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Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes & Chocolate Buttercream (Vegan)

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Our Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes are top 8 allergen free, are easy to make, and delicious! These make great allergy friendly birthday or school treats

collage image of gluten free chocolate cupcakes on a wood board

If you have a craving for chocolate cupcakes but have multiple food allergies, then you’re in the right place! Our Gluten free Chocolate Cupcakes and Vegan Chocolate Buttercream are top 8 allergen free, are easy to make, and delicious.

It took me a while to get this recipe just right, I even lost count of the number of chocolate cupcake batches I made when I was developing this recipe. But I tested this recipe so much so that you don’t have to! Some gluten free and vegan cupcake recipes I have found are complicated, but we kept this recipe simple and easy to make.

vegan chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream with a bite taken

If you’re not gluten free and want a regular wheat-flour cupcake that’s still vegan and nut free, check out our popular Vegan Vanilla Cupcake recipe (we have chocolate variations)!

Each time I made the recipe, I made a few changes and tested this with different types of pans, cupcake liners, sweeteners, and other variations (more on that below). Because these have no eggs in them, they are more dense in the middle than a traditional cupcake, and our chocolate cupcakes aren’t overly sweet.

Making the Chocolate Cupcakes

I’ve tested this recipe a bunch of times with some variations in ingredients and types of pans. Both brown rice flour and sorghum flour work great (I use the Authentic Foods ultrafine flour for both), and this recipe bakes well in either a metal pan or a stoneware pan.

overhead photo of gluten free chocolate cupcakes on a blue napkin

This recipe has also been tested with either cane sugar or coconut sugar. I think these are more moist when made with cane sugar, but you can use coconut sugar instead of cane sugar if you like, you just might take one minute off the baking time to keep them moist (but make sure to still check the middle with a toothpick).

We also tested some cupcake liners: both silicone muffin liners and paper muffin liners work for this cupcake recipe. Just make sure that if you’re using silicone cupcake liners not to leave the cupcakes in the silicone liners too long, or they will sweat and make the outside of the cupcake damp.

vegan chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate buttercream in front of a blue napkin

This will also happen with the pan: with any kind of cake or cupcake, you don’t want to leave it in the pan too long or it will sweat on the outside of the cupcake between the cake and the pan. No one likes a soggy cake!

This recipe for chocolate cupcakes sinks just slightly in the middle and doesn’t peak at the top like regular cupcake recipes since there’s no egg in it. But this doesn’t bother me at all and the slight dimple in the middle of the cupcake gets covered up by frosting anyway.

One way to prevent as much sinking in the middle is to divide the batter into 14 cupcakes instead of 12. This reduces the size slightly, and keeps the gluten free cupcakes from sinking as much in the middle (they don’t sink too much as it is).

Making these cupcakes lower in sugar

One of the variations I tried was a lower sugar version of these. The texture is different in the lower-sugar cupcakes: they are a bit more dense and a little bit drier, so if you make the lower sugar option, you’ll want to bake them 1-2 minutes less. You can see the texture difference in the photo below (the lower sugar cupcakes also don’t sink as much in the middle).

unfrosted gluten free chocolate cupcakes
The cupcakes on the left are lower sugar, and the cupcakes on the right are the regular cupcakes.

You can find the lower sugar option in the recipe card notes. Since the lower sugar cupcakes aren’t very sweet, you can add a little bit of vanilla Stevia drops to the batter so that it’s still sweet. Or you can skip the stevia if you like your desserts less sweet!

Making the Vegan Chocolate Buttercream

You can try to replace palm oil with coconut oil in the Chocolate Buttercream recipe if you want, but it will separate and melt easier. Palm oil is more heat stable than coconut oil.

overhead shot of chocolate cupcakes with bite taken, on top of a wood board

If you need, you can adjust the thickness to your liking by adding a little bit of rice milk (1 teaspoon at a time) to make it less thick, or powdered sugar (1 Tablespoon at a time) to make it more thick.

