These spooky gluten free Halloween eyeball chocolate cupcakes have their “eye” on you! Don’t be too freaked out to eat them though, they’re actually healthy!
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Earlier this month I shared a recipe for spooky spiders, along with a photo from our last year’s Halloween party. In the photo there were some eyeball cupcakes that I had made. They were a basic cupcake with an apple jelly filling I had died green to mimic slime. This year I wanted to recreate those same eyeball cupcakes, but in a healthier way.
Raise your hand if you’ve bought your Halloween candy already. Also raise your hand if you’ve already eaten half of said Halloween candy. ?? You think you’re getting ahead of the game by buying Halloween candy early, only to realize you’ve eaten half {okay, almost all} of it before it even makes it out the door.
I usually fall into the “I’m going to wait until the last minute to buy candy so I don’t eat it all” camp. But this year I was buying candies to incorporate into some fun treats for all of you. Of course I had extras of many of those ingredients which had to be shoved in the closet so that I wouldn’t be tempted. I did however catch Burken {my husband} opening that closet door much more than usual to sneak a few Snickers.
Something had to be done to bring me out of my sugar coma. Enter these healthy, gluten free eyeball chocolate cupcakes. You can totally pass these off on your party guests as an indulgent treat and they won’t know the difference.
Lately I’ve been experimenting with alternative flours. I’m not gluten free, nor do I have Celiac disease, but I enjoy finding ways to incorporate gluten free flours into baked goods that actually taste like the real deal. For these cupcakes I decided to try out garbanzo bean flour
. You can find this in the health foods/gluten free section of your grocer, or order online. And because I love baking with chickpeas, I thought it would be fun to try out the flour.
I added in pumpkin puree for moisture and because it’s low in calories and is high in fiber and iron. Next was peanut butter {which you can’t actually taste in the cupcake itself} for both protein and the healthy fat to mimic the usual butter.
Pure maple syrup
{the BEST deal I’ve found online} and natural sugar add just the right amount of sweetness without going overboard. Then the final touches of the cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips.
I won’t lie to you, these cupcakes don’t exactly bake up like traditional fluffy, round top cupcakes. Instead they have peaks and valleys and turn out dense and chocolate-y, just the way they should be. Plus once they’re frosted you can’t even really tell the difference.
For the frosting, mix together PB2, which is a powdered peanut butter and tastes just like the real thing. But it has fewer calories. I also use this awesome organic powdered sugar
. Once it’s all mixed together it becomes smooth and the perfect topping for your healthy chocolate cupcakes.
Now for the fun part, decorating! Push a candy eyeball into the center of the frosting. Then using a colored gel pen {I had blue on hand}, make a ring around the candy eyeball. With a red gel pen make squiggly lines to make it look like a bloodshot eyeball.
How easy was that?! Take these spooky eyeballs to your Halloween party and watch everyone clamor for seconds, or maybe even thirds.
Did you make these watchful Halloween eyeball chocolate cupcakes? I want to see your photos! Make sure to #ionlycameforthecake on Insta.
- 2 cups coconut or garbanzo flour
- 2 tsp. xanthan gum
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 15 oz can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup natural sugar
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 cup natural peanut butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1 10 oz bag dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup PB2 {powdered peanut butter}
- 3 cups organic powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- Red gel pen
- Blue gel pen
- Candy eyeballs
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Preheat oven to 350 and line two (12 cup) muffin tins with cupcake liners.
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In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder.
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In a large bowl combine the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, natural sugar, coconut oil, vanilla and eggs until smooth.
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Add half of the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add half the milk and repeat with flour and milk.
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Spoon the mixture among the prepared muffin tins and bake for 20-22 minutes. Remove and let cool.
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Make the frosting by stirring together the PB2, powdered sugar and milk. Frost the cupcakes.
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Place a candy eyeball in the center of each cupcake and draw a blue circle around the eyeball.
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Make squiggly red lines to the outer edge of the cupcake with red gel coloring to look like a bloodshot eye.
