Keto Sugar-free Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe

Name: Keto Sugar-free Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups Wholesome Yum Blanched Almond Flour; 1/2 cup Besti Monk Fruit Allulose Blend; 2 tsp Baking powder; 4 large Eggs ((at room temperature)); 1/3 cup Unsalted butter ((melted)); 1/4 cup Unsweetened almond milk ((at room temperature)); 1/2 tbsp Vanilla extract; 1 cup Raspberries; 1 1/2 cups Unsalted butter ((softened)); 1 cup Besti Powdered Monk Fruit Allulose Blend; 6 tbsp Unsweetened almond milk ((or any milk of choice)); Sugar-free sprinkles ((optional))

Jump to recipeThis keto vanilla cupcakes recipe is moist and sweet - the right sweetener is key! Fresh raspberry buttercream frosting on these sugar-free cupcakes takes them over the top.

By Maya Krampf

38 Comments

Keto cupcake recipe with lots of frosting (close up top)

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I first made this recipe for easy keto vanilla cupcakes several years ago, with pink frosting for a breast cancer awareness project during the month of October. It has undergone several improvements since then, including better texture and a lot more frosting, among others. With the updates and the right sweetener, they’re so moist and sweet that you’ll be hard pressed to tell that they are sugar-free cupcakes at all.

This low carb vanilla cupcake recipe was originally published on October 3, 2016, and the post was republished in September 2020 to add updated pictures, useful tips, and some ingredient improvements. In case you are curious, here is one of the original photos:

They look much better now, don’t you think:

How To Make Keto Cupcakes

This sugar-free cupcake recipe comes together with just 10 minutes prep.

Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, stir together the almond flour, Besti, and baking powder.

Add wet ingredients. Add eggs, almond milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Mix well. The batter will be fairly thick – this is normal!

TIP: Be sure your eggs and milk are at room temperature. Otherwise, your butter may re-solidify.

Fill muffin cups. Spoon the batter into the lined muffin cups, filling them 3/4 of the way.

Bake. They are done when they are golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

How To Make Raspberry Frosting For Sugar-Free Cupcakes

The best sugar-free cupcakes have frosting, don’t you think? 😉 While your low carb cupcakes are baking, make the frosting:

Heat berries. Heat fresh raspberries with water in a very small saucepan on the stove. Bring to a boil, then mash the raspberries down with the back of a wooden spoon. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 3 minutes.

Strain raspberry sauce. Place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and pour the raspberry sauce into it. Release as much liquid as possible into the bowl, and discard solids.

Cream butter and Besti. Use a hand mixer to beat room-temperature butter with Besti Powdered Monk Fruit Allulose Blend, until fluffy.

Add liquids. Add the stained raspberry liquid, plus some almond milk, to thin out the frosting.

TIP: If frosting is too thick, add additional milk, one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached.

Assemble. Pipe raspberry frosting on top of the cupcakes!

If you like (and you should), add keto sprinkles!

Keto Vanilla Cupcakes FAQs

Can I use a different sweetener?

Yes. This cupcake recipe without sugar has a few options for sugar replacement. You’ll need:

Granulated sweetener for the sugarless cupcakes – like allulose, monk fruit allulose blend, or erythritol.
Powdered sweetener for the raspberry frosting – like powdered allulose, powdered monk fruit allulose blend, or powdered erythritol.

You can use the sweetener conversion calculator to find out the amount to use if you’re using something other than what is on the recipe card.

However, for the moistest cupcakes, I recommend sticking with the monk fruit allulose blends (on the recipe card)!

What kind of almond flour should I use?

It’s important to use super fine blanched almond flour for these gluten sugar-free cupcakes. Do not use almond meal or a coarse almond flour – both of these would result is a more grainy result.

Can I use coconut flour?

No, sorry. You’d need to make multiple other changes for the recipe to work.

If you’re looking for something with coconut flour, try coconut flour blueberry muffins instead, or one of my other coconut flour recipes.

My batter is thick, is that normal?

Yes! This keto cupcake recipe makes a batter on the thicker side. (See the photos above for reference on how it should look.)

How much frosting should I use?

It’s up to you! The sugar-free raspberry frosting recipe below makes enough frosting for approximately 2-3 tablespoons per cupcake.

You can also use a different frosting if you prefer, like classic keto buttercream frosting, sugar-free chocolate frosting or keto cream cheese frosting!

