Spoonful of Sugar Free

Registered Dietitian

There’s Peanut Butter on My Chocolate!

By

Hello everyone! Did you all have a fantastic week? Can you believe it is Friday already?!

And you know what Friday means…..Cupcakes!

Well, it doesn’t actually mean cupcakes, but who doesn’t like a good baking day to relieve any stress built up from the week? These are the cupcakes I tempted you with last week.

 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

~These cupcakes are based off of my Grain-Free Fudge Brownie Recipe. Gluten-free (grain-free), dairy-free, soy-free, and, of course, sugar-free!

Chocolate Cupcakes

  • 3/4 cup coconut flour***
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 5 dates
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup milk or milk-substitute (I used coconut milk)
  • 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

***If you don’t eat grains or you cannot find coconut flour, oat flour can be substituted. To make oat flour, grind oats in a food processor or blender until flour-like.

Preheat oven to 375*. In a bowl, whisk the vinegar and milk together. Let sit for 5 minutes. In the meantime, mix together dry ingredients.

Blend the dates into a paste in a strong blender or food processor. Add the milk and eggs into the blender and blend until smooth. You may either mix the dry into the wet by hand or blend until smooth.

Lightly grease your muffin tin or line with paper, and pour the batter into each muffin space 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on rack.

 

Peanut Butter Frosting

~This frosting is very simple and smooth. If you like it sweet, add the date. Personally, I like the peanut butter frosting to be more rich and savory, so I omit the date.

  • 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup milk substitute
  • optional: 1 date ground into paste

Either mix the frosting by hand, or place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Psst! Or try Katie’s wonderful Banana Butter to make it a banana-chocolate-peanut butter cupcake! You all know how much I like that combo 😉

 

Assemble

Pipe the Peanut Butter Frosting onto the Chocolate Cupcakes in any way you wish. I didn’t have any fancy tips, so I simply placed my frosting in a ziplock bag and cut a hole in it. Then, I topped it with shaved, unsweetened chocolate and placed a peanut half on top.

Health Benefits

  • Chocolate: Click HERE for a post I did about all the benefits of chocolate.
  • Peanuts: These legumes are full of protein with 7g per ounce. They also have a great monounsaturated fat content that helps your heart and brain. Peanut is a good source of Coenzyme Q10 which protects the heart during the period of lack of oxygen example high altitudes and clogged arteries. It also has a high antioxidant and high niacin content that helps in the recovery of cell damage and provides protection against Alzheimer’s disease and age-related cognitive problem.

 

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

If you celebrate lent, did you give up anything?

I’m not Catholic, but I do think it is a great idea to give up something that you love. I usually don’t give up anything, but I decided to give up something this year…..Peanuts! You heard right. This Peanut-Loving girl can’t have any peanuts or peanut butter for the next 40 days. These cupcake pictures are leaving me in agony…

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Oh goodness, I am extremely impressed that you’re giving up peanut butter, even after writing this post!!

    Your cupcakes look AHMAZING. I need to make them and I love that they are low-sugar, low-fat. What a great idea to sweeten them with dates. I’m not afraid of fat in the slightest, but I prefer to taste the fat (ew, that sounds gross) with peanut butter and coconut butter, as opposed to having it hidden in a baked good where I’ll never know the difference. You know what I mean? I’m gonna have that fat, and I want to enjoy it! haha.

    Anyway, love this post. I’ll hopefully make them soon and substitute the eggs with silken tofu again. I’ll let you know how that goes. 🙂

    • I know exactly what you mean! I do the same thing all the time! I’m not going to cook my carrot bread with coconut oil because I want to smother it with coconut butter!!!

      Please let me know how it turns out 🙂

  3. These look so amazing! I love the huge piping of frosting on top!

    When you say milk substitute, do you mean non-dairy milk?