I made the vegan buttercream frosting thick so it would hold up the decorative piping well, but you can adjust the thickness to your liking. Just be aware that if you make it thinner, it might not stand up as well as the frosting in the photos.

gluten free chocolate cupcake on wood board with text overlay

Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes (Vegan)

Our Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes are top 8 allergen free, are easy to make, and delicious! These make great allergy friendly birthday or school treats
Top 8 allergen free, gluten free, vegan, nut free; Free of: soy, eggs, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts
5 from 5 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Cakes, Desserts
Cuisine: American
Keyword: dairy free chocolate cupcakes, gluten free chocolate cupcakes, vegan chocolate cupcakes
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 21 minutes
Total Time: 36 minutes
Servings: 12 cupcakes
Calories: 130kcal

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with muffin papers or silicone muffin liners and set aside. Both silicone liners and paper liners work for this recipe, just make sure not to leave the cupcakes in the silicone muffin liners too long if you choose silicone. 
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, ground flaxseed, salt, and baking powder. 
  • Add to the flour mixture the rice milk, oil, and vanilla and stir to evenly mix to form a chocolate batter. 
  • Divide the batter evenly between 12 lined muffin cups. 
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. I found that it takes 18 minutes to bake in a metal muffin pan, and 2-3 minutes longer to cook in a stoneware muffin pan. 
  • Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan to cool on a wire rack. 
  • Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting. Store in an airtight container for about 3-4 days. Enjoy!

Video

Notes

**For a lower sugar cupcake, you can use just 2/3 cup sugar instead of 1 cup and add a few drops of vanilla Stevia drops. The texture will be more dense and a little bit drier, so cook the lower-sugar version for 1-2 minutes less. 
These cupcakes sink slightly in the middle. You can reduce or prevent this by dividing the batter into 14 cupcakes rather than 12 (please see recipe notes in the blog post). 
Nutrition info is calculated for just the cupcake without the frosting. The frosting nutrition info is calculated in the frosting recipe card. 

Nutrition

Calories: 130kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 0g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 0g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0g | Trans Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 100mg | Potassium: 98mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 0IU | Vitamin C: 0mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 0.3mg
Did you make this recipe?Share a photo on Instagram and tag us @TheFitCookie!

Here’s the recipe for the vegan Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

Vegan Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Vegan, gluten free, nut free. Free of: soy, eggs, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts 
This recipe makes about 1 cup of frosting
5 from 5 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American
Keyword: dairy free frosting, vegan chocolate buttercream, vegan chocolate frosting
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 115kcal

Ingredients

Instructions

  • With a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the palm oil until softened. 
  • Add in slowly the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, rice milk, and vanilla. Beat until mixed thoroughly and smooth. 
  • If you need, you can adjust the thickness to your liking by adding a little bit of rice milk (1 teaspoon at a time) to make it less thick, or powdered sugar (1 Tablespoon at a time) to make it more thick.  

Notes

*If you don’t want to use palm oil, you can use completely softened dairy free butter and omit imitation butter flavor. You may need to add a bit more powdered sugar to get the stiffness/structure in the frosting that you prefer.

Nutrition

Calories: 115kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 0g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 19mg | Fiber: 0g | Sugar: 14g | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 0.2mg
Did you make this recipe?Share a photo on Instagram and tag us @TheFitCookie!

12 thoughts on “Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes & Chocolate Buttercream (Vegan)”

    • Hi Audrey, I think if you used a cassava flour (and not a starch) it might work in this recipe. Otto’s suggests replacing 1:1 for weight or reduce flour amount 25% by volume (so cups, Tablespoons, etc.) for recipes. I think it could work in this recipe although I haven’t tried replacing cassava flour in my recipes yet, I’m not sure how well the cassava flour would do without eggs.

      Reply
    • You can use Bob’s Red Mill flour in this recipe if you also skip the flaxseed since the Bob’s flour has xanthan gum in it. I’d also watch the water since different flour blends absorb water differently as well.

      Reply

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