The Best Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes

So good!
Used miyokos vegan butter and steamed Costco beets.
Made a double batch of the cupcakes and a single batch of the frosting. It worked perfectly. No one could believe GF and vegan.

I found this recipe years ago, around 2016, when I was having issues with gluten, and it has been a family favorite ever since. I make it at least once a year for birthdays and other important occasions. It passes the “non-vegan check” AND the “non-gluten-free check”—even my non-vegan and gluten-eating family members and friends LOVE it. And though I can tolerate gluten now, I still make this recipe with gluten-free flours because “why mess with perfection?” It’s very decadent. It has a perfect texture. The cake itself is on the bitter side which complements the sweet, fudgy frosting.

Some things I recommend that differ from the directions here:

1. I never peel the skins off the beats, and it still turns out great.

2. Use a store-bought, powdered egg replacer (as directed from the instructions on bag) rather than flaxseed. This will give the cake a consistent texture.

3. Don’t omit the vanilla extract!

4. If you are using the frosting recipe—which I very much recommend, it is fudgy and delicious—skip the refrigeration step. If you refrigerate the frosting, it will make it difficult to spread. I also recommend not doubling the frosting recipe if you double the cake recipe for a double layer cake. If you make the full frosting amount, you will be left with tons of frosting. This isn’t be a bad thing if you have other plans for it, but it is something to keep in mind! If making a double layer cake, I do recommend refrigerating the first layer once you have frosted it to allow the coconut milk in the frosting to solidify before stacking and frosting the second layer. This will prevent a disaster from happening.

This usually takes me about 3 hours start to finish, including baking time, and making the frosting while the cake is baking. I am not a professional baker, so there are probably other things I do that are inefficient. Even as I’ve practiced this recipe many times over the years, it still takes a lot of time to make. It is 110% worth it though!

These are FANTASTIC. I followed the recipe except I used regular milk instead of almond. They are moist, rich and delicious. I topped them with the avocado/cocoa icing. Just fantastic. I was shocked at how good they are!!

I made half the recipe because I wasn’t sure if it would turn out. I ended up eating 4 of the 6 cupcakes! … and had to make another batch. So addictive. I love the earthy beet flavor with the dark cocoa.

Unsweetened applesauce works GREAT for this recipe. I make it as written, otherwise. This is my go to recipe for any cupcake occasion, and they always get eaten quickly and praised by everyone. I’m making these tomorrow for my son’s 4th birthday party :)

I have made this several times and I think they are the best gluten-free vegan chocolate cupcakes in the world! I use 2/3 cup pumpkin puree plus 1/3 cup applesauce in place of the beat puree. I sub extra almond and gluten-free flour in place of the oat flour. And I always add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. It’s really a shame that is not written into your recipe because it makes a huge difference. This time I forgot that I usually add it, and the cupcakes aren’t nearly as tasty.

I am one of the pickiest human beings on the planet and a recovering junk food junkie. When I saw beets in the ingredients, I must admit, I thought, “Gross, I’m not eating those,” but I made them for a vegan and gluten-free crowd and not myself. But then, I tried one. I wanted another, and another and another… I couldn’t stop ’til they were gone. These are ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL! The birthday girl I made them for called them “legendary!!” I would have NEVER known they were vegan and gluten -free. Literally, these are DELICIOUS!!! I got nothing but positive feedback and the leftover frosting was just as big a hit accompanied by just a spoon! Thank you for sharing your fabulous creation!!!!!!

Another great cupcake recipe!! They taste so good that it is hard to believe that they are egg and dairy free. The cupcake was fluffy and frosting silky smooth. I used avocado oil instead of coconut oil. I bought steamed beets from Trader Joe’s and they worked great.

My granddaughters have been begging me for cupcakes the past two weeks and they were not disappointed by these!!!

These cupcakes are the best cupcakes EVER! Thank you so much. Absolutely loved them.

