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Very Vanilla Cupcakes {coconut flour}

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Comfy Belly: Very Vanilla Cupcakes

Very vanilla cupcakes with maple whipped cream piped on top: 1 cup of heavy cream plus 1 to 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, whip with a mixer until the cream forms stiff peaks.

Since one of us here doesn’t really like chocolate (can you imagine?), and every so often someone asks me if I have a vanilla cupcake recipe. I decided to post this gluten-free, super-charged vanilla cupcake recipe using coconut flour.

My older son needs to minimize his almond intake right now. This is a bit challenging for me considering I was doing a lot of baking with almond flour and I have a personal love for almonds. But it’s a good thing for us to rotate the foods we eat—that way we’re getting a variety of nutrients and fiber from different sources for a well-balanced diet.

Comfy Belly: Very Vanilla Cupcakes

To get a very vanilla taste to these cupcakes, I use vanilla bean seeds. People do a lot of interesting things with vanilla beans. Besides steeping it in milk and cream when making vanilla ice cream, you can make your own vanilla extract, put it in your vacuum bag to freshen up your “environment”, or add it to baked and seasoned dishes, as I’ve done here with this vanilla cupcake recipe. I also added vanilla beans to the buttercream frosting on these cupcakes in the photo above.

Vanilla beans are not cheap, so if you don’t have one lying around or don’t want to invest the extra $, no worries—these cupcakes will still make someone’s day!

My original inspiration to give coconut flour a try for donuts & cupcakes, came from this post. And here’s a video on how to scrape the vanilla seeds from a vanilla bean.

So that I haven’t left you with a naked cupcake, here’s some posts that have frosting for your cupcakes:

 

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Very Vanilla Cupcakes {coconut flour}

Yield 8 cupcakes

I use 2 tablespoons of coconut milk to this cupcake to make it a more tender tasty muffin. You can use any dairy or dairy-free milk.  I recommend parchment cupcake liners or silicone muffin liners for all cupcakes made with coconut flour and I know some readers also grease the liners.  

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup oil (olive oil or other oil, or melted unsalted butter, ghee, coconut oil, or vegetable shortening)
  • 1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
  • 2 tablespoons coconut milk or other milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • seeds from one vanilla bean (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C, or gas mark 4).
  2. Combine all the dry in ingredients, except for the vanilla seeds, and blend well.
  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a mixer to blend well. You can use a food processor, hand or standing mixer to get it well-blended. Let the batter sit for a few minutes and mix once more. Optionally, add the vanilla beans and blend well. The batter is thin.
  4. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way with batter.
  5. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
  6. Cool and then frost.
  7. Store covered for a few days at room temperature, or the refrigerator for a few weeks, or freeze for a few months.

 

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Comments

  4. These look great. We have a lot of August birthdays here. Your banana muffin recipe with chocolate chips and your flourless brownie recipe are staples in our house.
    Love your recipes! Had my brother’s family over last pm and they took a few brownies home for later…

    Reply

  5. Yum! Lots of people liked them here. It’s good I made a double batch! The texture is really good. I can’t wait to try the yellow cake. Thanks.

    Reply

  6. I just got allergy results back and both almond and egg yolks are gone. I know I could sub 2 egg whites for per egg, but have you ever found anything else you could use instead of eggs? Would chia seed work? I love the lightness of coconut flour but don’t want to over use the egg whites. Ideas?

    Reply

  7. I found your website recently and I love your recipes. I would love to try replacing the honey with Truvia but I am scared to try it. I was wondering if I would need to add some liquid i.e more butter/ oil or another egg to replace the missing liquid of the honey. I would love any suggestions you might have. Thank you so much!

    Reply

    • I’m not familiar with Truvia, but yes, you do want to replace the liquid from the honey or maple syrup with something – my instinct says water would be good enough.

      Reply

  9. So glad to see new recipes for coconut flour. After 2 years on SCD I became really allergic to almond flour from over exposure and since then well I just don’t even cook anymore 🙁 I can’t wait to try these.

    Reply

  11. I just made the vanilla and chocolate cupcakes of yours today! The flavor and textures are great! I was wondering if you or someone would happen to know what I am doing wrong. Both sets of my cupcakes are sunken-in in the middle…and I notice yours are nicely rounded on top. Could that mean I am mixing too much or not enough? I used butter and honey in both recipes…everything else was exactly as written. Our elevation is 3,000 — could that be affecting something? Thank you!

