Almond Flour Cupcakes (Keto, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 10/22/2021 - Last updated on 11/10/2023
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These Almond Flour Cupcakes are moist, fluffy, and healthy vanilla cupcakes made with almond flour.
Bonus, these are keto cupcakes 100% sugar-free and dairy-free with only 3 grams of net carbs per serving.
It’s that time of the year when we should start practicing our cupcakes skills for Christmas, right?
After my keto lemon cupcakes, here are vanilla keto cupcakes made with the most delicious buttercream frosting and sugar-free sprinkles for a touch of color.
How To Make Almond Flour Cupcakes
There’s nothing easier than making these delicious almond flour gluten-free cupcakes! All you need are a few ingredients and some top tips to make these baked goods, moist and delicious.
Ingredients
The key to making delicious cupcakes with almond flour is to use ingredients at room temperature. Don’t use eggs or almond milk straight out from the fridge or the cupcakes comes out dense:
- Blanched Almond Flour – This is not the same as almond meal. If you never baked with keto flours before, especially almond flour, you should know that almond meal is not the one to choose to make fluffy almond flour baked goods. Almond flour is a light, fine and golden flour made of blanched almond.
- Granulated Sweetener – To keep this recipe keto-friendly, I used erythritol but any granulated sweetener works in the recipe. If you are looking for paleo cupcakes, use coconut sugar as a healthy swap.
- Large Eggs – Not small, not medium but large eggs at room temperature. Eggs add the best fluffy texture to gluten-free cupcakes. Note that the recipe won’t work with egg replacers. Also, you must use eggs at room temperature, take them out from the fridge at least 30 minutes before making the recipe.
- Unsweetened Almond Milk
- Baking Powder – You can swap baking powder for baking soda. Double up the amount of called in the recipe.
- Melted Coconut Oil – You can use butter too but the recipe won’t make gluten-free, dairy-free cupcakes anymore!
- Vanilla Extract – yes, that’s one tablespoon! These are keto vanilla cupcakes and you want that vanilla flavor to pop!
Preheating Oven
Before you start the recipe, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-hole muffin tin with lightly oiled cupcake paper liners. Set it aside.
Combine Ingredients
Now, in a mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients: almond flour, baking powder, and granulated sweetener. Whisk to evenly combine the dry ingredients together and avoid lumps.
In another bowl, whisk eggs, almond milk and melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Make sure that all ingredients are at the same temperature.
Now, stir the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until a thick cupcake batter forms. Don’t expect a light runny batter like you sued to have when baking with flour.
Almond flour muffin, cupcakes, or almond flour bread batter always look thicker, gritty and that’s normal. Don’t thin out the batter.
Baking Cookies
Now, fill 12 cupcake paper cases with the batter – I used about 1/4 cup per cupcake.
Bake in the center rack of the preheated oven at 350°F (180°C) for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top. If the cupcake tops brown too fast, tent the muffin tray with a piece of foil to prevent the top from darkening.
Check the baking time by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cupcakes. It should come out dry with no crumbs.
Cooling down
Cool the cupcakes down on a cooling rack immediately after baking. Don’t cool down in the pan or they trap some moisture.
Cupcake Frosting
These keto vanilla cupcakes are even better with some frosting. You can make the keto buttercream frosting below or make my Keto Cream Cheese Frosting.
To make the frosting you need:
- Softened butter or dairy-free butter if you don’t eat dairy. Some dairy-free butter blocks are made of coconut oil and are keto-friendly.
- Powdered erythritol
- Vanilla stevia drops – the reason I use stevia drops and powdered erythritol is to boost the sweetness of the frosting and avoid too much sugar alcohol sweetener. In fact, erythritol tends to cool down the batter, and sometimes, it splits the frosting. So it’s better to add only a small amount and balance sweetness with stevia drops.
Use the paddle attachment of your stand mixer to beat butter until creamy. Then, stir in the remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust sweetness if desired.
