine American

Keyword Passionfruit Cupcakes Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 6

Calories 231 kcal

Ingredients

• 120 ml of dairy-free milk
• 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar
• 55 g GF self-raising flour
• 55 g GF oat flour
• 50 g of golden caster sugar
• ½ tsp of baking powder
• ½ tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• 30 ml sunflower oil
• 1½ passionfruit
• ½ pomegranate

Icing

• 1 ½ passionfruit
• ¼ cup + 1 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 180°c and line a cupcake tin with cupcake cases.

2. In a small bowl, combine the dairy-free milk with the apple cider vinegar and whisk until fully combined. Set aside for 10 minutes to curdle. This creates a vegan ‘buttermilk’.
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and mix well to combine.
4. Add the sunflower oil to the ‘buttermilk’ and whisk to combine, then add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until a smooth batter.
5. Once the cake batter is smooth, stir in the seeds from half a pomegranate.
6. Fill the cases roughly ¾ full with the batter.
7. Make sure to tap the tins on the worktop to remove any air bubbles.
8. Spoon some fresh passionfruit onto each cupcake and with a toothpick, swirl the passionfruit into the batter. I used roughly half a passionfruit per two cupcakes.
9. Place the cakes into the preheated oven and bake for 18-20 minutes. You will know they are done when you put a knife or skewer in and it comes out clean.
10. Place the cupcakes on a cooling rack and allow to cool fully before icing.

Icing

1. You can make this one of two ways. I simply blended my passionfruit to prep, which means there are still black specs from the seeds in the icing. If you’d prefer them to be without, add your passionfruit to a sieve and strain it so you get the juice and leave the seeds. However, if you’re opting for this method, you’ll need an extra half a passionfruit to ice the cupcakes.
2. Place your passionfruit (blended or strained) to a small bowl and sift in the icing sugar to avoid lumps, then stir to combine. It should still be fairly runny.
3. Spoon a tablespoon of the icing over each cupcake, then store in a container while they set.

Serve and enjoy!

Please tell me I’m not alone in associating passionfruit with summer? What do you guys think of this summery sounding Autumnal bake?

Until next time,

Sophie

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