Sugar Free Cupcakes
I never thought I’d share a sugar free cupcake recipe on here, but today is the day. Over the years I’ve received more and more requests for sugar free cupcakes.
And I totally get it. Not everyone can eat tons of sugar! Most of these requests came from people who wanted to make cupcakes for a loved one who’s sugar sensitive.
Some people have a medical reason for watching their sugar intake (i.e. diabetes, liver problems, etc.). Others are choosing to limit their sugar intake for personal reasons (i.e. keto, paleo, or atkins diet).
Whatever your reason, it doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate a big life event by baking something special.
Picking the Right Sugar Substitute For These Sugar Free Cupcakes
There are a lot of sugar free sweeteners out there these days. With the rise of popular diets like keto and paleo, there’s been an increasing demand for alternative sweeteners and zero-calorie sweeteners.
While it’s great to have lots of options, it can be a bit overwhelming.
I tested this recipe with the granulated versions of Allulose and Swerve. I ordered them online from Amazon, but you can also find them at Walmart and at most health food stores.
The taste of the sugar-free frosting and cupcakes was great with both.
But I’m not going to lie, the texture is slightly different than a regular cupcake.
The texture isn’t quite as tender as cupcakes made with real sugar, but I think it’s still about as good as a sugar free cupcake can be!
Sugar Free Sweeteners You Can Use
If possible, use Allulose or Swerve as your sugar-free sweetener!! I think they work best.
Granulated baking Splenda can be used in place of the Allulose in this recipe. Use 1/2 the amount the recipe calls for.
Tips For Making Best Sugar Free Cupcakes
- Properly measure your flour (spoon into the cup measure, then level) or use a kitchen scale to measure your dry ingredients.
- Ingredients at room temp mix together better! Be sure you set out any cold ingredients ahead of time.
- Mix your cupcake batter just until the ingredients are incorporated. This will ensure your cupcakes are tender and fluffy.
- If your frosting breaks/curdles, just keep mixing!! It should come back together with the help of your stand mixer. For more troubleshooting tips, check out this post.
- Heat your egg white/allulose mixture to 160 F / 71 C to make the egg whites safe to eat. I like to use a digital thermometer to track the temperature.
- Use vanilla bean paste and a bit of almond extract to really amp up the flavor of this frosting!
- To make chocolate sugar free cupcakes, swap out 1/3 cup of flour for baking cocoa.
- Turn this sugar free frosting recipe into chocolate sugar free frosting by mixing 1 cup of melted and cooled milk or dark chocolate into the frosting once it’s made.
Making These Sugar Free Cupcakes in Advance and Storage Tips
These cupcakes can be made in advance. If stored unfrosted in an airtight container, they can last for 2 days at room temperature, up to a week in the fridge, or up to 3 months in the freezer.
If you have extra buttercream that you don’t use, it can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container or piping bag for up to 2 weeks.
Let Me Know What You Think
If you try this recipe for sugar free cupcakes, I’d love to hear what you think of it! Please leave a rating and comment below.
And don’t forget to tag me @chelsweets and use #chelsweets so that I can see your amazing creations on social media!
Sugar Free Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
Sugar Free Cupcakes
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 175g
- 1 tsp baking powder 4g
- 1/4 tsp fine salt 1g
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature 113g
- 1 cup sugar-free sweetener – Allulose or Swerve 175g
- 2 large eggs, room temperature 112g
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste 8g
- 1 tsp almond extract – optional 4g
- 1/2 cup full-fat sour cream, room temperature 126g
Sugar Free Frosting
- 4 large egg whites, room temperature 130g
- 1 cup Allulose or other sugar free sweetener 175g
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 170g
- 1/2 tsp fine salt 2g
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste 8g
- 1 tsp almond extract – optional 4g
- gel food coloring if desired
Instructions
Sugar Free Cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized bowl, sift together 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together 1/2 cup unsalted butter and 1 cup of sugar-free sweetener like Allulose or Swerve. Mix on a medium-high speed with a hand mixer or whisk attachment for about 2 minutes, to incorporate air into the butter.
- Add in 2 large eggs, 2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 tsp of almond extract. Mix on medium-high speed until the ingredients are fully combined. The mixture should look fluffy.
- Mix in 1/2 cup of sour cream on a medium speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix on a low speed until the flour is just incorporated.
- Scoop the cupcake batter into the prepared muffin tin, evenly dividing the batter between the 12 cupcake liners.
- Bake for 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean with a few moist crumbs. These won't brown the same way regular cupcakes do, so don't rely on visual cues for doneness!
- Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then place them on a wire rack to finish cooling.
Sugar Free Frosting
- In a medium-sized pot, add about 1 inch of water and bring to a simmer.
- Before making the frosting, be sure to thoroughly clean your mixing bowl by wiping it down with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice. If there’s any grease, it can make it difficult to make the meringue.
