These keto cupcakes combine two of my favorite flavors: peanut butter and chocolate.  If you are looking for a tender and moist low-carb cupcake, try this amazing keto chocolate cupcake recipe with peanut butter buttercream frosting.  

Keto Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Looking to satisfy a sweet tooth?  Check out this indulgent peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes! They’re tender and moist — and as always, sugar-free and gluten-free.

They are the perfect recipe to bring for special occasions, like birthday parties or potlucks.  You can’t go wrong with that classic “Reese’s” flavor.

And that peanut butter buttercream frosting?  Well, you could just eat that with a spoon… You won’t believe how simple it is to whip up!

Ingredients in Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Like many keto baking recipes, these cupcakes are made with a blend of low-carb flours, including coconut flour, almond flour, and cocoa powder.

Almond Flour. For keto baking, I prefer to use almond flour that has been blanched to remove the almond skins.  If you can, look for “super-fine” almond flour for the lightest and fluffiest results.  A fine-ground almond flour like Bob’s Red Mill will help ensure that your low-carb cupcakes have a nice, light texture.  I also like Wellbee’s brand, which comes in larger bags.

Coconut Flour. Adding a little coconut flour to this recipe increases the lightness and improves the texture. If you’ve used coconut flour in your low-carb baking before, then you know you only need to use a little.  The cocoa powder hides any flavor that the coconut flour has.

Cocoa powder. Your chocolate cupcakes will be richer and more flavor all if you skip the low-fat supermarket variety cocoa powders in favor of a higher-fat, upgraded version like this one.  So good!  It’s Barry Callebaut brand packaged by Gerbs, so know it’s going to be good.

Peanut Butter. Most major brands of peanut butter –like Jif and Skippy — contain added sugars and hydrogenated oils. However, there are several high-quality peanut butter brands available on the market that are perfect for a healthy, keto lifestyle. When you’re shopping in the grocery store for keto ingredients, your best bet is to look for natural peanut butter without added sugar.

Check out Is Peanut Butter Keto Friendly? Plus the Best Low-Carb Brands for more information.

How to Make Keto Cupcakes

These cupcakes are made with the traditional “creaming” method, just like cupcakes made with traditional white flour.  I like to use a stand mixer for this recipe, but it’s just as easy to make it with a hand mixer. (You can make the recipe without a mixer — you’ll just need to substitute a lot of elbow grease.)

To start, whisk the softened butter and sweetener together until light and creamy.  This process takes a few minutes, but don’t be tempted to skip it.  The creaming process introduces lots of tiny air bubbles into the batter, which helps to make these cupcakes light and fluffy!

Then, add the eggs one at a time, and stir well to combine.  If the batter looks a little soupy at this point, don’t worry — just carry on and add the vanilla.

In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the coconut flour, almond flour, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk it all together well in an effort to break up any lumps and evenly distribute the xanthan gum and baking powder.

Next, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir well to combine.  Add the heavy cream, and stir again.  The batter will be thick, but still pourable/scoopable.  If your batter still seems too thick, add another couple of tablespoons of heavy cream to thin it out.

After that, bake in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Let cool in the cupcake pan for at least 10 minutes. (Keto baked goods are pretty fragile when warm.) Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

How to Make Easy Buttercream

The only trick to making easy keto buttercream is to make sure that your ingredients are at room temperature before you begin!  After that, just make sure you beat the mixture with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Depending on your mixer, this could take as little as 5, but as many as 10 minutes.

Tips for Baking Keto Cupcakes

I know that keto baking can be a bit tricky — especially if it’s your first time working with these low-carb ingredients.  As with other keto baked goods, here are some tips for low-carb baking success:

• Make sure that your ingredients — especially eggs and butter — are at room temperature before beginning.  If you need to bring eggs to room temperature quickly, you can place them in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.
• Use fresh baking powder.  Baking powder makes these cupcakes rise — so you want to double-check that your baking powder is active.
• Baked goods made with coconut flour can stick to paper liners.  To prevent this, you can grease the liners with non-stick spray before filling them with batter.
• Check on it the cupcakes as they near the recommended baking time, and remove them from the oven once a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Since these cupcakes are such a dark chocolate color, it’s harder to rely on just visual indicators.
• Let the cupcakes cool completely before eating, especially if you will be frosting them.  You don’t want all that luscious peanut butter buttercream to melt!
• You can store these cupcakes in a lidded container at room temperature for about 3 days — but I’ll be surprised if they last that long!

More Keto Cupcake Recipes

If you like baking keto desserts, you may also like my Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream, Keto Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting, Keto Blueberry Muffins, or Fudgy Keto Brownies.

Keto Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

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Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated erythritol (Swerve)
• 5 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp heavy cream

Peanut Butter Buttercream

• 1/2 cup powdered erythritol
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1-2 tbsp heavy cream, as needed
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt (if your peanut butter is unsalted)

Instructions

For the Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cupcake liners. Spray the liners with nonstick spray for extra insurance against sticking.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sweetener until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together the coconut flour, almond flour, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. Break up any lumps. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and stir to combine.
5. Add the heavy cream and stir to combine. The batter will be thick, but scoopable. If your batter seems too thick, add another tbsp or so of cream to thin it out.
6. Evenly divide the batter among the liners, filling each 2/3 full. Bake the cupcakes for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
7. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the Frosting

1. Beat the butter, powdered sweetener, peanut butter, cream, vanilla, and salt together in a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, until light and fluffy. Adjust the consistency with more heavy cream if needed.

Notes

Be sure to start with room temperature ingredients for best results.

Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

I give a range of amounts for heavy cream so that you can thin out the consistency of the icing to your liking.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• 
  Anthony's Organic Coconut Flour
• 
  Gerbs Natural Cocoa Powder
• 
  Bob's Red Mill Super-Fine Gluten Free Almond Flour

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