Obviously this is not my recipe. I could never be that creative with props. Who thinks of a little bat in a cupcake? Adorable people, that’s who. And that’s exactly who I asked to do a guest post for me! If you haven’t met Vanessa and her wonderful blog, Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind, you must be not eating enough great food! Vanessa is not only extremely spunky and absolutely hilarious, but she creates food that is truly incredible. I would know, she’s fed me before. She once made me cheesecake. Insane. So happy early Halloween! Get ready for your parties and check out her blog for other treat ideas for your special, random holiday!
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Well hello there PaleOMG readers! I am so ecstatic to be here today! Yes, I’m pretending like I’m on the Today Show. What? Like you don’t ever do that. You should hear my pretend Oscar speech I recite in the shower when I’m washing my hair. Don’t worry though, I brought something delicious with me, like I would show up empty handed.
First of all, let me preface this post by saying I heart Juli. Almost as much as I heart chocolate and that’s really saying something. You know how you just meet people sometimes and you hit it off immediately and you feel like you’ve known that person for years and then you want to invite them bowling this last weekend to celebrate your birthday because you always have so much fun with them but then you realize they don’t live in the same city so you can’t? Yeah, Juli and I are like that. She has supported my blog from the very beginning and we’ve had incredible conversations in the kitchen over mimosas just like two Paleo bloggers should. Juli is the best human being and if I could carry her around in my pocket so that we could go ride bikes, eat, cook, and have slumber parties together, trust me, I would. Do you think I can get her to move to San Diego? Or maybe just watch Sixteen Candles with me in PJ’s while we talk about how hot Jake Ryan still is. It’s like 30 years after that movie came out and I still want all up in his sweater vest.
I started eating Paleo a little over a year ago. You guys eat Paleo, you know how rad it is, so I don’t even need to convince you or tell you some long drawn out story about why I changed my lifestyle. Which is actually really awesome because then we can just talk about dessert. Which is why I’m here in the first place! Boom. Full circle in like one sentence and I’m not even done with the blog post yet. I’ve always had a bit of a sweet tooth. When I say bit, I’m being bashful. I OBSESS over dessert. OBSESS. Obsess like I will order dessert before my actual food or just order dessert in lieu of dinner. Whatev’s. Just bring it. I’m actually in the process of stalking a pastry chef because my birthday is this week and it’s my annual tradition to eat her dessert every year on my birthday and…*gasp*…she went to another restaurant and now the dessert is…*gulp*… unavailable. UNAVAILABLE? I’m sorry, what was that? I don’t think so…
Since I fell in love with Paleo I had to make room for some clean eating treats and hence, my blog was born. I try to include posts about real food but, who are we kidding people, this is me we’re talking about and to me real food is dessert. I’ve just had to tidy them up a bit. You know, take out the gluten, dairy, and legumes. No biggie. So today I have for you…drum roll please…Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spice Frosting. Why? Because I love you, but mostly because it’s…wait for it…oh heck, you’ve waited long enough…it’s PUMPKIN SEASON!!!! Can we roll out the red carpet, cue the marching band and throw the confetti now or what?! I’m so excited, pumpkin season is my favorite! I just want pumpkin everything! Seriously. Give me pumpkin flavored pumpkin, I’ll eat it. Wait, what? You get it.
Hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my blog so read it maybe?
Web: http://cleaneatingwithadirtymind.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cleaneatingwithadirtymind
Twitter: @cleandirtyeats
Instagram: vanessabarajas
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/vanessabarajas
Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spice Frosting
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
For the Paleo Pumpkin Spice Frosting
- 1 cup canned coconut cream/milk, full fat, refrigerated overnight (about 2 cans)
- 1/4 heaping cup canned pumpkin
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- pinch of pink himalayan salt
- a few dashes of cinnamon to taste
- a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice to taste
- a few dashes of cloves to taste
For the Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 cup of blanched almond flour, sifted
- 1 tablespoon of coconut palm sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of pink himalayan salt
- a few dashes of cinnamon
- 1 cup of enjoy life mini chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup of full fat canned coconut milk, room temperature
- 1/4 cup of organic palm shortening or coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
- 2 organic cage-free eggs
Instructions
- To make the frosting: In a tall cup or bowl, put the hardened layer of coconut cream/milk from the refrigerated cans, equaling about a cup, along with the rest of the ingredients.
- Use an immersion blender or hand mixer to combine and whip the ingredients together. Add more spices if needed to preferred taste. Put in the refrigerator uncovered to thicken for at least 30 minutes while you make your cupcakes.
