Try these delicious classic vanilla keto cupcakes! They have a soft, light texture and are topped with my favorite creamy buttercream frosting. As with all my recipes, these keto cupcakes are low-carb and gluten-free.
Easy Keto Cupcakes Recipe with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
We all need to celebrate with a cake from time to time! That’s why it was so important for me to develop a keto cupcake recipe that recreates the taste and texture of a traditional cupcake. The texture of these vanilla cupcakes is light and spongy, not dense or biscuit-like.
[ketobox]
If you’re looking for chocolate cupcakes instead, check out Keto Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting.
Recipe Tips for Better Keto Cupcakes
I know that keto baking can be a bit tricky. 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. To test if your baking powder is still active, place a teaspoon of baking powder in a bowl and pour 1/4 cup of boiling water over it. It should bubble up right away. If it does, it’s still good.
- Cupcakes 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.
- Keep an eye on these cupcakes while baking — coconut flour tends to get really brown, really fast.
- Check on it the cupcakes intermittently, and remove them from the oven once a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely before eating, especially if you will be frosting them.
- You can store these cupcakes in Tupperware at room temperature for a couples days — but honestly, they’ve never lasted that long at my house!
Ingredients in Keto Cupcakes
These cupcakes are made with a blend of low-carb flours, including coconut flour, almond flour, and flaxseed meal.
For keto baking, I like to use almond flour that has been blanched to remove the almond skins, and ground very finely. 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 to include some coconut flour in this recipe. If you’ve used coconut flour in your low-carb baking before, then you know you must use a large amount of eggs or other liquid to balance the recipe. Coconut flour is high in fiber and very absorbent, so we only need to use 1/2 cup in this recipe.
Keto baked goods need some kind of binder to replace the gluten found in wheat flour. If you have it handy, you can add 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum. If you don’t have it, or don’t want to use xanthan gum, you can use 1 tbsp of flax meal instead.
I like the nutty taste of flax meal in this recipe, so that’s what I used. But, please feel free to use what you have in your pantry.
You are going to love this keto recipe because it’s so delicious and quick to make. These keto cupcakes are:
- Moist
- Perfectly sweet
- Satisfying
- Topped with rich vanilla buttercream
- & Perfect for birthdays and other celebrations
Other Keto Diet Baking Recipes
If you like baking keto desserts, you may also like my Cinnamon Crumb Cake Keto Donuts, Chocolate Oreo Keto Cookies, Two-Ingredient Keto Chocolate Truffles, or Fudgy Keto Brownies.
Delicious classic vanilla cupcakes with a light texture and a creamy buttercream frosting. As always, these keto cupcakes are low-carb and gluten-free. With the ingredients I used, these cupcakes came out to be 130 cal and 1 net carb each. I encourage you to input the nutrition facts of the specific brands you use for the most accurate tracking. You can substitute 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum for the flax meal, if you prefer. The nutrition information is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. It was calculated by My Fitness Pal with the recommended brands and ingredients. All brands are different, so please verify the macros with your specific ingredients to ensure accuracy. 
Keto Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
For the buttercream
Instructions
For the cupcakes
For the frosting
Using a stand or handheld mixer, beat the softened butter, vanilla, and sweetener together until creamy.
Notes
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12
Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 254Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 139mgSodium: 215mgCarbohydrates: 3gFiber: 2gSugar: 1gProtein: 4g
Do you refrigerate the frosted cupcakes or store them in a sealed container on the counter? Any idea of the shelf life of these sweet little gems?
Hi Vickie,
You could do either. Since the frosting is butter-based, not cream cheese, they will be fine in a sealed container on the counter for a day or two. Any longer than that and you may want to refrigerate them.
In our house, they’ve only lasted a day or two before my kids have eaten them all! So I’m sorry I can’t comment on the maximum shelf life. 🙂
Have you had any success using coconut cream in place of heavy cream in the cupcake batter? I have the double duty of wrestling gluten/dairy free family while personally cooking keto primarily and don’t really want to make two separate recipes for all the partygoers.
Hi Kasey,
I think that would be a good substitution — it should work well!
Can I replace flaxmeal with xantham gum?
That’s a good idea. I would use only about 1/4 tsp xanthan gum though. Thanks!
How does stevia work in the recipe? Does it need to have erythritol?
I haven’t tested this recipe with stevia.
Erythritol has a lot of bulk/volume to it. Usually stevia, unless it’s blended with erythritol, is very concentrated.
So it will likely change the proportions of the recipe.
I tried the Stevia and I will be honest. It is not good, at least not with 1/4 cup (6.25g). And make it a double; the bitter taste of stevia is the only flavor felt on the tongue. To save it i had to add some meringue (which is unfortunately not keto). Any idea how i could suppress the bitter taste of stevia?
Hello, I avoid stevia myself because I’m pretty sensitive to the bitter taste. I prefer to use erythritol sweeteners. I lot of people like monk fruit sweeteners like Lakanto, too.
Karisse, I was wondering the same thing. Did you receive a reply about the stevia? I don’t have erythritol nor swerve but I do have a large bag of stevia.
Hi Monica,
It would depend on how concentrated the Stevia powder you have is. Erythritol is 1:1 swap with sugar — so you’ll have to adjust the recipe based on how “sweet” the Stevia is.
Hi. Can this be made into a cake?
