Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
Passover really threw me for a loop. It wasn’t the guests we had visit for the holiday. It was the 100 matzo balls for my son’s third grade seder. That, plus charoset and maror for everyone at the event. My house was overtaken by a cooking frenzy last week; I focused on that and nothing else (except my children).
Now everything has calmed down and I am happily back to this blog! I have been thrilled by the amount of chat in the comments over here. I have also received so many lovely emails from people thanking me for these recipes and all I can say is –you’re welcome! It is wonderful to love what you do and ALSO be appreciated for it. That is the proverbial icing on the cupcake.
Now, I am happy to introduce vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and continue on my coconut flour recipe roll. I have been making (and testing) this dessert for close to two years and it is one of my personal favorites. I think it might be a hit with you too based on reports from taste testing friends.
½ cup coconut flour, sifted
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
6 eggs
½ cup grapeseed oil
½ cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- In a medium bowl, combine coconut flour, salt and baking soda
- In a small bowl, blend together eggs, grapeseed oil, agave and vanilla
- Mix wet ingredients into dry and blend with a mixer or hand blender until smooth
- Pour batter into well oiled muffin tins
- Bake at 350° for 20 minutes
- Cool completely
- Top with chocolate frosting
Makes 12 cupcakes
My friend Patricia claims she and her son have fought each other over these cupcakes. I hope you like them as much as she does.
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Subscribe by Email to elanaspantry.com:Posted on April 22, 2008 in desserts by Elana
you might also like: Chocolate Cake — Coconut Flour Continued
or Vegan Chocolate Frosting
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Wow. If these taste as good as they look…..
Wondering, while you were mastering this recipe, did you ever try coconut oil? Just curious as I’ve been experimenting with baked goods and coconut oil.
April 23rd, 2008 10:07 am
I was wondering about the celtic sea salt in all your recipes. Could it be substituted with regular sea salt? Or regular salt?
April 23rd, 2008 1:32 pm
Oh yumm!! I could just lick all that icing off! Did I mention how much I’m addicted to chocolate?
April 23rd, 2008 3:18 pm
Life -I believe I did try making these with coconut oil; if I recall correctly, they turn out just fine, the only difference is that their is a strong coconut flavor so they are coconut cupcakes rather than vanilla.
Brenda -I really prefer celtic sea salt, it is the best salt that I have found and the recipes are designed for its use, not sure if they will turn out very well with a substitute. For further info see my faq
Meena -The icing is so delicious. Sometimes, when I have leftover icing I eat it by spreading it on crackers. Thanks for your comment.
April 23rd, 2008 9:46 pm
I have tried so many of your recipes and have absolutely loved them all!! One of my favorites has to be the blueberry muffins, which don’t stand a chance around my boyfriend! I also was wondering if you had any ideas for barbeque sauce? Summer is coming fast here in California, and I’d love to start up the grill and prepare some healthy meals. If you have any ideas, that have no sweeteners in them, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
April 24th, 2008 11:17 am
I am really excited to try these they look absoultely delicious. I made the Vanilla Torte with the raspberry filling for my son’s 7th birthday and it was a big hit. Thank you so much for all your fabulous recipes that you so generously share. My son saw the picture of these cupcakes and said “YUMMY can we make those?”
Thanks again,
mama4ever
April 24th, 2008 11:52 am
Katie -Thanks for your comment and the encouraging feedback. Thanks also for reminding me that summer is coming –it snowed here today during my son’s baseball game! Really, the warm weather is just around the corner here too. Per barbecue sauce, when you say no sweeteners, does that include agave? Let me know what your parameters are and I will try to come up with something to post during the next few weeks to welcome in the warm weather. Thanks!
Mama4 -Thanks for your comment. I am so glad that your son liked the torte! If you and your boy make the cupcakes, let me know how he likes them…
April 26th, 2008 9:22 pm
The cupcakes were a hit. I doubled the recipe and took them to our church potluck. My son cannot get enough of them. They are soooo good, really moist. Everyone wonders what you can eat when you are gluten free so when I brought these you can imagine the pleasant surprise. Thank you sooo much. I look forward to more of your delicious recipes. Thank you sooo much.
April 27th, 2008 7:56 am
I recently received coconut flour that I ordered because I’m intrigued by your recipes. One daughter and I were recently diagnosed with Celiac. So far, we have hated the taste of bean flours in baked goods and I don’t like the complexity of mixing multiple flours to overcome that. So, I am excited to try baking with cocunut (and almond) flours. I do need to know whether these flours need to be refrigerated or frozen after opening (like other gluten-free flours), there are no label instructions regarding this.
April 27th, 2008 9:40 am
I just wanted to chime in and say that I use regular (not Celtic) sea salt in Elana’s recipes since I have a huge container of it, and they always turn out great. :)
April 28th, 2008 8:25 am
Mama4 -You are so welcome! Thanks for the update
Teresa -You can go here to read about almond flour storage; I would recommend storing the coconut flour the same way as the almond.
