Seriously, these keto chocolate cupcakes are going to blow your mind. You won’t believe that anything made with coconut flour can be this tender and delicious. The perfect sugar-free and gluten-free cupcake recipe!
It’s crazy to think that these coconut flour cupcakes were one of the first keto cake recipes I ever made here on All Day I Dream About Food.
And they have stood the test of time, becoming one of my most popular keto cupcake recipes with some seriously devoted fans. I decided that they needed a little update. Pretty new photos to show them off, and an updated recipe that is even easier to make and uses a single bowl. It also now makes a full dozen. And of course I had to include a how to video!
Frost them with your favourite sugar-free frosting or use my espresso buttercream. I also have the ultimate chocolate buttercream recipe right here for you!
Coconut Flour Cupcakes Video
My youngest child turns one in a few days and so we had a little birthday party for her this weekend. We kept it small and simple, with just one other family sharing in the festivities. After all, one year olds hardly know what the fuss is all about and we figure we have years ahead of us where she is asking for the hottest new toys and wanting to have a big bash in her own honour.
Might as well keep it low key while we can get away with it. We did, however, follow one time-honoured tradition in our family. We stripped her down to her diaper and let her dive into her birthday cake while we sat back, laughing hysterically and snapping hundreds of pictures.
The cake we fed our baby, along with everyone else, was full of sugar, flour and, obviously, carbs. It was gorgeous, and by all accounts, it tasted pretty great too. I, however, was abstemious. As much as I would have liked to partake, I simply don’t think my pancreas would have been able to rise to the challenge. So I planned ahead. I wasn’t about to let my daughter’s first birthday go by without raising a forkful of some sweet treat or other.
Making the Best Keto Chocolate Cupcakes
I had in my head to do coconut flour cupcakes again, but I wanted them to be chocolate. And this time, I didn’t want to play up the coconut flavour, I really just wanted it to taste like a regular chocolate cupcake, so that I could then pair it up with an interesting frosting.
In addition to my own Coconut Flour Cupcake recipe, I searched for chocolate coconut flour cake online and found a few recipes to use for basic guidelines. All of these recipes called for sugar, and I was using low carb sweeteners so I had to adjust the other ingredients accordingly.
For frosting, I knew I wanted a coffee flavour. Coffee and chocolate go together like, well, coffee and chocolate. I know the expression is supposed to be “peas and carrots”, but I don’t like cooked peas and I can’t see how these two vegetables go together any better than coffee and chocolate!
But if you prefer, you can always top it with the BEST low carb chocolate buttercream frosting!
On of my old photos! Oh my, how times have changed…
The Results: I had thought I’d done pretty well on my previous foray into coconut flour cupcakes, but these puppies blew those ones out of the water. They are virtually indistinguishable from regular chocolate cupcakes.
They rose beautifully when baking, and they didn’t end up overly dense like many coconut flour products. The crumb is nice and light. When I took them out of the oven, they smelled almost identical to the layers of chocolate cake I’d just made for the “real” birthday cake. You honestly would not know that these were made with any coconut products at all, as the coconut flavour was completely masked just as I had intended.
New Low Carb Cookbook: The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen
I almost don’t even know what I did right with these cupcakes. I think it is both a combination of the actual ingredients, and the method in which I put it all together. I wrote it all down very quickly after they came out of the oven because I could tell I had nailed it right away. To say I am pleased with the outcome is something of an understatement. They pair beautifully with the intensity of the espresso buttercream, but you could put whatever flavour of frosting on these that you wanted.
Keto Chocolate Coconut Flour Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
- ½ cup butter melted
- 7 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules (optional, enhances chocolate flavour)
- 7 eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup coconut flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅔ cup Swerve Sweetener
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk or hemp milk (more if your batter is too thick)
Espresso Buttercream:
- 2 tablespoon hot water
- 2 teaspoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee
- ½ cup whipping cream
- 6 tablespoon butter softened
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- ½ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
Instructions
Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a muffin tin with parchment or silicone liners
- In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, cocoa powder, and espresso powder.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined. Then add the coconut flour, sweetener, baking powder and salt and beat until smooth.
