Keto strawberry cupcakes made with real strawberries in every bite! Topped with a buttercream frosting with a strawberry swirl. Made with a mix of almond flour and coconut flour for a super moist texture. Low carb and gluten free these are perfect for a fresh spring or summertime dessert that’s healthy.
Desserts on keto can be addicting because they are so good. Making cupcakes is no exception. I love vanilla and chocolate but fruit flavored cupcakes touch a special place in my heart. The taste of fruit in a dessert gives a fresher feeling and the natural sugars compliment every aspect of the dessert. Making these keto strawberry cupcakes are a breeze with the choice to top it off with a sugar-free buttercream or keto cream cheese frosting.
How To Make Keto Strawberry Cupcakes-Step By Step
Ingredients Needed
- Blanched Almond Flour
- Coconut Flour
- Granulated Sweetener
- Baking Powder
- Butter
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Fresh or Frozen Strawberries
Cupcake Batter & Cooking Instructions
- First, preheat oven and melt butter. This recipe can be made in under 30 minutes. This includes cooking time as well.
- Mix almond flour, coconut flour, granulated sweetener, salt and baking powder.
- Next, grab melted butter and add in egg, vanilla extract and liquid sweetener.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix smoothly. For a pink cupcake use a few drops of pink food coloring.
- Bake for 20 minutes in a preheat oven.
- For the buttercream, cream room temperature butter. Add in powdered sweetener, liquid sweetener, vanilla extract.
- Blend it smoothly then fold in strawberries. After cupcakes have cooled, add buttercream then serve.
Helpful Recipe Tips
- Cook strawberries first for both portions of the recipe. This creates a very big difference in flavor. You are basically caramelizing the strawberries and releasing the natural sugars. Strawberries are keto friendly but they are very low in sugar compared to other fruits.
- Powdered sweetener only for the buttercream icing. If you use granulated the sweetener will be very grainy and crunchy to each bite. Sweetener doesn’t melt away or absorb without heat unlike sugar. If you only have granulated, place granulated in a blender for a few seconds and this will give you powdered.
- You won’t use the entire serving of the icing. There will be some left over so the calories and macros are actually a bit more than what they really are.
- For the sweetener in the buttercream icing I highly recommend allulose. I used a cheap coffee grinder to powder the granulated sweetener I had myself.
- When using frozen strawberries watch out for excess water. This is your enemy in baked goods keto or not. Allow as much of the water to cook down from the berries.
How To Store
Note, the buttercream icing is made from butter. When you place it in the refrigerator it will turn hard. Meaning, when you’re ready to serve again you’ll need to allow it to come to room temperature first.
These keto strawberry cupcakes will last about 3 days along with the icing. Due to real fruit it isn’t going to last very long. For freezing, I suggest you not freeze it because I have tested this and when thawing the water starts to pool in the icing and changes the texture and taste.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do I need to cook the strawberries?
No, you can skip cooking them, but allow me to explain why I suggest you do. When preparing the strawberries ahead of time you remove excess water. Along with that you add a little sweetener to allow them to truly shine in the recipe. You can skip cooking them but they are at minimum 10x better when the strawberries are cooked.
Are strawberries keto?
Yes they are! Strawberries are one of the few fruits you can have on keto. According to the USDA*, a entire cup is on 8g net carbs.
Can I sub the coconut flour?
Yes, you can but the coconut flour helps in texture and absorbing the excess liquid from the strawberries while baking. The keto cupcake will also come out a bit more spongy because that is the natural texture of almond flour.
Could I sub the almond flour for coconut flour?
No, don’t do that because the measurements would be completely different. However I do have a coconut flour strawberry muffin that only uses coconut flour.
Keto Recipes You’ll Love
Keto Strawberry Cupcakes
Ingredients
Strawberries
- 1/2 cup strawberries (86g)
- 1/4 cup granulated sweetener
Cupcakes
- 1 cup blanched almond flour
- 2 tablespoon coconut flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sweetener
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large egg
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon liquid monk fruit
Strawberry buttercream frosting
- 1 stick unsalted butter (8 TB)
- 5 tablespoon powdered sweetener
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon liquid monk fruit
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup strawberries (86g)
Cream Cheese Frosting (optional)
Instructions
Strawberries
- Blend strawberries up or chop them finely
- In a small pot on medium heat add strawberries and granulated sweetener then begin to cook. Continue stirring to avoid them sticking.
- You'll see the water release first and sizzle but you want to cook past this point to where the strawberries are softer and a strong fragrance is coming from them. Remove from heat and allow to sit. It will thicken as it cools.
Cupcake
- Preheat oven to 350°F, melt butter then set aside
- Mix almond flour, coconut flour, granulated sweetener, baking powder and salt
- Mix eggs, vanilla extract, liquid sweetener into melted butter
- Combine dry and wet ingredients then beat in strawberries. Blend smoothly. Optional to drop in a few drops of pink food coloring for the true pink color.
- Place in cup then bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool compeltely before adding frosting
Buttercream frosting
- Follow the same instructions for the strawberries you see above. You can even combine both and just split rather than cooking 2 seperate batches.
- With room temperature butter use a hand mixer and beat lightly
- Add in powdered sweetener then beat. Be sure to scrape down sides
- Add in liquid sweetener. For a not so sweet icing take away 1 tsp. Make sure you take out the liquid and not the powdered when adjusting sweetness.
- Toss in vanilla extract then lastly blend in strawberries. Finish
Cream cheese frosting (optional)
- If you choose to make cream cheese frosting follow the instructions of the cream cheese frosting recipe but add the strawberries in there from this recipe.
These are absolutely amazing! We’ve been looking for a good keto strawberry cake/cupcake. Thank you.
Made this on June 30, 2021. Tender and moist, these cupcakes are really good as well as easy to put together. The crumb also looks good like, as if, made with white flour. Did not add the liquid sweetener, I found them to be sweet enough.
This looks so good! Can I make other kinds of berry frosting with this recipe?
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
You sure can with any berry. I actually used blueberries one time and it was perfect.
They should keep a minimum of a week. I haven’t tested beyond that because normally they don’t last that long. Note, it will depend on the freshness of the strawberries as well.
I follow a strict keto diet and need more nutritional information if I am to make these amazing sounding cupcakes. Carbs? Fiber? Fat? Most people on keto diets take the total carb count less the fiber count to get the Net Carbs per serving.
The nutrition info is under the “Macro” section.
Can i make this in loaf pan? What will be my cooking time?
Something that large I would say you’d be looking at around 30-40 minutes in baking time. But, the toothpick test is king and I would start keeping a very close eye at the 40 minute mark.
made the cupcakes this weekend-increased the amount of strawberries a bit(we like a lot of fruit flavor). Interesting technique of cooking down the strawberries-don’t skip this step. These were excellent- especially the next day-even better! Will make these again and will try different berries.
How long would you cook the strawberries, approximately?
On a medium heat I’d say 3-5 minutes is enough time. You are just looking for them to soften and get that fragrance.
I have them in the oven now. I’m so excited to try them. They smell amazing
It’s so hard finding gluten free recipes that my whole family can enjoy, but I made these for my family yesterday morning and everyone loved them! My family had eaten all of them by the time I went for seconds, which never happens when I bake keto! I’m going to make them again today or tomorrow, and was wondering if I made a double batch if I could freeze some of the batter? These are definitely a new family favorite. Thank you!
Fruits tend to get very mushy when you freeze them. That would be my only concern. Outside of that there shouldn’t be any issues.
can I use something instead of monk fruit liquid
Concentrated stevia or you can skip it all together. It’s only to make the sweetness strong in the dessert because you can only add so much granulated sweetener.