Gluten-free Cupcakes Archives - Gluten Free on a Shoestring

Moist, light and airy, these gluten free milk chocolate cupcakes are chocolatey but not too rich. Perfect for every occasion.

Fingers placing piece of Hershey's milk chocolate on a glazed cupcake

Do you think milk chocolate is for wimps, that these milk chocolate gluten free cupcakes can't possibly satisfy? This recipe might just have the power to change your mind about milk chocolate. It's not fool's gold! It's real chocolate – just with milk.

This is the perfect cupcake for holiday decorating or any sort of celebration. It's not too rich and not too sweet, so it can handle some serious frosting and other decorations and fanciness. Here, I made a simple ganache-style milk chocolate glaze, which is always a safe choice.

Milk chocolate cupcakes batter in a bowl with a spoon

What makes milk chocolate different than other chocolate?

When I bake with melted chocolate, I typically specify dark chocolate. I'm not a chocolate expert, so when I get questions about what “dark chocolate” means as an ingredient, I limit my response to the explain the sort of chocolate I'm referring to. It might be different for different recipe developers.

Dark chocolate is any chocolate that contains little or no milk. It's typically just cacao solids, sugar, and some sort of emulsifier to help maintain the texture of the chocolate.

The greater the percentage of cacao in dark chocolate, the more bitter the chocolate. The highest percentage I would generally use in a recipe is 75% cacao. Typically I use 70% Scharffen Berger dark chocolate.

Terms like “semi-sweet chocolate” and “bittersweet chocolate” are often used interchangeably, and frequently contain more sugar, less cacao. Like anything else, there are better quality varieties, and worse quality varieties.

Descriptive names for chocolate like these are like clothing and shoe sizes. There's absolutely no definitive standardization that everyone agrees upon.

Milk chocolate contains milk solids, and generally has more sugar and less cacao. Most adults will say that they don't like it, but then if you offer them a Hershey's kiss, they won't refuse. Don't be a hater.

I don't typically bake with milk chocolate since it's more sweet and has a less pronounced chocolate flavor and aroma. But these milk chocolate cupcakes are kind of like nursery food to me (in a good way!), like a perfect vanilla cupcake. Pure nonthreatening comfort. Like a bowl of pastina.

Baked milk chocolate cupcake without glaze and others with glaze

Can you freeze these cupcakes?

Yes, you can definitely freeze these cupcakes. I recommend freezing them after they're baked and completely cooled, but before you glaze them. The glaze freezes well, but it doesn't set hard so it will stick to whatever you wrap the cupcakes with for freezing.

Just wrap the cooled cupcakes very tightly to prevent freezer burn. Do not store cupcakes in the refrigerator for more than a few moments if you'd like to speed up the setting of the glaze. The refrigerator tends to dry out baked goods.

Array of chocolate glaze in glass measuring cup, some glazed cupcakes and some unglazed

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

Since these are milk chocolate cupcakes, and milk chocolate is by its nature dairy-containing, it's really hard to make these cupcakes dairy-free. Instead, I'd recommend making our perfect gluten free chocolate cupcakes recipe, which is already naturally dairy free.

Eggs

There are two eggs in this recipe. That's the high water mark for how many eggs I recommend trying to replace in any recipe.

Try using one “chia egg” for each chicken egg (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel). Pay attention to the consistency of the batter, and add up to 1 tablespoon of lukewarm water more if the batter seems too stiff.

Whenever you're making substitutions, it's especially useful to watch the in-post how-to video so you can attempt to mimic the consistency of the batter in the recipe made as written. If you're not seeing a video, you must turn off your ad blocker or the video won't play. It's the right thing to do anyway, since the content is free but I don't get paid anything if you don't view any ads.

Chocolate

I used Hershey's milk chocolate bars in this recipe. You'll need 6 bars for both the cupcakes and the glaze. Hershey's also sells larger baking bars, but they're not available everywhere.

If you'd like to make more traditional, dark chocolate cupcakes, please see the link above for my perfect gluten free cupcakes. That's what you're looking for.

You could also use milk chocolate melting wafers in this recipe. Ghirardelli sells those in a bag. They also sell a milk chocolate baking bar.

Baker's brand sells milk chocolate for baking. I don't know how readily available it is, though.

Milk chocolate cupcake on a white plate, sliced in two pieces

These elegant gluten free coconut cupcakes are made with real coconut chips ground into the sugar, plus coconut extract, for maximum coconut flavor.

Coconut cupcakes with frosting and coconut chips on a wire rack

Make a coconut lover out of anyone…

Assuming you can safely eat coconut, I think these moist and tender gluten free cupcakes will make a coconut lover out of pretty much anyone.

Growing up, the only “coconut” I had ever tasted was the overly sweetened type of shredded coconut. It was something to be tolerated when it showed up on the bunny-shaped cake my father made for my sweet at-home birthday party.

I guess it was popular back then for decorating because it was easy to tint the white shreds any color you liked? The moment I tried the wide, flat unsweetened coconut chips, I became a coconut lover.

Of course, if you're allergic, then don't go near coconut. But try all of our other recipes for gluten free cupcakes. I'd suggest starting with gluten free vanilla cupcakes.

A muffin tin with liners and batter filling wells

All about coconut chips

Coconut chips can be purchased dried and otherwise raw or even already toasted. I buy my chips now at my local Trader Joe's, and I toasted whole bags and store them in a sealed glass container on the kitchen counter. They're perfect for tossing into muesli or a quick batch of maple almond granola.

Even though I love toasted coconut chips, I don't care for the texture of them when it's baked into cake. So, instead, in this recipe we process the raw coconut chips with granulated sugar before adding them to the batter.

Combining the coconut with the sugar flavors the whole cake but still makes for a cupcake with a super tender crumb. If you don't care about keeping the cupcakes themselves white inside, you can toast the chips before combining them with the sugar for a stronger coconut taste.

Coconut cupcakes in a stack on a wire rack

How to decorate the cupcakes with frosting

These cupcakes make a lovely presentation even though they don't have any bright colors at all. The contrast between the super white frosting and the white cakes with the golden brown edges on the cupcakes and the toasted coconut chips is really special.

Since the coconut in these cupcakes is really prominent, and the coconut chips are rustic, I really like to frost these in a “messy” way. You can do that by piping frosting on top of each cupcake with a large open piping tip and then smashing it down a bit.

A close up of frosting coming out of a piping bag onto a coconut cupcake

An easier way to frost

You can also just use a large offset spatula or large spoon and place a large dollop of frosting on top. A highly designed, precious style of frosting just doesn't seem to fit with these cupcakes. I think they'd also be lovely with a few edible chicks nestled on top of the frosting for Easter.

A closeup of a coconut cupcake with frosting and coconut on a small plate