- Add 4 egg whites and 1 cup of sugar-free sweetener like Swerve or Allulose into a heat-proof mixing bowl.
- Place the bowl on top of the pot filled with simmering water. Make sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. The bowl should create a seal over the pot.
- Whisk the mixture constantly for 3-5 minutes, until it reaches 160°F/71°C. At this point, the mixture should feel smooth and hot to the touch with your finger.
- Lift your bowl away from the pot and dry the bottom with a towel. Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium-high using a whisk attachment. Mix for 5-8 minutes, or until you have stiff and glossy peaks. You can also use a hand mixer, but it will take a bit longer.
- At this point in time, the mixing bowl should be room temperature. If it’s warm, it will melt your butter!!
- Mix on a medium speed and add in 3/4 cup of room temperature unsalted butter in small chunks.
- Then add in 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract, and 1 tsp almond extract. If you want to color this frosting, add in gel food coloring at this point and mix on a low speed until fully incorporated.
- When all butter is mixed in, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula and continue mixing on a low speed for about 3 minutes.
- The frosting should have a thick whipped consistency at this point. If it looks lumpy or broken, keep mixing until it looks smooth and thick.
- Place the frosting into a large piping bag fitted with your favorite frosting tip and pipe on each cooled cupcake. I used a Wilton 1M to decorate these cupcakes.
Video
Notes
Tips For Making the Best Sugar-Free Cupcakes
- Properly measure your flour (spoon into the cup measure, then level) or use a kitchen scale to measure your dry ingredients.
- Ingredients at room temperature mix together better! Set out any cold ingredients ahead of time.
- Mix the cupcake batter just until the ingredients are incorporated, once you’ve added the flour. This will help the cupcakes have a more tender crumb.
- Heat the egg white / Allulose mixture to 160°F/71°C to make the egg whites safe to eat. I like to use a digital thermometer to track the temperature.
- If the frosting breaks/curdles, just keep mixing!! It should come back together with the help of your stand mixer. For more troubleshooting tips, check out this post.
- Use vanilla bean paste and a bit of almond extract to really amp up the flavor of this frosting!
- To make chocolate sugar-free cupcakes, swap out 1/3 cup of flour for baking cocoa.
- Turn this sugar-free frosting recipe into chocolate sugar-free frosting by mixing in 1 cup of melted and cooled milk or dark chocolate once the frosting is made.
Making These Sugar Free Cupcakes in Advance and Storage Tips
These cupcakes can be made in advance! If stored unfrosted in an airtight container, they can last for:- 2 days at room temperature
- Up to a week in the fridge
- Up to 3 months in the freezer
Nutrition
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I’m attempting these tonight! After frosted, do these stay at room temp or should they be refrigerated if I’m delivering them tomorrow?
I’m wondering if 1) these could be made I to a cake? Would they come out weird or similar? And 2) could the frosting be made chocolate? (Not sure how that would impact the sugar-free-ness of it)
The flour in these cupcakes will cause a spike in blood sugar readings! Diabetics cannot have flour. We have to use alternatives to flour such as almond flour, coconut flour, etc….I just wanted to put that out there! These would be great for someone just watching their sugar intake but not great for diabetics or keto!
@Stacey, have you replaced the flour with any of those flours how did it come out? Would it still be a 1:1 ratio if substituting coconut flour or almond flour for the regular flour?
@Stacey,
Diabetics can have flour…as in bread, just have to count heir carbs. A meal light on carbs would allow this dessert.
@Stacey, actually diabetes can have one of these. Diabetes’s can have these, just in moderation
@Stacey, diabetec’s can have flour……just in moderation
Hi! I’m hoping to convert this to chocolate cake with your cocoa/flour substitute. I generally bake for a 3, 6” cake. I’m thinking doubling this recipe will be the correct amount (with some left over)? Have you baked in cake form yet?
My sugar free cupcakes did not rise why? I used baking powder
Hi xxx
Can this be made into a traybake or a larger round cake? Thank u x
I tried to make this and i have discovered i am incapable of making anything at all. Self esteem has dropped in the negatives. I want to scream.
@Tiffany,
Try to make any of her chocolate cakes!! They always turn out perfect. ?
I like the sugar free cupcakes.l also like the way the cupcakes are decorated.
So happy to hear that Amayanvbo!! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Why does this sugar free recipe show 34g of sugar?
Hi William,
That is a great question! The nutrition card is automatically calculated by the ingredients I list out in the recipe card above, and I think it isn’t properly calculating the nutritional info for Allulose. Apologies for any confusion!
Could Splenda be used for the cake batter and frosting? If so would the measurements be the same?
Hi Christine,
Granulated baking Splenda can be used in place of the Allulose to make the cupcake batter and frosting. I recommend using 1/2 the amount the recipe calls for (it’s sweeter than the other sugar substitutes). Hope that helps, happy baking!
