Pure chocolate bliss in every single bite – these gluten free vegan chocolate cupcakes are bound to become everyone’s favourite. They look amazing, taste spectacular, and are super easy and quick to make! Plus, you couldn’t possibly guess that they contain no gluten, no dairy and no eggs!
There’s something terribly charming about dark, almost fudgy chocolate cupcakes, topped with a small mountain of swirly, fluffy chocolate frosting. It’s basically chocolate on chocolate… with even more chocolate in the form of dark chocolate sprinkles.
Yes, I’ve just used the word chocolate SIX TIMES in only one paragraph. This will be a chocolatey post, folks. The chocolatey post – with a chocolatey recipe for gluten free vegan chocolate cupcakes.
Remember last week? We talked about how vegan baking is actually a piece of cake, and today we’re continuing that story.
The brilliant thing about last week’s vegan chocolate cake recipe is that it’s easily adapted to cupcakes – and that’s precisely what I’ve done here. And that, in essence, is what baking of any sort is all about. A few basic recipes that you can modify and adapt to any shape, size or flavour.
And this recipe is definitely one that you’ll find yourself coming back to again and again. Cupcakes, cakes, muffins – a few small tweaks and vegan chocolate goodness of all sorts is within your reach.
Another benefit of this recipe: it’s so darn simple. The vegan chocolate cupcakes themselves only require 9 baisc ingredients:
gluten free flour
xanthan gum
salt
baking powder
baking soda
cocoa powder
sugar
vegetable oil
almond milk
Making the vegan cupcake batter involves mixing all the ingredients together and baking them. Aaand… that’s it.
The vegan chocolate frosting is equally uncomplicated:
coconut cream
powdered sugar
cocoa powder
melted chocolate
Yes, there’s cocoa powder AND melted chocolate in the frosting – double the chocolate, double the flavour, double the deliciousness.
The end result is utter chocolatey perfection. Seriously, there’s nothing not to love about these gluten free vegan chocolate cupcakes. They’ve even passed the non-vegan/non-GF test: nobody could tell that they contain no gluten, no eggs and no dairy!
They’re perfectly fudgy, moist and chocolatey, without being too dense – they really are cupcakes rather than brownies. (Being too dense is actually a common problem with vegan baking – but not in this recipe!)
The frosting is airy, sweet, rich and ridiculously decadent. I piped it super tall (because more is more when it comes to chocolate frosting, right?) but you can decrease the amount if you want. (Why would anyone want to do that, though?)
And it all comes together within 45 minutes.
Yes, this vegan chocolate cupcakes recipe is the very definition of EASY and QUICK. But the results… oh, the results. Pure chocolate bliss in every single bite.
On that note: apparently I’ve used the word chocolate 25 times in this post (26 counting this sentence). That pretty much speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
Recommended products + tools
To make things easier for you, here are the products I’ve used and recommend for this recipe! So often, I get asked about what kind of gluten free flour I use or which kind of baking pans are best – and I know that the baking/cooking world can be overwhelming, what with the bazillion different products available out there. Well, no more.
The links below are affiliate links, which means I make a small commission for every purchase you make, at no additional cost to you. This allows me to fuel my – and your 😉 – chocolate addiction, so thank you for supporting The Loopy Whisk! (For more information, check out the Disclosure Policy.)
- When it comes to gluten free flour blends, I recommend using one with a very simple ingredients list. I use a Lidl Brand “Just Free” (available in UK), that only contains rice, potato and maize flour. However, people have had excellent results using Bob’s Red Mill all purpose GF flour and 1-to-1 baking flour. Alternatively, you can mix our own blend from rice flour, potato flour and maize flour.
- I get many questions about xanthan gum. This is a common ingredient in gluten free baking, acting like “glue” (the binding agent) in the absence of gluten. It gives your baked goods elasticity and flexibility, so that they don’t crumble away to nothing.
- When it comes to the frosting, you can either use a high quality coconut milk with few/no additives to get the coconut cream… or just buy straight-up coconut cream, if you want to avoid the extra step of separating the cream from the milk.
- You want your coconut cream frosting to be as fluffy as possible – I like to make it in my KitchenAid stand mixer, but a quality hand mixer will work just as well. I recommend the VonShef hand mixer, it works like a dream.
