If youโre looking for a simple, classic treat, these gluten free chocolate cupcakes are moist, rich, and bursting with chocolate flavor.ย
Easy cupcake recipes are essential for pulling off last a last minute birthday party – which I always seem to end up doing for the kids in my life (and not just my own kids! ๐ ).ย
I really love gluten-free carrot cupcakes, and one of my kids is a fan of gluten-free vanilla cupcakes, by my other kids and my husband love chocolate, and it’s hard to argue with that!
Back in the day – even less than ten years ago – quality gluten free baked goods were not easy to find. Now theyโre everywhere. And every time I make gluten free treats, Iโm still so grateful with how easy it is now to find decent gluten free flours.ย
Something like these gluten free cupcakes used to be a challenge, and now theyโre not.ย
What are gluten free cupcakes made of?ย
Making gluten free treats does require a little bit of thought though – after all, we canโt just use the all-purpose flour that sits on every grocery store shelf.ย
Here are some general rules:ย
Use finely ground flour. High quality flour is ground very finely. A lot of cheaper flours are coarser, and result in dry, mealy baked good. For rice flour, I like Authentic Food superfine rice flour. For most other flours, I use Judeeโs Ingredients, and usually get sorghum flour from Bob’s Red Mill.ย
Use 1/3-1/2 starch, and 1/2-2/3 flour. The is the best ratio for a gluten-free flour blend. A lot of gluten free grains need a little help in the starch department. The most versatile starches, in my opinion, are cornstarch, and arrowroot powder, with tapioca starch coming in third.ย
Never use more than 33% of any one flour. So if you have 33% starch, youโll need two different flours to make up the other 67%. This is partly for taste. Using all rice can result in a bland, ricy flavor, and using all teff or quinoa can be fairly strong. So use a blend. One of my other favorites (since I already mentioned rice, teff, and quinoa) is sorghum flour. Itโs nice and mild, but different than rice, so the two make a good mix together.ย
Of course, rules were made to be broken, so if you like using all one type of flour, you do you. If you have a recipe with flavors coming from other ingredients, such as these gluten free banana cupcakes, you can get away with a lot more in terms of flour flavor.
Use just the right amount of binder. I usually use guar gum, or xanthan gum. Too little can result in dry, crumbly gluten-free cupcakes, and too much can result in shrunken, gummy cakes.ย
With that said, hereโs the mix I used for this beautiful, delicious gluten free chocolate cupcakes recipe:ย
- 3/4 cup quinoa flour
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon guar gum
With all that said, you can use your favorite high quality gluten free flour mix, such as Pamelaโs gluten free baking mix.ย
Other ingredients in gluten free cupcakes are pretty straight forward – baking powder, soda, salt, eggs, milk, vanilla, cocoa powder, and instant coffee – optional, but it makes the chocolate flavor more intense.ย
What is the secret to moist cupcakes?ย
There are so many factors.ย
In gluten-free baking the quality of your flours are actually a big one. Fine flours with an appropriate starch to flour ratio, and the right amount of guar gum help keep your cupcakes moist.ย
Eggs also help keep your cupcakes moist. The correct wet to dry ingredient ratio, sugar (which acts as a wet ingredient in baking), and oil all help keep your cupcakes moist and delicious.ย
In short, a solid recipe.ย
And donโt forget not to over bake.ย
What kind of oil should I use?ย
I like to use light tasting olive oil. Itโs mild in flavor, and the resulting cupcake is more tender than if you use butter. It also avoids seed oils, and is heavier than coconut oil.ย
That said, you can use coconut oil with great results in this recipe. If you want to use coconut oil, but avoid the coconut flavor, you can use expeller pressed coconut oil.ย
Best Gluten Free chocolate cupcakes
This recipe is almost identical to our gluten free chocolate cake recipe.
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/34 cup gluten free flour mix with 1 teaspoon guar or xanthan gum if your mix doesnโt already contain it
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee (optional – helps intensify the chocolate flavor)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup oil (I use light tasting olive oil)
- 2 cups milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the icing, you can use your favorite recipe. One of my favorites is Italian Meringue buttercream icing. Itโs silky smooth, and doesnโt contain nearly as much sugar!ย
One the other hand, a classic chocolate buttercream icing is never wrong, and here are the ingredients for that:ย
Chocolate buttercream Frosting
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups powdered sugar
To make the cupcakes,ย
First, preheat oven to 350ยบ
Stir all the dry ingredients together, including sugar, in a medium bowl.
Then mix combine wet ingredients, in a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer.
Whisk wet ingredients together well, then add in the dry ingredients.ย
Mix until everything is fully incorporated, then beat an additional minute.
Divide batter into 12 paper-lined cupcake tins. I like to use cupcake liners rather than greasing the tin.
Bake in the center of the oven for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.ย
Remove from oven and let cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.ย
When the cupcakes are cool, beat icing ingredients together until smooth, and pipe, or spread icing onto cupcakes.ย
This icing recipe is the perfect amount to frost the 12 cupcakes as shown in these photos. If you want to use more, or less, you may want to adjust the recipe quantity to suit your needs.ย
Gluten Free chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcake ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cup gluten-free flour blend (with 1 teaspoon guar or xanthan gum if your mix does not already contain it.)
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups milk
- 1/3 cup oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups granulated sugar
For the chocolate buttercream:ย
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ยบ
- In a medium bowl, stir flour blend, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, instant coffee, and salt together and set aside
- In a larger mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk, oil, vanilla, and sugar together
- Stir in dry ingredients until fully incorporated
- Beat an additional minute
- Divide batter between 12 paper-lined cupcake tins
- Bake in center of oven for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean
- Remove from oven and let cupcakes cool
- When cupcakes are cool, beat icing ingredients together until smooth
- Pipe, or spread icing onto cupcakes
- Decorate and serve
- Enjoy!
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