Cinnamon Sugar Cereal Cupcakes

These cupcakes are so fluffy and delicious, with a layer of cinnamon sugary goodness and topped with a cereal milk vegan buttercream and topped with a vegan Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal! It’s a perfect sweet and light cupcake, with the perfect punch of spicy and sweet!

First, we will make the cupcakes themselves! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. We will start off with mixing together our dry ingredients, so our flour, baking powder, and baking soda. The combination of baking powder and baking soda create light and fluffy cupcakes!

Once the dry ingredients are whisked together, the next step is to add in the vegan butter. This may seem odd, but trust me here. You are going to cut up the room temperature vegan butter into pieces and add it to the dry ingredients. Using a fork or a pastry cutter if you’re fancy, cut in or “mash” the vegan butter into the dry ingredients until only small pea sized chunks remain.

If you’re wondering why we do this, I promise there’s a good explanation. By coating chunks of vegan butter in flour in the dry ingredients, when you bake the cupcakes in the oven, the vegan butter will melt and create air pockets, allowing the cupcakes to rise more and become even fluffier.

Next, in a separate bowl, we are going to combine our wet ingredients. Whisk together the sugar, flax egg, hot water, vanilla, and oat milk. Start by making the flax egg by combining 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons water. You could also use chia seeds instead of ground flaxseed.

We use hot water because it helps the mixture to combine more fluidly and helps out sugar dissolve faster so it doesn’t become grainy. You can use any kind of dairy free milk you’d like in place of the oat milk. Once whisked together, add into the dry ingredients and fold together until a batter is formed. Before you scoop the batter into lined cupcake tins, mix together the cinnamon sugar that goes inside the cupcakes.

Simply mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Then, carefully fill the cupcake tins with about 1-2 tablespoons of cupcake batter. It should fill the bottom of the tin, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be halfway full. I trust you to use your judgement here. This recipes makes about 15 cupcakes.

Then, carefully spoon in around 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar in each cupcake mold. Use up all the cinnamon sugar, I promise you can never have too much. Then, scoop the rest of the batter on top of the cupcakes. Place into your preheated oven and bake at 350 for about 17 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool completely. Once the cupcakes get into the oven, make the cereal milk.

This goes into the frosting to help give it that delicious cinnamon cereal flavor. In a glass measuring cup or bowl, combine your dairy free milk and cinnamon sugar cereal. I used Cascadian Farms Cinnamon Crunch Cereal, but you can honestly use any kind of cinnamon cereal you’d like. Unfortunately, the original Cinnamon Toast Crunch is not completely vegan, as it uses processed sugar with bone char in it and contains Vitamin D3, which is derived from sheep’s wool. If you aren’t vegan or not strictly vegan, than you may still choose to buy Cinnamon Toast Crunch but I choose not to. Mix the dairy free mix and cereal together and simply set it aside.

Once the cupcakes are cool to the touch (you may want to pop them into the fridge or freezer if you’re on a time crunch), you can starting making the vegan cereal milk buttercream. In a bowl start by mixing the vegan butter and powdered sugar. It won’t combine perfectly, but thats okay because we still have to add the cereal milk, which will thin it out.

Next, add in 2 tablespoons of the cereal milk and cinnamon. You could add more cereal milk if needed, but you don’t want your frosting to be too thin. Beat together until super fluffy. When in doubt, beat it together more. The key to a good cupcake is a fluffy frosting. Carefully scoop onto the cooled cupcakes and top with more cinnamon sugar cereal. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Cereal Cupcakes

• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons vegan butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 flax egg (2 tablespoons ground flaxseed mixed with 5 tablespoons water)
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1.5 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup oat milk

For the cinnamon sugar layer

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the cereal milk

• 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar cereal
• 1/2 cup oat milk

For the cereal milk buttercream

• 3/4 cup vegan butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons cereal milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a cupcake tin with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2. Cut vegan butter into chunks and add in to the dry ingredients. Mix with a fork or pastry cutter until only small pea sized chunks remain.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, flax egg, vanilla, hot water and oat milk. Add into the dry ingredients and fold together. Spoon batter into cupcake liners until half full.

4. Mix cinnamon and sugar together for the cinnamon sugar layer. Spoon 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar into each of the ~15 cupcake liners.

5. Scoop the remaining batter on top of the cinnamon sugar layer. Bake for 17 minutes, then let cool.

6. Make cereal milk by combining dairy free milk and cinnamon sugar cereal. Then make the vegan buttercream but beating together vegan butter and powdered sugar until combined.

7. Add in the cereal milk and cinnamon and beat until combined and very light and fluffy. Spread on top of the cupcakes and top with more cinnamon sugar cereal. Enjoy!