Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

I have a pet peeve with companies that follow a ton of people on social media and then unfollow everyone a few days later. While it's irksome when an individual does it, with a company it just comes off as a little tacky. We all know that the company is doing it to get massive amounts of people to follow them and then betting that most people either don't know how to check or don't care enough to unfollow the company once the company unfollows them. Then the company has 30,000 followers while only following 10 people. It looks bad. I wish that PR companies would do a better job of discouraging this behavior. Almost all the likes that they receive with this type of social media behavior won't be the ones buying their products, the followers don't equal profit. It's a much better idea to actually have a great product and offer coupons on social media, making people care enough to genuinely follow your company. I'm hoping that once companies get a better grasp on how to run social media effectively this behavior will begin to stop. However, as of now that isn't happening, it's pretty much  a free for all.

Since going gluten free I have tried just about every type of gluten free flour. Some have been okay, others kill my stomach (I'm referring to you soy and quinoa flours, no thanks). I've joked with my husband that I'm going to go to a straight steak and potato diet. It would taste awesome and my stomach would be happy. However, it would also cost a mint and variety is better for my health. Coconut flour seems to be all the rage right now, so the following is my recipe for Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting.

Adapted from Healy Eat Real.

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Recipe Type: Dessert

Preparation Time: 0h, 20m

Cooking Time: 0h, 30m

Recipe by Foodie in WV

Yield: 8-10 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 5 eggs
• 1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup milk

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend.
3. Allow batter to sit for 5-10 minutes.
4. Place batter into a muffin tin either greased or with muffin liners.
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes.
6. Let cool before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Cooking Directions

1. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer for 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another 1-2 minutes. If needed add more cream to get to a spreading consistency.

Tips: 

• If you've never used coconut flour before it absorbs liquid like crazy. You have to use a lot more liquid than flour in order for baked goods made with coconut flour to work. 
• These cupcakes are a mix between muffins and cupcakes. The texture is somewhere in between. 
• If you don't consume cows milk you could try using coconut milk in this recipe. I often substitute canned coconut milk in baking recipes and it works well. 
• The coconut oil could also be substituted for vegetable oil, canola oil, or unsalted butter. 
• If you like sweet cupcakes/muffins I would increase the amount of honey to 1/2 cup. Additionally the honey can be substituted for date or coconut sugar (or granulated if you eat it in your diet). 
• The frosting obviously has butter and confectioners sugar so if you are avoiding either of those things you would want to make a substitution. An easy way to make dairy free frosting is to whip a can of full fat coconut milk and a teaspoon or two of vanilla. You can add cocoa powder (or cacao) if you are wanting chocolate flavored, approximately 2 tablespoons.