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 don't only look beautiful, but they taste amazing! 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
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).
Nutrition Facts
The nutrition facts provided are an estimate per serving. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Originally published on Aug 31, 2019. Updated with improved text, recipe, pictures, and video on Nov 26, 2022.
Meg says
These cakes are absolutely delicious . So moist , which is not the case with many healthy recipes. Definitely going to try other healthy cake recipes on our blog.
Bea says
Hi Meg! Glad to know that you liked them. I'm with you on that one, healthy bakes don't need to be unbearable and sad. Thank you for your feedback and yes, do check around our website for more healthy recipes ❤️.
Raveena Chakilam says
Hi. Can I make cake with the same batter ? Can I add some melted dark chocolate into the batter ?
Bea says
Hi! I haven't tried but I don't see why not. Hope it helps!
Adriana Goncalves says
Hi Bea, how can we substitute the milk? Vegetable milk would work?
Thank you.
Bea says
Hi Adriana! You can use coconut milk instead, hope it helps 🙂
Enna says
what if I dont have an oat flour? Can I use coconut flour instead ? Thanks!
Bea says
I haven't tried but I don't think it'll work as both flours react differently. Sorry!
Abby says
I have made these twice and they have come out delicious and lovely each time. I used rolled oats ground into flour and sweetened dates instead of coconut flour, I also used vegetable oil instead of coconut oil, and vinegar instead of lemon juice. They still came out yummy each time.
Abby says
Instead of coconut *sugar
Bea says
That's great Abby! It's good to know you adapted it to your taste or what you had on hand and liked it. Thanks for stopping by!
Maham Tabassum says
Hi Abby,
Can you please help by mentioning how much of the dates you used? Did you just cut them up into small pieces or used a date paste? Will be super grateful if you could share, since I'm not a big fac of coconut sugar but really wanted to try these. Thanks in advance!
Maham.
Abby says
Hi, saw this late. I used about 125grams of pitted dates. I got a brand that sells compressed pitted dates. I basically had to chop them up and soak in a little hot water before blending until smooth. Hope this helps.
Amy says
Hi Bea, i am planning to make this recipes for daughter's birthday. Can I know what is the egg size for this recipe?
Bea says
Hi Amy! It's large (L) size. Hope it helps and have fun!
Nancy D says
I just made these cupcakes, and they turned out great! So fluffy! Which, for me, is so difficult when not using white flour!
Thank you very much for sharing your recipe.
Bea says
They are, right? Glad that you liked them, thank you for your feedback Nancy!
Dianne Gregson says
So much better than I expected!
Bea says
Awesome! Thank you Dianne!
Alejandra says
Hi! I also cannot find any oat flour. How much do we need to subtitute for All purpose? Thanks in advance!
Abir says
Hi Bea, I would love to try your healthy chocolate cupcakes as I only bake healthy treats for my family. The only issue is that I could not find oat flour in the market due to shortage of many items with the current situation. I do have organic wholemeal spelt flour but not sure what is the ratio to oat flour in your recipe. Could you please assist?
Thank you in advance.
Vesela Dimitrova says
Hello Bea,
I just found your website and already tried two of your recipe! I feel so good I can make some sweets for my toddler and husband that are healthy, yet delicious!
I've made the cupcakes using the sweet potato frosting from the "Healthy Zucchini Chocolate cake" and they turned out great. Will try next time with the peanut one.
Thank you so much for all of your recipes, I will keep trying more! 🙂
All the best!!! Xx
Bea says
Hi Vesela! I'm happy to know that you're enjoying the healthy sweet recipes, I really love developing them! A yummy healthy cookie recipe is coming up 😉 , just letting you know. Thank you so much! XOXO
Omkar says
Hi Bea!!! I am a huge fan of your recipes. I am looking forward to baking these muffins as well.
I just wanted to ask can i replace the sugar with honey? If yes how much honey should I use?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Bea says
Hi there Omkar! Yes you can use honey instead but you might need to adjust the liquid amount though. I can't really say how much since I haven't tried it, sorry!
Zayne says
Did you ever make them with honey? If so how much?
jenn says
HI, can eggs be substituted with chia egg?
Bea says
Hi Jenn! I can't really say since I haven't tried it, sorry!
Christy says
Hi can we substitute coconut sugar with brown sugar and coconut oil with refined oil..?
Thanks
Bea says
Hi Christy! It will be less healthy, but sure you can 🙂
Mike says
Hello guys, I am loving your healthy recipes. These cupcakes together with the frosting - amazing.
Thanks!
Bea says
Hey thank you so much Mike! 😀
Patricia Salas Marlow says
Can you please share the recipe for the healthy frosting as well?
Bea says
I've shared it yesterday, do check it out 🙂
Ananya SK says
Hello! Can you please share the recipe for the healthy frosting as well?