This gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe has a base that is so rich, moist, and super easy to make. Topped with the creamiest mint buttercream frosting that has no sugar, making it the most refreshing dessert for those chocolate and mint lovers who might be a bit more health conscious!
❤️ Why You’re Going to Love This Recipe
Something about this time of year brings out a strong craving for that refreshing chocolate-mint flavor combination. Maybe it’s St Patrick’s Day right around the corner? Not sure, but those two flavors just seem to belong together as they always pair together so, so well. Mint chocolate ice cream, Andes Mints, Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies – if you’ve got it, I want it.
This recipe was actually inspired by my sisters love for that dynamic duo of flavor you get from mint and chocolate. I made these last year for her birthday (she’s the best) and they were a total hit! Here’s all the reasons you’re going to love them:
Taste: Rich chocolate + refreshing mint = heaven
Texture: Your classic chocolate cupcake base, only 100x’s healthier than store-bought! The cake is super moist and the frosting so smooth and creamy.
Quick & Easy: Both the cupcake batter and frosting are extremely simple to whip up fast. From start to finish this recipe will take roughly 30 minutes, just be sure to wait until the cupcakes are cool enough before frosting!
Pros: THE dessert to make/bring/have for any occasion. Especially great for a birthday, St Patricks Day, even Christmas celebration.
Cons: Nada.
Would I make this again? Yep. They’ve been made a total of 4 times in my house this last year. For someone who’s always onto the next dessert recipe and only in the rarest of occasions will repeat a recipe, that says something!
Jump to:
- ❤️ Why You’re Going to Love This Recipe
- 📋 Key Ingredients to make Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
- ⏲️ Instructions
- 📖 Substitutions
- 🔪 Equipment to make this recipe
- 🥣 How to store gluten free chocolate cupcakes with mint buttercream frosting
- 💚 More Healthy Desserts you’re going to love
- Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcake Recipe with Mint Buttercream Frosting
📋 Key Ingredients to make Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
You just need a few simple ingredients to make these healthy chocolate cupcakes!
- Almond flour – I almost always use almond flour in my recipes because it keeps them super soft and tender, while also keeping the recipe gluten free and more whole-food oriented, making the nutrients more bio-available for the body to use and process, and also much less damaging than alternatives, like all purpose flour.
- Tapioca flour – another stable in healthy baking endeavors! Tapioca flour is more natural than other alternatives and provides that perfect sponge texture in cakes.
- Cocoa powder – a required ingredient to get that rich chocolate flavor
- Espresso powder – this ingredient will give the chocolate cupcakes an even more robust chocolate flavor. Totally optional, but almost always a great addition to ramp up the depth of chocolate in many baked goods.
- Ghee – you’ll need an oil in this recipe, so while ghee has an incredible amount of nutritional value and keeps the cupcakes moist, feel free to use another ingredient if necessary. Grass-fed butter, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, would all make great alternatives.
The remaining ingredients needed for this gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe with mint buttercream frosting can be found in the recipe card below with measurements.
⏲️ Instructions
First, gather all of your ingredients and preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and line cupcake tin with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until blended.
2. Next, in a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients: Eggs, ghee, vanilla and maple syrup. Whisk together until well incorporated, then add the monk fruit sugar and whisk again vigorously to really break down all of the sugar.
3. Carefully, combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and mix together well to combine. Divide the batter evenly into lined cupcake pan. Bake in oven for 13-15 minutes.
4. While the cupcakes are baking, prepare the mint butter cream frosting by adding softened butter, powdered monk fruit sugar, peppermint extract, food coloring and plant-based milk of choice into a medium-bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until the frosting is super light and fluffy.
Hint: For the best baked goods, be sure to use room temperature ingredients! Those items that are usually refrigerated, like eggs, milk, butter, etc, will always result in better bakes when incorporated at room temp. It mixes much more easily and will result in overall better texture. Just remove all ingredients from the fridge about 30-60 minutes before baking.
📖 Substitutions
- Almond Flour – a 1:1 gluten-free all purpose flour would be the only substitution I’d suggest to replace the almond flour for this recipe.