I’ve made these cupcakes many times. I cooked the beets in my instapot and they make a great addition to this recipe. Recently though I made my life easier and started using applesauce. My toothpick doesn’t come out clean but they are cooked. Makes 12-14 cupcakes.

I’ve mad this recipe many times–I love it!

Substitutions I use:
-Cashew or hazelnut meal in place of almond flour
-Pumpkin puree in place of beet puree

I made this cupcake recipe as written, with a different egg substitute since I did not have flax seeds, these truly are delicious but very time consuming. Make these and you will definitely impress some gf vegans.

Holy cow these are absolutely delicious. I made these today for my 50th birthday and it was love at first bite. They are fluffy, moist, and oh so chocolatey. I made them exactly as written. These are the best chocolate cupcakes I have ever had in my life. Will be making these for years to come.

Made these cupcakes with the vegan ganache frosting – amazing!!! Never would have known they are vegan and GF! It is a bit of an undertaking (roasting beets to make puree etc), but worth the time if you have it. Highly recommend.

BEST VEGAN CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES EVER!!!!!

Amazing!
I trust you so much that I didn’t do a trial run!
Made these for my kids’ birthday celebration! Love that they fit so many dietary restrictions!
The faint beet smell went away during baking and was super fluffy and moist. I was pleasantly surprised that they weren’t sugary sweet. Pairs beautifully with the frosting.

Changes/specifics:
-I quadrupled the recipe. Love the built in calculator. Still had to do some math within the recipe, but it was very clear.
-Vanilla Original Almond Milk I had on hand.
-when added baking soda, didn’t fizz but bubbled a bit.
-For beet puree I bought precooked beets from Costco (4pk) I used 2.75 packages and 1/2 cup watered down orange juice to get 4 cups puree.
-used Earth Balance.
-used almond flour instead of almond meal
-used Just About Foods All Purpose GF Flour, 1 to 1 Baking Flour
-when making frosting, my choc chips didn’t melt well (put warm milk in metal mixing bowl with chocolate). So I put the mixing bowl in a big pan with water, making a double boiler and stirred while heating until melted. Worked swimmingly 🙃

Thanks so much, can’t recommend you enough! You had made me a more confident baker!

Gees la wees!!! Is there anything you guys can’t do? These are phenomenal! Prepared as written, I used the applesauce. I cannot wait to share these with friends! Bravo!!

Amazing recipe!! :) I grew up eating a non vegan version of these cupcakes and making them brought me right back.. licking the spoon at the end was always my fav part and well, this batter was so good I ended up eating by the spoonful, yummm. The finished cupcake was equally devine! I used the bobs red mill 1:1, did avocado oil instead of coconut and added a tsp of vanilla extract. Sooo moist and delicious!! And the top is perfection! THANK YOU xx

Several years ago, I made these for my husband’s birthday party which had over 100 guests. (It was a milestone birthday). Wanted a vegan gluten-free option along side of the 2 bakery cakes that I had ordered. Wish I had made more. Could not get non vegan and/or gluten tolerant people to stop eating them. They were as delicious as they were beautiful with festive vegan sprinkles on top! Now my non-vegan, beet-hating husband often requests that I make them. They are his favorite! (Mine, too!)

I stumbled upon this recipe 2 years ago. Had a huge 70th birthday party for my husband, I’m vegan; he’s not. In our mix of friends, they’re some vegans and lots of gluten-free folks. Ordered 2 bakery cakes and made these cupcakes and crowned them with some vegan sprinkles. HUGE hit! So much raving that had to ask people NOT to try them unless they weren’t vegan and/or gluten-free. Everyone loves them, especially me & my husband. Thanks for the best cupcake & frosting ever! Golden unicorn for sure!

So good! I make and freeze them, a solo eater, and have one every night :) for dessert during beet season.
I wanted to share my beet prep tip- that’s what takes the longest and is always such a mess. I use beets from my farmers mkt and there are typically 4-5 in a bunch. I roast all of them at once, then puree in 1 cup batches and freeze.
I can usually get 2 frozen portions- saves so much time, at least for the next rounds! Thank you!

