These gluten free chocolate cupcakes are moist, decadent, vegan and don’t taste like cardboard! This is the perfect dessert to bring to a party, make for a special someone, or just make it whenever you need to satisfy your chocolate sweet tooth!
Click “Jump To Recipe” (directly below the title of this post) to skip the blog post and go directly to the recipe! You’ll miss out on helpful tips for this recipe though.
Easy Peasy Gluten Free Chocolate Cake!
I love how easy and versatile this recipe is. If you’re a serious chocolate lover…mom!… you can add chocolate chips to the batter, or even white chocolate chips! Add nuts or fruit…the options are endless. I love making this recipe as cupcakes to help with portion control (ha! yea right), but the batter makes a beautiful cake, as well. I love using my heart shaped cake pan when making this for a loved one.
The recipe is super simple to make and takes hardly no time in the kitchen. If I can make these cupcakes, you definitely can….because baking has never been my thing!
Key Ingredient for These Cupcakes: Almond Flour
I am new to the vegan and gluten free baking world, but so far I’ve been loving the use of almond flour in my recipes. Almonds have a wonderful flavor after they’ve been toasted so it only makes sense that almond flour would taste so delicious after being mixed with chocolate and baked in the oven!
You can try to make this recipe with a different gluten free flour if you have an almond allergy, but I have only made this cake with almond flour so I cannot tell you what the result will be.
Here is the almond flour I use:
Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Frosting!
This gluten free cake is so good and moist that I eat it without frosting, most of the time. If you’re a frosting lover, Check out my Raw Vegan Carrot Cupcakes to find the recipe for a delicious Vanilla Bean Cashew Frosting that tastes amazing with this chocolate cake!
Cooking Process
1. Mix the wet ingredients. 
2. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. 
3. Mix the batter thoroughly. The batter should be thick. 
4. Place the cake batter into your cake or cupcake pan and bake. Let cool and serve.
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Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes and Cake
A simple dark chocolate cake that is vegan, gluten free, super moist, and delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil , or any neutral flavored oil
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- ¼ cup cacao powder , or cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon tapioca flour , or arrowroot powder
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup cashew milk , or any plain vegan milk
- 1/3 cup agave nectar
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil your cake or cupcake pan with coconut oil, or skip this step and use cupcake liners.
- Mix the almond flour, cocoa powder, arrowroot, ground flaxseed, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl
- In a separate bowl mix the vegan milk, agave nectar, and apple cider until thoroughly mixed.
- Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir. Pour into your cake pan, or evenly divide this mixture into a cupcake pan.
- Place the cake or cupcakes in the oven and bake for 35 – 40 minutes. If you place a toothpick, or knife, in the cupcake it should come out clean, or with just a few specs of cake on it.
- I’ve made this recipe a few times and, depending on the oven I use, sometimes it takes longer to cook. I call these fudge brownie cupcakes because the texture reminds me of fudge brownies (a little soft and gooey in the middle). So if the center of you cupcakes are still a little soft, don’t worry about it! They still taste great.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
The batter should be THICK, not liquidy or runny like traditional cake batters. If the mixture seems a little dry, stir in another ¼ cup of vegan milk.
Whoa, I’d never think that something with arrowroot and flax seed it can look this tempting!!! They look delicious 🙂
lol, I know right! Thank you.
These look so delicious! Cupcakes make me so happy. I know I’d gobble these right up.
Thank you!
These photos are so moody I LOVE It! Also I want to make this tonight- Looks so good!
Thank you so much!
What a fun series you are starting 🙂 and the cupcakes look delicious!!! Will stay tuned for the next one
Thank you so much!
I have all of the ingredients except for the cocoa powder. What did you put on top?
Oh darn, I should have included the frosting recipe. I just blended a cup of cashews with a few dates (or a tablespoon or two of agave nectar), with a whole vanilla bean, about a 1/4 cup of water, and a pinch of salt. It’s a really good vegan cashew frosting.
Your photography is terrific! It makes the dessert look all the more inviting. Great recipe too!
Beth || http://www.TheStyleBouquet.com
Thank you very much!!
These look so good. I like that gooey brownie texture. I used to have the hardest time making cookies but I have gotten much better. Caramel cake is the one thing I can not make!
Ooohh, caramel cake sounds so good! I might try to make a vegan version one day. Thank you for the idea!
Can you send some of these my way like right now? How yummy. I can’t wait to eat them.
lol, on it!
I haven’t eaten dinner yet. I’m getting really hungry looking at these desserts! Now I want to start baking instead of making dinner.
lol! Nothing wrong with dessert before dinner!
OMG i wish I was good at making off food. I’m only good at deserts. Well just brownies lol
lol! Your brownies probably taste better than mine! Thank you!
Delicious. I love cupcakes maybe i will try it. Thanks for the recipe !
Thank you! I hope you do.
Mmmm….they look yummy. What a bonus that they are vegan and gluten free! I think your right about the measurements if you don’t believe in exact measurement it could throw everything off. These look great, happy baking!
Thank you! Yes, it’s so hard for me to follow exact measurements. I rarely cook that way! I like to “eyeball” everything.
This sounds delicious! I’m like you. Cooking is easy but baking is nearly impossible!
lol, glad I’m not the only one!
These are the kind of dessert that might have to be make once a year for us. LOL i love to baked but golly sometimes it’s hard for me to stop baking especially if it’s delicious like this post. This is one of my family favorite to eat. Sometimes my mother-in-law add vanilla ice cream on the top and oh boy it’s yummy.
Goodness, this would be sooo good with vanilla ice cream. Sounds like you’re a good baker. I could probably learn some things from you!
Ahhh!!! Made of Almond flour… Thanks for the recipe. I’m gonna try this out. Let’s see…
Awesome, let me know how it goes!!
The brownie cupcake looks really delicious. The good part is that it’s a lot healthier than other sweets.
Exactly! Thank you.
That fudge muffin really looks so great to taste and eat. Now you have got me in the mood to eat a choco cupcake right now, but it is 1030 at night already!
lol! It’s never too late for dessert. 🙂
It looks tasty. You should try making how-to video of your recipe. Your audience will crave more 🙂
Thanks, I might do that!
Hahaha hopefully you’ll make better and better desserts from now on! I also suck at baking because you’re right! The science to it it too exact, anything could go wrong! XD
Exactly! Thank you
Perfection. Just the right bite for a little snickety snack! My daughter (she’s 13, newly vegan /vegetarian…..on the spectrum, eats gluten free and lots of other stuff too and very into healthy eating)thought I was a rock star with this recipe. Thank you, Monique! 👌🏻🥰
lol, that’s awesome!! You definitely are a rockstar for supporting her new eating habits. I’ve heard from many teens who say their parents don’t support their vegan lifestyle and won’t cook them vegan food. I’m so glad she liked it and thank you very much for the nice comment.