    Reply

    • hmm. I only have the sinking with the almond flour and honey combo in baked goods. I wonder if it’s the honey? Is it softer in the middle? that would indicate it’s not fully baked. Otherwise, maybe add less honey?

      Reply

  14. Oooooh, these were gooood 🙂 I’m making another batch today because the first 8 disappeared! YUMMY! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  15. Perfect! I added mini chocolate chips and baked a 9″ round cake for my 3-yr’s birthday. He loved it, brother and sister loved it, and my husband said, “What cake is this? It’s delicious!!” — probably the only gluten free cake he’s ever had, and my first to bake from scratch. I’m the only one eating “mostly-paleo” on purpose and I will totally use this recipe again! Very nice cake, worked at high altitude (5000ft), and great to have a non-chocolate option. I bet it would be good with raspberries stirred in. Oh and the cake took 20 min in the oven.

    Reply

  16. I made these and added the zest & juice of one clementine to the batter instead of the vanilla beans — they were SO good!! Thanks for the awesome recipe!!!

    Reply

  17. i just made these and they just came out of the oven. i haven’t tried them but they smell amazing and licking the mixer paddle proved that they are going to taste great. however, every time i bake with coconut flour, my batter thickens up and becomes “scoopable”, read more cookie dough. Is that how your batter looks? As a result, I don’t get a smooth surface on the top of the cupcake. It’s just a cosmetic thing but I’m just curious.

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Just had this happen too. I think it’s from trying to get the lumps of flour out. Wondering if I had sifted the flour if it wouldn’t have been as lumpy….

      Reply

    • (sorry about the late reply)

      Yes, they are more “scoopable”, in general. Once trick I’ve found is if you leave the batter in the mixer and let the mixer “mix” for a while (I have an old Kitchen Aid mixer that keeps going) the batter does get thinner. So I recommend mixing for a while with coconut flour. Also let it sit for a bit to absorb the moisture.

      Reply

      • I didn’t have success with these spreading in the cups or rising at all. Definitely not fluffy like the picture! They just cooked basically. So, do you keep mixing past the really thick stage and then it thins out? And what do you consider ‘a while’ as? 🙂

        Reply

  18. Hi! Do you have a suggestion to use instead of honey for a sweetener? Would stevia work?
    Thanks!

    Reply

    • I haven’t used Stevia, but do a search on Stevia on the site. Others have used it along with glycerin for the added moisture that honey has. I sub maple syrup with honey, and some have used sugar-free maple syrup.

      Reply

  20. These turned out great. I was thinking about using the same recipe, but change vanilla extract for almond extract.

    Reply

  21. I just baked these and they are divine! Thank you so much. I googled coconut flour cupcake and got directed to your site. I am definitely getting your site on my reader! Thanks a million.

    Reply

  23. Do you think this will taste as yummy if I freeze them for a few days before a birthday party then thaw and frost the day of the birthday party?

    Reply

  24. Made these using brown sugar instead of honey, and lard and coconut oil for the fat. Baked for 10 minutes in a muffin top pan. They taste like cake donuts!!

    Reply

  27. I made these for my Daughter’s fourth birthday knowing they would be eaten by non~ gluten free, non grain free family. They passed the test with everyone. They were better than any gluten white cake cupcakes I have ever eaten. I have used coconut flour many times and seem to haveixed success with it but this was the best coconut flour recipe I have tried.

    Reply

  28. I’m also getting a cookie dough type texture. This is not a ‘batter’ by any means….have to roll it off the spoon to get it in the liner. I used 1/2 honey, 1/2 syrup and liquified coconut oil….and even tried adding a tad bit of water to see if it would thin, but it didn’t. I’m afraid they’re going to be more like a muffin….we’ll see.

    Reply

    • Batters come in all shapes and sizes :). Yes, this can be more of a “scoopable” batter, but keep the faith. As long as you followed the directions it should be fine. BTW, the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of honey OR syrup.

      Reply

      • I have some local honey that’s VERY sweet, so i used 1/4 cup of honey and 1/4 syrup, as I’ve found that just honey is too much. 🙂

        Reply

  30. Wow! I just made this and it tastes amazing! Definitely for vanilla-lovers like myself! I didn’t have a muffin pan so I baked it for 30 minutes in a 7″ round cake pan and they came out perfect! Moist with a soft and crumbly texture. I did reduce the amount of honey to 1/3 cup as I prefer only lightly sweetened cakes. I also added some chopped macadamia nuts and dried cranberries because I happen to have some on hand.

