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!
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
Teri says
The flavor was really nice and the size of the muffin was really nice. I baked for 20 minutes and a toothpick came out clean but when they were taken out of the oven to cool they sunk a bit. I found the texture to be quite dry (I don’t do icing); which can happen with coconut flour. I’ll keep looking.
CathieD says
I just made these cupcakes and they lived up to most of your promises. The cupcakes are very fluffy and full of chocolate flavor.
The instructions are clearly written and detailed so you should have wonderful results. I only had coconut flour available for baking at my mom’s home, where I am visiting. I am not a fan coconut baked goods but needs must.
I used Swerve confectioners sweetener. However I think it could have used more sweetness because I didn’t make the frosting. It was so nice to have a chocolatey treat while I am away from my normal baking ingredients
Thanks Carolyn