Gluten Free Dairy Free Cupcakes (Paleo)
These Gluten Free Dairy Free Cupcakes are incredibly soft and fluffy! This easy one bowl recipe is great for birthdays, celebrations, and holidays. These almond flour cupcakes are so chocolaty and delicious!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- These gluten free dairy free chocolate cupcakes are rich, decadent, and yummy.
- They are the best Paleo and grain free cupcake!
- This recipe is easy, simple and straightforward.
- The cupcakes taste like a classic cupcake.
- Their texture is soft, fluffy and moist.
- For more desserts that are both gluten and dairy free, check out these Gluten Free Dairy Free Cookies and Gluten Free Dairy Free Brownies.
- These almond flour chocolate cupcake recipe is homemade and made from scratch.
- This recipe is Paleo, grain free, gluten free, and dairy free.
Ingredients & Substitutions
The combination of almond flour, tapioca flour and coconut flour is unique and purposeful. It creates the best light and airy texture. Arrowroot powder or cornstarch can be used in place of tapioca flour. Almond flour and coconut flour cannot be substituted.
Replace coconut sugar with loosely packed brown sugar or white sugar if desired.
For an extra dark chocolate cupcake, I use Hershey’s dark cocoa powder. Any cocoa powder works.
The espresso powder is completely optional. Do not substitute with liquid coffee.
Coconut oil can be replaced with Vegan butter or regular butter if needed. Use room temperature (slightly softened) butter.
Feel free to use apple cider vinegar in place of the lemon juice.
Use your favorite frosting recipe, whether homemade or store bought. Check out this Keto Chocolate Frosting if desired!
Making Almond Flour Cupcakes
Almond flour is the main baking flour used for these Paleo chocolate cupcakes. Almond flour is made from ground up blanched almonds. It has a slightly nutty and hearty flavor to it.
Almond flour is the perfect grain free and gluten free flour for cupcakes. It isn’t as heavy as coconut flour and adds a great texture.
Check out this Guide to Gluten Free Flours and Gluten Free Baking for more tips and tricks for baking with almond flour.
How to Make
Step 1
First, make frosting. Scoop out hardened part of chilled canned coconut milk. It should be about 1 cup. Add to a microwave safe bowl.
Step 2
Then, add chocolate chips to bowl with hardened coconut milk.
Step 3
Microwave in 30 second increments until melted. Place bowl in fridge for 1 hour.
Step 4
Then, preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
Step 5
Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Step 6
Next, add in remaining cupcake ingredients. Stir to combine.
Step 7
Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to add batter to liners. Fill almost to the top.
Step 8
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Step 9
Remove from oven. Allow cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes in pan. Then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Step 10
Once cupcakes are cooled, remove frosting bowl from fridge.
Step 11
Use a stand mixer or electric mixer to whip frosting until light and fluffy.
Step 12
Finally, frost cooled cupcakes with piping bag or knife. Serve!
Expert Tips & Tricks
Follow the frosting recipe exactly as it is written.
Room temperature coconut oil is important. Melted coconut oil will add too much liquid to the muffin batter.
Bake cupcakes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Do not over bake!
Only frost cupcakes once they have cooled completely! Frosting warm cupcakes will yield runny frosting.
Since this Vegan chocolate frosting is pretty dense and thick, try not to overload cupcakes with frosting. They might fall over!
Chocolate Frosting
This homemade Keto chocolate frosting is incredibly rich, smooth and creamy. Be sure to use ONLY the hardened part of the canned coconut milk. Discard the liquid part at the bottom of the can.
Melt frosting ingredients in 30 second increments in microwave. Stop and stir between each increment to prevent burning. Mine only took two 30 second increments to be fully melted.
Then, place bowl in fridge while cupcakes are made. This allows the frosting to firm up.
Once cupcakes are fully cooled, use stand mixer or electric mixer to beat frosting until fluffy. I just place my bowl under my stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
How to Serve & Store
Serve frosted cooled cupcakes. For the ultimate dessert spread, serve alongside these Red Velvet Cupcakes or these Dairy Free Cupcakes!