- Beat in the almond milk. If that batter is still very thick, beat in more almond milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it thins out a bit (batter will still be thick, but should be of scoopable consistency. It will not be pourable).
- Divide batter among prepared muffin tins and bake in center of oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Cupcakes are done when the top is set and a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Buttercream:
- In a small bowl, stir together hot water and espresso until coffee dissolves. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer, whip cream until it forms stiff peaks. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, beat butter, cream cheese, and sweetener together until creamy. Add coffee mixture and beat until combined. With a rubber spatula, fold in whipped cream carefully until well combined.
- Spread frosting on cooled cupcakes with a knife or offset spatula, or pipe on with a decorating bag.
Notes
Beth Long says
Is Swerve the same as Stevia?
Carolyn says
No, not at all. https://swervesweet.com/faqs
Paola Perina says
These cupcakes are excellent. I have baked them a few times now. I added half a teaspoon of Guar gum in my last batch and it helped them rise even better. I would say they deserve a 10/10.
Carolyn says
Good to know!
Chyral Kurck says
Can I substitute egg whites instead of regular eggs ?
Carolyn says
I can’t see why not but you need to make sure it’s the same amount of egg in total.
Sherrie Perry says
Hey Carolyn!! I noticed that you are using protein powder in many of your cake recipes now…would it be a good idea to add some to these? Also, Thanks so much for ALL you do!!
Carolyn says
Not this recipe, no. It was designed to be without it and they rise nicely as it is. If you do choose to use it, don’t use more than 1/4 cup.
Nancy says
Hi there, I’m wondering if I could substitute almond flour for the coconut. The person I’m making these for is allergic to coconut and I really want a delicious chocolate cupcake recipe!
Carolyn says
This recipe is based on coconut flour, which is SO different from almond flour that they cannot be swapped. It would be a disaster. However, you can use this recipe for an almond flour based cupcake. Just switch out the irish cream for heavy cream. https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/keto-irish-cream-cupcakes/
Debra says
Can I use black cocoa in this recipe?
Carolyn says
Absolutely!
angela says
do you recommend dutch process cocoa or like a regular hershey’s cocoa for the cupcakes?
Becca says
Can I sub coconut milk for the almond milk?
Carolyn says
Yes, that should be fine.
Kelli Thompson says
Hello! If I wanted to use your cupcake recipe for a 9×13 cake pan would I use this same exact recipe?
Thanks! I’m going to use your German chocolate brownie frosting as the topping.
Carolyn says
It might be a bit small for a 9×13, unless you want a sheet cake?
Felicity says
Seems I had the opposite problem of batter that was too thick. I carefully weighed the Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour for accuracy and ended up with pourable batter before even adding the almond milk. I panicked and threw it in the oven as is (sadly didn’t occur to me to add more coconut flour) and just waiting for it to come out with fingers crossed the result isn’t too disastrous (it’s a birthday cake). I wonder if it might be good to warn in the recipe that not thick enough is also a possibility?
Carolyn says
You say you weighed the coconut flour “for accuracy” but I did not give a weight for this. So I think you probably had significantly less coconut flour than you were supposed to. How much did you use in grams?
Felicity says
I went by your Bob’s measurement for keto bagels which is 56 grams per half cup. Converted to 74 grams 2/3 cup. This is what I get for being clever :/
Carolyn says
Their measurements are actually pretty close (I have weighed a full cup to be about 110g). So that might not be the issue. I wonder if your eggs were overly large? Could also be that your cocoa powder is not as absorbent, that can make a difference too. What brand is it?
In my experience, they should bake up okay when overly wet like that but they make take a lot longer to bake through.
