Boy, are you in for a treat! We celebrate birthdays in homemade style around here from their choice of dinner to dessert. One of our most requested treats by my 6 kids are these scrumptious grain-free chocolate cupcakes. The best part is the delectable strawberry frosting made with REAL strawberries! When I recently shared our tasty treat on social media, my inbox got stuffed with recipe requests. So…here it is as promised. We love to share and dare you not to salivate while making these. haha!
And in case you thought your eyes were playing tricks on you, these are in fact grain free – not just gluten free, but grain free. No rice fillers, or fluff in here. They’re light and lofty and moist so that you keep coming back for more. What you see here is the remnant of what’s left after a birthday bash we had. My two oldest daughters made a huge batch of cupcakes. You do the math…We’re a family of 8, had them two days in a row, and this is what is left. A whoppin’ 5 left. tee hee. Yummy!
*post contains affiliate links so you can find the products I love to use too. (see full disclosure)
Last year, my youngest wanted pink cupcakes. I was happy to oblige, but one problem – we don’t do food coloring in our house. How do I get pink cupcakes with no artificial blucky stuff? Well, I was at the store grabbing my normal groceries when I spied these freeze dried strawberries. I did a head-smack and grabbed them to head home and experiment.
All I did was grind them up in my Ninja Food Processor and add them to my buttercream frosting. Totally DELICIOUS!! We’re talking REAL strawberry flavor that packs a punch, and…they’re PINK! Can’t get any better than that, right? See the tasty bits of strawberries in there? mmm…
The limits are boundless with this as you can get freeze-dried blueberries, raspberries, bananas, apples…you get the idea! Whip up a colorful batch to take to your next family gathering or surprise that special birthday person with a treat.
Ready to make some of your own? Like I said, these grain-free chocolate cupcakes you see are two days old and still going strong, so they store well too. BONUS: you can use the recipe for brownies or round cakes or sheet cake or in a trifle too. Here’s what you’ll need:
Yes, there is sugar in there and it’s funny because my kids only see that white fluffy powdered sugar only during birthday time and they’re always like…”what is THAT?” because we typically only use sweeteners like sucanat and honey. Since not all the ingredients may be available to you locally, here is where I source mine. (click each to see)
- Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour
- Rapadura (or sucanat)
- Bob’s Red Mill Arrowroot Starch
Once the cupcakes are baked and cooled, it’s fun to decorate your little cakes with the buttercream frosting.

Servings | Prep Time |
12 cupcakes | 15 minutes |
Cook Time | Passive Time |
35-40 minutes | 20 minutes cooling |
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Love to have cupcakes, but don't want grains in your diet? These grain-free chocolate cupcakes are not only delicious, but can be topped with your favorite fruit-flavored buttercream frosting. No food coloring needed. Yay!
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- 3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour
- 8 ounce semi-sweet chocolate chips melted
- 1 cup sucanat or rapadura cane sugar
- 1/2 cup pastured butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon arrowroot
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 large free-range eggs
- 1 1.2 oz package freeze-dried strawberries
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup pastured butter softened
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1-2 Tablespoons milk fresh raw milk preferred
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 12 portion cupcake pan with butter and set aside.
- Melt your chocolate chips in a double boiler and set aside to cool a bit.
- Using a stand mixer or hand blender, first combine your eggs and vanilla until blended. Then slowly add in the remaining ingredients, including your melted chocolate. Blend until batter is uniform.
- Fill each cupcake mold halfway with batter and bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
- Cool in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely. While cooling prepare your buttercream frosting detailed below.
- Place your freeze-dried strawberries in a food processor and grind until a fine powder.
- Place your powdered sugar and butter in your stand mixer and blend (or blend with hand mixer).
- Stir in vanilla, milk, and strawberries and beat until smooth and spreadable. note: Can also fill and frost one 8- or 9-inch two-layer cake or one 13 x 9-inch cake.
Do pin and share these grain-free chocolate cupcakes because so many feel limited when they hear they have to go grain-free. Or maybe they choose to be grain free because they know our modern day grains are not as they should be. Either way, sharing is fun!
Up next, I’m back to the get my furniture fix with this Mid Century Modern dresser makeover. Did you ever have one of these?
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