Pipe the frosting on top of the cupcakes once they are cooled.
Decorate with a pinch of sugar-free sprinkle for colors!
Storage Instructions
Store the cupcakes for up to 4 days in a cake box in the fridge.
Or, freeze the cupcakes in a zip-lock bag and thaw at room temperature the day before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, you can never swap one for the other. Coconut flour contains 4 times more fiber than almond flour and it requires more eggs or liquid to make fluffy cupcakes.
Use this coconut flour cupcake recipe if you don’t have almond flour available.
A frosting splits when there’s a large variation of temperature in the bowl. It can be that your almond milk or butter are too cold or you added more powdered sugar-free erythritol.
Erythritol decreases the temperature of the batter. You can fix a split frosting by adding warmer ingredients in the mix, more room temperature almond milk for example.
If it splits because the mixture is too hot, pop the bowl in the fridge.
You can make keto chocolate cupcakes with this recipe. Decrease the almond flour to 2 cups and add 1/4 cup cocoa powder in the mixture and 1/3 cup chocolate chips.
More Almond Flour Recipes
If you like to bake with almond flour, I have many more keto-friendly recipes for you:
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Almond Flour Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 3 large Eggs
- ½ cup Granulated Sweetener of Choice I used sugar-free erythritol (note1)
- ⅓ cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- ⅓ cup Melted Coconut Oil (note 2)
- 2 ½ cups Almond Flour
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
Buttercream frosting
- 6 ounces Softened Butter or dairy free butter
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Stevia Drops
- 1/4-1/3 cup Powdered Erythritol I used erythritol
- 1-2 tablespoons Heavy Cream or canned coconut cream for dairy-free
Decoration
- 2-3 tablespoons Sugar-free Keto Colored Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a 12-hole cupcake/muffin pan with cupcake paper cases or grease mold with an oil spray if preferred. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar-free sweetener of your choice, unsweetened almond milk, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. If you are using cold eggs straight out of the fridge, they will solidify the coconut oil creating oil lumps. Otherwise, use butter to prevent this from happening.
- Stir in baking powder and almond flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring gently incorporate the flour to avoid lumps.
- Transfer the cupcake batter evenly into the 12-cupcake case. I used a mechanical ice cream scoop to be accurate and ensure that each cupcake has the same size (and so the same amount of carbs per serving).
- Bake for 22–25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean or with few to no crumbs on it.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the cupcake pan, then gently transfer onto a cooling rack and cool for 30 minutes to 1 hour before eating. Be patient. They get the best texture at room temperature.
Storage
- Store in an airtight box for up to 4 days at room temperature.
- Can be frozen in airtight ziplock bags, preferably without the paper cup. Defrost the day before at room temperature. Can be toasted or rewarmed in an oven at 100°C/210°F.
Cupcake Buttercream Frosting
- In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat softened butter until creamy.
- Stir in stevia drops, powdered sweetener and add cream gradually until the frosting reach your favorite texture.
- Taste and add more sweetener if needed.
- Pipe on top of the cooled cupcakes and decorate with sugar-free sprinkles.
Notes
Tools
Getting Started What Is Keto? Macro Calculator Sweetener Converter Intermittent Fasting Keto Fruits Keto Vegetables Keto Flours Fighting Keto Flu Healthy SweetenersWant My Kitchen Equipment?
Nutrition
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
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Cakes & CupcakesDisclaimer
The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.
The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.
You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.
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This was delicious!
Note, I didn’t have vanilla flavored milk on hand, so I used my usual unsweetened soy milk and added 1 tsp of vanilla extract.
I added frozen blueberries and they are delicious. My daughter said they taste way too guilty to be low carb!
Thank you for the wonder guilt free recipes.
I’m so glad you liked them!! Nothing better than getting approval from children 🙂
Hi Carine, are the macros for the cupcake alone or with frosting?
