Blueberry Surprise Birthday Cupcakes - plant based, no added sugar, refined sugar free, gluten free
By Abby
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I panicked the day before my toddler’s second birthday. I wanted to bake him beautiful cupcakes to bring to nursery, but hadn’t picked out a recipe. And, because I wasn’t able to find a recipe that ticked all the nutrition boxes for me (plant based, no added sugar), I started to get frustrated and all worked up.
Then, I reminded myself this was supposed to be FUN. And, it’s my pleasure to bake for my toddler especially on his birthday.
So, I took a deep breath and texted one of my dearest friends Hanna Robinson (who happens to be the best professional chef) to help me pick out recipes. With her OK, I ended up using recipes from Little Green Kitchen and Plant Based Juniors as inspiration and went a little rogue, as always. Turns out the experiment worked! All the adults and half the kids at nursery loved them (I’ll take that!) and though my toddler only wanted pretzels, he’s been loving these without the icing all week.
Check out the recipe below. These beauties are plant-based, gluten free, dairy free, and made without any added or refined sugar!
Blueberry Surprise Muffins
(makes 12 large muffins, 24 mini muffins)
Dry Ingredients:
100 g (1 cup) almond flour
120 g (3/4 cup) rice flour
45 g (1/2 cup) shredded coconut
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch of sea salt
Wet Ingredients
10 soft dates (120 g) (if using dried dates, soak them in hot water for 30 minutes)
1 ripe banana
4 tbsp coconut oil (room temperature)
180 mL plain unsweetened coconut yogurt (I use Cocojune)
3 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 cup blueberries
Blueberry Frosting
3/4 cup cashews (soaked in hot water for 30-60 minutes)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used Elmhurst farms cashew milk)
1 cup blueberries (I use Josh Pond Maine Frozen Blueberries)
3 dates
2 tbsp coconut oil
Instructions:
Make the chia eggs by combining the chia seeds with 9 tbsp of water, stir, and set aside for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400F. (Usually I don’t preheat, but I did for baking these because I didn’t have the time to mess up!). Grease a muffin tin with coconut oil (or use paper muffin cups large or mini).
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir and set aside.
Add the soaked dates into the food processor and process until smooth. Then add the banana, coconut oil, yogurt and flax seeds and blend again until smooth and combined.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir.
Add the batter to the cupcake tins, place a few blueberries in the center of each, and then cover with the remaining batter.
Bake, until golden, in the over for 10-12 minutes for mini cupcakes and 20-25 minutes for large.
While the cupcakes are baking, make the frosting by combining all the ingredients in the food process and blend until smooth and creamy. Place in the fridge to set.
Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let them cool completely before adding the icing*!
Serve immediately or store in a glass container in the fridge.
*If you have leftover icing, store it in the fridge. I used extra to make a yogurt parfait with coconut yogurt, blueberries and pecans. It was amazing!