These Dark Chocolate Cupcakes have no refined sugar (just honey) and are a healthy dessert you can feel good about serving to your kids, or anyone for that matter!
One food misconception I hear all the time is that eating healthy means sacrificing the foods you love most. For example, a bunch of my friends don’t like to let their kids have snacks like cake or cupcakes for all the obvious reasons and so the kids have to miss out on fun things like chocolate cupcakes at birthday parties. I can’t think of many things more heartbreaking than seeing a little one at a party having to eat a banana while all the other kids’ faces are covered in chocolate frosting!
Well, here at weelicious, we’re always up for a challenge. Is there a healthy cupcake with absolutely no refined sugar that parents can be happy to serve their kids and even the most discriminating chocoholic will love? There is now! Enter these delicious and decadent Dark Chocolate Cupcakes!
Why I Love This Recipe
- It’s easy: When I tested this recipe I did it every which way, and turns out this version was the best (and easiest) version we tried! It’s truly a dump in a bowl, mix and bake recipe that is absolutely delicious.
- It’s healthier: Traditionally cupcakes are loaded down with sugar and not something you would want your little ones eating all the time. But these cupcakes are made with no sugar and sweetened naturally with honey. You’d never know it though by the way they taste!
- Kid-approved: Since this recipe is so simple to make, it’s a great one to let your kid’s help you make! They’ll have a blast helping you in the kitchen and you can even let them lick the bowl. The dream!
The Ingredients
For The Dark Chocolate Cupcake
- all purpose flour
- baking soda
- kosher salt
- cocoa powder
- melted butter or olive, avocado or vegetable oil
- honey or agave
- whole milk or plant based milk
- apple cider or white vinegar
For The Chocolate Ganache
- heavy cream
- honey or agave
- unsweetened chocolate bar or chips
- unsalted butter
How to Make Healthy Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place all cupcake ingredients in a mixer or mixing bowl in the order listed in the recipe card and mix well to combine. Batter should be free of lumps. No need to sift the dry ingredients or place in separate bowls. This is a dump in the bowl, mix and bake recipe!
- Fill greased or lined muffin cups with batter about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes for regular sized and 15 minutes for mini cupcakes.
- Cool and frost with chocolate ganache.
Dark Chocolate Cupcake FAQs and Substitutions
- Can these be made vegan? Yes! The cupcakes can absolutely be made vegan. Make them vegan by using oil instead of melted butter and almond or oat milk instead of cow’s milk.
- What if I don’t have honey? You can use agave or maple syrup in place of the honey and still get a light, perfectly sweet chocolate cupcake.
- Could I make these into a cake? I haven’t personally, but I’ve had a few readers convert this into a layered cake by doubling or tripling the recipe. Depending on the size of your cake you’ll most likely have to bake for a little longer than the cupcake instructions. You’ll know it’s done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- No eggs? Really? Yep! No eggs in these cupcakes. The baking soda and vinegar work together to leaven and bind the cake.
- What kind of cupcake liners did you use? You can use any that you have on hand, but I’m newly obsessed with these silicon cupcake liners. They don’t stick at all and are reusable!
Make Adorable Garden Cupcakes with This Recipe
I recently had a party welcoming the spring season and made adorable Garden Themed Cupcakes using this dark chocolate cupcake recipe! Of course, the simple chocolate icing topped with sprinkles is great, but if you want to really wow your guests, make these!
- What You Need:
- 1 Dark Chocolate Cupcakes recipe
- 12 chocolate wafer cookies, crushed
- 12 two inch terracotta pots
- Edible flowers, fresh berries and mint for decorating
- How to Make Garden Cupcakes
- Make dark chocolate cupcakes as directed in the recipe card below.
- Spread with frosting, then top with crushed chocolate wafers. This is your “dirt” or “soil”.
- Place cupcakes in terracotta pots, and top with edible flowers, berries and mint leaves for adorable cupcake flower pots!
More Healthy Desserts
- Peach Snack Cake
- Berry Coconut Crisps
- No Bake Cookie Dough Balls
- Frozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bites
- Flourless Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins
Images by Ivan Solis
Garden Cupcake Images by Gerry Speirs
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
These Dark Chocolate Cupcakes are decadent, delicious and naturally sweetened using honey! A healthy dessert that actually tastes like the "real" thing!
