Paleo Birthday Cupcakes
My 3 year old is turning 4 and requested cupcakes to share with her friends at school. Awww, how sweet, right?!?!!! NOT!!!!!!!!!! This Paleo mama sucks at Paleo baked goods. So, I’m smiling at my adorable, little princess and thinking, “CRAP…how in the world am I going to make cupcakes?” Aha! I have almond flour and I’m pretty good with it.
Wait, does no peanuts mean no almonds? Because, if we get technical, a peanut is a legume so if you are allergic to peanuts then you probably aren’t allergic to almonds…right? I wonder…and wonder…and reach out to my Facebook fans for help.
The winning verdict: use coconut flour and don’t play with almond fire! Which by the way is so contradictory. So, let me get this right: you can’t bring nuts to school because someone in the class is allergic to it, but you can bring gluten-laden garbage? Not fair!
Anyways, I went with a vanilla cupcake, a chocolate ganache frosting, and pink sprinkles! The only thing not Paleo was the pink sprinkles! I think I did pretty darn good! And….the kids gobbled it up!!!
Here’s the recipes that I used:
Very Vanilla Cupcakes (using coconut flour): I didn’t use real vanilla beans. I’m cooking for 3-4 year olds here!
Cupcake Ingredients (makes 8 cupcakes):
- 1/2 cup of coconut flour
- 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
- 4 eggs
- 1/3 cup of oil or butter (your choice)
- 1/2 cup of honey (or maple syrup)
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
- seeds from a vanilla bean (optional)
Method:
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C.
- For the cupcakes, combine all the dry in ingredients and blend well. I add the vanilla beans at the very end, in the wet batter.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a mixer to blend (get rid of any clumps of flour). Now, optionally, add the vanilla beans and blend well.
- Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way with batter.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
- Cool and then frost.
- Store covered for a few days at room temperature, or the refrigerator for at least a week or so.
My opinion: I was SHOCKED how moist and delicious these cupcakes are. I was debating about using another recipe that didn’t have any oil but I remember how coconut oil just sucks up moisture and I wanted to make sure the cupcakes were moist. This recipe is a KEEPER!
Chocolate Ganache Frosting: I’ve made this recipe before but I had time to whip the ganache into beautiful peaks (in picture below). This time I didn’t have the time so I just glazed it on and put the sprinkles on top. This ganache is delicious and you can sub coconut milk for the heavy cream. I did that the last time I made it. And the author of this recipe now has a AWESOME cookbook available with TONS of recipes!
- 1.5 cups of chocolate chips
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions:
- Warm heavy cream on top of double boiler.
- Add chocolate chunks and stir until melted.
- Remove from double boiler & while warm, pour over cupcakes.
- 1 cup (or more) of Chocolate Ganache
- Place in refrigerator and allow to chill for around an hour. Whip with beaters until soft to stiff peaks form.
- Allow to set for 5 minutes and then stir. This will keep it from breaking up when you are piping it on cupcakes.
- You can either spread this on cooled cupcakes or place a piping tip in the corner of a Ziplock bag and pipe as you like!
This is the WHIPPED ganache.
…and all this I did for my little princess ON MY BIRTHDAY! Yes, today is my birthday. However, I do get to pick out where we are going to eat for lunch. I say Vinne Van Go Go’s Pizza and some beer (***runs and hides***)!!!
I just made this and oh my goodness. They are so YUMMY!
Did you use the ganache on them? Aren’t they good?! I was so surprised!!!
These are so great! Just did a trial run- they turned out awesome. I will be making these next week for my little one’s first birthday! I didn’t do the ganache. Instead I topped them with pureed strawberries to go with our Valentine’s Day theme.
Pureed strawberries?!?!?! What a great idea!!! I saw a whipped strawberry topping too that looked great!
Hi, I had a question…did you use coconut oil? Your statement left me confused as to if you avoided it or used it. Thanks in advance.
“My opinion: I was SHOCKED how moist and delicious these cupcakes are. I was debating about using another recipe that didn’t have any oil but I remember how coconut oil just sucks up moisture and I wanted to make sure the cupcakes were moist. This recipe is a KEEPER!”
Oops it should say coconut flour sucks up moisture!
Great, that makes sense now! Can’t wait to try these!
These are baking right now, going to do the whipped frosting!
Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said moist! Unbelievable. I didn’t have cupcake liners so I just greased the pan, and they are impossible to get out.. haha. They are so moist I am tearing them open trying to pull them out. Looks like I need to buy cupcake liners. This one is a keeper though, awesome!
Haha…oh yes you need cupcake liners…with all Paleo baking! Glad you liked them!
I made these for my daughters 1st birthday, with the whipped ganache, and they were such a MASSIVE success that I am making them again for Mothers day!
Just a tip, don’t substitute the coconut flour for almond meal with this recipe! Mine were perfect the first time I made them using coconut flour, the second time using almond meal DISASTER! Luckily, I made them 2 days ahead so I have time to go out and buy some more coconut flour and try again!
haha…thanks for the tip!
These 5/10 comments delay dropped in my email on 5/14 which is funny because it was my birthday! I was going to forgo any baking but couldn’t resist trying these since it makes 8. These were great! I just put a few Enjoy Life mini chips on top to have some chocolate taste but to watch the sugar. Definitely will try with pureed strawberries next time. I am also thinking of ways to use this for a great base…maybe pureed strawberries in them or mix mini chips throughout. Yum!
Thumbs way up on this recipe. I also gave these a trial run in preparation for my little one’s birthday and I was very impressed! I used coconut oil because I have more of it instead of the butter. Can I tell you how relieved I am to have a fall- back recipe for special occasions now. I’ve tried many paleo baked goods recipes and that generally result in disappointment. Thank you again!
So glad it worked for you!!!