You’d never guess that these easy chocolate cupcakes have no dairy so they’re perfect if you’ve got an allergy or intolerance. The recipe can also be used to make a 7″ chocolate cake too.
A few weeks ago I received a message from one of my readers saying how much she loved my birthday cake recipe and asking if I could recommend a dairy-free cake recipe for her to bake for her daughter’s upcoming birthday. I consider myself extremely lucky that no-one in my household has a food allergy or intolerance so it’s not something I have to manage on a day-to-day basis, but I know from friends how hard it can be for children who want to be able to enjoy the same foods as others but simply can’t. I therefore jumped at the idea of figuring out a dairy-free cake recipe she could make to help her daughter have a really special day.
I decided to test both my vanilla and chocolate birthday cakes (in case one worked and the other didn’t – although they both turned out really well) and today I’m sharing the chocolate version as in my head I associate chocolate with dairy. It seems difficult to imagine that a really good chocolate cake could be dairy-free, but I can assure you that it’s possible and in all honesty in a taste test I bet you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The only real difference in flavour between my normal chocolate cake and these cupcakes is that dairy-free chocolate is dark, whereas I usually use milk chocolate so it has a richer chocolate flavour.
In fact the differences to the original recipe are tiny…
- Switch the milk chocolate for a dairy-free dark chocolate (many dark chocolates are dairy-free but a lot contain “may contain milk” warnings so choose carefully).
- Switch the margarine for Pure Sunflower (I’ve also heard that Vitalite is a good alternative too).
- Don’t add the milk.
These same substitutions can be made for my vanilla cake too to easily make that dairy-free, as well as my coffee and hidden hearts cupcakes.
I’ve also been busy testing some dairy-free buttercreams and you can find the recipe for my chocolate one here.
As part of the recipe testing process I always start with cupcakes (as that way I can make a small batch to avoid waste if they don’t turn out as I’d hoped) and these chocolate cupcakes were so nice I couldn’t resist sharing them. However, if you’d like to make a full sized birthday cake, you could use my chocolate birthday cake calculator to find the quantities you need. Just remember to make the adjustments listed above.
Looking to do more dairy-free baking?
As I said before, I’m no expert in free from cooking, but through blogging I’ve made some really fantastic friends whose blogs focus on free from cooking. If you’re after more dairy-free recipes, advice or simply stories to know that you’re not alone in coping with an allergy or intolerance then I’d recommend following some of these ladies…
- The Peachick’s Bakery
- Free From Farmhouse
- The Intolerant Gourmand
- Glutarama – All recipes are gluten-free and recipes published since August 2016 are egg-free and dairy-free too.
- Dairy Free Kids
- Free From Fairy – Most of Vicki’s recipes are dairy-free but do double check the ingredients list to make sure. She also has her own brand of wholegrain gluten-free flour which I’d recommend for your gluten-free baking.
- Le Coin De Mel – Mel shares a wide range of recipes but also has a comprehensive dairy-free section created for her daughter’s food allergies.
NOTE – the recipes on these sites are dairy-free (unless stated) at the time of writing this post. As allergies change, so can blogs so please double check any recipes from these sites before baking them if you need them to be dairy free.
I’ve also got a few more naturally dairy-free recipes on here which you can try too…
FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS
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Dairy-Free Chocolate Cupcakes
INGREDIENTS
- 150 g self-raising flour
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 175 g caster sugar
- 175 g Dairy-free margarine - I’d recommend Pure Sunflower as that’s what I’ve tested in this recipe
- 3 large eggs
- ⅛ tsp vanilla extract
- 75 g dairy-free dark chocolate
Extras
- 12 cupcake cases
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.
- Put your cupcake cases into a muffin tin.
- Grate the dark chocolate (75g).
- Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl (150g self-raising flour, 30g cocoa powder, 175g caster sugar, 3 large eggs, 175g dairy-free margarine, ⅛ tsp vanilla extract and the grated chocolate) mix on a low speed until fully combined.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 cupcake cases (I use a cupcake scoop to help split it evenly).
- Put the tin into the oven and cook the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes (or 30-35 minutes for a 7″ 2-layer round cake). After 20 minutes put a skewer in the middle and check if it comes out clean. If it does they’re done, if not pop them back in for a couple more minutes and check again.
- Once cooked, remove the cupcakes from the oven and leave them to cool in the tins for a few minutes.
- Remove the cupcakes from their tin and pop them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For…
The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Dairy-Free
- Tree Nut-Free
- Peanut-Free
- Sesame-Free
- Soya-Free
- Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
- Lupin-Free
Claire Laurie says
Made these the other day, they were fabulous! Thank you!!
If I wanted to make them as dairy free vanilla cupcakes, is it as simple as taking out the chocolate element of the recipe, or would I have to up the amount of flour etc?
