These are gluten-free (I bet you didn't expect that, right?), made with healthier ingredients, and I'm telling you, they're so delicious! Tender healthy chocolate cupcakes topped with my 2-ingredient healthy chocolate frosting, with less than 290 calories/cupcake with the frosting included!
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They not only look beautiful, but they taste amazing, like our blueberry protein muffins! You won't miss the classic chocolate cupcakes, which are overly sweet.
I'm using purely gluten-free oat flour for the cupcakes, yep. And they don't have that sticky, dense, gummy-like texture that you usually see whenever you use oat flour. No, sir! I tested this recipe several times to make sure that doesn't happen.
If you're gluten intolerant then you might want to check out my other healthy gluten-free recipes like my carrot cake cookies, apple cider doughnut cake, and my 4-ingredient chocolate bomb. They're delicious and you wouldn't believe they're gluten-free!
Recipe Ingredients And Substitutions
Oat flour - It's basically oats that you grind into a fine texture. You can buy or make it yourself.
NOTE: If you make it yourself, measure the amount of oat flour after grinding the oats, not before.
Cocoa powder - I use unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder. Although I've used natural cocoa powder and it worked fine also.
Milk (for cupcakes) - Any milk of your choice. I use full-fat plain milk.
Coconut sugar - I love the hint of caramel from it. So delicious!
SUBSTITUTIONS: Any dry sweetener of choice. Brown sugar, monk fruit, and erythritol are available as long as they are in dry form, not liquid.
Coconut oil - Love the slight coconut flavour that it infuses into the cupcakes. I also love to use it in my healthy chocolate chip cookies and my healthy carrot cake muffins!
SUBSTITUTIONS: Any oil of choice will work great. Olive oil and avocado oil, for example.
Coconut milk (for frosting) - Full fat. Love the flavor! Also, it makes the frosting hold up a bit better than if you were to use low-fat coconut milk or regular milk. Coconut milk thickens significantly when chilled in the fridge due to the fat content, which in this case, helps our delicious frosting texture.
The Best 2-Ingredient Chocolate Frosting
Why do I urge you to make this frosting? Because of these 3 obvious reasons.
1. It only takes 2 ingredients: dark chocolate and coconut milk, that's it! Use your favorite chocolate, be it dark or semisweet, just like in our delicious mini salted chocolate tarts. Your choice.
2. It's light, fluffy, and very sturdy for you to use for frosting, as you can see. The frosting has sharp, crisp edges and holds its shape exceptionally well.
3. It doesn't have cups and cups of processed sugar! It's sweet enough to enjoy without having that feeling of the sugar rush.
Step-By-Step Instructions
- Mix all the dry ingredients well, and set aside.
- Make buttermilk in a bowl by adding lemon juice to some milk, and leave for 10 minutes.
- Add the rest of the wet ingredients and whisk well.
- Pour all of the dry ingredients and whisk very well until there are no lumps.
- Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin liners. Bake in a preheated oven at 350ºF (175ºC) for 18-22 minutes; cool completely before using.
- Melt chocolate with coconut milk and mix well.
- Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Whisk the chocolate for more or less 10 minutes until it gets light and fluffy and turns pale in color. Frost your cupcakes!
Recipe Expert Tips
- Mix cupcake batter really well as oat flour is quite difficult to blend as it tends to make small lumps of flour. Don't worry about over-mixing the batter, you won't get dense cupcakes because you won't be developing any gluten (because there's none!).
- Whisk the frosting for quite a long time, more or less 10 minutes, to get that fluffy, light texture. If you like the frosting to be looser, add 1 tablespoon of coconut milk at a time, and whisk to get to your desired consistency.
- Use a portable oven thermometer to get the accurate oven temperature. I use it all the time.
How To Store and Freeze
Store-Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for four days. They last up to 7 days in the fridge.
Freeze-Freeze the cupcakes (frosted or unfrosted) in an air-tight container for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge.
Recipe FAQs
Oat is gluten-free, but it's often handled together in the factories with other grains like wheat, which risks contaminating it with gluten traces. Find oats or oat flour labeled "gluten-free" to really be safe if you cannot consume gluten products.
Watch How To Make Them
📖 Recipe
Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes
Video
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cup (170 g) oat flour
- ½ cup (40 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) salt
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup (125 ml) milk , room temperature
- ½ tablespoon (0.5 tablespoon) lemon juice
- 2 large eggs , room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) coconut sugar
- ½ cup (125 ml) coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting
- 7 oz dark chocolate with Stevia , chopped in small pieces
- ½ cup full-fat coconut milk
Instructions
Dry Ingredients
- Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, and set aside.
Wet Ingredients
- Make buttermilk by adding milk and lemon juice into a bowl and leaving it untouched for 10 minutes.
- Then add the rest of the ingredients. Whisk to mix everything well, using a hand whisk. Now add in the dry ingredients and whisk until you get a smooth batter with no lumps.
- Using an ice cream scoop, divide batter evenly into muffin pan lined with muffin papers.
Bake
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350ºF (175ºC), without the fan, on a lower ⅔ rack for 18-22 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool completely on a rack.
Frosting
- Heat coconut milk in a pot until it starts bubbling on the edges, and then pour it into a bowl containing the chocolate. Leave untouched for 2 minutes. Using a hand whisk, then whisk the mixture until it becomes thick and smooth.
- Chill in the fridge for 1 hour. Using a hand-held mixer, whisk the frosting until it becomes fluffy, light and pale in colour. This will take more or less 10 minutes. Scrape the side of the bowl with a spatula now and then.
- Frost the cupcakes as you wish and serve!
Notes
- Use a portable oven thermometer to get the accurate oven temperature (I use it all the time).
Originally published on Aug 31, 2019. Updated with improved text, recipe, pictures, and video on Nov 26, 2022.
Sophie says
Hello! I love this recipe and have been making those for over a year now. My son's birthday is coming up and I wanted to make a dozen of them in chocolate, and another dozen plain, without the cocoa powder (and use white chocolate chips for the frosting). What can I substitute for the 1/2 cup cocoa powder? Can I just omit it or should I replace it work something? Thank you!
Bea & Marco says
Hi, Sophie! We're so happy to hear you've been enjoying the recipe! For the plain (non-chocolate) version, although we haven't tried but you can omit the 1/2 cup cocoa powder and replace it with 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour to keep the texture and structure similar. Using white chocolate chips for the frosting sounds delicious, your son is in for a real treat! Let us know how they turn out!
Ana Velia Chávez T says
Hola!!
No puedo ver las medidas para la receta. Podrían enviarla por favor. Gracias!!!
Bea & Marco says
Hola Ana! Tienes todas las medidas al final del post, en la tarjeta de la receta. Saludos!
Carla says
Hi! I made this for my daughter's birthday and they were amazing! I want to make them again for a friend that can't eat eggs and I was wondering if I could use coconut oil instead? How much? Or should I use something else? Thanks
Bea & Marco says
Hi Carla! I'm sorry for the late response. I've never made these without eggs so I can't really say. Perhaps you could try experimenting with 2 mashed bananas or chia seed eggs (2 tbsp of chia seeds with 5 tbsp water). Hope it helps in any way. Thank you!