    I’m definitely making this again probably adding other dried fruit or nuts or even spices. I can’t thank you enough for sharing this wonderful recipe!

    Reply

  31. I just made these and they are fantastic! Thank you so much for the recipe! We’re new to gluten free, and baking is hard work, but these are a hit! Yum!
    Jo-Anna

    Reply

    • I would say almost any oil but a finishing oil would work here. One with the least flavor would be good so it doesn’t over power the vanilla flavoring – my personal choice would be sunflower oil, coconut oil, or ghee.

      Reply

  33. hmm…these aren’t awful. Mine came out a bit dry and more muffin-like than cake-like. And they definitely need frosting because they don’t come out particularly pretty 😛 I had very high hopes, as I’m trying these grain-free recipes for my son’s first birthday (we don’t feed him any grains). The only substitute I made was using liquid stevia and unsweetened applesauce in place of the honey/syrup since I’m a type 2 diabetic.

    Reply

  34. I’m new to gluten free baking and this is my first recipe using coconut flour. These are the best cupcakes I’ve ever had!! They came out perfectly! Very moist and light with a wonderful coconut flavor. I also made the vanilla buttercream frosting (with maple syrup) and it is a perfect topping for the cupcakes. Actually, these cupcakes are so great they don’t even need frosting! Thank you for posting such yummy, simple, easy to make recipes! I’m looking forward to baking many more of your recipes!

    Reply

  35. Hello – I made these tonight, but I can’t figure out what it is I’m doing wrong. They came out TERRIBLY. They looked fine when I pulled them out of the oven, but when I went to remove them from the cupcake pan, i noticed that anything that was not directly exposed to the heat looked like a gelatinous mess. Upon further inspection, they were deflated and EXTREMELY oily and jiggly. When I picked one up, oil literally oozed from it into my hand. I followed the recipe and directions to a t. Now it’s just a lot of good ingredients wasted because these are too disgusting to eat. Any ideas what happened?

    Reply

  37. This was my first time baking with coconut flour …. They taste amazing! My 2year old is going to love eating one for tomorrow’s snack !

    Reply

  39. Our family is now getting away from modified food starches of any kind. All the recipes I have looked at on your blog here have been starch free. Thank you!!

    We baked these cupcakes tonight and LOVE them!!

    Reply

  40. I made this cake for Christmas yesterday. I used butter and 4 tbsp full fat coconut milk. It was delicious and moist. The only thing that I found is that it didn’t rise. I’m going to play with the baking soda to see if I can’t get a more cake like rise to it. Huge hit and I can’t wait to share with my readers!

    Reply

    • you may want to test your baking soda to make sure it’s still active. To do this, put a few tablespoons of white vinegar into a small bowl and add a teaspoon of baking soda. It should bubble and the foaming should take several moments to subside. The more bubbles, the more potent the baking soda. If there is no reaction, or you only end up with a handful of small bubbles, you need to replace you baking soda.

      Reply

    • I just came across your post and was wondering if you ever figured out the rising issue. I just made these last night and had the same problem. I tested the baking soda and it was fine. I really need to figure it out before next week…babies first birthday so I am practicing. Please help if you can

      Reply

  41. I am going to bake these today. Refined and GMO foods, especially high fructose corn syrup, have ruined my son’s stomach over the past 10 years and we are using coconut parts all the time.

    Reply

  42. Just for anyone who may be interested, I tripled this recipe today and made a 9 inch 2 layer cake and it turned out beautifully. So if you’d like to make a cake instead of cupcakes, it works very well!

    Reply

  43. Have a second batch of these in the oven now. Made them for my birthday after completing the Whole30 and not wanting to reintroduce anything (aside from the honey), these were perfect! Not only were they perfect for my dietary needs, but they were more moist and simply more amazing than any other cupcake I’ve ever tasted. My entire family (who happily eats real junk food and enjoys it) absolutely loved them as well. Thanks for the great recipe! 🙂

    Reply

  44. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I was craving something cupcake-y and came across this site.

    I started making these and then found out I was out of vanilla (ugh – of course I would run out of vanilla). I ended up using mostly almond extract with a little lemon extract – and the cupcakes still turned out amazing.

    On a side note, I have a feeling if I add poppy seeds or raspberries to my almond/lemon mishap – I would have a very tasty muffins. 🙂

    Thanks again!

    Reply

  45. Just made these…so delicious!… So healthy and tasty!!… Sweet but not too sweet!
    I had to cook mine for 25 mins and they were very brown on the outside but the inside was perfectly moist!