- Tapioca Flour – Arrowroot flour will provide a similar texture and flavor that tapioca flour would have. Coconut flour might be a great option, too, but I have not tried this ingredient with this recipe myself.
- Ghee – Grassfed butter, coconut oil, olive oil, all would be good substitutions for this recipe if you do not have or prefer ghee.
- Monk Fruit Sweetener – Any alternative sugar would work great for this recipe. Coconut sugar, granulated sugar, raw sugar would allow the recipe to come out very similar. You may need to increase the amount of sugar if you do use a substitution, as monk fruit is more sweet than alternatives and needs less than usual.
🔪 Equipment to make this recipe
- Hand mixer – or stand mixer! While you’ll just need a whisk to make the cupcakes for this recipe, if you’d like to make the mint buttercream frosting then a hand mixer or stand mixer will be necessary to get that creamy, fluffy frosting.
- Cupcake pan – your general 12 space cupcake pan will work great for this recipe. The batter can be stretched to make 18 cupcakes, so another 6-space cupcake pan would be great to use in addition to the 12 spaced pan.
- Cupcake liners – I like to use plain ‘ol white paper cupcake liners, but please feel free to use whatever you have available!
🥣 How to store gluten free chocolate cupcakes with mint buttercream frosting
These cupcakes will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days once assembled. Be sure to bring out of the fridge and allow to get to room temperature roughly 30 minutes before digging in.
Personally, I like to keep these chocolate cupcakes stored at room temperature for up to 4 days, keeping the frosting stored in the fridge until I’m ready to enjoy one.
To make in advance, store the cupcakes and frosting separately for up to 5 days in the fridge. These cupcakes can be stored in individual airtight containers for up to 3 months. I’d advise not to freeze the frosting and enjoy that fresh.
💚 More Healthy Desserts you’re going to love
If you’re looking for some new healthy dessert recipes that are low in sugar and really pack a nutritional punch while not sacrificing on flavor, then definitely check out these recipes as I know you’ll love them, too!
- Healthy Breakfast Brownies
- Easy Protein Chocolate Mousse
- Rocky Road Cookies
- Easy Chocolate Strawberry Donuts
- No-Bake Carrot Cake Bites
If you’d like more easy and healthy recipes delivered straight to your inbox, be sure to subscribe to my email list! If you enjoy this recipe, please leave a comment letting me know what you think and be sure to tag us on social media at @livinginflux so we can share your post – Enjoy!
Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcake Recipe with Mint Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour sifted
- ½ cup tapioca flour
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tsp espresso powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 eggs room temperature
- ½ cup ghee * room temperature, melted
- ½ cup monk fruit sweetener *
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup almond milk *
Mint Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup plant-based butter * room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp peppermint extract
- 3 cups powdered monk fruit sweetener *
- 2-3 tbsp almond milk *
- natural green food coloring optional, as desired
- chopped chocolate optional, for decoration
Instructions
- Begin by preheating the oven to 350F and line your cupcake baking tin with both oil and paper liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift the almond flour and combine the remaining dry ingredients of tapioca flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Using a whisk, mix ingredients together and set aside.
- Using a stand mixer or large bowl with hand mixer, mix together the eggs, ghee, monk fruit, maple syrup, and vanilla extract until well incorporated (about 3 minutes)
- Gently pour the dry ingredients into the wet and almond milk. Using the stand mixer or electric hand mixer, mix together briefly, making sure lumps are gone, but to not over-mix the batter. Distribute evenly into lined cupcake pan. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool before topping.
Mint Buttercream Frosting
- Using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer, blend together the butter, vanilla extract, peppermint extract.
- In increments, slowly add the powdered monk fruit sweetener one cup at a time, adding a tablespoon of almond milk to get a consistency you like. Mixture should be thick, but easy to work with and not runny.
- Using a piping bag or gallon sized ziplock bag, pipe buttercream onto cupcakes once they are cooled completely. Top with chopped chocolate if you desire. Enjoy!
Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular article! Its the little changes that will make the biggest changes. Thanks for sharing!