Felicity says
You may be right about the eggs. They looked on the hefty side for “large”. I’m in Vancouver Canada and the only dutch process cocoa I could find (always my preference) is Cote D’Azur Bensdorp dutch process. It cracked a bit during baking and seems maybe a bit dense but I will slather it in caramel sauce, toasted coconut, and ganache (aka Samoa cake) and hopefully no one will be the wiser 🙂
Felicity says
So it did indeed come out on the dense and non-fluffy side (I’ve made the vanilla version of the coconut flour cupcakes and it was definitely not the same texture). Not that it mattered because the flavour was wonderful and how can you go wrong with those toppings? I would like to master this recipe though as I love the vanilla counterpart. If this happens again, is it better, do you think, to add all the liquid (aka the almond milk) and adjust with extra almond flour, or to stop before adding the almond milk and add only a little more almond flour if needed?
Carolyn says
Less liquid, for sure!
Allie says
Hi ,
These look great . I want to make them for my birthday to accommodate myself (keto) and children who have nit allergies win win ! Can I sub cocoa powder in the espresso frosting instead of coffee ? I know you have a chocolate icing recipe I was just wondering if this would work too . Needn’t be overly sweet or rich . Also I’ll need to bake them two days before I ice them . Or do you think I can ice them two days before I serve them ?
Carolyn says
Cocoa powder is going to make the frosting a lot thicker so it won’t really work in this recipe. I’d just go with my other chocolate buttercream.
Baylie says
These are so good!! I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Question: what are the nutrition facts for muffins without the frosting? And I suppose it wouldn’t reduce the carb count, since it’s mostly dairy/fat?
Thanks!! Love the recipe
Carolyn says
Food energy: 147kcal
Total fat: 10.97g
Carbohydrate, by difference: 5.85g
Total dietary fiber: 3.39g
Protein: 5.25g
E says
I was looking for this info, too! You are awesome and so attentive to your readers, Carolyn! Your site is a lifesaver for me as I have a 3 year old who has type 1 diabetes! Gotta get our carb counts correct here!! And yours are!
Lindsey says
These are amazing! Seriously so tasty. Mine started out looking just a tad watery – I added another 1TB of coconut flour. The final result was a tad dry but still very tasty.
Question for anyone re: granulated instant coffee in baking. I followed the recipe as is but I used a diff frosting recipe – using 1tsp of instant coffee. Do you all find that adding 1-2tsp of instant coffee granules to baked goods adds a little too much “zip”? I think the flavor is essential so I used it, but all i had on hand was full-caff granules. I had a hard time finding any info on this online. I mostly just want to make sure i limit my husband’s intake at night if it will keep him up! Or else he’ll eat 2+ !!! 🙂
Carolyn says
If you’re worried about the caffeine, try getting some decaf instant coffee. I like the Starbucks via packs and I only use one little pack per recipe, instead of a full tablespoon of instant coffee.
Amanda Wolf says
Made these tonight for Easter. Ate without frosting of any kind. My very first attempt at keto baking and the first time making cupcakes from scratch. So delicious!! They came out perfectly!
Lenai says
Also, does the nutritional info include the frosting?
Carolyn says
Yes it does.
Lenai says
Hi, I was wondering if I can use coconut milk instead of almond? or even whipping cream?
Carolyn says
Yes, you can.
Maggie says
I used the cupcake recipe and made a version of “Better than sex cake”. I baked the cake, cooled, it poked holes in it, poured the caramel sauce over it and chilled it. Then I covered it with Ready Whip, sprinkled crushed Stover’s toffee squares, and drizzled with more caramel sauce. It was amazing and came out very low carb since I got 30 pieces from a 13×9 pan.
Trina says
Carolyn
I just made these and absolutely love them..
I live alone so I leave the cupcakes, no frosting, covered on the counter and the frosting in the refrigerator..
does the Nutrional Facts include cupcake and frosting combined…
Thank you again..I can’t wait to try more of your
Recipes
Carolyn says
This does include the frosting. But here is the info for the cupcakes alone:
Food energy: 147kcal
Total fat: 10.97g
Carbohydrate: 5.85g
Total dietary fiber: 3.39g
Protein: 5.25g