These grain-free Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes are absolutely perfect for birthday celebrations. Because so many of you have nut allergies, I decided this had to be a nut-free cupcake recipe! Be sure to check out my Nut-Free Recipes page if you are on a nut-free diet, or if your children go to a school with a nut-free food policy.
Made with coconut oil, these cupcakes are also a fabulous dairy-free dessert. While I’ve been on a strict grain-free diet since 2001, my recipes continue to evolve within the grain-free genre, as I learn more about various healthy foods. Coconut oil has been a favorite ingredient of mine for some time, but for the past year or so my focus has been on eating as much coconut oil as I can. Sometimes that means eating it straight out of the jar, other times I add it to everything I cook. Most days I do both.
A good deal of anecdotal evidence points to coconut oil as a fabulous brain food. Here’s a video that discusses the health benefits of coconut oil.
Did you ever notice that the rise of various brain disorders (ADD, Autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, etc.) happened to take place in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when the fat-free diet was all the rage? I think many people’s brains may have been malnourished by the pervasive lack of fat in the Standard American Diet during this period.
My Paleo Chocolate Cupcake recipe is full of good fat! I hope your family enjoys these gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free chocolate cupcakes as much as we do!
Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup cacao powder
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ⅓ cup honey
Instructions
- Pulse together dry ingredients in a food processor
- Pulse in wet ingredients
- Line a muffin pan with paper liners and scoop ¼ cup batter into each
- Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes
- Cool and serve
Frost these Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes with my amazing Paleo Chocolate Frosting. Here are some of my other easy paleo cupcake recipes!
FR says
Also, what do you recommend as a substitute for coconut oil? I just found out I am allergic to coconut. My doctor placed me on a a strict Paleo diet, with further restrictions due to multiple food allergies (coconut, rice, eggs, all nightshade veggies, parsley, vanilla, peppermint, oregano, zucchini…and the list goes on and on). I am supposed to use a rotation diet to avoid developing further food allergies, but am struggling to do this. MOst of the paleo baking recipes use coconut oil/flour and/or eggs. I welcome anything you can pass on about substitutes.
Lea G. says
Perhaps Almond Flour if you don’t have a tree nut alergy. You could also try using ghee instead of coconut oil.
FR says
Have you tried using Avacado to make your frosting? There’s a recipe for avacado frosting in the “Everday Paleo” cookbook. I haven’t tried it but it sounds good.
Monica says
I LOVE the simplicity of your recipes!
Clarissa says
Thanks for the great recipe, I can’t wait to try these this weekend! I think I may substitute date syrup for the honey since the flavor profile of date syrup is really great with chocolate!
Helen Grayson says
i use the cocoanut oil, also. My skin is so dry and especially my scalp gets so itchy. I put some on tips of fingers and rub it into scalp. It disappears in no time and is helpful for the itch. I read where a preacher was so affected by dimentia that he had to stop preaching. His wife started making him oatmeal with a couple of tablespoons of cocoanut oil in it and in a couple of weeks he started coming back!!!!! I use it for everything.
Helen Grayson says
Wanted to tell you about a great icing for any cake or bar — soak dates in water for about an hour then drain and pulse in food processor until smooth Add a couple of tablespoons of liquid and spread — wonderful icing and so good for you. I used 2 or 3 tablespoons of half and half but you could use anything you wanted to make it more spreadable.
Jamie V. says
Oooh I’m very excited to try these. Holding out for that paleo frosting, though. I’m sure the coconut frosting from the cookbook would work well with this, too, though!
Not only do I cook with coconut oil, but I use it as a nighttime moisturizer. I put tiny bit on my fingertips and rub it into my face and neck and I don’t ever wake up greasy.
Jamie says
Elena,
When your recipes call for coconut oil do you melt it first or use it as a solid? Thanks!
Kim says
If you pulse the wet ingredients with the dry in the food processor it doesn’t matter. Mine was solid and it blended right up.
Rose says
Is it supposed to be really liquidly after you pulse all of it together? Mine is like the consistently of a can of coconut milk?