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Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes (Gluten, Dairy & Egg Free)
Ingredients
For gluten free vegan chocolate cupcakes:
DRY:
- 2 cups (240 g) plain gluten free flour blend (I've used a simple store-bought blend of rice, potato and maize flour with no added xanthan gum)
- 1 1/3 cups (260 g) caster sugar (Note 1)
- 1/2 cup (60 g) cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
WET:
- 1 cup (240 mL) vegetable oil
- 2 cups (480 mL) non-dairy milk (for instance coconut milk, rice milk or almond milk if not sensitive to nuts)
For vegan chocolate frosting:
- 2 cups (400 g) coconut cream (Note 2)
- 2 cups (220 g) powdered sugar, sifted (Note 1)
- 1/3 cup (40 g) cocoa powder
- 3 1/2 oz (100 g) dark chocolate, melted and cooled until warm (or room temperature)
- 1/8 cup (30 mL) non-dairy milk (optional)
Instructions
For gluten free vegan chocolate cupcakes:
- Pre-heat the oven to 355 ºF (180 ºC) and line a cupcake baking tin with 12 cupcake liners.If you're uncertain about the quality of your cupcake liners, brush the inside with some vegetable oil for easier cupcake liner removal when eating.
- Mix all dry ingredients together.
- Mix the wet ingredients together, and add them to the dry ingredients. Stir well, until you get a smooth cupcake batter.
- Transfer the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners, so that you fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full. Bake in the pre-heated oven at 355 ºF (180 ºC) for about 35 minutes or until the tops are springy/bouncy to the touch and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.While the cupcakes are baking, prepare the vegan chocolate frosting.
- Allow to cool.
For vegan chocolate frosting:
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or using a hand mixer with the double beater attachment, beat the coconut cream until smooth and slightly increased in volume.
- Add the powdered sugar. Gradually increase the mixer speed from low (at the beginning while the powdered sugar is being incorporated into the coconut cream) to high. Beat at high speed for about 5 minutes, or until the frosting is fluffy and increased in volume.
- Add the cocoa powder and beat until evenly incorporated. The cocoa powder will make the frosting firm up slightly.
- Add the melted chocolate and beat until evenly incorporated. As the chocolate cools, the frosting can become a bit hard – at this point add the almond milk if needed. It will loosen up the frosting, bringing it to piping consistency.If your kitchen is very cold, your frosting may still be too hard for piping. If that is the case, warm the outside of the mixer bowl gently with a hairdryer while beating at medium-high speed. (Weird, but it works every time!)
Assembly:
- Using a piping nozzle of choice (I've used this Wilton Star Tip No. 32 (affiliate link) – it's a favourite!), pipe the vegan chocolate frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes.
- Enjoy!
Storage:
- The gluten free vegan chocolate cupcakes keep well in a closed container in a cool dry place for about 3 - 4 days.
Notes
Looking for more sweet vegan goodness? I’ve got just the recipes!
Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Cake
1-Bowl Gluten Free Vegan Sugar Cookies
My 4yr old goddaughter was found to have a wheat, dairy, and egg allergy this week, just a few days before her little friend’s birthday party. I was heartbroken she wouldn’t be able to partake in the offerings, so I set out to find an option. These cupcakes are incredible. Honestly, if I didn’t make them myself, I’d have no idea they are wheat-dairy-egg free. I can wholeheartedly recommend this recipe and am so glad I found something I can make for her. For anyone wondering, I used the Bob’s red mill 1 to 1 flour blend. Worked out great!
Hi Kat – I was wondering if it might be ok to add some chocolate chips to the batter before baking? Would this add texture or too much moisture?
Hi Mandy, you can definitely add chocolate chips!
I made these and was very impressed that they stayed moist for a few days. I have found some gluten free cakes harden up by the next day so these were great, thank you. I did find that the quantities made way more than 12 (more like 20) I would like to stick to a 12 cupcake recipe. Could you advise how to reduce quantities please? Thank you
Hi Mandy, I’m so glad you loved the cupcakes! If you found that the recipe makes 20 cupcakes (it’s possible that your cupcake baking tray has smaller cavities), you can reduce the recipe by 1/3 to make 12 cupcakes.
These are delish! I made 3 different vegan, GF recipes for my friends up coming wedding, and we taste tested them all and this was our favorite. My biggest complaint is mine didn’t get a rounded top and they’re quite oily (but that also makes them so yummily moist). I made a 2nd batch and halved the oil and substituted the rest with applesauce. Made them equally moist and not so heavy. They still had a flat top, but that might come down to me using Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 versus the GF flour you used. Still so delish, I’m not sure there is such a thing as a perfect GF, vegan cupcake given there are so many substitutions to be made.
can I use 1 cup of coconut oil instead of veg. oil?
Coconut oil usually gives oilier bakes, so I would use slightly less, about 3/4 cup – and test on a small batch first, making adjustments as needed once you see how they turn out.
