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!
Michelle says
Elana I just love your recipes however my five year old grandson does not seem to care for coconut Could your Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes be made with almond flour instead of coconut flour or will it comprise the taste/moistness?
Elana says
Michelle, unfortunately, coconut flour and almond flour are very different and not interchangeable in recipes. I think your grandson will love these cupcakes:
https://elanaspantry.com/easy-flourless-chocolate-cupcakes/
Happy Birthday!
Elana
Eloise says
Just made these and topped with paleo nutella! So tasty!
Will definitely be printing off the recipe and popping it in my cookbook folder.
Thanks for the recipe!
Ingrid says
Cupcakes were perfect. Two things: I used four jumbo eggs and it caused an overflow in my cuisinart. Next time I’ll blend the wet in vitamix and add to dry that have been sifted together. Also, the frosting turned out great….little secret-use butter if you can tolerate it. Absolutely superb. Sorry to the paleo police
Tracee says
Grassfed butter was going to my next test batch. The coconut flavor threw my kids off a bit, although I like it. And it can still be Primal although not Paleo =) …that’s how I justify it anyway. Lol. Thanks for giving me hope butter would work before taking the risk.
Wanda says
OMG. So… I made these for my son’s birthday, he turned 1 year old today. We were going to have the cupcakes tonight, but life happens and I decided to freeze them for the weekend. Except one… Cause baby isn’t a baby anymore, I’ve had a rough day and mama needed chocolate! Well, I’ve had baked goods made with coconut flour before and found them very heavy, more puck-like-than-cake-like. So I also expected that with these… And have never been happier to have been proven wrong. Cake texture, delicate but sturdy crumb, amazing richness without being heavy… Just pure cupcake glory. Gonna have to make WAY more of these!!! As a side note, I did use maple syrup instead of honey, used room temp eggs, and melted the oil too.
Serena says
These are great cupcakes but I have no idea how you get 12 cupcakes. The most I have gotten is 9 and I could in no way use a 1/4 cup of batter per cupcake.
Martine says
Me neither. I could only make 9 cupcakes, not one more
Erica M says
These cupcakes are delicious little delights. I occassionally add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of ‘Enjoy Life’ chocolate chips to make a chocolate, chocolate chip version. So yummy and rich!
Emily Davis says
Hrmmm…I followed this to the letter and only got 6 cucpakes.
Marci says
These were really terrific! I subbed 1/4 c erythritol, 2 tbs of cream & 1 tsp of liquid stevia for the honey. I didn’t melt my coconut oil enough & added it with cold ingredients, so it was a little chunky, next time I will be more careful about this. I also tried to make it with my mixer rather than with my food processor, I won’t do that again! All in all a great cupcake, and nut free to boot!
Lisa says
Yeah the mixer wasn’t a good option for me, either! Your comment made me laugh a little because I was just thinking- is it because I used my mixer and not food processor??
Suzanne says
Can someone tell me if the coconut oil is melted or not? Thanks!!
Elana says
Suzanne, no need to melt the coconut oil :-)
Diane says
Hi Stacey don’t know whether this would work as a sub for eggs but in the book Breaking the vicious circle Elaine substituted puréed apple for eggs, I’ve made her almond muffins with puréed apple and they work,but haven’t tried it with Elana’s recipes.