Thank you!!!
Charlotte Oates says
For dairy-free vanilla cupcakes I’d use my vanilla cupcake recipe and switch the margarine for a dairy-free equivalent and the same with the milk. For the buttercream use my vegan vanilla buttercream.
Stephanie New says
Hi I need to make a 12 inch chocolate gluton free cake, how would I adapt your reciepe for this? Thank you
Charlotte Oates says
Use the calculator for my chocolate birthday cake to find the ingredients you need and substitute the ingredients including dairy in the recipe for the dairy-free ones in this cupcake recipe. I haven’t tested this with GF flour, but others have and have said it works well with a standard GF self-raising flour.
KatInkley says
Used this recipe alongside the dairy free buttercream. Tasted amazing. Used it for a bake sale at a school so great to give different options for the kids.
Sophie says
These are really yummy! (Our son has a dairy allergy and I’ve made both the cupcakes and also a birthday cake for him. He now requests chocolate cake for breakfast! Oh dear)
Just wondered if instead of grating the chocolate to the cake mix, I could melt it to save time?
Charlotte Oates says
You can. Melt the chocolate before you do any of the other steps and allow it to cool to room temperature (so it’s still runny, but not hot). Mix together all of the other ingredients as per the recipe and then mix in the chocolate at the end.
Sophie says
Thank you! (I don’t bake very often but this recipe is really easy to follow..even for a novice like me!)
Natasha says
Hi there I am going to be trying your delicious looking recipe for a child’s birthday do you use the same dairy free butter for the butter cream?
Charlotte Oates says
For the buttercream I use a combination (half of each) of dairy-free marg and a vegetable oil block (e.g. Stork Baking Block or Trex).
Laraine says
I need to make about 30 of both muffin recipes and wondered if I could freeze them and then decorate the tops on the day of the party?
Charlotte Oates says
It should be OK, although unfortunately some cupcake cases peel away in the freezer. I usually use these ones and they’re OK most of the time.
Chris says
Hi, what are you substituting the eggs with?
Charlotte Oates says
Nothing, it’s dairy-free not egg-free.
Clare says
Hi, I’ve done your dairy feee choc cupcakes recipe, and I’ve also done the all in one vanilla sponge cake. Aside from the chocolate the main difference seems to be that the cupcakes don’t have baking powder but the sponge does. Why is that? Can I make the dairy free choc cupcake recipe as a sponge, and if I did that should I be adding baking powder . ? Bit confused. Want to make a dairy free chocolate sponge cake for son’s birthday … many thanks, clare
Charlotte Oates says
I tested the chocolate cakes with added baking powder and I found they rose too high and then collapsed a little in the middle. I found I got a more even rise by leaving it out and relying on the raising agents in the self-raising flour. I do use medium eggs in the vanilla cake and large in the chocolate cake as the larger eggs help to give the cake extra rise and stability.
You can make the dairy-free cupcakes as a sponge. The mixture will make enough for an 18cm 2-layer round cake and will need 30-35 minutes to cook. If you’d like to make the cake in a larger size then you can use the calculator in my chocolate birthday cake recipe and then substitute the dairy-free ingredients as necessary.
Clare says
Thank you that’s really helpful. When I made the cupcakes the first time I worried that you had forgotten to list the baking powder in the recipe. and for the reader below – I’ve made both the cupcakes and the all in one sponge and they both turned out great. Cupcakes were for a school bake sale and they tasted like velvet.
I have one other question. A couple of people have told me to weigh the eggs in their shells, and then make sure the flour(or dry ingredient combo)/sugar/butter weights are all the dame weight as the weight of the eggs so as to avoid problems with medium or large eggs being slightly off centre.
But it sounds like you deliberately steer away from that if you are using larger eggs for the chocolate cake. So you are using baking powder and smaller eggs to get the rise in a vanilla cake, and no baking powder but larger eggs to get the rise in a chocolate cake. Is that right – it’s a vanilla versus chocolate approach, rather than a cake versus cupcake approach?
Have you ever followed the “weight your eggs” approach? I’ve had a few sink in the middle cakes and I’m trying to perfect the skill. Even bought an oven thermometer … many thanks. Clare
Charlotte Oates says
For me it’s a vanilla v chocolate approach. The chocolate recipe was created from the vanilla recipe and I originally planned to still add the baking powder, but it just didn’t work.