I made these today for a friend’s 6 yr old birthday. They most certainly were not pourable and the flax egg caused chunkiness. I went bake after the cupcakes were baked and realised I doubled the egg (I only made 6 cupcakes). OMG, what a dumb mistake. I’m sharing this because I can’t stop laughing at my foolishness.

Otherwise, the recipe was easy to follow, the smell was amazing, and I’m sure they will taste fine once the icing is on.

I made these for a second time and they were AMAZING! Seriously, my friends said they would never know they were vegan & gluten-free and couldn’t tell the difference between their gluten, butter & dairy filled counterpart so HUGE win for me!!! Only changes I made was I used applesauce instead of beets and Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 & baked for 34 mins total. I used the Vegan vanilla buttercream recipe & added some espresso powder and they were pure mocha heaven!!!!

I love baking and this was my first attempt at a vegan, gluten-free recipe so needless to say, I was skeptical. But these turned out surprisingly delicious… i’m actually shocked how good they are. I subbed applesauce for the beets and baked them for 31 minutes total but sadly they did sink in the middle and were a bit under-baked so next time i’ll do the full 34ish minutes. Luckily sinking in the middle is easily solved by extra icing! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!

These turned out delicious – a really light gooey texture considering they’re GF. Make sure not to overbeat. I used my stand mixer and let it go for a few minutes.

My cupcakes “dome” completely sunk in while baking, and even more after I took them out. I think this is because I beat too much air into them.

I made these using hazelnut milk, honey, applesauce and substituted coconut flour for the oat flour because these were what I had on hand. I also subbed monk fruit sugar. Even with all those changes they came out really fluffy and so moist. I haven’t frosted them because we try to keep the sugar content low. But I ate one with some heavy cream poured over it (obviously I’m not vegan) and it was amazing. I’m going to try making a vanilla cream from silken tofu to eat with them and see how that works too.

The texture of these cupcakes is fantastic! So light and fluffy, and the edges got just barely chewy. I used pastry flour in place of the oat and gluten-free, and replaced the beet with applesauce. I topped them with some Miss Jones vegan peppermint frosting that I had on hand. They were perfect!

I love making these cupcakes. Cannot believe how moist they are and so tasty. My little boy who has anaphylaxis to wheat, egg and peanuts can’t get enough of them. So easy to make that I prepare them every time he has a birthday party to go to.

Love this recipe – between my dairy-free best friend and my gluten free self, we can be hard to cook for. This recipe checked all the boxes (even my sister, who is neither vegan or gluten free, loved them). I used applesauce instead of beets and oat milk instead of almond, but those were the only substitutions I made. Moist, fudgy, and rich but not too sweet (that frosting is amazing)!

These are amazing!! OH MY! so decadent and delicious and perfect for parties with gluten free guests.
The icing is incredible. I had a happy accident where the chocolate chips didn’t quite melt in the almond milk, leaving the icing with tiny chocolate chunks.

These are amazing! I made them with applesauce. The only minor issues- The chocolate chips didn’t melt all the way in the microwaved almond milk so icing was chunky which was a delicious twist but if you’re going for perfect appearance wouldn’t fly. And the almond milk apple cider baking soda mixture didn’t fizz. Don’t know why- maybe because I used a different brand of almond milk? But they were incredible cupcakes- so seems fine. This makes WAY too much icing. You’d have too much if you halve it. Now I’m feeling wasteful to compost it, and may be eating it by the spoonful. I wish I knew in the first place to use the sticks of vegan butter instead of the tub kind, because I had to add so much powdered sugar to make it less runny. And did I say these are AMAZING???

Brilliant recipe, a little bit of work but so worth it, I didn’t have gluten-free oat flour but I replaced it for 1/4 cup GF flour, glad they turned out great, not a fan of gluten-free flour but the almond and beetroot make them really moist ! Yummi! Thanks! So far all your recipes are spot on!