    Made cream cheese icing on top using coconut sugar! The two pairings worked very well together!
    Would also recommend melting dark chocolate to drizzle on top 🙂
    Or almond butter to use as a breakfast muffin.
    Definitely use your imagination with toppings

    Loving these alternative recipes for baking!!

    Thanks!!

    Reply

  46. These cupcakes are amazing!!! Moist and fluffy but not eggy! I have a hard time finding coconut flour recipes that have a good texture… Will make again!!!

    Reply

    • I’ve haven’t tried this, but, I think you can let tea sit in the milk for quite a while to infuse it naturally. Another option would be to simmer the coconut milk and earl gray tea for a while until it’s reduced to 2 tablespoons. Let me know if you try it!

      Reply

  48. Absolutely fine! Not too much fiber and I usually make this as mini cupcakes for kiddo birthdays or baby showers. They turn out just as tasty but are a little extra cute! 🙂

    Reply

  51. This is a great recipe! Thank you. I have made them several times. One was even a wedding cake! Love the tip on letting the mixture sit for a few. I feel it makes a big difference.

    Reply

  53. celebrated my granddaughter’s fourth birthday on the weekend and this recipe was a hit!…we searched long and hard for celebratory food choices using non-inflammatory, quality ingredients that would appeal to kids and adults alike…i used half honey/half maple syrup…didn’t have a bean but will definitely try that option next time…and there will be many ‘next times’..in fact, before i packed up and drove back home from my son’s house, i baked up another triple batch per his request!

    Reply

  54. I am sorry if I’ve already commented on this recipe, but it just keeps on being great! It is my GO-TO dessert recipe because I can make it all in a 1-quart pyrex measuring cup, using my old hand egg-beater! Paper cupcake liners, and boom! Gorgeous, moist vanilla cupcakes that are great with or without icing! Tonight, I might just go with whipped cream! I cannot say too much about this recipe – it’s brilliant! 🙂

    Reply

  57. I poured this into a 9 inch cake pan, but it’s not as thick as I’d like. Would making a double batch and splitting between two pans work okay? Maybe just bake them longer (I had to do 25 minutes for the one I made)? Also, this came out VERY sweet. Not sure if some honey is sweeter than others, but 1/2 cup was definitely too much. It overpowered any vanilla taste. Would I need to add more milk to it if I reduced the honey amount? I really want to find a cake recipe that tastes good for my son’s bday party on Sunday. I was hoping this would have worked, but I think it’s too sweet to serve.

    Reply

    • Yes, I think you can reduce the honey and add more milk. Do you use almond and coconut flour together? My favorite birthday cake is the one in my SCD book which uses both flours.

      Reply

  58. I have made these cupcakes and kids love them. But just found out my kid has a egg allergy. Is there a way to make these using some kind of egg replacement? Thanks!

    Reply

    • It will be tricky. I recommend flaxseed meal to replace the eggs, but not for all 4 eggs. To use no more than 2 flaxseed eggs, cut the recipe in half. I haven’t tried this specifically with this recipe, but in general I’ve found no more than 2 flaxseed eggs in baked goods.

      Reply

  59. I have made these cupcakes many times and kids love them. But just found out my kid has a egg allergy. Is there a way to make these using some kind of egg replacement? Thanks!

    Reply

    • I don’t know if using just the yolks would work. The white contains protein that bonds the ingredients. Can you use chia or flaxseed meal?

      Reply

  61. Unfortunately this recipe didn’t work out for me,
    The cake was very eggy, and tasted like baked eggs. I was really looking forward to this recipe and I was almost positive that it was gonna work, now all I have are wasted ingredients.

    Reply

  62. I’m definitely going to try this!
    I’m on Keto so how would i replace the maple syrup please with a low carb sweetner? Just not so sure of the conversion. Thank you so much

    Reply

    • To replace with a low-carb sweetener, it would depend on the recommended conversion, so use what the manufacturer calls for to make a 1:1 substitution for sugar and then add the equivalent measurement in liquid to make up for the loss in liquid from honey or maple syrup. So, for this recipe, you’ll use the amount of low-carb sweetener to convert to 1/2 cup of sugar and then add 1/2 cup of liquid as well (water, milk, or dairy-free milk).

      Reply

    • It depends on the size of the pan. For an 8×8 inch square probably not. But for a larger sheet pan cake, such as 9×11 inches, I would double it.

      Reply

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