Chocolate on chocolate on chocolate!
This Triple Chocolate Cupcake recipe has a serving size of two and is the perfect date night dessert... or a quick way to crush any chocolate craving. ;)
In Alberta we are now on week 7 of the Covid-19 shut down. Self isolating and social distancing due to the Covid-19 pandemic has made going out for a date night impossible. So why not have a date night IN and make a guilt free desert together! Teamwork this tasty treat and try something new!
The recipe is super easy to follow and it doesn't include ingredients that are common triggers for those with food intolerances. These cupcakes are packed with flavour and are gluten free and dairy free! They can also be made vegan by substituting the honey for maple syrup.
The cupcakes are refined sugar free until you add the "butter" cream frosting and chocolate chips. The cupcakes are sweetened with honey instead of a refined sugar or artificial sweetener. By sweetening with honey instead of sugar the cupcakes get a nice rich taste without being overly sweet.
Honey is a great sugar substitute while baking! It has a lower GI (glycemic index) than sugar, meaning it won't spike your blood sugar level as high as sugar and some artificial sweeteners will. Honey also provides small amounts of micro nutrients such as Vitamin C and Vitamin B. As well as the minerals calcium, potassium, zinc, magnesium, and iron.
Honey has been shown to aid in digestion and can help with acid reflux and constipation due to its prebiotic content. Studies also show that honey can be used as a antimicrobial agent that and can help fight inflammation.
If you're going to use a sweeting agent in your baking why not use honey and get some of the health benefits at the same time?!
Both the cupcake and the buttercream icing use cocoa powder to get its chocolate flavour. Cocoa powder is an antioxidant powerhouse and will help to fight inflammation. It also contains the minerals iron, manganese, magnesium, and zinc.
Cocoa is a natural mood elevator that can help with depression... but I feel like eating chocolate in general is a mood booster ;).
It even has a small amount of caffeine in it! Just another reason to use cocoa powder in your baking.
Making the Triple chocolate cupcakes is pretty straightforward and only takes about 15min to prep.
Start off by adding the almond milk and apple cider vinegar to a small bowl. Mix well and let it sit for 10mins. The acidity in the apple cider vinegar will naturally curdle the almond milk which will provide a dairy free alternative to buttermilk.
Next add all of your wet ingredients (milk/apple cider, olive oil, honey, vanilla) to a medium bowl and mix.
In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients (gluten free flour, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt).
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir till the dough forms. Add the dough to a lined muffin tin. Fill the tins about 3/4 the way full.
Pop the tin into the preheated oven on the middle rack. Bake for 35-40mins. Make sure to check with a toothpick to see if the cupcakes are cooked through.
While your cupcakes are in the oven start making the icing. Allow your dairy free butter to come to room temperature first, if it is frozen or too cold it won't blend as well.
Add all the frosting ingredients into a small bowl and mix with either a stand mixer or hand mixer till fluffy. Add the "butter" cream icing to your piping tool for when you are ready to add the icing to your cupcakes.
Once the cupcakes are cooked place them on a cooling rack. The cupcakes must be fully cooled before adding your icing and chocolate chips.
The serving size for this recipe is two, its the perfect date night dessert but feel free to double or triple the recipe.
Watch instructional video on how to make the Triple Chocolate Cupcakes!
To make the icing look so cute I used a piping tool from amazon. It's bagless, simple to wash, and made it seriously so easy to add the icing to the cupcakes.
I also used my Kitchen Aid hand mixer to get the icing nice and fluffy.
Macros Per Cupcake:
Calories: 564
Carbs: 64g
Fat: 32g
Protein: 5
A good portion of the carbs and fat is from the icing, if you wish to reduce the calorie count in the cupcakes you can eat them with half of the buttercream icing or skip it altogether.
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