Moist, fluffy, simple, and arguably PERFECT vegan paleo chocolate cupcakes. Made with just 8 ingredients and topped with creamy chocolate coconut frosting!
Alright this is gonna be a reach, but go with me okay…
Did you watch The Magic School Bus? Do you remember the haunted house episode? Do you remember the part where Carlos is trying to build an instrument and the more he adds the uglier the sound gets? And it’s not until he starts taking away that the music can be made?
If I’ve completely lost you, feel free to go catch up with us 90s kids here and come back. I’ll wait.
Anyways. All that is to say, developing this cupcake recipe was a reminder that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. And in this case, simplicity is the ultimate moist, fluffy, richly chocolatey Vegan Paleo Chocolate Cupcake.
I kept trying to make this recipe more complicated than it needed to be, but after three batches with fewer ingredients each time I landed upon such a simple but such a perfect combination.
So here is hands down my new absolute FAVORITE cupcake recipe with a fluffy coconut frosting on top. Happy baking, hope you love!
Easy Vegan Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 cupcakes 1x
- Category: cupcakes
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: american
Description
Moist, fluffy, simple, and arguably PERFECT vegan paleo chocolate cupcakes. Made with just 8 ingredients and topped with creamy chocolate coconut frosting!
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup (90g) Hu Gems (or dark chocolate chips)
- 3/4 cup (105g) coconut sugar
- 1 1/4 cup (300g) almond milk
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/4 cup (160g) cassava flour*
- 1/2 cup (50g) cacao or cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Chocolate Frosting
- 1 cup (250g) coconut cream**
- 1/4 cup (25g) cacao or cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp (40g) maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Melt the chocolate with the almond milk. Stir until smooth.
- Whisk in the coconut sugar and apple cider vinegar.
- Add the rest of the cupcake ingredients and mix.
- Spoon into a cupcake pan with paper liners, filling each ¾ of the way.
- Bake for 25 minutes at 350ºF.
- Cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, beat all the ingredients together with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Chill to thicken.
- Frost cooled cupcakes and eat.
- Keep leftovers sealed in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze unfrosted cupcakes for longer storage.
Notes
*Spelt or all purpose would work as well. For an oat flour option, try this recipe instead. Or for almond flour, try these.
**Just the solid part scooped our of a can of full fat coconut milk that has been chilled overnight.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 336
- Sugar: 25g
- Sodium: 282mg
- Fat: 8g
- Saturated Fat: 4g
- Carbohydrates: 50g
- Fiber: 6g
- Protein: 3g
Keywords: gluten free, cassava, grain free, birthday, frosting, dairy free, egg free, baking, dessert
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Hi Natalie! 🤗🤗 Can I use oat flour, or quinoa flour or spelt flour? If I do, do I need to add more baking soda or baking powder? Please reply. Thx. 🤗🤗
Oat flour might turn out a bit gummy, but quinoa or spelt should work! And nope, same amount of baking soda for either 🙂
Thanks 👍👍👍👍👍
Hi Natalie, I messed up this awesome recipe and need your help, please! I used coconut flour instead of cassava flour 🙈 and ended up adding 3/4 cup milk to thin out the batter, then baked in mini muffin tin for 17 mins, until toothpick came out clean. Flavor was good but texture was fluffy and soft— way too soft, no bite— and they completely fell apart, even after allowing to cool. Any suggestions? Should I have added an egg or flax egg as a binder? Next time, I will try to sub the cassava flour with white whole wheat flour since I just learned that wheat flour is the closest to it in terms of texture. Thx in advance. Great recipes and blog, btw!! 😄
Coconut flour is VERY unique and can rarely be subbed for other flours, so that’s definitely the issue. I think if you try with cassava or wheat next time you will be all good with no other tweaks!!
Got it, thanks so much! 🙂
These look amazing! I’m wondering if I can substitute lemon juice for the acv? Thanks!
Yep that will work too, same amount 🙂
Yes! I don’t think there’s ever been a more necessary time for chocolate!!!
Right?! Couldn’t agree more, hope you are consuming lots too Tori🍫😂
So excited to try these!! Would I do an even substitute if using coconut milk?
Canned/full-fat or the carton kind? It would be the same amount of either, but I don’t really recommend full-fat here since they are already so rich it may make them less fluffy 🙂
Thank you! What brand of cassava flour do you use? I have a lot of trouble getting anything with cassava to turn out 😕
I typically use the Edward and Sons brand, but I have also used Otto’s and Thrive Market brands with good results! Haven’t noticed a ton of differences brand to brand with cassava myself, what brands have you tried?
This had a better flavour than all the vegan chocolate cakes I’ve tried, thank you so much for the recipe!
That is the best feedback, THANK YOU! I am so happy you enjoyed❤️
Sooooo good! And so easy!!! Loved them! Thank you!
★★★★★
I am so happy to hear it!! Thanks for the feedback, Amanda❤️
I would just like to say that I appreciate your recipes so much! My husband is on an elimination diet and isn’t eating eggs or almonds (and a bunch of other things!) and this means many paleo recipes aren’t going to work for us. I jokingly describe his current diet as grain-free vegan with meat, ha! I am going to make these cupcakes for my son’s 3rd birthday (with homemade walnut milk) and I am so glad that dad will be able to join us for the dessert celebration! Thanks so much.
