Christmas in a cupcake! Expect these keto gingerbread cupcakes to be deeply spiced and beautifully aromatic!
Gluten Free & Keto Gingerbread Cupcakes
With Buttercream Frosting!
In my book, gingerbread anything is a must come winter! And these gluten free and keto gingerbread cupcakes fit the bill perfectly, particularly beautiful when paired with a lemon buttercream frosting.
Expect a deeply spiced and beautifully aromatic muffin (with a killer crumb!), paired with a lightly tangy and citrusy lemon buttercream. And if you’re into our cream cheese buttercream frosting or buttercream fat bombs (same difference), you already know not to skip it. Gingerbread men totally optional; but then again, highly suggested.
And just 3g net carbs a pop. Double whoop!
The Gingerbread Spices
These keto gingerbread cookies are dominantly ginger and cinnamon, with highlights of cloves and nutmeg (freshly ground preferably) and a touch of freshly ground black pepper to round everything up.
So don’t be afraid of the seemingly long list of ingredients, as most of them are spices (and salt etc).
The Buttercream Frosting
A blend of cream cheese, unsalted (grass-fed!) butter, Madagascar vanilla, and a powdered sweetener. It really is the bomb, so don’t miss out.
Plus, essentially nil carbs per frosting serving (0.20g net, if being precise).
Alternatively, feel free to add a touch of fresh ginger, lemon zest or cinnamon to spice things up a bit!
The Flours
I like a mixture of super fine almond flour and coconut flour best. Add a touch of psyllium husk and xanthan gum, and we’re golden.
And don’t skip the psyllium husk. It helps to retain moisture, create structure (i.e. it’s highly responsible for the killer crumb), and it just so happens to be a killer source of fiber (it’s responsible for 2g of fiber per muffin 💩!). Without it, your muffins will be more crumbly and they may collapse more when cooling. They will, however, taste the same.
Borrowed from molecular cooking, xanthan gum is the binding agent which makes your toothpaste jelly-like (and your cream cheese, well cream cheese-like). And it’s also the most common gluten-replacer in gluten free baking. You can (if you absolutely must), substitute in with twice the amount of ground flax seeds.
In terms of brands, for the almond either Anthony’s or WellBees work great. Both are super fine grinds. And for the coconut, we always favor Anthony’s.
The Sweetener
You’ve got good options here. Lakanto Golden (my fav here), xylitol (non-corn though to avoid tummy troubles!) and allulose (add 30% more) are my top choices (no aftertaste at all!).
Pyure (an erythritol and stevia blend) is also a good one for muffins and quick breads, particularly if you’re trying to limit your sugar alcohol consumption (it’s added stevia makes it twice as sweet as sugar… i.e. you add half!).
Oh, and if not restricted by sugars, simply sub 1-to-1 with coconut or regular sugar.
Also note that adding a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses adds that brown sugar kick (i.e. a tonne of umami and improves browning!). Keep in mind that blackstrap molasses is considered a low glycemic sugar. One teaspoon (7g) adds 5g net carbs, so just 0.4g net carbs a slice (i.e. half the sugar of a strawberry!). But carbs aside, it’s also known to be a nutritional powerhouse rich in vital vitamins and minerals; such as iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B6, and selenium.
Fun fact: Molasses contain high amounts of chromium, which has been studied to increase glucose tolerance levels.
But if it’s still not your thing, just leave it out or do a brown sugar sub (such as Lakanto Golden!)!
And if using xylitol, make sure to be careful if you have a pup (or kitty!) around the house, as it’s highly toxic to the little guys! 
Gluten Free & Keto Gingerbread Cupcakes
Oh, and if baking with cups rather than grams is your thing, just click on US Cups for an instant conversion.
Ingredients
For the keto gingerbread cupcakes
- 64 g almond flour
- 21 g coconut flour
- 1 tablespoon psyllium husk
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum or 2 teaspoons ground flaxseed
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg freshly grated
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- pinch black pepper freshly ground
- 2 eggs yolks & whites divided
- 1/3-1/2 cup golden erythritol to taste (I use 1/3 cup)
- 1-2 teaspoon blackstrap molasses totally optional
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 57 g unsalted grass-fed butter ghee, or coconut oil (melted and cooled)
- 60 ml water
For the lemon buttercream frosting
- 1/2 batch keto buttercream frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease and flour (with coconut flour) a muffin tray.
- Whisk together in a medium bowl almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium husk, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.
- Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and set aside.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat egg yolks with sweetener until pale and fluffy, 1-3 minutes.
- Incorporate molasses (optional), vinegar, and melted butter. Add flour mixture slowly, alternating with water and beating until well incorporated.
- Fold egg whites little by little and gently into batter. The dough will be thick initially, but will loosen up as you begin to incorporate the egg whites. Note that keto cake batters are more cookie dough-like than actually pourable (fret not!).
- Spoon batter onto the prepared muffin tray, evening out the top with the back of a wet spoon (or fingertips).
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes (covering with aluminum foil at 15), until deep golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before removing, and cool completely in a rack if frosting. Just note that these are best enjoyed fully cooled, once the flavors have had a chance to mingle. And are SO much better the day after, once all the spices have settled in.
- While the gingerbread cupcakes are cooling, make the lemon buttercream frosting by adding the zest of one lemon to our buttercream frosting. You can alternatively do a cinnamon frosting too! (add roughly 1 tsp cinnamon).
- Store, without the frosting, in an airtight container for up to 3 days, though I'm fairly certain they'll be long gone before then.
Notes
Nutrition
I need someone to make these (without the frosting) and the cinnamon crunch cereal, for me.
These are by far the best things I have ever eaten! I wasn’t sure about the lemon zest with the frosting, but it turned it amazingly well. My sweets loving, diet free family all loved these also. Thank you, thank you, it’s so nice to have something spectacular for the holidays, like everyone usually does. =)
This recipe looks so beautiful and yummy! But when I tried the US Cups/Metric ingredients, nothing happened. Any chance of that part being fixed please? Thanks so much! I think that little gingerbread man is adorable, and I wanted to be able to make it!
Paola,
Can we use the foil cupcake papers for these? I do not like cupcakes without a paper cup. Please advise.
The best cupcakes I’ve ever made or tasted! I did add more spices, and I used the molasses, and they were fabulous. The people at the party I took them to couldn’t believe they were keto. A winner all around! Thanks so much for your careful recipes.
These cupcakes are on my radar for Christmas. Can you say a little something about the adorable ‘cookie’ gingerbread men in your pictures? Is it the cupcake batter baked in a sheet and then cut after baking or is the batter stiff enough to spread and cut before baking or is it something else altogether? Thanks!
Just made a double batch and they are delicious. Even better the next day. Frosting is amazing. My non-keto dad loved them. Thank you for amazing recipes.
Where is the recipe for the little gingerbread men?
What can use instead of coconut flour?
Hi Paloa, thank you for sharing this tape, going to get ingredients and make asap. Do you use a pastry bag to pipe on the frosting? And when doing lemon zest how much do you think? It’s only three dark yellow part,correct?
looks delicious!
I made these tonight and they were amazing. I wasn’t sure if the spices seeing I love ginger but used some Nunaturals ginger syrup when I was mixing the eggs. I didn’t want to run the risk of making it too spicy.
I used the xanthum gum as suggested but will use golden flax next time and add ginger extract to see the consistency.
This would definitely be a great cake as others made. I tagged you on my IG stories
What can you sub for psyllium powder? I’ve googled but could I just sub 1-1 for the xanthum gum, so I would have 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon? Or is there a better option to sub out the psyllium for this recipe? Thanks in advance – I’ve been doing a lot of subbing without success and getting a little weary of wasting expensive ingredients.. 😬
Thank you!!
Oh my word, these cupcakes! I made a double batch and served them during our Xmas Eve open house and they were snarfed up by everyone. Non-keto guests were especially impressed by the decadent flavor and astonishing keto-ness of them. The crumb and flavor is just superb, and the frosting is to die for. These are staying in my yearly Xmas baking round up.
How many eggs or egg whites? its not in your recipe
I made these gingerbread cupcakes and they were perfect. I couldn’t wait and ate one after they had cooled and taste was fantastic. I didn’t make the lemon frosting instead used a dollop of whipped cream. They are in my tried and true cookbook. Thanks for sharing can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
These are truly fantastic, the best keto muffins I’ve tried to date. I didn’t frost them, so I’m calling them muffins instead of cupcakes, LOL. I increased the spices a smidge because I like flavor, left out the molasses, and used about 2.5-3 Tbsp Pyure. 18 minutes in a convection oven at 400 degrees was perfect for me. The came out light and fluffy with beautifully rounded tops.
