My healthy gluten free almond flour chocolate cupcakes are the perfect treat to enjoy anytime your chocolate craving hits, and you also want nourishing ingredients in your dessert. They are easy to make in 1 bowl and are a crowd favorite for special occasions, birthday parties, or even Halloween when paired with my healthy orange sweet potato frosting. Made with black cocoa powder for the deepest, and darkest chocolate color.
Healthy Low Sugar Chocolate Almond Flour Cupcakes
These easy almond flour cupcakes are fun and easy to make. I looooove the super dark color you get when using black cocoa powder. Think of the dark Oreo cookie black color, and that’s what you’ll get with these.
They’re my favorite halloween cupcake recipe to make too because the dark black chocolate color is such a great contrast when using orange sweet potato frosting.
You can also be extra and add a date cockroach! You’ll see how to make that furth down below.
They are so moist and have an awesome fluffy texture. Hope you love them as much as we do!
Why you’ll love this gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe
Chocolate lover’s dream cupcake – If you love chocolate, these are for you! They have such a rich chocolate flavor and are exceptionally dark in color thanks to the black cocoa powder used. You
Nourishing ingredients – The main ingredient you’ll find in this recipe is actually applesauce! It naturally adds sweetness and moisture, and leaves you with super delicious and tender cupcakes. Instead of using wheat flour, we’re opting for blanched almond flour which is higher in protein than regular flour, and also has lots of great healthy fats.
Low sugar – Made with the perfect amount of sweetness, the full batch of cupcake batter is limited to just 1/4 cup of sugar. We opted to use natural cane sugar, but coconut sugar works great here too!
Healthy ingredients you’ll need for almond flour chocolate cupcakes
Scroll down to view the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, nutrition facts, and step-by-step instructions.
- unsweetened applesauce
- eggs
- coconut oil
- apple cider vinegar
- vanilla extract
- almond flour
- coconut flour
- black cocoa powder
- natural cane sugar
- baking soda
- sea salt
- mini chocolate chips
- orange sweet potato frosting
How to make low carb cupcakes
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Add 12 muffin liners to a regular muffin tin.
Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients (except for the chocolate chips) and mix until smooth. Ensure the wet ingredients are fully combined with the dry ingredients, then stir in chocolate chips.
Step 3: Scoop into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean or with a tender crumb. Allow the cupcakes to cool to room temperature before adding the frosting.
Step 4: Top with sweet potato frosting & the date cockroach if you’re going for a full halloween effect! Directions for the date cockroach are below the how to video.
Watch me make healthy halloween cupcakes
The full how to video can be watched below, or on my YouTube channel!
How to make a date cockroach Halloween topping
To make a cockroach out of a date and chocolate, add a pitted date for the body, a single chocolate chip for the head, and pipe melted chocolate for the legs and antenna.
You could make something similar for a spider as well!🕷️
Serving suggestion
While we think the orange sweet potato frosting is the perfect match for these healthy chocolate cupcakes, you can also use other favorites!
Here are more delicious and healthy frosting options that would go great with this recipe. And if you’re not feeling like adding frosting, no worries!
Keep them as unfrosted cupcakes and enjoy the chocolate goodness!
How to store
Once your cupcakes are done being made, here’s how to store them.
Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored at room temperature, in a sealed airtight container for up to 3 days, or in the fridge for up to 7 days.
If you frost the cupcakes, you’ll want those stored in the fridge.
You can also freeze cupcakes!
Add to a freezer container, label them, and keep them frozen for up to 6 months. For best results, defrost individual cupcakes in the fridge overnight.
Substitutions, optional variations & dietary adjustments
Below you’ll find a list of substitutions that will work well in this gluten-free chocolate cupcakes recipe.
If you try something different out, please leave a comment below letting us all know how it turned out!
Unsweetened applesauce – Mashed banana is a fantastic substitute for applesauce. Canned pumpkin puree will work as well, but you may want to add a little maple syrup as that is not as sweet as the fruit options.
Eggs – Unfortunately there is not an egg replacer option for this recipe. Flax eggs would not provide enough structure that you’d for this almond flour based cupcake.
Coconut oil – Avocado oil is a good alternative here! Melted butter will work great too.
Almond flour – You can use almond meal in place of blanched almond flour, however, the texture will not be quite as soft.
Coconut flour – There isn’t a 1:1 replacement for coconut flour since it absorbs liquid at a higher rate than other flours. However, if you need an option, try tapioca flour, but you’ll likely need to increase the amount by 1/4-1/2 more.
Black cocoa powder – Regular unsweetened cocoa powder works great here too!
Natural cane sugar – Try coconut sugar or regular white sugar as alternatives. They’ll both work well in this recipe!
Mini chocolate chips – You can use any type of chocolate chips. For an extra deep dark chocolate flavor use regular dark chocoalte chips instead of semi sweet mini chips.
More almond flour recipes you’ll love
Healthy Low Sugar Chocolate Almond Flour Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 3 eggs
- 1.5 tbsp coconut oil melted
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup black cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup natural cane sugar
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 batch orange sweet potato frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Add 12 muffin liners to a regular muffin tin.
- In a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients (except for the chocolate chips) and mix until smooth. Ensure the wet ingredients are fully combined with the dry ingredients, then stir in chocolate chips.
- Scoop into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean or with a tender crumb. Allow the cupcakes to cool to room temperature before adding the frosting.
- Top with sweet potato frosting & the date cockroach if you’re going for a full halloween effect! Directions for the date cockroach are below the how to video.
Nutrition
If you try this paleo chocolate cupcakes recipe, I’d love it if you left a star rating and comment below letting me know how it turned out!
XO
Heather
1 comment
so good and moist!
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