Is that the same temp for fan forced ovens?
In general, for a fan forced oven just decrease the oven temperature by 20 degrees as compared to a conventional oven.
Wow!! I have been trying so many allergy friendly cake recipes lately in anticipation of my daughter’s birthday and now I can stop searching!! This recipe is amazing, thank you so much!! Delicious!! 😋
Hi Natalie! So happy to hear you enjoyed the cupcakes! 🙂
Hiya, can you freeze the frosting please? Thank you!
Hi Sophie, I think you should be able to freeze the frosting, but maybe do a trial run where you only freeze a small bit, just to see how it behaves?
Nice enough, but are you sure the quantities are right? I put in half the ‘milk’ and I thought it was still too liquid. I’ve looked at other similar recipes and they use far less ‘milk’.
Also the quantity produced made rather more than 12, though I guess some people like bigger… I did find the cooking time about right, though, – perhaps five minutes less.
The quantities are correct – the batter is quite liquid, but this ensures that the final cupcakes are really moist and scrumptious 🙂 The quantities stated worked well for my standard sized muffin/cupcake pan, but I know that these can vary across countries.
Would either regular sugar or powdered sugar work instead of caster sugar? If so, would the amount change?
Hi Cathie, an equal amount of regular sugar will work just fine (I’m assuming you mean in the cupcake batter).
Hi Kat, I’m looking for dessert recipes for someone with lots of allergies, including coconut. This recipe looks almost perfect – is there an alternative to the coconut cream for the frosting I could use?
Hi Jennifer! If cashew nuts are not a problem, you could make a cashew cream (like in my raw vegan coffee cupcakes). If all nuts are a problem, maybe try a tofu or vegan butter based frosting?
These cupcakes taste amazing! I do have 2 side notes though… First the cook time of 35 minutes? Mine were done in 18-20 minutes. And the liners were very greasy, is there a way to lessen that?
Hi Whitney! I’m so happy to hear you liked the cupcakes! Regarding the baking time: I think it depends on how cakey or fudgy you like your cupcakes, and how well calibrated your oven is. I know some ovens which are even up to 20 degrees off, which can dramatically change the baking time required. And I like my cupcakes not too brownie-like, so I baked them a bit longer.
As for the cupcake liners: I haven’t had that experience, but especially if the cupcakes themselves felt too oily/greasy, maybe decrease the amount of vegetable oil?
I made this recipe with a bit of twist. I wanted to give my guest a surprise in the middle so I froze nutella first and added cornstarch instead of xanthan gum (I didn’t have that). Also I added 3/4 cups of nutella in the batter. Then i spoon batter in muffin cups till half then placed the frozen nutella and place a bit of batter to cover the nutella. It was amazing moist and delicious. I ate more than my guest. Thank you thank you and plenty more love for providing me with a guide to bake a perfect chocolate cupcakes. Oh yeah k forget i called it chocolate lava cupcakes.
Oh. My. Gosh. This sounds absolutely AMAZING! Love this idea so much!! It sounds absolutely mouthwatering, and I’m so glad you liked the recipe. 🙂
Kat – does your GF flour blend already contain xantham gum? (The one I use does, so I don’t know if I’d still need to add any.)
Hi Alisha! The GF flour blend I use doesn’t contain xanthan gum (it’s just a mix of rice, potato and maize flour) – I prefer to control the amount of xanthan gum myself. But if your blend contains it, you don’t need to add more (unless the recipe calls for an above average quantity, which this one doesn’t.)
Thanks Kat 🙂 Feel better now. Plan on halving this and your vanilla cupcake recipe and making both. (Love the simplicity and pretty interesting I don’t have to worry about milk/vinegar curdling or a flax egg forming properly!) Going to add espresso powder to both because I need mocha cupcakes and will let you if they’re a success!
Hi Alisha! Love the idea of mocha cupcakes (adding espresso is always a good idea 😉 ). I find that flax and chia eggs often mess with the texture of my bakes, so I’m not a huge fan of them. I know some people have great success using them, but I try to avoid using them in my baking. Looking forward to hearing how the cupcakes turned out!
These sound WONDERFUL. The texture looks incredible, and they look so unabashedly CHOCOLATE!
Thank you! They really couldn’t be more chocolatey even if they tried 😀
What GF flour do you use?
Hi Brie! I use an Aldi brand (UK), called “The Foodie Market Free From Gluten Free Plain Flour”. It contains a mix of rice, potato and maize flour. However, most of my recipes should work with most GF flour blends. 🙂
Thanks!
That frosting looks so amazing!!
Thank you, Bethany! It’s absolutely scrumptious. 😉