Not Your Daughter’s Cupcake

Ever had an “adult” cupcake? One that’s a bit healthier, with more complex flavor, and a little less sweet? I created one for this month’s Recipe Redux cupcake challenge. These peanut butter coconut peppermint raw cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting are luscious little treats, made entirely without flour or dairy.

Yup, they’re totally raw.

My batter is really the beauty of these raw cupcakes. I make almond milk pretty regularly in my house and I used the leftover almond pulp as the cupcake base. Using my food processor, I mixed it with some unsweetened coconut, cocoa nibs, and peanut butter along with a few drops of liquid stevia for sweetness (you can definitely make this base using agave, honey or real maple sugar, I tried all three). I have a slight obsession with making traditionally sweet things sugar free, so I tried it with just stevia. I really like the result, but you might want it to be more sweet. If so, just add more sweetener! You can’t really mess these up. Again, they have more of an adult taste, not too sweet at all, but very moist and cake-like due to the almond pulp.

Not sure what almond pulp is? It’s just the remains of the almonds after you make almond milk. To make almond milk, you soak raw almonds overnight in water in the fridge and then rinse. Then blend them with fresh water in your high speed blender. Once the almonds are blended to all liquid, you drain the “milk” into a nut bag or a cheese cloth.  The “pulp” that’s left over in the bag is the almond pulp. You can do a ton of stuff with it…I made raw cupcakes!

These raw cupcakes are moist and delicious with a very rich, luxurious chocolate frosting…very dark, and very decadent. The frosting is made with lots of organic cocoa powder, honey, coconut oil, and cinnamon. The flavor is pretty intense chocolate, so probably not super kid-friendly. Norah took a few licks and was a little overwhelmed. But I loved it!

I really hope you experiment with these “adult” raw cupcakes. I am already thinking of the many flavor combinations I could whip up. Chocolate raspberry, coconut cherry almond, pumpkin, carrot cake…YUM!

Here’s the recipe with tips for substitutions:

Raw Peanut Butter & Peppermint Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting

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Ingredients

  

For the cupcakes:

• 2 cups almond meal could use a mixture of dates and walnuts
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 Tbsp natural peanut butter could use almond butter!
• 1/4 cup agave honey, or maple syrup (I used liquid stevia)
• 3 Tbsp cocoa nibs could use dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder or extract
• 1/4 cup coconut oil melted

For the Frosting:

• 1 cup organic cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup coconut oil melted
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

 

For the cupcakes:

• Combine almond pulp, coconut and coconut oil, peanut butter, sweetener, vanilla, and nibs into a food processor. Process until well combined. Test for sweetness and add sweetener to taste. Scoop out and pack into cupcake tins. Place into the fridge for at least 30 minutes to chill (I kept mine overnight). Makes 8-10 cupcakes.

For the frosting:

• Combine chocolate frosting ingredients into food processor or high speed blender until creamy and thick. Add a tablespoon or two of water if your frosting is too thick. Taste for sweetness and adjust. Pipe the chocolate frosting over each cupcake. Decorate if you like. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Frosting makes about 6 cupcakes. You might need to make a double batch!