Best Ever Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes {Vegan Option}

The most decadent Paleo chocolate cupcakes you’ll ever make! Easy, fudgy, and rich, these Paleo cupcakes are gluten free, dairy free, and can be made vegan! Perfect for all chocolate lovers!

I’ll be honest, I’m more of a vanilla lover when it comes to baked goods.

*BUT BEFORE YOU BITE MY HEAD OFF, YOU CHOCOLATE LOVERS!*

These Paleo chocolate cupcakes turned me. I’m full force loving the chocolate baked goods, baby, and there’s no turning back now!

See, you can all breathe a sigh of relief 😉 Because these chocolate cupcakes will be the best dang cupcake you have that just so happen to be Paleo, gluten free, dairy free, and can be made vegan!

Yes, Paleo vegan chocolate cupcakes! It’s a thing! That still taste good I might add 😉

Okay, let’s get to it!

Ingredients for Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes

Sweet Potato: because naturally, the base of these Paleo gluten free chocolate cupcakes is made of sweet potato puree! You can use either an orange sweet potato or a Japanese sweet potato, however, I think that the orange sweet potatoes yield the best results in terms of color and flavor! Make sure to cook your sweet potato very well beforehand, enough to caramelize the sugars. If you need help on how best to bake your sweet potato for this recipe, you can check out my sweet potato cooking guide!

Cacao Powder: well it wouldn’t be chocolate cupcakes (nor Paleo chocolate buttercream frosting) without the cacao! Always go for cacao instead of cocoa here if you can. It will yield a better and richer flavor, plus has more benefits than it’s heated counterpart!

Melted Chocolate: this right here is the key to the best ever Paleo chocolate cupcakes! Melted chocolate makes these gluten free chocolate cupcakes absolutely decadent and irresistible! I like to use a 100% chocolate, such as Pascha chocolate chips, but you can also use your favorite Paleo vegan friendly chocolate chip or bar brand for the melted chocolate!

Eggs: so you can keep these Paleo chocolate cupcakes as is using eggs, or you can make them plant based by swapping them out for ground flaxseed! More on that in the sections to follow 😉

Coconut Flour: this helps to absorb all of the moisture in the cupcakes, which is why I highly recommend sticking with coconut flour rather than another Paleo friendly flour. Coconut flour tends to absorb more liquid than other flours!

Maple Syrup: just a little bit goes a long way!

Vanilla Extract: shockingly enough, you need vanilla in order to make a really rich chocolate! People tend to think vanilla is bland or not flavorful, but it’s quite the opposite. Vanilla is not only a great flavor on it’s own, but it’s also the base of many other flavors! Think about it as the first floor of a house. Now, you can have only one floor of the house, or you can build a second floor as well, but you can’t have a second floor without a first floor!

The fact that I just compared vanilla extract to the number of floors in a house…anyways!

Vegan Butter: now we have a few options here! I personally love the brand of vegan butter by Miyoko’s because it’s actually Paleo friendly, which is really cool. But if you’re keeping this recipe nut free, you can also swap in a coconut oil based vegan butter! This is what we’ll use to make the Paleo chocolate buttercream frosting that just so happens to be vegan as well!

Coconut Sugar: gasp!! She’s not using maple syrup for the vegan chocolate buttercream frosting?! I know, I know, but the buttercream just works better with granulated or powdered sugar! Since we aren’t making vanilla frosting, I figured it’s okay to use coconut sugar here, as the natural brown color of the coconut sugar will only enhance the color of the chocolate frosting. You can find reasonably priced and organic coconut sugar at Trader Joe’s!

And there ya have it! Now let’s arrange these ingredients in a way that will yield you the best ever fudgy and rich Paleo chocolate cupcakes 🙂

How to make the best chocolate cupcakes

Now for the fun part 🙂 Let’s get to making these gluten free chocolate cupcakes so that you can get to eating them!

Don’t worry, I’ve got your best interests in mind 🙂

So to start! Puree the cooked sweet potato (skin removed) in a large food processor until smooth.

Then add in the remaining ingredients, saving the melted chocolate for last (this is to ensure that the chocolate doesn’t harden while it’s waiting for the rest of the cold ingredients to be added!). Puree again until everything is smooth.

You can scrape down the sides if necessary!

Pour your batter evenly into 11-12 muffin cups and bake in the oven at 375F for about 30-35 minutes.

Now here’s the hard part, so bare with me.

*You must wait for the cupcakes to cool before frosting*

I know, I know, I’m sorry! But we don’t want melted Paleo chocolate buttercream frosting everywhere now do we?! Trust me, these will be well worth the wait 🙂

How to make Paleo vegan chocolate cupcakes

The beauty about making Paleo chocolate cupcakes is that these guys can easily be converted into Paleo vegan chocolate cupcakes.

How?

Simply swap out the eggs for 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed mixed with a little water!

When the recipe calls for adding in eggs, just add in your flaxseed mixture instead, and viola! You have vegan chocolate cupcakes that are so decadent, so rich, no one would know they’re plant based!

How to make Paleo Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

What I love about this Paleo chocolate buttercream frosting is that it also doubles as a vegan chocolate buttercream frosting!

The reason being? It’s made with simple ingredients and is completely dairy free!

For this recipe, I used a Paleo friendly vegan butter, which I softened to room temperature.

Next add the softened butter, cacao powder, coconut sugar, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, beat the ingredients together until it becomes a nice and thick buttercream. If you need to add in coconut or almond milk here you can to help move things along!

Store this vegan chocolate buttercream frosting in the fridge until you’re ready to frost your cupcakes!

And there ya have it, folks! The best ever Paleo chocolate cupcakes! These were so fun to make, and even more fun to eat 😉

Make these for birthday parties, holidays, barbecues, dinner parties, and the like! Everyone is sure to enjoy these decadent cupcakes 🙂

I hope you loved this recipe as much as I do! I cannot wait to see your recreations of these cupcakes on Instagram and Pinterest 🙂 Until next time, happy baking and frosting!

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