~M -Thanks for the input; your comments are so valuable to all of the people that frequent this site! I appreciate them :-)
April 28th, 2008 8:30 pm
Elana~ I was actually hoping to find a sauce, spread, etc. that has no agave in it. Thanks again!
April 30th, 2008 5:31 pm
Around here I am known as the Queen of Cupcakes… last night we watched our DVR recording of Alton Brown’s cupcake episode… I am plotting my modifications of those now. I couldn’t find coconut flour at Whole Foods yesterday… bummed as I have several recipes to try, so I guess I need to order some online and wait a few days. I want to make these NOW! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this photograph as well… it is so simple and luscious.
May 9th, 2008 11:12 am
Jamie (aka Queen of Cupcakes) -
I think you will like baking with the coconut flour, it is very fluffy and light. Let me know how all of your cupcake adventures go.
Elana
May 11th, 2008 10:01 am
Well Elana-
I took your innocent recipe for vanilla cupcakes and made it a “big girl” treat. My friend just had her 30th Birthday and we celebrated with Elana’s Vanilla cupcakes… MARGARITA STYLE. My friend adores margaritas so I took on the challenge. I used your exact recipe except I added 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 2 tsp. tequilla, 1 1/2 tsp lime zest, 1/4 cup fresh lime juice. I topped off half of the cupcakes with a cream-cheese, agave and fresh orange juice Frosting and the others I topped off with powdered Xylitol I whipped up in my Vitamix. We had a great time enjoying these “Big Girl Cupcakes” without the side effects of Birthday Party Regrets. I now have a request for Pina Colada cupcakes for a Birthday event in June… We’ll see!
May 16th, 2008 5:55 am
Courtney-
My husband and I went out for dinner last night and I was telling him all about you. How a couple of months ago you were just figuring things out (what to make for you and your husband to eat TOGETHER) and that now you are head cheffing at your parties and renovating recipes (with tequila no less) coming up with all sorts of imaginative treats! I love it. You go girlfriend!
May 18th, 2008 8:22 pm
Very Cool! I am having a blast. I often think of how grateful I am that a site like yours does exist. xoxo
May 21st, 2008 6:53 am
Courtney -As you know, I like to answer every comment, however this one is so sweet that you have basically left me speechless! Thanks xo Elana
May 21st, 2008 8:51 pm
Elana, now it is official: Europeans love these cupcakes as well… ;-) I made a couple of batches over the last week and my friends and family can hardly wait until they cooled down from the oven… Big hit!
I made a couple of other things already as well (bluebery muffins, chocolate cake and banana bread), everything is just simply delicious. I am so happy to have come across your blog. I told my boyfriend that if a food blog soulmate exists, I sure have found mine!
Thanks so much!!!
May 30th, 2008 11:16 am
Christianne- So very happy to be your food blog soulmate!!!! xo Elana
May 31st, 2008 9:18 pm
I was so happy to find this recipe because I have a friend who is allergic to gluten, but then I saw that there are eggs in it, and she’s also allergic to that. Is there any way you can take the eggs out and substitute something else?
June 11th, 2008 2:49 pm
Hi Ashley-
Please see my FAQ’s:
http://www.elanaspantry.com/frequently-asked-questions/#17ingredients
For the answer to this and other commonly asked questions.
Thanks!
Elana
June 11th, 2008 3:00 pm
These are SO incredibly good, the entire batch didn’t last 5 minutes. I was impatient to try out my coconut flour, so I used the Canola oil I had on hand. They still turned out amazing. I bought grapeseed oil last night, and now I’m off to try the blueberry muffins.
Thanks for such an easy, but delicious recipe. It’s great to finally have a moist vanilla cupcake!
June 25th, 2008 6:03 am
Tamara- Thanks for reporting back to let me know how they turned out for you :-)
June 25th, 2008 3:14 pm
Dear cupcake lovers…
I love the combo of orange and dark chocolate so I tried to give an orange twist to this great recipe.
Instead of the vanilla, I put in 1,25 tbs of very finely grated orange peel (organic oranges of course). The result was very fresh and yummy! The only thing I have to add is that my oven lives a life of its own these days (and readily on its way to quit completely Im afraid). The temperature (quite the elementary part yes!) is completely off, so I baked these completely on intuition. But I imagine thay will taste as good when you follow Elana’s recipe. Cheers! Christianne
July 3rd, 2008 1:18 pm
Christianne- I too love the combo of chocolate and orange. Thanks for sharing your idea and the trials and tribulations you have with your oven. xo Elana
July 7th, 2008 8:43 pm
Brand new at this - Will the cup cake recipe also work as a cake for my sons birthday?
July 31st, 2008 5:29 am
Darla,
I’m not sure, I’ve never tried to convert this recipe over to a cake format.
If you decide to experiment, feel free to let us know your results here or in the forums.
Thanks,
Elana
July 31st, 2008 10:52 am
How many cupcakes will this recipe yield?
August 18th, 2008 3:45 pm
kmp -Thanks for your comment and for pointing out that I forgot to post the yield. This recipe makes 12 cupcakes, I have amended the post to state that this is so.
August 27th, 2008 11:26 am