Simple Valentine's day chocolate cupcakes

I'll admit, I was never a fan of Valentine's day. And not because I have bitterness of being single - I never had that "I hate all couples, especially on valentine's day" mentality. I just don't care about the day all that much. BUT, becoming a mom made me want to make days like these a little bit special for the little guy. Especially if it's something we can do and share together. So I figured O and I would make some cupcakes, that were low in sugar so he can enjoy them as well.

If you haven't noticed already, I'm super careful about the amount of sugar we eat. I've been pretty concerned about sugars for about 7 or 8 years now. Of course there are good sugars, like those that are naturally found in fruits, and bad sugars, like those added in baked goods, etc. When I do use sugar in recipes, it's typically not refined and usually maple syrup, raw honey or coconut sugar. Sometimes I'll use erythritol or monk fruit and even stevia. However, for those alternatives, it takes time to get the ratios right and typically I don't have the opportunity to test recipes out.

I have to say, these were yummy and easy to make. I think next time I will try them with a bit of maple syrup for a slightly sweeter taste, but I would easily make them as-is again. They smelled and looked delicious when they were coming out of the oven, I just wanted to eat them up right there!

And the frosting is two ingredients with no sugar, so you can't possibly get any easier than that! And the beauty of the frosting is that you can easily make it whatever flavour you want!

I chose to make mini cupcakes, so that O could easily eat them and not make too much of a mess. It made 30 minis. If you were to make a normal sized cupcake, you would probably get around a dozen from this recipe.


Ingredients for the cupcakes

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 + 1 tbsp butter, room temperature
1/3 cup coconut sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Method for the cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and line your muffin tin with muffin liners.

2. In a medium bowl, mix your dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt) together with a whisk.

3. In a separate medium bowl, add you butter and coconut sugar and incorporate the two together with your finger tips (coconut sugar is slightly different than refined sugar, and you can't easily beat the two together). Then, once incorporated, take an electric mixer and beat until fluffy.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, then the rest of your wet ingredients (sour cream, milk and vanilla).

5. Add your flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat on low until just combined. Trust me, don't overmix this or your muffins will fall flat, dense and chewy - not nice and fluffy.

5. Fill the muffin liners about 3/4 full and bake in the oven for about 15 mins (mini cupcakes) or 25 mins (regular cupcakes), or until a toothpick/cake tester inserted in the centre of the cupcake comes out clean.

6. Let cool on a cooling rack.



Ingredients for the frosting

1 can full fat coconut milk, chilled in the fridge overnight
1 cup strawberries

Method for the frosting

1. Wash and remove the greens from your strawberries and blend them in a food processor until it's a puree consistency. Set aside.

2. Take your chilled coconut milk, turn the can upside down and open it with a can opener at the bottom. The cream should have separated from the water in the fridge overnight.

3. Remove the watery milk - you can set this aside in the fridge for smoothies later, yum!

4. In a medium bowl add the coconut cream and the strawberry puree and whip using a hand mixer until light and fluffy.

5. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and serve immediately after piping. Or, if you're not serving the cupcakes right away, refrigerate until you do.