You will also love these homemade Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Store leftovers covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Store in the fridge for up to 5 days. If it is humid or hot outside, I recommend storing them in the fridge.
For best results, do not freeze cupcakes.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, gluten free cupcakes do not taste any different than normal cupcakes.
I do not recommend freezing gluten free cupcakes. They will not thaw well.
These taste like classic chocolate cupcakes!
To keep cupcakes moist, do not over mix batter. In addition, do not bake too long.
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If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate a review! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. I would love for you to follow along!
Get the Recipe: Gluten Free Dairy Free Cupcakes
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- ½ cup tapioca flour
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- ¾ cup coconut sugar
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp espresso powder, optional
- 2 eggs
- 1 ¼ cups almond milk
- 4 tbsp coconut oil, room temperature
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Frosting
- 1 cup chilled canned coconut milk, only use hard part on top, see note
- 1 ½ cups dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- First, prepare frosting. Scoop the hardened part of canned coconut milk into bowl. It should measure around 1 cup. Add it to a large microwave safe bowl.
- Add chocolate chips to the bowl with coconut milk. Melt in 30 second increments, stopping between each increment to stir, until fully melted.
- Place bowl in fridge for 1 hour.
- Then, preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cupcake or muffin pan with paper liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine almond flour, tapioca flour, coconut flour, coconut sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and espresso powder.
- Once combined, add in remaining cupcake ingredients. Stir to combine.
- Use an ice cream scoop to add batter to liners. Fill each one almost to the top.
- Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove from oven. Allow cupcakes to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Then carefully remove to a cooling rack to cool for about an hour or until fully cooled.
- Once cupcakes are cooled, remove bowl of frosting from the fridge.
- Use a stand mixer or electric mixer to beat frosting until light and fluffy.
- Finally, add frosting to piping bag or use a knife to frost cupcakes.
Notes
- Arrowroot powder or cornstarch can replace the tapioca flour.
- Espresso powder is optional, but recommended. It adds a rich depth of flavor to the cupcakes.
- Use room temperature coconut oil. It should be soft but not melted.
- Replace lemon juice with apple cider vinegar if necessary.
- For the frosting, use two 15 ounce cans of coconut milk. Put this can in the fridge several hours before making frosting. Scoop out the hardened part on top of can and discard watery liquid. The hardened part should measure about 1 cup total. See this Keto chocolate frosting recipe for reference.
- Fill cupcake liners almost to the top. These cupcakes don’t rise much while baking.
- Cupcakes are done baking when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Only frost fully cooled cupcakes.
- This frosting is pretty dense and thick. If you add a lot of frosting on the cupcakes, they may topple over!
- Store covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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9 Comments on “Gluten Free Dairy Free Cupcakes (Paleo)”
Hello,
I tried to make this, but it came out gummy/chewy. Can anyone help me find out where I went wrong? Really appreciate anyone’s help. Thanks 🙂
Maybe you over-mixed it?
Can this be made as a cake instead of cupcakes? Sheet cake…
Hi Alice! I have not tried that. You may want to use a square pan (8 inch or 9 inch) because I’m not sure it would be enough to fill a 9 by 13 pan. Have fun experimenting!
Is it possible to use honey rather than the coconut sugar?
Hi Heather! Unfortunately not, since coconut sugar is a granulated sweetener and honey is a liquid sweetener. Granulated white sugar or brown sugar can be used though. Hope this helps!
Thanks- looks like a great recipe- but have friends who are completely ‘animal free’ have you tried it with flax or chia egg replacements
Hi John! I have not tried it with flax eggs or chia eggs. My best guess would be to use applesauce. For the 2 eggs, I’d replace them with 1/2 cup total unsweetened applesauce. I do have many other Vegan recipes on my site if you want to try one of those!
My family devoured these cupcakes! No one could tell they were gluten free and dairy free.