Best Ever Keto Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe (2024)

Published: Jun 26, 2021 · Modified: Feb 24, 2023 by Katrin Nürnberger · This post may contain affiliate links · 39 Comments

Keto cupcakes are a wonderful afternoon treat and perfect for any celebration! Expect a moist and fluffy vanilla flavoured crumb, topped by a lush cream cheese frosting. This easy sugar-free cupcakes recipe is absolutely fail-safe and suitable even for baking novices!

Everyone needs a really good cupcake recipe in their repertoire and this is mine!

I'll be honest with you. I never liked "real" cupcakes. I always found them too sweet, especially the frosting. At kiddie parties, I'd take a bite and then hide my plate behind a pot plant.

Everything has changed with these keto vanilla cupcakes! Not only are they low carb and gluten-free, they also ACTUALLY taste delicious.

The texture of the crumb is soft and moist yet fluffy. It tastes like a pound cake - none of that dry, brittle texture you get with shop-bought cupcakes.

The frosting is silky-creamy, but not overly sweet. I actually made two different frostings - one is a cream cheese frosting, the other one a strawberry buttercream frosting using real strawberry puree.

Ingredients

• Eggs- large and room temperature. Fridge cold eggs prevent cupcakes from rising.
• Butter
• Cream cheese - use a full fat cream cheese (I like Philadelphia). In the cupcake, this can be replaced with Greek yoghurt or sour cream.
• Unsweetenedalmond milk
• Granulated sweetener- I used an erythritol monk fruit sweetener, which is a 1:1 sugar alternative. Allulose or Bocha Sweet also work. For the frosting, the sugar substitute MUST be powdered.
• Almond flour- I'm using ground almonds, which is equivalent to regular almond flour in the US. If you're using super-fine almond flour, reduce the amount by 2 tablespoons.
• Coconut flour- It complements almond flour and is also high in fibre. Read more about the benefits of coconut flour.
• Baking powder - Check that it is fresh (it should fizz when you put a little in cold water)
• Vanilla extract - For a luxury version of this recipe, use the seeds from 1 vanilla pod instead!

Instructions

This section contains step-by-step instructions and photos that show how to make this recipe. See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities

Step 1: In a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer or in a food processor, beat the eggs until pale, thick and double in size.

Step 2: Add the sweetener, butter, cream cheese, unsweetened almond milk and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth.

Step 3: Stir together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl (option to add a pinch of salt). Then add them to the wet ingredients and blend until you have a smooth batter.

Step 4: Fill the keto cupcake batter into a muffin tin lined with cupcake liners...

...and bake in the oven until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Step 5: Let the cupcakes cool completely.

Step 6: For the vanilla frosting, mix together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and then slowly pour in the powdered sweetener.

Step 8: Fill the frosting into a piping bag and pipe over the cupcakes.

Recipe tips

You can probably stretch the batter to 10 cups. Mine rose quite a bit, and since we're adding the frosting, there's no need for a large rounded dome top.

The batter is only gently sweet, because we're adding the sweet frosting on top. For sweeter cupcakes add up to ⅔ cup (130g) of sweetener.

It is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL that you're using both room temperature butter and cream cheese for the frosting. I have tried to make it with cold ingredients, and this causes the frosting to curdle and split.

FAQ

Variations

Try different flavors for this keto cupcake recipe:

• Lemon: Replace the almond milk with lemon juice and grate in fresh lemon zest.
• Peanut butter: Swap the cream cheese with soft peanut butter.
• Chocolate: Add 6 tablespoons cocoa powder and more milk as needed to loosen.
• Red Velvet: a few drops of red food colouring.
• Strawberry - Make my strawberry muffins and top them with the strawberry buttercream
• Chocolate chip - add sugar-free chocolate chips

Or, change the topping:

• Use my keto cheesecake fluff - it's a mixture of cream cheese and whipped cream (plus a couple of secret ingredients!)
• Chocolate frosting: Simply add 2 tablespoons cocoa powder to the vanilla frosting ingredients.
• Decorate with sugar free whipped cream and berries.

Storage

Refrigerator: The frosting stays firm at room temperature, but I do recommend to store keto cupcakes in the fridge if you don't eat them on the same day.

Freezer: You can freeze them for up to 3 months.If possible, freeze them plain and add the frosting before you serve. However, it's possible to freeze them with the frosting as well.

Her are more cupcakes and other keto desserts to try:

Tried this recipe? Give it a star rating below!

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