Hi, yes, there have been readers who have done that. Just keep an eye on the cook time, it will likely be different.
Hello,
Thanks for the recipe. You say 1tbs flax meal in ingredients but don’t say where to add it. Then, you mention 2 tsp flax meal in the text. I wish I would have known I could sub xanathan before adding 1 tbs of flax. Perhaps you could add this sub choice in the recipe area? I think the fall goes in w the flour and baking powder, so went ahead and did that. Thanks
Great suggestions, done. Thanks!
Can you use cornstarch for the flaxmeal/xanthan gum?
Thank you!!!
Hi Glenda,
Sorry, cornstarch doesn’t have the same properties as xanthan gum in this recipe.
I didnt see where in the recipe you added the xantham gum so i forgot to add it..
Hi Konnie,
No worries. I suggested xanthan gum as an optional substitute for the flax meal — so you only need to add one or the other.
Thanks!
These are amazing, I loved the flax meal. I used the pure instead of the swerve and made a cream cheese icing. Have you ever tried this as a cake instead of cupcakes? Any suggestions if I try it?
I haven’t tried a layer cake yet, but it’s worth a shot. Keep an eye on the cook time, as it will likely be different.
Can you use all almond flour rather than half almond half coconut?
Hmm, you can’t substitute it 1:1 because the coconut flour is sooo absorbent. You’d likely need at least 1 cup of almond flour, though I haven’t tested it. Let me know if you try it!
The frosting was really buttery so I added a little more Swerve and added salt to taste while mixing. My boss is Keto and I’m making these for her. I tasted one and oh my god do these taste delicious. Thank you so much!!!!
Great modification! It’s funny, I think people’s “sweet” tastebuds change the longer they do keto — it’s great you could adjust the recipe to suit your tastes!
Thanks so much!
I tried this recipe, but the buttercream icing I didn’t like it. It is too sweet for my taste, so I replaced it with whip cream this time in a rush, but next time, I will do a cream cheese frosting. Cake was good.
Can this recipe be modified into chocolate
I’m working on a chocolate version right now! Stay tuned 🙂
These cupcakes are awesome! I’m the only Keto member of my family so the 12 cupcakes lasted me almost 2 weeks. I kept them sealed in a Tupperware type container and they stayed moist and delicious to the last one!
I just made these tonight and my batch came out PERFECT. Very nicely moist! Family approved! Instead of swerve, I used xylitol in my batter and was still spot on. And I made my own keto friendly chocolate cream cheese frosting. Thank you so much for this recipe. Will make again!
These are the first keto muffins that rise so well!!!! They are very good looking and smell awesome, now time to taste them!
Hi Sarah
Can you use monk fruit instead of erythritol?
Yes, but check the back of the bag to see what the conversion would be. Erythritol is 1:1 with sugar. I think some brands of monk fruit are twice as strong.
Dawn/Sarah,
Did you try it with monk fruit? I was wondering the same thing. I have the Lakanto monk fruit sweetner in the classic, golden, and powdered.
Please let me know, thanks!! These do look delicious 🙂
I think it would definitely work — but from what I know about Lakanto, it’s 2x as sweet as Swerve, so start out with half as much.
Can you use ghee instead of butter?
I haven’t tried it myself, but I think that would be fine.
The batter also makes the perfect base for moist, tasty muffins. I added bananas (you can use blueberries to make it keto-friendly) nuts, and a few spices to my batch. They are easily some of the best banana nut muffins I’ve ever had the pleasure of consuming.
Thanks for the tip, Camie. For any other keto-bakers, you could also use a bit of banana flavoring to keep the carbs down.
Anyone use the lankanto monkfruit classic for the batter? Is what I have and wanted to know how much to use?!
Lakanto is great! If the bag says it’s a 1:1 swap with sugar, it would be the same amount.
These cupcakes are too die for! Even my husband loves these. I do however have a question. You stated the cupcakes are 1 net carb each but when you scroll down to the nutritional facts it states 3 carbs….which is it?
Hi Michelle, glad you liked the cupcakes. They have 3 total carbs with 2 grams of fiber — so that equals 1 net carb. Thanks!
can i leave out the cream? i don’t have cream or coconut cream. could a put a little bit of yogurt instead? or maybe some full fat milk?
Sure that would work. You may want to recalculate the nutrition if that is important to you.
Can I use swerve instead of the erythritol?
Do the cupcakes end up with an egg-y taste or texture? I have experienced that with some other keto baking recipes and with this one using 6 eggs, that is my concern. I am dying for a true cake-y vanilla treat!!! Thanks!
Mine looked fluffy out of the oven and then collapsed into weird shrivelled up cakes that were very moist.
Any ideas why?
Hi
Thank you for sharing your recipe. I’m excited to start baking, for first need to know are the cup sizes you use UK or American measures ?
American, thanks for the question.
Sarah I LOVE these cupcakes and my family does too! I had printed it out in case I lost it and I think our son swiped our recipe, lol! I made sure to print it as well as to pin it! It is Delicious and I have made it many times over the years! I can’t Thank You enough for posting it. BTW I usually use flax seed but noticed I ran out and just forgot to add it to my list so I will be trying xanthan gum. I am going to look through your recipes and find some more Gems! Again, Thank You!
Not sure what’s going wrong, I’m baking these now and they will not set. The centers are completely liquid and have been cooking 30 min already, any input?