Hi, could I use Lankanto monk fruit sweetener instead? Would I achieve the same result?
Thank you!
Hi Sam,
I haven’t tested this recipe with Lankanto monk fruit sweetener, but usually monk fruit sweetener does work well in baked goods, so I would think that should work! If you try it, please let me know how it turns out!
Could I grade up fresh or frozen strawberries, and the whipped frosting?
Hi Cheryl,
Great question! You can chop up some fresh strawberries into small pieces and fold them into the batter, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that with the whipped frosting! The extra moisture from the strawberries can cause the frosting to break. Hope that helps, happy baking!
Great recipe! I had to tweak it based on my daughter’s needs, so I used gluten free flour (almond/ coconut flour blend) and Earth Balance for the butter to make sugar/ dairy/ gluten free cupcakes. In place of sour cream I used lactose free vanilla yogurt. They taste great, although didn’t rise much, so next time I may increase the baking powder – not sure. I also used Swerve icing sugar as that was all that was available at my store. Thank you for the product recommendation and the great recipe!
Thank you so much for sharing Coco! I have a feeling that the powdered sugar is what caused them not to bake up quite as tall as if you’d used sugar-free granulated sugar, but adding a tiny bit (1/4 tsp) baking powder could help counteract that. Hope your next batch turns out great too 🙂 Happy baking!
Hey I was wondering if you could use this recipe for a cake or if you had a sugar free cake recipe ?
Hi Briona,
Great question! I’ve been testing out a sugar free cake recipe for quite a while now, but I haven’t gotten it quite right yet!
You can use this recipe to make 1, 8-inch cake layer. I’d suggest baking it for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean with a few moist crumbs. These won’t brown the same way regular cake layers do, so don’t rely on visual cues for doneness! Hope that helps, happy baking!
Hello I just read the recipe and i cant wait to make my own version. May i know please i can combine a cup of grated cheese in the mixture. Kindly advise as i need to present the cupcake during my entrep subject in my MBA class. Many thanks in advance.
Regards,
Joemari Jomiller
Hi Joemari,
I haven’t ever tried mixing cheese into any of my cupcake recipes, so sadly I’m not sure! They definitely still have a sweet flavor even though they’re sugar free, so I’m not sure cheese would taste very good in these. If you try it, please let me know how they turn out. Happy baking!
These turned out really great, but I would halve the amount of icing. I used half and half measures of Xylitol and Erythritol w/ Monk Fruit, and it worked great.
Is there a wet ingredient missing from this recipe? The batter was a dough, like cookies, they tasted good, but definitely not a cupcake. I read the directions over and over again to see if I missed something.
Can I use this recipe to make a cake instead of cupcakes? Or do you have a sugar free cake recipe?
If you look at the nutrition information it says 34g sugar per serving. Is this correct? If yes, then it doesn’t seem sugar free to me
The nutritional information is automatically calculated and for some reason doesn’t account for sugar substitutes properly :/ I’m not sure how to fix this as I can’t access the calculator for it!
@Chelsweets,
I calculated it on verywellfit – I had to use an alternative to allulose as it wasn’t listed on the website and I got the following results
Per serving
331 Calories
18g fat (11 saturated fat)
Carbs 18g (Dietary fibre 0.5g, total sugars 4.6g)
Protein 7g
Hi Jene,
Thank you so much!! really appreciate it 🙂
So same question as previous comment, is there a wet ingredient you are missing? this comes out so thick you cannot in any way “pour” it. I notice the OP did not respond to the first person asking this question so not confident i will get a reply.
Not sure yet how they will turn out but they will be very dense i can tell that just from the batter.
Not a good recipe in my opinion, go to another recipe with wet ingredients.
Hi Margaret,
I usually use a cookie scoop to scoop the batter into the cupcake liners. It’s actually a lot cleaner that way filling the pans!
The batter is thick because it uses sour cream to give it a tender texture, but if you want a more fluid batter you can use milk or buttermilk in its place. It also helps if the ingredients are all at room temperature. If any of the ingredients are still cold, it will make the batter stiffer/thicker. Hope that helps for next time, happy baking!
Can you please just send me a simple cup cake receipe for strawberry or blueberry. No sugar
No salt.
I want to make this for my 1 year old granddaughter.
Thank you so much.
Bharti Galliara
Will this recipe work with cup for cup gluten Free flour?
Hi Anne-Marie,
Yes, it does!! Hope that helps, happy baking!
Cupcakes were soft at first when fresh out of the oven. They really got hard after an hour once cooled at room temp…
I’m so sorry to hear that Ricki! Is there any chance they were overbaked? Once you added the buttercream, did they soften back up? was it just the top that got hard, or the whole cupcake? Hopefully we can figure out what happened!
On the fence with this recipe.
Sad to hear you didn’t love it Mary! It’d be helpful if you could share more about how they turned out and what you thought of them.