Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes
By: Dr. Peggy Malone
Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes? It seems like maybe the concept of such a thing would be better suited as a fictional character in a science fiction novel or something that only mythological beings could eat. They can’t be real and delicious can they? Read on my friend…..there is good news 🙂
I’ve been eating and cooking and baking paleo styles (mostly) for a couple of years now and the one thing that has always been a challenge is not being able to dig into those beautiful delicious cupcakes that you see at birthday parties.
This recipe to the rescue!! These chocolate cupcakes turned out amazing I am so happy to report.
These paleo chocolate cupcakes are a little denser than your average cupcake but they taste delicious and have no refined sugar, no dairy, no gluten and no grain!
That birthday party craving for something a bit sweet, beautiful and delicious is totally satisfied by these paleo chocolate cupcakes and will keep you on track with eating real, healthy ingredients!
Enjoy!

Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 8 large pastured eggs
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 2/3 cup raw honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting
- 1 cup high cocoa % chocolate chips 70% or greater
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/3 cup raw honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Line muffin pans with paper liners
- Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl
- Melt coconut oil and honey in a sauce pan on the stove
- Mix eggs and vanilla in a bowl and beat well
- Slowly add the honey and coconut oil mixture to the egg mixture
- Once the wet ingredients are mixed, slowly add them to the dry ingredients while beating with a mixer
- Pour batter into lined muffin tins
- Bake for 16-19 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry
Frosting
- In a saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate, coconut oil and honey together
- Stir in vanilla extract
- Transfer to mixing bowl and place frosting in refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to thicken
- Remove from refrigerator and whip frosting with a hand blender until thick and fluffy
- Use a spatula to frost the cupcakes!

Enjoy!
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Do you know the total amount of carbs in one of these cupcakes, with the frosting?
Sorry Jill, I don’t. My philosophy of food involves eating real food as much as possible and I don’t count calories or carbs. Maybe another reader can help us out with this one based on the ingredients?
i was wondering what you meant by the “high cocoa” in the frosting {(1 cup high cocoa % chocolate chips (70% or greater)}. this recipe looks quite delicious & nutritious; thanks for sharing!
Hi Joanna, The higher the cocoa percentage in the chocolate you use, the lower the sugar content will be and the greater the health benefits. I usually aim for 70% or greater in the chocolate I eat and bake with.
My cupcakes turned out great! I split the coconut oil with olive oil to keep more moistness and since I used extra dark cocoa, I added 2T more organic sugar. I did not frost….not a frosting person. I think a sprinkle of powdered sugar would be fine and keep a smoother mouth feel. They did have a whole wheat texture but the flavor was great.
Awesome! Great ideas for substitutions Carol! I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
This looks amazing! I only have about 1/3 cup honey. What do you think about using maple syrup for the rest of the honey?
I think maple syrup would be a great substitution Jinny! Enjoy 🙂
Allergic to cocoa and diabetic. Likely to sub carob powder in the cake. But do you have other frosting ideas that would be low sugar?
You could do a paleo avocado frosting or a coconut cream frosting (google for some great recipes). Let me know what you end up trying!
These turned out unbelievable! I added a brown banana, 1 tsp camu camu powder and a 1/2 tsp unprocessed stevia instead of some of the honey to the cake mixture, and an avacado to the icing, and still they were great, thanks!
Sounds Awesome Tanya!
I don’t have raw honey, could I just use regular honey? How much would I substitute? Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Hi Jessica,
Yes you could use regular honey but the reason I recommend raw honey is that you are getting some great nutritional benefits from eating raw honey whereas most regular ‘honey’ that you buy in the grocery store isn’t even really honey. You could also substitute maple syrup in for he the honey! Enjoy!
My 5 years old son got so excited while making these when he realized we would have enough batter left over to make more than 12 cupcakes! “More cupcakes! I can share them with my friends!!” Was his reaction 🙂 It’s not often we run across a recipe where I feel like we can pass out treats that are usually so expensive for our budget to maintain. Never tried these ones before though…it’s baking in the oven now…really hoping they turn out well. Thank you for having a recipe that makes more than 10 or 12 cupcakes!
I made these a few months ago and thought they were delicious! I was wanting to make them again, but realized I don’t have chocolate chips for the frosting. Could I just use cocoa instead?
Cocoa and honey would be a good substitute for the chocolate chips.
I have made these cupcakes a few times and each time they have turned out great! I’m currently looking for a pumpkin cupcake reciepe and I can’t seem to find one that I like. I was thinking of take this reciepe and doing pumpkin instead of cocoa. What do you think? I know I may need to alter some of the I ingridents since cocoa is dry and pumpkin is not, just not sure which to alter.
Hi Bethany,
I think it’s worth the experiment.
Let me know how they turn out!
love this recipe, its my to go recipe for birthdays. I made a cake instead of cupcakes this year and substituted organic butter instead of coconut oil in the frosting, it was so velvety and tasty. Always looking for wheat free options but not a big fan of coconut taste next time I think I will try subbing for butter in the cake as well.