When I think about three hobbies I enjoy that feel like an escape to me, the three pastimes that immediately jump into my mind include reading, working out (or doing something active outside) and baking. They all feel like something I do for myself to recharge – my “me time” – and if every day included more of each, I’d be a happy camper!
Reading is perfect at night when I want to unwind and get lost in another world before bed. Working out is wonderful in the morning and kick starts my day with a boost of energy and endorphins. And then there’s baking… To me, baking feels almost indulgent. A perfect Sunday afternoon activity that allows me to simply focus on creating something delicious for my family. A nostalgic activity that reminds me of tying on an apron and baking cookies with my mom when I was a little girl and eating way too much oatmeal raisin cookie dough.
I love putting on some music and basically destroying our kitchen with dirty dishes, a dusting of flour and a trail of crumbs. (Note: I did not say cleaning up after baking is one of my favorite pastimes.)
This past Sunday, I made my third attempt at Paleo lemon cupcakes and thank goodness these cupcakes finally turned out well! I love experimenting in the kitchen but Paleo and gluten-free baking is a bit of a beast for me. If I’m not following a cookbook or online recipe exactly, it will often take me several attempts to come up with a creation that we would deem a true success in our house. Thankfully Ryan and I are the least picky eaters in the world, so we’ve still managed to eat our way through way-too-dense muffins, pancakes that basically taste like ground up almonds and cake that crumbled into pieces on the first slice.
But these cupcakes passed the taste test from people outside of the Stomachs-of-Steel Fagan family.
Two of my close girlfriends have little ones who do not eat dairy and one of them also does not eat gluten, so I try to make some Paleo and gluten-free snacks they can enjoy when we all get together on occasion and these cupcakes passed the toddler taste test when I served them up yesterday, too!
These Paleo lemon cupcakes are lower in sugar than most cupcakes (especially if you leave the icing off, which is what we did for the little ones – does that make them muffins?) and the tangy lemon flavor stands out perfectly against the light sweetness of honey.
Paleo Lemon Cupcakes
Makes 9 cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Paleo Vanilla Cupcakes via Elana’s Pantry
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil (I love this coconut cooking oil from Carrington Farms. It’s already melted and completely flavorless.)
- Zest of one large lemon
- Juice of one large lemon
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine coconut flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, whisk 4 eggs. Stir in coconut oil, lemon juice, lemon zest vanilla and honey.
- Using a mixer, slowly mix egg mixture into coconut flour mixture until the batter appears smooth with no lumps. (It may take a while to mix and the batter will seem rather liquidy.)
- Spoon the batter into a silicone muffin pan sprayed with cooking spray.
- Place into the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes. Allow to cool completely before icing the cupcakes.
Important note: I highly recommend baking these cupcakes in a silicone muffin pan without muffin liners. I’ve made them both in a traditional muffin pan with liners and in a silicone muffin pan sprayed with cooking spray without liners and found that the cupcakes slip right out of the silicone muffin pan and tend to stick to cupcake liners a bit. (I made two batches to photograph for this post and photographed them both ways.)
For the icing, I veered from Paleo and made Sprinkles’ lemon buttercream icing that was truly irresistible. If you are following a Paleo diet, this vanilla creme icing looks fantastic and I would recommending adding lemon zest to brighten up the icing with natural lemon flavor.
Enjoy!
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This is so crazy, because a week ago I had a dream about eating a lemon cake with lemon buttercream icing, and that dream was SO VIVID I woke up with the taste of it in my mouth, and HAD to have lemon cake with buttercream icing. I ended up defrosting some lemon ricotta pancakes I’d made over the holidays instead, but it wasn’t the same, obviously. Thanks for this great recipe, you have no idea how timely this is! Woo hoo!
These look AMAZING! One of my best friends has a 6 year old daughter who was just diagnosed with a gluten allergy on top of several other food allergies. She has been so sad because she is so little and has to give up so much. I’m going to make these for her this week! Thank you!