Hi, I’m a big fan of your recipes. There’s no day that I don’t check your site!
I so appreciate that you make such a delicious keto friendly sweets!!!
Now I’m making this gingerbread cupcake and I may be crazy, but I can’t find the part where we mix egg yolk mixture and the dough no matter how many times I read the instruction😵
Is it before egg white in or after???
See step #4
I made these as a double layer cake for Christmas dinner’s dessert, and it was fantastic!! I doubled the recipe for the cupcakes, and divided into two 8-in cake pans. They came out perfect!!! I frosted with the suggested lemon buttercream frosting, and wow!! I didn’t make any modifications except a tad more ginger and cinnamon. Honestly- this recipe is truly the BEST keto cake recipe I have ever made- the texture is out of this world. It has spoiled me for any other keto cake I have made before, and I am hoping I can use this as a base for other cakes. How difficult would it be to add cocoa to make a chocolate cake? And can I simply leave out the spices for a basic white/vanilla cake? Paola- you’re unbelievable. Thank you!! 🙂
I made these as a cake for Christmas dinner, and it came out fantastic!! Soooo delicious!! I doubled the recipe and put it into two 8″ pans. The frosting recipe that is linked was perfect to frost the whole thing. I divided into 12 slices, but honestly, you could make the slices smaller (16 slices) and they would be plenty! As mentioned in other reviews, the sponge was gorgeous!! So squishy and spongy!! Probably the best textured keto cake I have ever made!!
I love the flavor of the cupcakes but I didn’t tent the aluminum enough so I lost the tops when I took it off! Next time I’ll have to take off the top shelf and tent it good! These will just need a little hiding under the frosting. Happy Holidays!!
These gingerbread cupcakes were amazing! I accidentally added the swetner (sukrin gold) to the dry ingredients so couldn’t beat it with the egg yolks as per the recipe instructions. So I thought I’d just add everything together in the one bowl, mix together and hope for the best. The cupcakes came out more like a muffin consistency – still delicious but I imagine they would have been fluffier if I’d followed the instructions to beat the yolks etc and egg white separately.
I made the butter ceam with the butter and cream cheese with powdered Natvia (pink pk). I flavoired it with powdered cinnamon and ginger. End result tasted like ginger kisses. Heavenly !!
Thank you for a great recipe!!!
P.S. I added extra spice to the batter also (used powdered cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until batter was to my level of spice). Usually., I would have looked at a recipe like this with so many steps and passed BUT, because a friend made your choc cupcakes (that tasted even better than non keto versions) I knew these were worth a try! Will be making again for Christmas!
Should the psyllium husk be whole or powdered?
Powdered xo!
Can these be made as mini cup cakes? What would baking time be?
Haven’t finished reading ALL the comments from last year yet or gotten onto 2019 to see if You got an answer at all… but that is my question this year! Did You get an answer or did You figure out what the time is for the mini muffins? I want to make them for a holiday gathering and can’t afford to make the larger muffins for so many. Any help would be appreciated. TY in advance for Your time and consideration.
These are crazy good…. I did bump up the spices as previous commenters mentioned… very moist…so so good…thanks for the recipe… my holiday go to muffin
I don’t have a scale. What are the measurements?
please click on US Cups below the ingredients 😉
These are probably the best cupcakes I’ve ever made. They are very tasty and the texture is just perfect. I was wondering if we could use the same recipe without the spices to make plain vanilla cupcakes or even just a vanilla cake?
Just made these, the crumb is amazing and so satisfying! Thanks for the recipe, you nailed it.
That’s awesome to hear Penny!! And thanks so much for reporting back 🙂 xo!
These cupcakes sound so good and festive, love the combination of the 2 flour that you used in this recipe, I gotta give these a try!
me
Made these cupcakes today and they are AWESOME. I made the following changes, though: doubled the recipe (because who makes 6 muffins?); added 1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder; tripled the spices (i.e., instead of 1/2 tsp, I used 1-1/2 tsp) because I like spic; I used flaxseed instead of xanthan gum(because that’s what I had); skipped the frosting. Absolutely delicious.
Terri thank you so much for getting back (also with your modifications, super helpful!). So glad you enjoyed them!
And THANK YOU for sharing 😉 just saw your post! Means a lot! xo Paola
I made these as well and they’re probably the nicest keto muffins I’ve baked thus far. They really do have a wonderful spongy texture!! And don’t even get me started on the frosting….! My kids were literally fighting to lick the bowl!