My keto chocolate cupcakes have a moist and fluffy coconut flour crumb and a dreamy-creamy frosting. This easy sugar free chocolate cupcake recipe is only 4.1g net carbs per serve.
"Such a wonderful treat for chocoholics, yum! So moist and absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe!" (Kim)
I first posted these sugar free cupcakes in 2016 and they have been a reader favorite ever since.
Today, I re-made this recipe to take new (better) images. I also added more details to the post.
The best part? I got to eat the cupcakes again!
When a recipe is over 8 years old, it's easy to think that "it can't be that good, because it's old". But you know, good recipes stay good. And with a little tweak, I managed to make the frosting EVEN YUMMIER.
If you have a birthday party or celebration coming up, these cupcakes are going to be a hit with your guests. They taste sinfully chocolatey and have a light yet moist and fluffy crumb. You'd never guess they are keto.
Also try my classic (vanilla flavored) keto cupcakes.
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What's To Love About This Recipe
Easy and quick! The cupcakes come together with only 5 minutes of prep.
Low carb: By using coconut flour instead of wheat and a sugar free sweetener instead of sugar, we are keeping the net carbs at only 4.1g per cupcake.
Dairy-free: No butter needed! The cupcake batter calls for coconut oil. I also swapped the original chocolate icing with a dairy-free avocado chocolate frosting similar to the one from my keto avocado brownies.
Ingredients
You'll find exact quantities in the recipe card at the bottom of the post, but I wanted to give you a bit of extra info right here:
CUPCAKES
- Coconut Flour - Sift it first if it is clumpy. Also, to ensure you don't accidentally use too much, measure it with kitchen scales.
- Cocoa Powder - Must be unsweetened cocoa powder. Cacao powder is also fine.
- Sweetener - When I first published the recipe, I used granulated erythritol. Now I make it with allulose. I give you amounts for both in the recipe card.
- Eggs - Should be room temperature so the cupcakes rise well.
- Coconut Oil - Melted and cooled. You could also use butter.
- Baking Powder - Check that it is fresh!
- Cinnamon and Vanilla - Both enhance the flavor, but are not essential.
- Chocolate - I added chopped 90% Lindt chocolate into the batter. You can also use sugar free chocolate chips.
FROSTING
- Avocado - Must be ripe, with soft green flesh and no dark spots.
- Cocoa Powder and Powdered Sweetener
Optionally, you could add a pinch of salt and ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract to the frosting.
(The chocolate icing from my original recipe is now in the "Variations" section below.)
Instructions
It is simple to make keto chocolate cupcakes. Here are the basic steps.
Scroll down to the recipe card for the detailed method with ingredient amounts, timings and nutrition information.
STEP 1
In a food processor or in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, blend your wet ingredients - eggs, coconut oil and vanilla extract.
STEP 2
Add the dry ingredients - cocoa powder, baking powder, coconut flour, vanilla extract and sweetener of choice - and blend until smooth.
STEP 3
Stir in the chopped chocolate or sugar free chocolate chips.
STEP 4
Fill the cupcake batter into paper muffin liners or directly into a silicone muffin pan.
STEP 5
Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven until the tops are lightly domed and a toothpick inserted comes out without any crumbs sticking.
STEP 6
Blend the avocado, cocoa powder and powdered sweetener until smooth. Fill into a piping bag and pipe onto the fully cooled cupcakes.
Katrin's Recipe Notes
#1 Taste the batter. And adjust the sweetener if necessary. We all have a different idea of what the perfect amount of sweetness is.
#2 Fill the paper cups to ¾ height with batter. This way, the cupcakes have little domes, but are flat enough for the frosting. The mixture makes 8 cupcakes. (I made only 7 this time around and realised that 8 would have been perfect.)
#3 Don't over-bake! We don't want the cupcakes to dry out. The tops should feel spongy - this means they are done.
#4 No piping bag? Spread the chocolate avocado frosting over the cupcakes with a knife or spatula.
Variations
Katrin's original chocolate icing: Melt 2 ounces (50g) dark chocolate with 2 tablespoons (30g) butter. Stir in 3 tablespoons of heavy cream and ¼ cup of powdered sweetener. Let the mixture cool until it thickens. Then, spread it over the cupcakes.
Here is an image of the chocolate cupcakes from 2016 with the original sugar free icing:
No frosting: If you're not into frosting or icing, just leave it out - and enjoy these cupcakes as keto chocolate muffins instead.
Recipe FAQs
I am not a doctor. But I know that my mother in law is type 2 diabetic and she can eat these sugar free cupcakes without spiking her blood sugar levels. Therefore, you could call this a diabetic chocolate cupcake recipe.
You can bake the cupcakes up to 3 days in advance and then add the frosting on the day you want to serve them. Just make sure to store them in an airtight container so they do not dry out.