KB says
“Did you ever notice that the rise of various brain disorders (ADD, Autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, etc.) happened to take place in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when fat free was all the rage? I think a lot of people’s brains were possibly malnourished by the pervasive lack of fat in the Standard American Diet during this period.”
I have to take issue with this. I’m autistic and have two kids on the spectrum. They come from different marriages so it’s pretty obvious I passed my genes on to them.
I have my theories about where I got my autistic traits and they have nothing to do with eating fat-free. My mother was a nurse so she had her family eating a well-balanced diet. Butter was always on the table for veggies and my father could grill a mean steak (for the record, my brother and I were rail thin as kids and very active). My kids also eat well-balanced, healthy meals.
Also my husband and one of my children have ADHD. It is a biochemical/neurological condition in which the frontal lobes of the brain are “asleep,” thus the reason stimulants are an effective treatment. Diet alone neither causes it nor cures it – keeping certain processed and artificial foods off the plate helps, but it’s not a panacea.
There wasn’t a “rise” in these conditions during the ’80s and ’90s. It’s that we became more aware of these things because the stigmas surrounding mental and neurological disorders started going away and because they became more talked about in the media. We also started debunking phonies in the medical industry such as Bruno Bettelheim, who blamed autism on poor mothering, which made way for research that was more valid.
Experts have known about autism since before World War II. A doctor was describing children with ADHD in 1798. We’ve known about Alzheimer’s for over 100 years, Parkinson’s for almost 200… just because there weren’t labels to identify them back then doesn’t mean they were more rare.
You’re entitled to your opinion; however, please be fair when doing so and base it on facts.
Michele says
These are excellent points KB. No matter what decade we are in, it seems we are always hypnotized by misinformation. We always think we are “right” about things, to later be shown we really have no idea.
Since my so-called “neurological health issues” have not improved after years of following all the “most healthiest diet regimes and claims”, I have wondered if the (seeming) increase in disease/allergies could be more related to our toxic water supply. What if our immune systems have become compromised by water (and the ripple of its toxicity), yet making it present as issues with food or allergies or whatnot? It wouldn’t be the first time that plagues based on water happened, and we know how history likes to repeat itself. It is kind of interesting how we seem to generally ignore all the news about toxic water, yet we continually get transfixed on “miracle cures”.
Plus, if we actually looked at the ripple effect of ramping up coconut production in the world to meet a growing demand for the oils/milks/waters, I wonder if it would look as miraculous. For instance, take a look at what increasing palm oil production has done to ecosystems like in Borneo. The sweet face of a baby orangutan gives you an idea. Lately I have been leaning more towards using local butter made from happy organic grass-fed dairy cows, and am getting ready to make ghee with it. Is that better? I have no idea.
That said, as you point out, we also seem to have “genetic issues” that keep us guessing too. Bottom line, there are no best, easy, or guaranteed answers. In the meantime, it must be okay to eat cupcakes sometimes .. a comfort food that brings a simple joy.
RM says
how many of you with neurological conditions like autism, multiple sclerosis, etc, have actually gotten tested for lyme disease, mycoplasma, herpes viruses, and other tick borne infections? Do any of you have any idea that mycoplasma and tick borne infections can still wreck havoc on your health despite healthy eating if they go untreated? I have a child with an autism, ADHD and ODD labels. Guess what is really wrong with him? Lyme disease, two viruses, mycoplasma infection, and possibly other tick borne infections we are testing for this week. Also has an autoimmune disease that affects his brain and was triggered by these illnesses.
We should focus on good nutrition and clean eating, but we should also rule infections that can be making our brains and bodies sick.
Rachel says
“I’m autistic and have two kids on the spectrum. They come from different marriages so it’s pretty obvious I passed my genes on to them.”
Both your kids would have been on very similar diets, most likely the same sort of diet you grew up on. Genetics play a part, but do you deny that toxins, poisons, drugs, exposure etc affect the body in a negative way? And if you don’t deny it, then why discredit the fact that food, the very substance that all humans need in order to keep organs functioning, blood pumping, toxins dispelling, cells forming, could be causing severe effects on our health if the wrong foods are eaten?
