Low-Carb Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Nut-free keto cupcakes made without almond flour or coconut flour

If you are looking for a low-carb dessert recipe made without coconut flour or almond flour (or any nut or coconut ingredient, for that matter), these cupcakes are a perfect choice! They are rich in chocolate flavor, yet not overly sweet.

Instead of almond flour or coconut flour, ground sunflower seed meal is used, which is an ingredient that is, quite literally, ground sunflower seeds. If you have a nut allergy like I do and cannot eat almond flour, a common ingredient in low-carb baked goods, ground sunflower seed meal may just be your new favorite baking ingredient!

You can find all of the recipes on my site that use ground sunflower seed meal here.

Low-carb chocolate strawberry cupcake FAQs

Before you begin making this recipe, I would recommend reading the answers to commonly asked questions about this recipe, as well as looking through the step-by-step photos below.

Are there any ingredient substitution options?

• Classic Monk Fruit Sweetener: Golden Monk Fruit Sweetener, Swerve, or erythritol can be used here at a 1:1 substitution ratio.
• Ground Sunflower Seed Meal: You can make ground sunflower seed meal by pulsing raw sunflower seeds in a blender or food processor until they turn into flour (be careful to not over-blend, as doing this will lead to making sunflower seed butter, which has a consistency similar to that of peanut butter or almond butter). If you can eat nuts, you should be able to substitute in almond flour at a 1:1 ratio substitution.
• Gluten-Free Baking Powder: You can replace this by making your own at home using baking soda and cream of tartar. For the 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder this recipe calls for, you will need to use 1 tsp cream of tartar and 1/2 tsp baking soda. Cream of tartar can typically be found at your grocery store with the spices. This substitution will make your recipe grain-free.
• Full-Fat Greek Yogurt: Coconut yogurt or sour cream can be substituted at a 1:1 ratio.
• Mascarpone Cheese: Substitute cream cheese at a 1:1 ratio.
• Powdered Monk Fruit Sweetener: Classic Monk Fruit Sweetener, Golden Monk Fruit Sweetener, erythritol, or Swerve can be subbed in here at a 1:1 ratio. If you use any of these granulated sweeteners, I would suggest pulsing it in a food processor to powder it, although this isn’t essential. I would not recommend using liquid stevia or powdered stevia.

What is ground sunflower seed meal?

Ground sunflower seed meal is, quite literally, ground-up sunflower seeds. I buy mine pre-ground from Amazon, but you can make your own by grinding up raw sunflower seeds in a blender or food processor until it turns into flour. As noted in the Ingredient Substitution section above, just be sure to not over-blend it as the sunflower seeds will go from being a flour consistency to the consistency of sunflower seed butter.

Where can I buy monk fruit sweetener?

I purchase my Classic Monk Fruit Sweetener from Lakanto’s website and have it shipped and delivered to my house. If you also want to do this, you can use discount code REALBALANCED at checkout for 20% OFF your order.

If you’d rather find and purchase monk fruit sweetener in-store, many grocery stores, especially specialty stores and Costco, carry Lakanto products.

You can also find all of my low-carb recipes that use monk fruit sweetener here.

How can I make sure the cupcakes aren’t too sweet?

If you want a dessert recipe that is flavorful but not overly sweetened, the key here for this recipe is the frosting. Instead of buttercream, this recipe calls for a mascarpone cheese-based frosting, which is not nearly as rich.

If you want to make sure the resulting dessert isn’t too sweet, you can choose to not add any monk fruit sweetener to the frosting (meaning, the only sweetener used would be in the cupcake base). Or, you can also try decreasing the amount of monk fruit sweetener in the frosting.

I would not suggest decreasing or omitting the monk fruit sweetener called for in the base, as the sweetener itself is an essential part of the cupcake baking properly and the base is not too sweet.

What if I don’t have silicone baking cups?

You can use muffin liners in a stainless steel muffin tin or aluminum muffin tin.

Depending on what you bake the cupcakes in, the bake time may be closer to 15 or 20 minutes, so watch the cupcakes carefully toward the 15-minute mark.

What if I don’t have a piping bag for the frosting?

Spoon the frosting into a plastic sandwich bag, cut one corner of the bag off, and pipe the frosting from the baggie.

Alternatively, you can simply spoon the frosting onto each cupcake and spread using a rubber spatula.

How many net carbs are in each low carb chocolate strawberry cupcake?

Per serving, these cupcakes contain 5.2 grams of net carbs. The recipe, as written, yields 12 servings. Net carbs are calculated by taking total carbs, subtracting fiber, and subtracting sugar alcohols.

The full nutrition information for this recipe, including the calorie content, total carbs, protein, and fat per serving, can be found in the nutrition label located below the recipe instructions.

How should these low-carb chocolate strawberry cupcakes be stored after baking?

Refrigerator Storage: The frosted cupcakes can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight for up to 5 days.

Freezer Storage: The unfrosted chocolate cupcake base can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 months. It is best to make the frosting fresh.

Strawberry Puree: To a saucepan over medium heat, add strawberries and water. With the lid of the pan on, simmer until strawberries have softened, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Once softened, mash strawberries with a fork or puree with an immersion blender. (If using an immersion blender, you’ll need to tilt the pan so all the strawberries sit on one side as there’s only a small amount of volume to blend.) Stir in strawberry extract and gelatin powder before setting aside to cool.

Base: Preheat oven to 355 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).

In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, mix together monk fruit sweetener and egg yolks until well-incorporated and the mixture turns to a pale yellow color, about 2 minutes.

In a separate clean bowl, using an electric mixer with clean beaters, whisk together egg whites until fluffy.

In another separate mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients.

Add dry ingredients to bowl of egg yolk mix. Add yogurt and melted butter. Mix with electric mixer to combine all ingredients before adding egg whites, strawberry puree, and water. Mix again until combined, being careful to not overmix and deflate mixture.

Spoon batter into silicone baking cups about ¾ of the way full (they will rise as they cook) and place each individual cupcake mold atop a baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to oven to bake until a toothpick can be inserted into cupcakes and comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes.

After baking, remove the baking sheet of cupcakes from the oven and allow to fully cool. (They will continue to firm up as they cool so be careful to not overcook.)

Frosting: While cupcakes cool, in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Stir in Mascarpone cheese, powdered monk fruit sweetener, and strawberry extract with a spoon until well-incorporated.

Scoop frosting mixture into a piping bag and pipe atop cupcakes. Option to top each cupcake with half a strawberry or a few chopped strawberries.

More keto dessert recipes

If you enjoyed these Low-Carb Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes, you will love these other low-carb dessert recipes!

• Keto Coffee Cake
• Dark Chocolate Peppermint Patty Fat Bombs
• Keto Chocolate Cake
• Keto Carrot Cake