These Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes are moist, fluffy, and slathered in the most indulgent yet secretly healthy chocolate buttercream! They're easy to make, come together in one bowl, and are refined sugar free too. Perfect for birthdays and other occasions!
How to make the cupcakes
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together all the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl.
- Transfer the mixture into cupcake cases in a muffin/cupcake tin.
- Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes.
- Leave to cool before frosting.
How to make the chocolate frosting
My favourite part of these chocolate cupcakes, as with any cupcake, is the frosting! I used my Chocolate Sweet Potato Buttercream - it's so rich, creamy and velvety, yet is made with sweet potatoes.
Using sweet potatoes means this buttercream is inexpensive and secretly nutritious too. It might sound strange to use sweet potatoes for buttercream, but their naturally creamy texture and high sugar content make them a perfect contender, and once you add the cocoa powder, you honestly won't be able to guess what it's made of.
- Place all the ingredients in a food processor.
- Whizz until completely smooth.
- Make sure the cupcakes have cooled completely before applying the frosting.
- You can apply the frosting with a palette knife for frosting, a spatula, or a piping bag, depending on how fancy you want to be!
How long do these keep for?
These do taste best when fresh, but they keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of oil: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can replace the vinegar with lemon juice.
- You can replace the ground almonds (almond meal) with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version: replace the ground almonds (almond meal) with ground sunflower seeds or use 30g (¼ cup) coconut flour instead of 150g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds.
- You can use plain flour, wholemeal (whole wheat) flour or spelt flour instead of the gluten-free flour if you're not gluten-free.
More vegan chocolate cakes
- Tahini Frosted Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle Cake
- Brooklyn Blackout Chocolate Cake
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Orange Cake
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make it
Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 250 ml (1 cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 12 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 50 g (½ cup) cocoa powder
For the buttercream:
- 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes (400g/14oz in total)
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
Instructions
For the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil).
- Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the vinegar, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and ground almonds.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder.
- Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry.
- Transfer mixture between 12 cupcake cases in a cupcake tin.
- Bake in oven for around 15 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Once out of the oven, leave the cupcakes cool completely before applying the frosting.
For the buttercream:
- Cook sweet potatoes by boiling, steaming or roasting them until very soft and tender.
- Discard any skins, and add to a food processor or blender (or hand-held blender) along with all other ingredients.
- Whizz until completely smooth.
- Taste and adjust ingredients as necessary – add more maple syrup for sweetness, more salt for saltiness, more cocoa powder for chocolate flavour etc.
- Leave to cool before using to frost the cupcakes.
To frost and decorate the cupcakes:
- Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, use a knife or spatula to apply an even amount of frosting to each of the cupcakes.
- Best when fresh, but keeps well covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Video
Notes
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Dora
Hi Rhian, your recipe says to use 1 cup (230ml) of almond milk - do you mean 250ml? And is this the same recipe as your chocolate sponge layer cake? I checked and saw that the ingredients for both recipes are the same, except for the chocolate sponge cake recipe, you said to use 250ml almond milk.
Rhian Williams
Hi Dora, thank you for your message! I'm so sorry for the confusion, yes they're the same recipe and this should be 250ml too, though to be honest it won't really make too much of a difference if you had used 230ml. But will change it to 250ml. So sorry about this and thank you so much for letting me know!
Gina
Hi Rhian,
These look delicious. I’m keen to try, just wondering if when substiting the almond flour for coconut , it’s only 1/4? I noticed the almond meal is 1 1/4? Thanks !
Rhian Williams
Hi! Yes only 1/4 cup for coconut flour!
kathy
Hi Rhian, in the nutrition information do the calories include the frosting or is it just for the cupcake?
Rhian Williams
Frosting is included!
T
I made these. But didnt use almond flour just did all gluten free flour (all purpose). Ive been Trying out recipes before my kids bday. if your someone who isnt yet used to no sugar than these will not be great. Me and my kid thought you could barely taste the cocoa and hardly any sweetness. Really barely any flavor at all. I only made some at first and with the rest of the batch I then added more milk cuz even tho I had already added extra milk they needed alot more, plus added some sugar and more cocoa and they had much better flavor. I'm not sure how I would make the next batch with sugar instead of only maple syrup so I might have to try another recipe to make my daughter birthday cupcakes that wont disappoint on this new (health related) diet.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. Hopefully we are one step closer to perfect cupcake for my girl.
Bozena
I stumbled across you Rhian and what a sweet surprise you are!!! I love your recipes and am thrilled that they are vegan and very easy to achieve!!! I also love that you have explored so many other variables to common items used in vegan baking!! I am excited to try all of your recipes!!
So grateful to have found you!! Have a beautiful day!!!
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so so happy to hear that!!