Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

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Moist, fluffy, and SO rich. The ultimate vegan paleo dark chocolate cupcake topped with a fluffy berry buttercream, perfect for valentine’s day!

The Perfect Vegan Paleo Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

It took me many attempts to figure out how to make an actually fluffy chocolate cupcake without eggs or grains, but this is the one. And bonus fun fact: they are super easy too! Just 8 ingredients, one bowl, 30 minutes. Very lovable any and every month of the year.

Dark Chocolate Cupcake Ingredients

The list is short and simple, no complicated mix of 27 expensive flours, and they happen to be oil-free too. You will need:

Dark chocolate. Preferably Hu Gems because there is no higher quality, better tasting, silkier melting, simpler ingredient dark chocolate I know.
Coconut sugar. Or brown sugar would work too, either will make the cupcakes much more moist and rich than regular sugar. We love that.
Almond milk. Or your favorite nondairy milk.
Apple cider vinegar. Or lemon juice, you just need an acid.
Cassava flour. I know I know, a little “fancy”. But I promise its the easiest to work with grain-free flour, cheaper than almond flour for sure, and worth trying. If you aren’t gluten/grain free, all purpose flour would be fine here too.
Cocoa powder. Or cacao powder.
Baking soda and salt.

Dairy-Free Raspberry Frosting

Naturally sweetened, naturally colored, and just 2 ingredients – its the perfect cupcake companion. The base is coconut cream chilled overnight (or longer never hurts!), and the flavor/color comes from freeze dried raspberries. They are much more potent in tangy flavor and color than fresh berries, and won’t thin out the frosting.

Be sure to use a very dry blender or food processor to grind the berries, otherwise they will clump instead of powder-ify. And I recommend whipping with a hand mixer for the fluffiest texture, and then re-chilling for an hour or so after whipping before frosting your cupcakes.

Tips For Perfect Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

Make sure all ingredients are room temp or warmer. Since there is melted chocolate in the batter, cold ingredients will cause it to seize up when mixing.
Fill your cupcakes at least 3/4 of the way for those perfect domed tops. Without eggs or gluten they won’t rise as much as a traditional cupcakes.
Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting. The pink swirls will melt right off if you don’t.
Keep the cupcakes in the fridge tightly sealed so they stay as moist and fresh as possible. Frosting right before serving is best!

More Valentine’s Recipes You’ll Love

Cutout Heart Sugar Cookies
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cookie Dough
Fudgy Raspberry Brownies
Strawberry Chocolate Truffles