  9. Wow I don’t think I could give up any kind of nut. Kudos to you girl! And those cupcakes look delicious, nothing better than chocolate and pb! 😀

  10. As I was reading your post I was thinking “Alex really likes peanuts!”… then I read that you’re giving them up for the next 40 days?! You can do it! Just think how amazing your first peanut will taste after 40 days without any.

  13. I think you were reading my mind when you made these cupcakes, because I just made chocolate peanut butter cupcakes, too! Great minds think alike..

  14. I just wanted to let you know I found your blog through HEAB and I’ve been bookmarking your recipes like crazy! I’m avoiding sugar and reading more about my blood type and gluten and dairy, so these recipes are seriously perfect for me to try-so thank you!!

  15. If there’s anything I like better than peanut butter and chocolate, I haven’t found it and make a point of trying anything with those ingredients. Can’t wait to sample this.

  18. These look decadent! But they’re so healthy! Gotta love it 🙂
    I gave up makeup for lent, but in addition to that I’m trying to stick to my skin routine better and eat less dairy products. Basically, i’ve had terrible breakouts lately and I really want them to go away, so I’m making an effort to improve my skin!

  20. YAY for Sugar Free! 😉

    Girl, you have the best eats!! I don’t think I could give up Peanut Butter. I already have given up most sugars (except natural ones like in fruits, honey sometimes, etc). Good luck!

    xoxo
    Kathleen

  22. I love you and your blog! I just recently went sugar-free (at least for now!) and I’m excited to try out some of your recipes 🙂 I never use refined sugar, I usually use honey or maple syrup when baking but it’s still sugar! So for now, I’m just focusing on fruit (and stevia sometimes) to fulfill my sweet tooth. Thanks for the wonderful recipes and inspiration! 🙂

  25. Oh my gosh those cupcakes….I wish UI had a scratch and sniff computer.

    I gave up Facebook…so hard. But it’s giving me so much more free time!

    Oh man, good luck with not eating peanut butter! Did you only give up pb or all nut butters?

    Megan

  27. This looks yum 🙂 Is there anything else I can use besides dates in this recipe -Prunes ( are they similar? lol), raisins?? I dont have any in hand and dont have the money to buy some 🙁

    • Hey Janice,

      Yes, you could probably sub prunes or raisins for the dates. The measurements would be different, though. I would just taste the batter and add more or less of the fruit you use if needed 😛

  28. I am SO EXCITED that I just discovered your blog. I’ve been grain-free since January, and have had so much fun experimenting with almond and coconut flours. My husband loves all things peanut butter + chocolate, so I’m going to make these ASAP! 🙂

    • Megan,

      So glad you found my site, too! I am excited to check yours out now!

  29. Some of these recipes could be really wonderful, but most aren’t sugar free. I’m someone that cannot even have fruit sugars or honey and stevia reduces blood sugar, which is my problem to begin with. I think that I can adapt some, but sweetening with fruit and squash eliminates most for me.

    • Julie,

      Sorry to hear! Most all of my recipes are fruit-sweetened only. No honey in my recipes, though…

  30. Hi,
    I’m not sure if you are still here, the last blogs were in 2012. I was curious about the chocolate peanut butter cupcake recipe. It’s suppose to be sugar-free but you say to add 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter. Doesn’t this peanut butter have sugar?

    Thank you…..I was recently diagnosed with glucose intolerance and have to Watch my sugar and carb intake. I eventually landed on your site……

    • Sorry Michelle, your comment had gone to spam a while ago and I just fished it out! But if you buy a natural peanut butter where the only ingredients are peanuts and maybe salt, there won’t be any sugar.

  31. I’m soooo happy I stumbled across your blog! My daughter shouldn’t eat sugar due to a health concern and now I can try out all sorts of awesome recipes for her…yay! I’ve just cooked up the chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for her birthday. The closest she’s had to cake was a wheat flour muffin-type thing I topped with mashed banana, haha I think I’m going with these cupcakes for her pre-K class on Monday. Thanks so much for sharing!!

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