Sugar-Free Cupcake Recipe Storage Instructions

Can you make them ahead?

Yes, you can make this sugarless cupcake recipe a few days ahead. Frost the day of or day before serving for the best keto vanilla cupcakes.

How to store low carb vanilla cupcakes

Store this keto vanilla cupcake recipe in the pantry for 1-2 days without frosting, or store in the refrigerator for 5-7 days (or 2-4 days with frosting).

Can you freeze vanilla keto cupcakes?

Yes, you can also freeze this sugar-free cupcake recipe for 1-2 months. For best results, freeze them plain and frost right before serving.

More Keto Cupcake and Muffin Recipes

If you like this sugar-free cupcake recipe, you might also like some of these other keto cupcake and muffin recipes:

Keto Banana Muffins – Bakery style keto muffin to satisfy your craving…and made with a secret ingredient to make it taste like banana without any bananas!
Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffins – Just 30 minutes to make this simple recipe that is great for dessert, breakfast, or snacks!
Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins – Prefer to use almond flour? This is the only keto blueberry muffins recipe you’ll need.
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins – Sugar-free, keto, nut-free, and dairy-free, these low carb zucchini muffins are a great way to sneak in some veggies.
Double Chocolate Protein Muffins – Loaded with chocolate and protein, these easy muffins take just 10 minutes to prep.
Keto Chocolate Cupcakes – Rich and sweet, but made without sugar. Ready in 30 minutes.

Tools To Make Sugar-Free Cupcakes

Tap the links below to see the items used to make this recipe.

Muffin Pan – This muffin pan is heavy duty and will be perfect for these raspberry cupcakes.
Cupcake Liners – You’ll need to line your muffin pan with cupcake liners for this keto cupcake recipe.
Large Mixing Bowl – This set of bowls are the ones I prefer to use in the kitchen when baking.
Sugar-Free Sprinkles – These are optional, but are they, really? 😉

Keto Sugar-free Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe With Raspberry Frosting

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38 Comments

Abi
0 January 27, 2023Reply

I made these cupcakes this week and I honestly can’t tell that they are gluten free and low carb!
Marti Amado
0 April 30, 2022Reply

Hello! My son and I are trying to eat gluten-free I know that the almond flour is naturally gluten-free wondering if I could use half almond flour and half all purpose gluten-free baking flour blend in this recipe? If it would create it fluffier cupcake? Also, I followed the directions for the frosting exactly and it tasted way too buttery and greasy. When I added twice as much of the sugar substitute and a little almond milk came out much nicer my son ended up preferring chocolate baking powder being added to the frosting to cover up some of the butter taste.
Joanne
0 October 19, 2021Reply

I love this. It’s such a simple recipe and I just wanted to say, Thank you for sharing your recipes.
Just thought I’d tell you I have cancer and am on treatment at home and don’t have much energy due to the meds. I really appreciate simple keto recipes. I did though change yours slightly as I hate disposing of good fibres and flavour. So I added the strained solids into the batter for flavour. They turned out very yummy. A very nice treat as a medication chaser when meds require food. Thank you.
Kylie
0 August 22, 2021Reply

They are so easy to make, fluffy and taste absolutely delicious. Even my non-keto family loved them.
Melissa
0 August 19, 2021Reply

How many carbs does each cupcake have ?
- Wholesome Yum M
  0 August 19, 2021Reply
  
  Hi Melissa, Each cupcake has 3 net carbs per serving! Enjoy!
Barbara
0 August 17, 2021Reply

Sounds amazing I will definitely try this very soon
Karen
0 January 14, 2021Reply

I love that these were so easy to put together. They baked beautifully. Good crumb. Taste…….meh. I do understand that people’s sweet meters very…..but when I eat something sweet I expect sweet. These had the very faintest sweetness to my palatte.
- Wholesome Yum M
  0 January 15, 2021Reply
  
  Hi Karen, Feel free to increase the amount of sweetener to 3/4 cup without changing the ratios of the recipe. Also, did you use the same sweetener on the recipe card? If you used something else, sweetness levels can vary depending on the sweetener used.
Nikki
0 November 12, 2020Reply

I used stevia, and it seemed more like an eggy, pancake, not so cake, or sweet. It was good, just not what I expected..
- Wholesome Yum M
  0 November 12, 2020Reply
  
