When I first got the idea to make vegan eggnot cupcakes, I had planned to use a prepared vegan eggnog for the liquid in the batter, but when I finally got around to making them, I didn’t have any eggnog in the house.  So I decided to make them with almond milk and other ingredients in the hopes that they’d still taste noggy enough.  I reasoned that I had been making my own vegan eggnog for years before the commercial products came out, and all that experience taught me that if you add enough nutmeg and Myers dark rum, it will taste like eggnog!

My first batch made with almond milk turned out fantastic, but I still wondered if the flavor would be even better (or maybe too intense) if made with a commercial vegan eggnog. Plus I hadn’t tasted real eggnog in over 30 years, so I wanted some other opinions.  I asked two of my talented recipe testers to try out the cupcakes before I shared the recipe with you.

Barbara Bryan made two versions: one with So Delicious Coconut Milk Nog and one with almond milk. She reported that both versions were excellent, but the version with the nog was more noggy than the almond milk one. Barbara used the optional cinnamon in her cupcakes; I did not. The cupcakes took 20 minutes to bake in Barbara’s oven. Here’s one of Barbara’s cupcakes:

Lea Jacobson made them with almond milk.  She made them as mini cupcakes and they took about 22 minutes to bake in her oven. Lea loved the decadently delicious frosting so much, it made her consider other things to put the frosting on — even pondering the idea of “frosting shots.”  Suffice to say it’s definitely a “lick the bowl” kind of frosting! Here’s one of Lea’s mini-cupcakes:

All three of us used the Myers Dark Rum in our cupcake batter and frosting, but the extract should work fine.  An extra sprinkling of nutmeg on top is the icing on the cupcake icing!  Here, then, is the recipe for Vegan Eggnog Cupcakes: