Use these decadent gluten free chocolate cupcakes for everything from birthday, Valentine’s Day, and everything in between!
Everyone needs a staple chocolate cupcake recipe in their back pocket!
And if you have tween and teen girlies in the house, it is an absolute must! This recipe is quite truly a few years in the making, as I have tried and tested it out every so often on holidays or birthdays. I can confidently say that this will become your very favorite, fool-proof chocolate cupcake on everything from birthdays to Valentine’s Day…and everything in between!
Let’s talk about this dairy free thing!
I’ve become such a huge fan of using palm shortening for creamy frostings since my need to be off dairy years ago. While I can tolerate butter now, I still tend to go back to the palm shortening for frostings – if you are dairy free I think you are going to be so relieved to find a replacement to still make a “buttercream!” If you tolerate butter, you can swap the palm shortening for unsalted butter, and swap the coconut milk for regular milk in the cupcake recipe.
No gluten, nuts, or soy either!
Because I want you to be able to host a birthday party for your little one’s, dear momma! And we want safe cupcakes for those birthday treats at school – even the schools with nut free school zones, or kids that have celiac. I promise the texture of these cupcakes feel exactly like regular cake – kids that are not gluten free will never know!
Soft, fluffy, rich, and decadent!
These sweet little handfuls are everything you want in a chocolate cupcake. A few friends that have tested them out for me cannot even tell they are gluten and dairy free. So let’s just get right down to it! I’ll show you how the cupcakes are made, and then we’ll get to the fun part – dressing them up! I have so many ideas for you!
The Method :: The Chocolate Cupcakes
Chocolate cupcake batter is about as easy as it gets. A one-bowl wonder, chocolate cake batter is a simple mix of wet and dry that come together into a very rich, dark batter loaded with chocolatey goodness! Over the years I have become a huge fan of coffee to replace some of the liquid in chocolate cakes – you’ll never taste the coffee, but it does, in fact give the chocolate a richness and depth that you can’t achieve with plain water or milk. So a simple half and half mixture of coconut milk and brewed coffee make up my cake liquid. You can see the Notes section of the recipe card for swaps if you are sensitive to coffee. Once the chocolate cake batter is mixed, you’ll scoop the decadent mixture into your cupcake tin and bake.
The Method :: The Chocolate Frosting
Once you cupcakes are cooled, you can blend the frosting ingredients until smooth. Adjust the amount of coconut milk to your frosting texture preference. Around these parts, we like our frosting rich and thick, so just a few tablespoons is enough! You can spread or pipe your frosting, and if you don’t have a fancy piping bag, simply snip the corner of a zip top freezer bag, and voila! You can pipe your frosting!
Let’s dress them up! :: BIRTHDAYS!
There is nothing like a chocolate cupcake to celebrate your birthday! While I’m perfectly giddy about a generous swirl of chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles for my birthday, if you have kiddos in the house, you’re sure to want to have these rainbow sprinkles on hand! I am also a huge fan of fun cupcake toppers using the theme of the birthday for my girls. For instance, we’ve done a beach birthday bash for my summer birthday sweetpea with these beach themed toppers! {HERE are the polka dot rainbow cupcake liners in the birthday cupcake images in this post!}
Let’s dress them up! :: VALENTINE’S DAY!
Is it even Valentine’s Day without chocolate?! I think not! We are absolutely here for it in our house, and there are some great options for naturally dyed Valentine’s Day sprinkles now.
- I used these Valentine’s Day sprinkles in the images for this post, or there is this option too.
- I also happen to think that poking a little hole in the top of your baked cupcake, putting some strawberry jam in the middle, covering with frosting, and topping with a strawberry is the perfect heart day chocolate strawberry treat!
- Another idea for your chocolate cupcakes on Valentine’s Day is using some freeze dried strawberries or raspberries blended into the frosting to give it a chocolate covered fruit flavor.
- You could also skip the chocolate in the frosting and use the freeze dried strawberries or raspberries to make pink fruit flavored frosting.
- {HERE are the cupcake liners used in the Valentine’s Day cupcake images!}
Let’s dress them up! :: NEW YEAR’S EVE!
We rang in 2021 with the chocolate cupcakes pictured below that I posted to IG, and I truly couldn’t have thought of a better way to say good-bye to 2020! We sprinkled sugar crystals on the top – although I think the best adult way to make them would have been with flaked sea salt on the top! YUM!
A cupcake for every occasion!
I can’t wait to see your chocolate cupcake creations this year! Be sure to tag on Insta or the Facebook, send emails or private messages, and comment below! Happy cupcake-ing to you!
Chocolate Cupcakes :: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free!
Ingredients
FOR THE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
- 1 cup brewed coffee
- 1 cup coconut “buttermilk” put 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar in a Pyrex measuring cup, and fill up to the 1 cup line with full fat coconut milk
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 2/3 cup Namaste Gluten Free Flour Blend fluff the flour before you measure
- ¾ cup cocoa powder I use the Rodelle cocoa powder from Costco
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp aluminum free baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
FOR THE CHOCOLATE CREAM FROSTING
- 1 cup room temperature palm shortening
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2-4 tbsp full fat coconut milk to your desired consistency
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 dozen cupcake tins with paper liners.
- Brew your coffee while you prepare the batter.
- Mix the ACV and coconut milk to make coconut “buttermilk.” Put the eggs, olive oil, sugar, vanilla extract, and coconut milk/ACV into a large mixing bowl and blend until smooth.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, and brewed coffee, and blend until smooth and combined.
- Scoop the batter into your cupcake tins (you’ll fill 24 cupcakes around ¾ full of batter). Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Bake time depends on oven variations, and cupcake tin material/color (Darker pans will bake faster than lighter pans or silicone pans.) A toothpick should come out clean from the center and the middle should spring back to touch.
- Cool the cupcakes in the pan for a few minutes before turning them out onto a wire cooling rack to cool.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting. Blend the frosting ingredients and frost to your liking.
Notes
- If you tolerate dairy, you can swap the coconut milk for regular milk, and the palm shortening for unsalted butter.
- If you are sensitive to coffee, you can swap the coffee for coconut milk or even just hot water (coffee is really just coffee infused water!). I had a friend trial the cupcakes with the coconut milk swap and the texture was great.
- I have not tried this recipe with other GF flour blends. I think most will work, but if your blend does not have xanthan gum, you might want to add that for texture. I also have not tried the recipe with regular flour since I cannot have it. If you do try, let us know how you did in the comments!
- This recipe only has 2 eggs, so I would imagine you could use egg replacer or flax egg if you are egg free. The cupcakes might not puff up as much, but it would bind ok with that!
These look amazing! I will be making them soon!
Great! Enjoy them!
These are sooooo good!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
We made these and they are delicious!! My son wants them as Avignon cake, what baking time do you recommend for 9in cake pans?
Awesome! Yes, I’d double the time for making cake rounds!
I replaced the eggs with 1/2 cup of forager unsweetened plain cashew yogurt and it was amazing. So moist. Rose perfectly. In case anyone else wants to take the eggs out.
That is a great tip Sarah! Thank you! I’m glad they turned out well!
Few questions:)
How do you measure your flour? Spoon into the measuring cup and level (proper way if not using a scale) or just dip measuring cup into the bag then scoop and level??
Also for the coconut milk, do you use the kind in the cans (if yes, do you shake to mix it) or the one in a cardboard box (Thai Kitchen brand red box with 2 ingredients)?
Thanks!
Hi Dee! I fluff the flour up in the bag, and dip the cup in so it isn’t packed in. And I use the kind of coconut milk that does not have gums or additives in it because I find the gums effect baking – so the Thai Kitchen simple is good!
These are the BEST!!!! Seriously can’t beat it!
Thanks Megan! I’m glad you love them!
Would you be able to do mini cupcakes with this recipe?
It looks delicious!
Hi Nicole! Yes, mini cupcakes work fine for this recipe, just cut the cook time down – maybe start with half the time?