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup butter (melted) OR olive, avocado or vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup honey or agave
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider or white vinegar
Chocolate Ganache:
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/3 cup honey or agave
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
Dark Chocolate Cupcake Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place cupcake ingredients in a mixer or mixing bowl in the order listed and mix well to combine. Batter should be free of lumps. (No need to sift the dry ingredients or place in separate bowls. This is a dump in the bowl, mix and bake recipe).
- Fill greased or lined muffin cups with batter about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 20-22 minutes for regular sized and 15 minutes for mini cupcakes.
- Cool and frost with chocolate ganache.
Chocolate Ganache Instructions:
- Heat the cream and honey (or agave) in a small saucepan just to a boil, whisking to combine.
- Turn off the heat and add the chocolate. Whisk constantly until chocolate is melted.
- Pour into a bowl and add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time until icing is smooth and butter is incorporated.
- Let the icing come to room temperature to allow it to set. You can also put the icing in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes to speed up the process. Dip the cupcakes into the icing or spread using an offset spatula or knife.
Nutrition
Calories: 378kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 427mg | Potassium: 164mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 607IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 43mg | Iron: 2mg
Did you make this recipe?Mention @Weelicious or tag #weelicious!
These were delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe!
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[…] Source Weelicious […]
Absolutely delicious! I have made these cupcakes three times now but tonight, I poured the ganache frosting into a piping bag and inserted the tip into the center (from the top) of the cupcake, squeezing the filling inside and then over the cupcake as I always have a lot of frosting left over. It’s a little messy but totally worth it! My 4-year old son absolutely loves these cupcakes!
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Trying to cut back on refined sugar in our house. I’m gonna make these for my son’s 2nd birthday! Thanks so much for the awesome recipe! As a side thought…have you really seen someone give their child a banana while others were eating cupcakes? I hope you were joking. I mean unless they have a dietary restriction, this is just sad.
[…] It is entirely possible to bake healthy chocolate cupcakes. Take these, for example. They contain agave instead of refined sugar, making them just as sweet as any others available. The milk and butter can be substituted with almond or rice milk and oil, respectively, in order to make these vegan, as well as sugar-free. And, to top it all off, these cupcakes are easy to make. There are no complicated steps beyond mixing all of the ingredients together, baking them, letting them cool, and then frosting them. Source Weelicious […]
[…] It is entirely possible to bake healthy chocolate cupcakes. Take these, for example. They contain agave instead of refined sugar, making them just as sweet as any others available. The milk and butter can be substituted with almond or rice milk and oil, respectively, in order to make these vegan, as well as sugar-free. And, to top it all off, these cupcakes are easy to make. There are no complicated steps beyond mixing all of the ingredients together, baking them, letting them cool, and then frosting them. Source Weelicious […]
will the icing hold up for several hours?
Thank you for the great recipe! I used maple syrup (I’m Canadian!) instead of agave & they were fabulous. And so easy to make!
I use light! You can use dark, but it might change the color of the dish!
I noticed there are few different Agave products at our local Whole Foods; light, dark, raw, etc. What kind do you use in your recipes?
I tripled this recipe and made it into a multi-layer cake for my son’s second birthday. It made one rectangular casserole pan, one 9 by 9 square pan, and a few cupcakes. I stacked them all together and topped it with cream cheese`cocoa icing, and then decorated it with a mini loader, digger, dumptruck, chocoalte rocks, and black sanding sugar to make it look like a construction site. The cake recipe was perfect! It was thick, which made a firm cake, perfect for this kind of decorating. It was so easy to make, too. This is definitely a recipe I’m going to come back to over the years.
Loved the Ganache but I may have done it incorrectly because I had only used 2 TBsp of butter and it was a lil runny. It was still awesome, specially for my chocolate loving husband : ) Also, I made a cake instead of cupcakes. The mix was a bit thick and I kept using milk. It tasted great!
Question about the icing: can I use cocoa powder instead of shaved chocolate? If so, how much would you recommend?