For instance, cows “can” eat corn, just as we “can” eat sugar in the sense that it goes in one end, makes us feel full, and comes out the other. But what it’s doing at a biochemical level is important: Cows have neutral PH stomachs. Corn increases the acidity of the stomach dramatically, causing all sorts of health problems – for instance: liver disease. “Cows are biologically designed to eat grass, so their livers are unable to process the corn. The cows’ livers would actually explode if they were permitted to grow to full maturity, but we slaughter them first.” – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22834048
So, what are you biologically designed to eat? What effect would foods that you weren’t designed to eat have on your health, or your kids health? I can guarantee chocolate cupcakes, coconut flour or not, certainly aren’t on the list of foods we were biologically designed to eat.
“I have my theories about where I got my autistic traits and they have nothing to do with eating fat-free.”
What is your theory?
There’s plenty of scientific evidence that fat is vital and necessary to human health in assimilating nutrients, creating hormones, building cell membranes, etc, and especially to the brain as it’s something like 75% cholesterol. The nutrient content of natural fat vs. some processed food (even processed fats) which has been heated to oblivion, genetically modified, molecularly altered, doused with neurotoxins or not properly prepared in a way which allows our body to digest it and absorb it’s nutrients isn’t comparable.
Scientists say that eating sugar is actually worse than eating nothing because it not only provides zero nutritional value, but it leeches nutrients and minerals from your bones, blood, and body. Do you think your brain is exempt from damage?
“My mother was a nurse so she had her family eating a well-balanced diet. Butter was always on the table for veggies and my father could grill a mean steak (for the record, my brother and I were rail thin as kids and very active). My kids also eat well-balanced, healthy meals.”
So, what is your idea of “well-balanced” and “healthy” meals? If you want to eat “well-balanced” for your body you have to eliminate the foods it wasn’t meant to consume, ie: your “corn”. Do you have bread on the table? Do you give your kids sugar in any form – including honey, agave nectar (which is actually higher in fructose than high fructose corn syrup and is incredibly damaging to the body and arteries), or any other “healthy” sweet alternative? Are they eating fruit? Do you drink juice? Pasteurized milk, non fat yogurt and dairy products which are just glorified sweets almost devoid of nutrients? Tortillas? Packaged foods which contain a preservative? Or say “natural flavors” – aka MSG? (See: Scientific explanation as to why sugar is “Toxic” http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/sugar5.php ) Also, read up on the cause of Type II Diabetes, which is a 100% avoidable degenerative disease caused by diet. Autoimmune diabetes is obviously a different story.
If you’re eating a moderate protein, high fat, minimal carb (meaning vegetables only, and in limited amounts) then yes, you are eating what your BODY would consider to be a “well-balanced” diet. It’s not rocket science, it’s a mixture of history and science. What were our bodies DESIGNED to eat? Do we achieve a healthful response or a negative response biochemically when these foods are consumed? And what are the consequences of eating things it isn’t designed to eat?
“Also my husband and one of my children have ADHD. It is a biochemical/neurological condition in which the frontal lobes of the brain are “asleep,” thus the reason stimulants are an effective treatment.”
Pesticides are neurotoxins. Do you eat produce?http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/food.jsp?food=TO What else is a neurotoxin? MSG: Smoke flavoring, anything that contains soy, malt, caseinate, carageenan, beef “flavoring” or anything that says “flavoring” (this list goes on quite a while). Do any of your foods contain this? Probably a healthy portion of them do (no pun intended).
“Diet alone neither causes it nor cures it – keeping certain processed and artificial foods off the plate helps, but it’s not a panacea.”