Yes, the recipe makes 12 mini cupcakes. Bake these for around 14 minutes.
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Keto cupcakes freeze well for up to 3 months. The frosting lightens a little when frozen. However, it returns back to normal once you have defrosted it fully.
More Keto Chocolate Treats
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Recipe
Keto Chocolate Cupcakes
from Sugar Free LondonerNote: The servings slider only changes the first amount in each line and not any subsequent amounts. Please make your own calculations where necessary.
Ingredients
- 4 large or 5 medium eggs
- ¼ cup coconut oil 60ml, melted and cooled (or use butter)
- ¼ cup coconut flour 30g
- 4 tablespoon cocoa powder 25g
- ¼ cup granulated sweetener 50g, or ½ cup (75g) powdered allulose
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 oz dark chocolate 50g, chopped (I used a 90% variety), or use sugar free chocolate chips
Chocolate Frosting
- 2 ripe avocados 1 scant cup / 220g / 7.76 oz, flesh only
- ½ cup cocoa powder 43g
- 5 tablespoon powdered erythritol or 6-7 tablespoon powdered allulose
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Heat the oven to 175 Celsius / 350 Fahrenheit.
- In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer or in a food processor, blend the eggs until fluffy and pale in colour. Then, add the melted and cooled coconut oil and the vanilla extract and blend until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients - coconut flour, cocoa powder, sweetener of choice, baking powder and cinnamon. Blend until a smooth batter forms.
- Stir in the chopped chocolate.
- Spoon the batter into a muffin pan lined with paper cups. Bake for around 20 minutes or until the tops are spongy and firm to the touch.
For the Frosting
- Place all the frosting ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Scrape dwn the sides in between to ensure no green specks remain. Adjust the sweetness to taste.
- Fill the frosting into a piping bag and pipe over the fully cooled cupcakes. Or, simply spread the frosting over with a knife or spatula.
Joan Denizot
Where's the original recipe for the chocolate frosting? Please add it!!
thanks!
Katrin Nürnberger
Hi Joan, it's in the "Variations" section: Katrin's original chocolate icing: Melt 2 ounces (50g) dark chocolate with 2 tablespoons (30g) butter. Stir in 3 tablespoons of heavy cream and ¼ cup of powdered sweetener. Let the mixture cool until it thickens. Then, spread it over the cupcakes.
Amy
I don't have a scale. It says 2 oz of chocolate chips. Is that 1/3 cup?
Katrin Nürnberger
It's in between 1/4 and 1/3 cup.
Kim
Such a wonderful treat for chocoholics, yum! So moist and absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe!
Kim
Ruth Heller
Since I was in desperate need of a treat, and the photos of the chocolate cupcakes appealed to me so irresistibly, I interrupted my current duties to promptly put into action your culinary suggestion.
As always, it was so easy to prepare this special treat step by step according to your instructions, thus quickly a boring rainy day turned into a radiant feast.
Thank you so much for another delicious recipe, Ruth
Carl
As someone who’s just been diagnosed with diabetes, I really need this.
Mina
Hi Katrin, do you think I could use cocoa powder instead of chocolate?
The cocoa powder I have on hand is quite rich and intense so am hoping it might work? But would love to get your opinion before doing so 🙂 Thank you!
Katrin Nürnberger
Hi Mina, the chocolate in the cupcake batter is not essential, as it is chocolate chips (however, I think they do make the cupcake taste richer and just better). The chocolate in the icing, however, cannot just be substituted with cocoa. You would have to do a different icing, using cocoa powder with butter and sweetener, for a frosting that you can pipe, or mix sweetener with cocoa powder and just a little cream for an icing that you can pour.
choi
Hi Katrin,
I made it last week and it was so yummy with a fluffy texture. Good recipe 🙂 We all loved it except it was a bit bitter for my daughter cos I didn't put icing. May you suggest how much more sweetener to be added to make it a bit sweeter. Thank you.
I am going to make a chocolate cake using a 7 inches round pan as I only have this size, do I need to double the ingredients, and how long to bake? Many thanks!!
Katrin Nürnberger
Hi, I would try adding an additional 2 tablespoons for starters, then taste. Add 2 more if necessary, thereby increasing the sweetener to 1/2 cup. Sweetness is always a very personal choice! For a 7 inch cake pan, I would not double the recipe, but use 50% more. The cake should take about 50-60 minutes to bake. Check after 40 minutes and put aluminium foil over the top to prevent burning. Do a toothpick test before removing from the oven to make sure it's fully baked through.
Patricia
How many avocados for the frosting? I assume 2, not 22.
Katrin Nürnberger
Indeed, 2 avocados. See my measurements in cups/grams as well as avos come in many sizes.
choi
Thank you so much for your quick reply!