  Hi Nikki, I am sorry these didn’t turn out as expected. Did you use baking stevia or concentrated stevia? Without the bulk from the sweetener, the recipe likely did not turn out as intended.
Mistie Heiken
0 October 4, 2020Reply

How many carbs without the icing?
Thanks
- Wholesome Yum M
  0 October 4, 2020Reply
  
  Hi Mistie, I’m not sure of the carb count without the icing. You can enter the recipe into an online recipe calculator (minus the frosting ingredients) to get an accurate carb count.
Theresa
0 September 23, 2020Reply

Can you make a whole round cake with this recipe, or only cupcakes?
- Wholesome Yum M
  0 September 23, 2020Reply
  
  Hi Theresa, Yes this recipe can be made as a cake round. Bake time will roughly be the same. Start checking for doneness around 18 minutes.
Priya Lakshminarayan
0 September 17, 2020Reply

They are so delicious…I have been making them on repeat! Thank you
Nellie Tracy
0 September 17, 2020Reply

Such a good recipe! Love these cupcakes!
Allison
0 September 17, 2020Reply

I’m not sure which I like better, the cupcakes or frosting. Perfection!
Charlotte
0 September 15, 2020Reply

Just wondering: Do you ever use silicone cupcake liners? Why or why not? Thanks!
- Wholesome Yum M
  0 September 15, 2020Reply
  
  Hi Charlotte, Keto baked goods are more fragile than traditional foods. Silicone liners can work great if you buy them thin enough to easily flip the muffins out of. If the silicone liner is too thick, you are likely to break your muffin in half or lose a lot of it at the bottom of the liner. I hope this helps!
  - Preetha
    0 March 3, 2023Reply
    
    Hi Maya, can I use frozen raspberries to make the frosting? If yes, does the recipe remain the same. Thanks!
    - Wholesome Yum D
      0 March 6, 2023Reply
      
      Hi Preetha, You can use frozen raspberries. I suggest thawing the berries before you use them.
Beth
0 September 15, 2020Reply

I am in love with this recipe! The rasberry frosting has me wanting to frost everything in sight! Delish!
Jane Saunders
0 September 15, 2020Reply

Your tips and all the additional info are fantastic. Posts like this really helps me understand the recipe before I begin baking.
Elena
0 April 2, 2020Reply

Delicious recipe!
Julie
0 January 5, 2019Reply

Hi, I made the frosting using a KitchenAid stand mixer and it came out extra hard and clumpy. The more almond milk I afforded, the more it got hard and the liquid wasn’t absorbed. What am I doing wrong?
- Maya | Wholesome Yum
  0 April 15, 2019Reply
  
  Hi Julie, Was your butter cold? That would be a likely reason – it needs to be softened at room temperature.
Stephanie
0 October 17, 2018Reply

Looks so delicious! Could you substitute strawberries and use strawberry extract?
- Maya | Wholesome Yum
  0 October 18, 2018Reply
  
  Hi Stephanie, I haven’t tried that, but you probably could. Let me know how it goes for you!
Sharon
0 June 8, 2017Reply

How are these dairy-free? The recipe comes up under dairy-free recipes. Just wondering if I am missing something?
- Maya | Wholesome Yum
  0 June 9, 2017Reply
  
  Hi Sharon, The only potential dairy in this recipe is butter, which is sometimes a gray area because many people with dairy allergies are still able to tolerate butter. If not, you can easily use ghee instead. I haven’t tried the frosting with ghee though, so the results may be a little different. The actual base of the cupcakes should be almost the same using ghee.
Taryn
0 October 11, 2016Reply

Beautiful! And delicious. Perfect combination.
Tasha
0 October 6, 2016Reply

I’m loving all the pink in this post! What a fun challenge for a great cause!
Sarah
0 October 5, 2016Reply

Oh, you had me at raspberry buttercream frosting! These are so adorable!
STACEY
0 October 4, 2016Reply

These are so adorable Maya, and match your site! Entering the giveaway.
Jennifer
0 October 4, 2016Reply

The 10,000 cupcake challenge is such a fun way to support the fight against breast cancer! Your cupcakes are beautiful!
Georgina
0 October 4, 2016Reply

Those cupcakes look gorgeous! And I entered the giveaway!
sugarfreelondoner
0 October 4, 2016Reply

Maya, your cupcakes look very pink and very delicious! It’s great that you are supporting the fight against breast cancer. I think most people have a loved one who has been affected by cancer and every little bit of support helps.