Thanks
It’s with frosting!
Awesome
Could this be baked in a loaf pan instead of cupcake/muffin tin? I don’t have access to anything other than a countertop oven and my 12 cup pan is too big, but my loaf pan fits. If so, how long should it be baked for?
Would this fill a 9×13? Or would I need to double it?
The batter will be too small, it’s more for a 9 inches x 9 inches pan
Yes it would work in a loaf pan. Cook it until there’s no more crumbs on a pick – the time might vary depending on the size of your pan
Please tell me the equivalent of a cup in your recipes?
I’m eager to try them.
Thankyou.
The recipe is written in cup by default, scroll up to see the recipe card and measurement. If you click the metric button it converts in grams/ml. Enjoy.
Thank you for the delicious recipe. I had to make a couple swaps, based on what I had on hand.
I used 1/3 cup agave instead of the 1/2 cup granulated sweetener. Because of the addition of liquid, I left out the 1/3 cup almond milk. Then at the last minute I panicked and added 1/4 cup powdered coconut milk in case the almond milk added richness. They were delicious! Do you think the almond milk would make them even better? Would you suggest adding more almond flour if I had 2/3 cup liquid (1/3 cup each of agave annd almond milk)?
I would add 1/4 cup extra almond flour to balance the extra moisture!
Hi, great recipe and endless amounts of substitutions are possible with using different sugar/alternatives/oils/milks. I also made this with almond meal and they were absolutely amazing!, Moist and fluffy and delicious almond flavour! Also I was wondering if you could make a full cake with this recipe? Any idea what the cooking time would be if so? Thank you!
Wondering if I could substitute honey for the sugar/stevia in this recipe?
It should work but liquid sweetener thin out batter so the muffin crumb will be more moist
I just made these with my 5 year old daughter, she had so much fun! it was super easy to bake, sadly I didn’t put the oven temperature high enough so they took a little longer to cook once I realized my mistake ! We loved them once they were cooked and decorated with sprinkles and icing once cooled! Great fun !!
I made this recipe two days ago and let me tell you I was so shocked they tasted so good. Even my mom and my sister, who are not so fan of the healthy baking, loved them. My mom kept asking for seconds lol. Super easy. Thank you for the recipe!!
I just made them with my little girl , it was such an easy and flavorful recipe !!!! We LOVE ITTTT
Very yummy! I substituted coconut yogurt for the milk and added chocolat8e chip cookies. the recipe yielded 24 mini cupcakes. My kid loved it. Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe..
Great recipe, had to make dairy and gluten free cupcakes. Not worried about sugar so added normal gasp white sugar and rice bran oil as I didn’t have coconut oil. These were amazing! Thank you!
Can I use any neutral oil? Not a fan of coconut. Avocado or grape seed oil maybe?
Absolutely any oil works in this recipe, enjoy!
If I wasn’t worried about making this dairy free, what percent cream do you think I should use to get the right moisture in these?
I guess heavy cream or half half would work ok as a swap to almond milk.
Hi Carine
Is there any specific reason to use almond milk or can I use cow or coconut milk instead?
Any non-dairy milk works well but coconut milk add a coconut flavor so I prefer almond milk, it doesn’t impact the flavor of the cupcakes.
So it has to be non-dairy?
Not at all, you can use melted butter instead of coconut oil and milk instead of almond milk
I’ve recently started my sugar free journey and my baking projects have been hectic. I bought stevia extract since I wanted the pure thing but most recipes call for granulated sugar substitutes. I’m assuming recipes like this one can’t have the granulated sugar swapped put for stevia extract powder? Thanks!
Yes you can use stevia but the amount will be extremely different because stevia is very sweet and also bitter when used in large amount. Use my sweetener converter to know how much stevia you should use instead of erythritol.
If you use butter, technically it is still considered gluten free:). Just not dairy free
Yes!
Best recipi I made thank you for shareing healthy recipies