I hope she loves them!!
These look so good! Baking is def one of my favorite activities. And I love making a variety of indulgent and healthy treats.
These cupcakes look so great, fresh and bright! I love the flavor of lemon this time of year!
Oh girl when I first started paleo and gluten free experimenting it was a disaster eventually you get the hang of it!!!!
These look amazing. I’ve been looking for a treat to make for my little Sunday School girls this weekend for Valentine’s Day, and I think these might just be it!
Also, I must say that I completely agree with you on your favorite “me-time” activities being reading, working out, and baking. I’ve ben saying the same thing for years (except I would expand on baking and make it cooking), and it’s refreshing to hear someone else say they enjoy the same hobbies as I do. Oftentimes I feel like these aren’t “real” hobbies like running/training for marathons, being on a sports team/league, knitting, etc., but to me they’re what make me happy and help me to enjoy my free time.
Absolutely!! Hiking, walking Sadie outside and working out/general fitness = A hobby in my eyes!! <3
These look absolutely divine!!! I LOVE lemon cake and of course buttercream icing! My boyfriend has Celiac and I am gluten intolerant. I might have to bake these this weekend for my birthday next Monday. Thank you for sharing this!! xoxo
Also, if you’re in search of good recipes, please check out my Aunt Lesli’s blog asiancaucasian.com. I just made her pumpkin soup last week and her miso butternut squash soup last night and both are winners!
Could I use normal flour instead of coconut flour if I don’t care about the gluten?
I’m not sure it would work because coconut flour is very different in consistency than regular flour. :/ I just want to save you the headache of cupcakes that won’t turn out right since these took quite a few attempts until they came out well!
my batter is not liquidy? like cookie dough do you need to mix long time
It definitely requires mixing for a while!! Also, was your coconut oil completely melted? I’m also wondering if my pre-melted coconut cooking oil may have made a difference?
Could I sub almond flour for coconut flour?
These look delicious and perfect for spring!! I’m craving some warm sunshine!
I know what you mean about baking feeling indulgent. Something about Sunday afternoons and rainy days makes it ok to bake! In our family Sunday was scone day. My dad, my sister and I would go out on our bikes, whatever the weather, and when we got home we would bake scones. I never make scones nowadays but I do like a good lemon cake!
These sound so good! I’ve been gluten free for 15+ years & gf baking is still so tricky to me. If you ever see Paper Chef cupcake papers, grab a box to try, they’re awesome. They’re completely nonstick.
OOOH! Thank you for this tip! I do like having cupcake liners when I’m bringing cupcakes to share so I’ll look for Paper Chef liners for these cupcakes!
They’re great! I’ve gotten them at the grocery store, but Amazon has them as well.
Awesome! I am an Amazon Prime addict, so that’s perfect!
These cupcakes look so good! I’ll have to make them if I have time this weekend.
I’m totally with you on baking being something that I enjoy. It’s fun being creative and making something delicious and nutritious for my family. It’s definitely a stress reliever for me.
These look amazing! My husband loves lemon flavored desserts, so I will definitely have to whip these up for him. Maybe a Valentine’s Day treat?
I’m totally get the escaping through baking thing too. I love working out as my ‘me time,’ but at night I enjoy cooking dinner or whipping up a fun, healthy dessert. It’s such a stress reliever and fun to have a little mom time all to myself.
Ryan is the same way! He’s actually the one who inspired me to try my hand at lemon cupcakes… He’s all about lemon desserts.
Thank you so much for the inspiration! I felt a crave to bake and can definitely agree with the relaxation aspect of the process. So, I created these avocado muffins today and they turned out incredibly well! Thanks for the inspiration!
(Ps. shoutout to you on my blog today 🙂 )
http://www.katrinamwalker.com/?p=2292
These look delicious! Does the coconut flour add coconut taste to them?