So you admit that it helps – why not go all the way by going on an ALL FOODS diet (not everything the Western Diet calls “food” is actually food by definition; if it was then rocks, asphalt and bleach would be considered “food” as well) and eliminating everything which you know is detrimental to your health? (you’d have to be actively avoiding seeking information on nutrition to not realize how unhealthy carbs, toxins, chemicals, and GMOs are). The first thing people think is that diet too “extreme”. I’d say it’s a lot more “extreme” to live with and cause disease just so you can eat a cookie or a cupcake.
“There wasn’t a “rise” in these conditions during the ’80s and ’90s. It’s that we became more aware of these things because the stigmas surrounding mental and neurological disorders started going away and because they became more talked about in the media. We also started debunking phonies in the medical industry such as Bruno Bettelheim, who blamed autism on poor mothering, which made way for research that was more valid.”
Good point – I think it would be difficult to prove a rise in mental and neurological disorders, whereas physical disorders are often evident in the corpse long after its been in the ground. However, do a quick research project on the rate of these diseases in populations which consume a more traditional diet (aka natural, low carb) vs the staggering numbers in Western populations. Also, the rise in these and other degenerative diseases, and early onset in children, in countries that are only recently switching over to modern western diets, like Japan.
With all our advanced Western medicine, should we really have such a sick population?
“Experts have known about autism since before World War II. A doctor was describing children with ADHD in 1798. We’ve known about Alzheimer’s for over 100 years, Parkinson’s for almost 200… just because there weren’t labels to identify them back then doesn’t mean they were more rare.”
And yet neuroscientists are warning the population that MSG (in its many forms, see above), prescription drugs, artificial ingredients and sweeteners, vaccines, and food additives actually cause these diseases – Here’s how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOlOx9fZR7o and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZk4lEsU140 .
So, since genetics may play a small part in predisposing people to certain illnesses, should we all just throw in the towel and succumb to these degenerative diseases? “According to former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop, of the 2.4 million deaths that occur in the United States each year, 75% are the result of avoidable nutritional factor diseases.” – and that is the MOST conservative statistic I could find.
“You’re entitled to your opinion; however, please be fair when doing so and base it on facts.”
I agree. Let’s stick to the facts. Read up on Dr. Ron Rosedale, Dr. Russell Blaylock, Dr. Mercola, Dr. Weston A. Price to start out. You’ll find a lot of consolidated information on Healing Naturally by Bee. Get healthy.
Parting thought: Why do you think you’re not hearing about this on every news channel? Michelle Obama, our own First Lady, can’t even seem to be heard! She’s been preaching this to children for a couple years now. The pharmaceutical industry is the second largest industry in the world. The USDA is run by people who have financial motivation to support the current food industry. WHERE is the money? Who speaks the loudest? It’s not paranoia, it’s just thinking for yourself. Don’t let them do it for you.
Rachel says
P.s. I have been diagnosed with: Chronic pancreatitis, pre-diabetes, reactive hypoglycemia, PCOS, multiple food allergies and chemical sensitivities, Sjogren’s Syndrome, anxiety, depression, ADHD, scoliosis, Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome, mitral valve prolapse … I can keep going. I’m young, active, always been in shape, ate the “healthy, balanced” Western Diet. I believed all this stuff was hooey until I got desperate enough to begin the all fat, protein and limited vegetable diet. I now take no medication and most of my “diseases” and symptoms have evanesced… So this is coming from one “sick” person to another.
laura3gsd says
kb, could not say it better. In fact I had a more simple comment and that is to say that my grandmother on my mothers side died from alzheimers when I was 2 (1965) and so did my mother (2010); neither were into low fat cooking and eating; neither am I. I don’t believe the correlation is there; but that the coconut oil has something extra that can pass through and feed the brain and therefor is beneficial. That is not necessarily so with other fats. All this said, I am trying to get onto a grain free diet (baby steps!) because thus far, unlike other diet recommendations, it makes me feel good physically. I am greatful to bloggers who share these recipes. :)
Kim says
I made these today and they’re delicious! I tried a chocolate frosting, but I think they might do even better with a cream cheese frosting since they remind me of a carrot bran muffin or carrot cake. Thanks for another yummy recipe!