Oh man that sounds tricky😆 But I hope it helps him and it is possible to find recipes for just about any diet these days truly. Cassava flour is great for grain/nut free baking, works super similar to wheat in my opinion, so I hope you guys all love them. Appreciate the kind words and let me know how it goes❤️
Wow, these were very very tasty and had a pleasing texture! We didn’t even need to frost them – husband loved them! And the toddler had a few bites, which is a huge win 🙂 Thank you again!
Aw yay!! I am so happy they were a success with everyone😊 Thanks for the feedback Jackie!
THESE ARE MY NEW FAVOURITE CUPCAKES!!! No complaints, they were fluffy, moist and so easy to make.
★★★★★
YESSSSS!! That is incredible feedback, I am so happy you love them Arianna❤️
Every time I make something with cassava flour it always turns out gummy do you have any tips on how to prevent that?
That can definitely happen with egg-free cassava recipes! In this recipe the cocoa powder for a large portion of the dry ingredients helps prevent that. I also love adding just a little bit of coconut flour to cassava recipes to help the crumb texture. And nut butter can also help with structure. So it really depends on the recipe, there is no across the board answer here unfortunately!
Can this be done as a cake? Looks amazing!
Sure! I’d recommend an 8″ square or round pan and bake it a little longer, around 35 mins 🙂
Can I use lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar?
Yes that will work!
This came out fabulous in a cake version!
YAY!! Yes converts great to a single layer cake, I am so happy you liked it Anna🤗
Nice taste and texture, very soft but the batter was very thin. I filled the muffin tins 3/4 full but they overflowed. I dont know what went wrong. I reduced the sugar by about 2 tablespoons. Other than that, I followed the recipe.
None of those changes sound like they should make them overflow! Just fill a little less next time. I’m happy you enjoyed the flavor!
I also used soy milk and chocolate chunks.
I tried to make these and the mixture was just really dry. I measured everything correctly and followed the instruction. But I thought maybe that’s how the texture is meant to be. I put them in the oven and i can’t even describe it. They turned out awful and I don’t know what I did wrong 😫😫😫
Oh no!! That should definitely not be the case. Did you measure by weight or cups? Was your almond milk cold or room temp? What kind of chocolate did you use?
These cupcakes are the absolute best!!!
★★★★★
So so happy you love them too!
Hi! Can I replace cassava with bobs red mill 1:1 gluten free baking flour?! And can I add peanut butter to the frosting??
I haven’t tested these with 1:1 GF flour, but it should be okay. And yes, some PB whipped in would be fine in the frosting!
These were sooo good and allergy friendly for school! (Easily made top 8 free) we are not vegan but allergic to eggs and wheat so we used regular dairy milk. But I was blown away! Can we see more cassava flour recipes for cupcakes? Like vanilla or other flavored cupcakes?
Hi Leena! I am so so happy you liked these and they worked for your family! Here are a few other cassava cupcake recipes I have already posted:
https://feastingonfruit.com/vegan-paleo-vanilla-cupcakes/
https://feastingonfruit.com/chai-cupcakes/
https://feastingonfruit.com/sunbutter-jelly-cupcakes/
If there is another flavor you’d really like let me know! Appreciate your feedback❤️
Would love to see a fruit flavored one like mango/raspberry/strawberry. Or hazelnut chocolate! What about a lava cupcake? With a soft slightly melty ganache inside.
Lemon flavor would also be amazing. thank you!
These are all delicious ideas, I will add them to my list to create!
Hey. I was just wondering if this recipe could be made on a sheet tray and then rolled into a log cake??
I haven’t tried that personally so I can’t speak for sure, but in general gluten-free cakes need a lot more starch/sticky flours to be able to roll into a log, so I am afraid it would crack😬
oh okay thank you so much but do you think there is anything I could add or do to stop it from cracking???
You could try adding some tapioca or cornstarch. Also using an all purpose or GF all purpose flour blend instead of oat flour, would probably be best. Good luck!
Thank you so much and thank you for such quick responses
Hey Natalie! I have a question. Is the apple cider vinegar mandatory??
Not necessarily! It reacts with the baking soda and helps them rise, but if you swap in baking powder instead you won’t really need it. Another acid like lemon juice would work in it’s place too!
OH okay thank you so much!
Hi, is it possible to sub the coconut sugar for agave syrup if I reduced the amount of almond milk? Am thinking of trying 1/2 cup of agave syrup in place of 3/4 coconut sugar and reducing the almond milk to 1 cup. Any input would be great.
I am trying to keep the sugar level as low as possible and have read that agave is better than coconut sugar in keeping glycemic levels low.
Hi Rose! You can certainly try that, but in my experience coconut sugar or brown sugar both add a surprising amount of moisture to baked goods (even though they are dry sweeteners), so my concern is that agave won’t release that natural moisture while baking that coconut sugar does and reducing the milk as well will leave you with dry cupcakes. Not saying that you shouldn’t reduce the milk if you are going to try a liquid sweetener, but I just worry the end product will be drier.
You could try this vegan/paleo chocolate cake recipe instead and sub in agave for the maple syrup: https://feastingonfruit.com/dark-chocolate-mini-bundt-cakes/#tasty-recipes-23551-jump-target I have more confidence in that suggestion!
Thank you- I will look into that recipe.
😊