I made a batch of these cupcakes the other day and they were a terrific Halloween treat! I followed the recipe to a T and for some reason they filled 15 cupcake liners (no complaints, though). No beet flavor whatsoever, they were not too sweet and incredibly tender.

The only issue I ran into was the frosting being too runny – I could have added more powdered sugar, but it was already so sweet that I decided to leave it and use it like a glaze instead. Still a great taste!

My whole family loved them, so thank you for the recipe.

These cupcakes (and the frosting) are phenomenal. And not just for being GF and vegan. They’re just plain delicious. Rave reviews from everyone, including family members without dietary restrictions.
I’m becoming convinced that you’re an actual wizard to come up with all of these GF and vegan recipes that are just as good, if not better, than their gluten and dairy/egg containing counterparts. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Note: I used Nutiva coconut shortening instead of vegan butter for frosting (it’s what I had on hand) and it turned out very well. I may have eaten some that was leftover by the spoonful…

These were so yummy and such a hit!! I garnished with some raspberries which were delicious! Can I freeze the frosting?

These are AMAZING! I am working my way through an elimination diet and needed to make some cupcakes for my son’s birthday. I am an avid baker (using all things full of gluten, dairy, eggs etc), so I’ve been very skeptical of trying to bake anything vegan and GF. However, these were simply divine, and I was amazed. Usually I can bake vegan/GF things and think “Oh, these are good for being vegan and GF…” But not these cupcakes… they are just good period.

I followed the recipe exactly, except I was short about 2 T of beet puree, so I just added a bit of applesauce to get me to the 1 C measurement. Also, I actually got 13 normal sized cupcakes instead of the 11 that the recipe says.

I will say, that I didn’t make the chocolate frosting because my favorite icing with chocolate cake is buttercream (so I made a vegan “butter”cream icing) and it was fabulous!

If you’re wondering whether or not to make these… MAKE THEM. I promise you will love them!

I recently made these Cupcakes and they were amazing, even my 16 year old son, who was sceptical when he learnt they were Vegan had to admit they were delicious!!

Awesome. Made as is. Only experiment was with cupcake liners vs no liners (greased tin with coconut oil). Found a big difference. The cupcakes in liners were much more moist and deliciously dense. Those without liners were drier and had a tough bottom.

Just fabulous! Congratulations on creating such an unusual gluten and dairy and egg free cupcake recipe that works so beautifully. Initially I was a bit put off when I saw the ingredient list, but am glad I persevered through having to make my own flours and milk and a couple of improvisations, thanks to local unavailability. The humble beetroot truly shines!

I’m not even a cake eater, I am making these for a church event but OH MY! This will definitely be my go-to recipe for both cupcakes and chocolate frosting. They taste like they have pudding in the mix. The flavor and texture are absolutely perfect. I doubled the recipe for the cupcakes but only made one frosting recipe because others reported that there was so much leftover frosting. It was perfect. One batch of frosting generously coated two batches of cupcakes. The doubled batch made 28 cupcakes.

This is the best chocolate cupcake recipe I’ve made successfully at home, vegan/gf or not. Ever. I used Earth Balance, and subbed sunflower seed flower that I whipped up in my blender and hemp milk for the almond flour and milk to make these nut-allergen friendly. They are so moist, I almost always question whether they are done or not…but they always are.

These were delicious. I made with half maple syrup/half honey and used coconut oil. For frosting, I made with sugar free chocolate chips (Lilly’s), sugar free powdered sugar (Lakonto), and Smart Balance.

Very impressive result, considering it is vegan AND gluten free! Had almost a fudge brownie consistency. I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour and also didn’t have enough almond meal, so subbed in some extra flax meal. The only note is that this is NOT a 1-bowl recipe! Between all the prep of ingredients (blending beets, grinding flours, mixing frosting), many, many dishes were used in the process. Also, as noted in the recipe, there was a lot of extra frosting (like many cupcake recipes tend to have). I wish the recipe made less to avoid waste! But overall, very impressed.