I’ve actually written a post all about the impact of egg sizes on cakes. I used my vanilla sponge recipe (as cupcakes to make the batches nice and small). For a sponge, I actually prefer my eggs to weigh slightly less than the other ingredients so I use medium eggs. As you can see from that post, it makes the sponge slightly softer and fluffier (but you get less rise). However, as you can see from my experiments you still get a perfectly edible cake regardless of the size so I don’t worry too much about it. I think matching the other ingredients to the egg weight can be a useful approach if you’re using eggs that haven’t been classified by size, as then the weights could vary much more greatly.
clare says
Thanks so much, that’s really helpful. I’m using your recipes as a base for all my cake making now …
Charlotte Oates says
That’s what I like to hear 🙂
Michelle says
Yum! Delicious and so easy to make.
Joanne Moore says
I have just made these with my 3 year old and ma super happy with how they turned out. This mixture was the perfect consistency and I got 12 delicious cupcakes! Will be making your dairy free buttercream on Sunday morning to decorate for my sons party
Damien says
I tried to make these just now. It ends up as a huge clump of dry mess in the mixing bowl. Is the margarine meant to be melted? Because it didn’t say anything about melting it, and now I just have giant chunks of margarine and powder filling the inside of my whisk. All the comments are talking about how great these look, but has anybody actually successfully made these according to the recipe??
Charlotte Oates says
I’m sorry to hear that they didn’t work for you. The margarine shouldn’t be melted, but it should be soft (if you use pure sunflower then it’s usually soft enough straight from the fridge but if your fridge is on the colder side you could leave it out for a little while to come up to room temperature). You should also use a beater attachment (or wooden spoon if you mixing it by hand) rather than a whisk as the fine wires of a whisk aren’t strong enough to beat the ingredients together, instead, you will just find that the mixture tends to get stuck in the middle (as you experienced).
Also, can I just check you added the eggs? You mentioned you had clumps of margarine and powder in the whisk, but you didn’t mention the eggs (which would add a lot of moisture and make beating everything together much simpler).
Damien says
Hi Charlotte, I went back to it and used an electric beater, but the consistency was still a lot like frosting and was going to be hard to get into the cup cake moulds. I had used Nuttelex margarine from the fridge (yes I had added the eggs already btw). Anyway I ended up adding some almond milk to make the mixture a bit runnier and then just cooked them a bit longer. They came out pretty good. Thanks.
Charlotte Oates says
I glad they turned out OK in the end. It’s possible your eggs were at the smaller end of eggs size range then the mixture could be a bit stiffer. I’m glad to hear that a bit of almond milk sorted the problem.
Sarah says
Can I freeze these?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes, Put them into an airtight container and they freeze well.
Mel says
These look delicious! Would these work as mini cupcakes?
Charlotte Oates says
Definitely, you just need to reduce the cooking time (which will depend on just how mini you’re going).
Choclette says
There you go again with your gorgeous swirly icing. I remember being really surprised when I made my first vegan cake as to just how good it is. Leaving out the dairy is so easy now that we’ve so many alternative ingredients at our disposal. I usually use coconut, rapeseed or olive oil as I’m not a fan of margarine. Thanks for sharing with #WeShouldCocoa.
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve used coconut oil in scones (with coconut milk instead of regular) before as it tastes really good. I’m yet to try it in cakes but it’s on my list.
Kat (The Baking Explorer) says
Stunning cupcakes! You’ve got an amazing result without using any dairy. Thanks for linking up to #TreatPetite
emma amoscato says
Yummy! And you make your icing look so pretty! #freefromfridays
Eb Gargano | Easy Peasy Foodie says
Woah – you would never guess those gorgeous little cakes were free from anything – they look amazing…just like all your other lovely cupcakes. How fab for anyone who follows a dairy free diet…I will certainly be bookmarking in case I need to bake dairy free cakes for anyone in the future 🙂 Thanks for linking it up to #CookBlogShare 🙂 Eb x
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Eb, I’m trying to do more free-from cooking simply to understand more about how it works. I’ve had a go at egg-free but realised very quickly that dairy-free was going to be much easier to tackle! I’m going to move on to some gluten-free cakes next I think.
Midge @Peachicks' Bakery says
Ooh yum – they look great! Dairyfree is actually not as complicated as it sounds but it can be so daunting! Thanks for the mention too! x
Charlotte Oates says
You’re right about dairy-free (although my success has a lot to do with all the helpful advice I received), it’s a pretty straightforward substitution for cakes. I’ve attempted egg-free and have found that much trickier to master.
Vicki Montague says
These look fabulous Charlotte! And just to let you and your readers know, almost all my recipes are dairy free because my daughter is intolerant (previously allergic) to milk protein!
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Vicki x
Rebecca Smith says
Beautiful cupcakes! The icing is perfect, bit of a knack to get a dairy free icing to look like that 🙂 thank you for including me in the post xx
Charlotte Oates says
I completely agree about the dairy-free icing, I found I had to beat the baking block/margarine more than I would better to get it really smooth.