I LOVE lemon flavored sweet treats, especially cupcakes! I’ll definitely have to give these a whirl. 🙂
http://www.poweredbysass.com
Lemons desserts are the BEST! I have a bakery science degree (real thing) and I LOVE baking but recently went vegan. All my previous baking knowledge is worthless! I will have to try these out with an egg replacer and see how they turn out. They look so good though!
Yum! This is perfect to bake right now…its like a taste of summery lemon during the Winter! These look amazing!!!!
http://bzfd.it/2loek5m
So I read this today and thought of you! New Ben and Jerry’s flavor “Oat of This World” sounds very similar to your old fave!
eek! Can’t wait to make these! I love making paleo treats! Thank you
Definitely need to make these beauties! I’m such a sucker for anything lemon, especially since it’s 60 degrees here today!! Might as well take advantage of the spring weather preview! 😉
Hi! Thank you for the yummy sounding recipe. I eat paleo due to numerous food allergies. Do you have hints how to substitute almond flour for the coconut? I miss lemon cupcakes..
Thank you for sharing your expertise!
LeAnn
I am new to gluten free and I am in desperate need of something easy to make and delicious! This looks like it will fit both requirements 🙂
Why does lemon sound so amazing right now?! These look delish.
My kids don’t eat dairy or gluten and now that they are in preschool I have to pack their snacks and lunches most days! I will definitely be making these for snacks (minus the frosting). The will devour them! Thank you so much!
Yum! Do you think I could sub the honey for another sweetener like maple syrup or agave? Honey makes me really sick. 🙁 Thanks!
I think agave would be yummy in this.
I do a lot of baking and it seems like a good.ingredient switch
I subbed 3/4 a cup agave syrup for the honey. I ended up throwing in a few squirts of honey to get the batter a little sweeter. I zested four small lemons and used the juice of five small lemons to get a nice lemon flavor. My cupcakes came out a little dry and I even popped a blackberry in the middle of each one to try and keep them moist. I plan on making Swiss meringue frosting with the agave syrup. I’ve seen recipes with maple syrup, but I don’t think the maple flavor will go well with the lemon.
I am trying them now I do not have a cilicone muffin pan s o I hope they don’t stick would it be ok without liner just spray with a non stick baking spray
Just made these! The silicone pan worked so well. The only tip I have is if you don’t have pre-melted coconut oil then add it to the wet mixture last, just before you mix it into the dry ingredients. Otherwise, it starts to harden and get clumpy in the eggs and I had to keep microwaving it to keep it liquid! Whoops!
Thanks for the recipe!
Great tip!! Thank you for sharing! And I’m SO glad to hear you liked the cupcakes. 🙂
They seem delicious. If I don’t want this recipe to be completely paleo but just grain free, can I sub the melted coconut oil for the same amount of melted butter? Thx
I’m assuming you mean sub melted butter for the coconut oil, correct? If so, I think that would work!!
Hi! I’m looking forward to trying these out as they look delicious! Do you know how many calories are in a single cupcake? Would love to know!
I’d love to make these but can’t have eggs. What would you suggest as a replacement?
Made these for Easter and topped with Paleo cream icing and a couple blueberries. Truly Amazing!
Only had half of the honey the recipe called for so I just added pure maple syrup! So easy!!
I’m so, so glad you liked them!! Thank you for taking the time to comment and let me know, Sandy! <3
I can’t get coconut flour where we live – can I substitute another type of flour?
I made these using extra virgin olive oil instead of coconut oil, and they were the best paleo cupcakes I HAVE EVER EATEN. So so good! Thanks for a fantastic recipe! Oh, and I used this buttercream which was so so amazing: http://www.mysweetandsaucy.com/2008/02/my-favorite-vanilla-buttercream-recipe/
I made this recipe and it’s real delicious!!!! Thanks
I’m so glad you liked the cupcakes! Thank you for letting me know! 🙂