Grain Free Coconut Cupcakes (coconut flour only)

Grain Free Coconut Cupcakes, Keto Friendly

Do you obsess over coconut cake, cupcakes? I do and I know you probably do too if you fall into coconut love camp. I’ve discovered that there are two kinds of people. Those who LOVE coconut and those who hate it. I’m in the love coconut cake camp and have made so many different versions over the years. This keto triple layer cake finds its way on my table every Easter and other occasions as well.

This grain free coconut cupcake recipe is a slight variation of that recipe. 

Converting a great coconut cupcake recipe (one I’ve made at least 50 times, and won a contest for) to a grain free, sugar free option is a challenge, but so worth the extra effort.

To my great surprise the cake part was easy. It took only two tries to nail it, using coconut flour only.

Make These More Special Adding Raspberries to Frosting

I love the color of the frosting. Blend in 1/4 cup frozen (defrosted) raspberries to the frosting for a beautiful pink color and little more flavor.

When You Bake with Coconut Flour

When you bake with coconut flour, you must use a lot more eggs,  as coconut flour absorbs liquid. I used six eggs for 12 cupcakes.  It’s also better to replace butter with avocado oil (or a baking coconut oil) because you need that liquid and moisture.

Coconut Flour Vs. Gluten Free Flour

The good news is that instead of using several cups of flour, you only need 3/4 cups coconut flour . This makes a much more affordable cake than using the gluten free flours or an almond flour cake.  This cake is also less dense than those other alternatives, refrigerates and freezes extremely well. It’s diabetic friendly because there is no spike in blood sugar, and for the keto folks, will not take you out of ketosis.

My original recipe makes giant cupcakes; this recipe makes 12 small cupcakes, but if you’re here to cut sugar, calories and carbs, this is happiness.




My Secret Ingredient to Delicious Grain Free Coconut Cupcakes

I won second place in a big cupcake contest in Nashville with my secret ingredient. Nutmeg. A few dashes of freshly ground nutmeg marries well with coconut and I put it in the batter and the frosting. On another occasion I made these same cupcakes, skipped the nutmeg and added raspberries to the frosting. You could also fill these cupcakes with my sugar free meyer lemon curd

You can add a few frozen raspberries to the frosting to make pretty pink cupcakes!

Frosting Grain Free Coconut Cupcakes

Since I first posted this recipe, I opened a keto bakery. This is a coconut flour only recipe, not using any almond flour like this keto coconut cupcake recipe. This is perfect for folks who have to be nut free.

Perfect Buttercream Frosting or Cream Cheese Frosting

I have discovered the perfect ratio for buttercream frosting and for cream cheese frosting. 

No matter what you read at Swerve or on another site, the ratio that works best is 1/2 cup Swerve Confectioner’s sweetener to 1/2 cup butter or 4 ounces  cream cheese. In fact, with the new and improved Swerve confectioner’s, you may need even less. Taste along the way!

You can choose to use this vanilla buttercream frosting, add in a teaspoon of coconut extract and top with coconut or make the cream cheese frosting below in this recipe. If you don’t have coconut extract, just use vanilla.

Do not put a lot of frosting on these cupcakes. I don’t recommend piping, as this will add to much and it won’t be necessary.  Just smear on enough to cover and then top with unsweetened coconut. It will be more than enough to satisfy your coconut cake craving.

I also found that I need to refrigerate the cupcakes for a while (an hour or so) before eating. They taste better this way.

The cake will be very moist, but will not fall apart, as the xanthan gum helps keep them together. 

So far, these grain free coconut cupcakes are my favorite keto/low carb dessert recipe. It’s not low-calorie. It is high in fat. But it is low in carbs, grain free and sugar free. It’s also diabetic friendly.

I also have a tutorial on how to color coconut with a tutorial video.

If you love coconut and you’re going low-carb I have an amazing coconut ricotta cookie you might also love.

Read more about Swerve here.