- To make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake pan with liners or grease thoroughly if you won’t be using liners.
- In a medium sized bowl combine your dry ingredients, almond flour, coconut palm sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir together with a fork and set aside.
- In another medium sized bowl combine chocolate chips and coconut milk and melt using the double boiler method. Stir consistently until completely melted. Remove from heat.
- Stir in the melted organic palm shortening or coconut oil, vanilla and eggs into the melted chocolate and coconut milk mixture.
- Now fold your dry ingredients into the melted chocolate mixture until completely combined.
- Pour batter into the cupcake liners or pan and fill about 2/3 full, they will rise slightly when baking.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let completely cool before frosting. To frost, transfer the frosting to a decorating bag and use desired tip. Garnish and enjoy!
These look and sound amazing!!!! Deffinitely going to give these a try.
I was wondering what is the best brand for the blanched almond flour? I usually only bake with coconut flour… THANKS!
Hi Lisa,
I think the best almond flour is Honeyville. You can buy a 5lb. bag for $35 online. It’s cheap, lasts forever, and is the finest I have found! It gets the texture of baked goods really close to regular flour!
I’ll get some of that then! THANKS!!
Is there a huge taste difference between pink Himalayan salt and sea salt??? :((( I have everything else to make these now lol so if there isn’t, I’ll make them ASAP
Hi Crystal,
Sea salt will work fine. I love the pink salt because, well, it’s pink and how cool is that? Also it’s supposed to be the purest form of salt. And Costco sells it for really cheap. 🙂
Looks so good! Juli, would you consider doing a short post or video on the double boiler method..especially for those of us who don’t have a real double boiler and how to use a makeshift one. I always mess up when I melt chocolate. And then end up with a bowl of hard stuff I can’t use. Which is obviously a travesty! Thanks for considering!
If you’re ending up with hard chocolate, my guess is that you are not being quite gentle enough (e.g., letting water boil too hard, leaving chocolate over hot water too long). It’s not a difficult process, but you do have to be gentle. A few tips:
– only put an inch or two of water in your pan
– bring the water to a simmer, not a raging boil
– the simmering water should NOT touch the bottom of your bowl
– as your chocolate starts to melt, stir it and then remove the bowl from the pan once the chocolate is ALMOST all melted (finish melting the remaining bits by stirring, which will also cool the mixture GENTLY).
p.s. I’m certainly no chocolate expert. Sorry for the shouty CAPS. I just thought those words could get lost on a quick read but were quite important to the outcome.
Hi Erin,
Alyson has it right on! I technically don’t have a double boiler either. I just use a sauce pan and then place a larger metal bowl on top of it. It works great!
I just microwave them. Super easy. Go for a minute on high, stir them, nuke in 10-15 second intervals after that until mostly melted, then just stir until completely melted.
These look SO good! Can’t wait to give them a try for my Halloween party.
What a great recipe, Vanessa! And Juli’s right–you have a knack for styling!
Erin, you don’t really need a double boiler to make a ganache. Just put the chips in a bowl. Heat the coconut milk in a small saucepan on the stove on medium heat until it simmers (just before the boiling point). Pour the hot coconut milk over the chips and stir. I usually use a small whisk because it incorporates faster. Once you have a smooth ganache, you can whisk in your melted coconut oil, vanilla, and eggs. Personally, I would make sure the eggs are room temperature.
Is there cocoa missing from your recipe?
Hi Michele,
No cocoa was harmed in the making of this recipe. 😛 The Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips serve as all the chocolate you need for these guys.
Who needs a cupcake! Bring on the frosting!
Looks delicious! But why is the prep time 10 HOURS?
I think the 10 hours includes the chill time for the coconut milk/cream to separate.
Sixteen Candles is one of my all-time favorite movies. I still swoon over Jake Ryan when I catch it on a random TBS 80s movies marathon or something.
I’m swooning over these cupcakes now, too, of course. Perhaps a project for my little girls and me this weekend! Thank you.
Icannot wait to make these, they look so rich and scrumptious! It is so great to be able to have dessert while staying paleo…
I do most of my baking in my toaster oven, so really like using silicone cupcake liners! They work lined up in a regular pan since a muffin tin won’t fit in the toaster oven. You can get them in the cake decorating aisle at Walmart for $2 a 4 pack.
For melting chocolate I use my electric fondue pot. It works great. You can often find cool 70s fondue pots at Goodwill. The electric ones work the best (vs the sterno pots). More consistent heat control. I have three I use during the holidays for oil, cheese & chocolate fondues (started it when my kids were ready for a more grown up tradition).