Strawberry Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

These keto and gluten-free strawberry cupcakes are super moist and fluffy, made with coconut flour and pea protein and topped with a light and tangy strawberry cream cheese frosting.

This summer strawberry cupcake recipe makes unbelievably decadent cupcakes with an insane amount of frosting, each with only 3.5 net carbs – and just 275 calories a pop!

Keto strawberry cupcake ingredients

This low-carb strawberry cupcake recipe is light and easy, perfect for summer! It’s made with only natural ingredients, with all the fruity flavor and pretty pink color coming from the fresh strawberries.

They are sugar-free, made with natural sweeteners and high in protein, thanks to the pea protein isolate: each cupcake has 10 grams of protein!

These are the ingredients you’ll need:

• Strawberries: you can use either fresh or frozen
• Unflavored pea protein isolate & coconut flour: a low-carb and gluten-free flour combination to make the best keto cupcakes
• Baking powder, baking soda & ACV: combined they provide maximum leavening, to lighten up the strawberry cupcake batter
• Xanthan gum: Acts as a gluten substitute for fluffier cupcakes
• Eggs: to foam the eggs, fresh eggs are best
• Powdered keto sweetener: Any natural keto sweetener, like erythritol or allulose, powdered for better mixing.
• Unsalted grass fed butter
• Organic vanilla extract
• Heavy whipping cream, cream cheese & sour cream: for the keto strawberry frosting!

Are strawberries keto? How many carbs in strawberries?

Strawberries are one of the few keto friendly fruits. They have a low amount of sugar, and plenty of water content. As per the USDA,100 grams of raw strawberries contain just 5.7 net carbs! That is 8.5 net carbs per cup.

It’s lucky that I absolutely love strawberries, because there aren’t that many fruits that are keto friendly. And strawberries are great in so many keto recipes!

These keto strawberry sandwich cookies are vanilla flavored with a delicious strawberry cream filling. For a high protein breakfast or post-workout, you’ll love my strawberry chia protein pudding. And this sugar-free berry jam can be made with any berries, including strawberries, of course!

How to make keto strawberry cupcakes

Strawberry reduction instructions

It’s very simple to make a strawberry reduction to add delicious natural flavor and gorgeous color to your keto cupcakes!

You’ll just need to simmer pureed strawberries to evaporate most of the liquid, which will concentrate the strawberry flavor.

If using fresh strawberries, remove the green caps first and rinse them well. Frozen strawberries need to be fully defrosted so that they are easier to process.

You can use a blender or immersion/stick blender. I pureed the strawberries with an immersion blender directly inside the pan I was going to use for simmering them. That just makes for an easier clean up.

Put the pan on high heat to bring the strawberry puree to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer.

Stir occasionally until the strawberry sauce is reduced to half of the initial amount and thickened up – it will take about 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your pan (a wider pan allows for faster evaporation).

Let it cool while you proceed with making the keto cupcakes.

Keto strawberry cupcakes step by step

Here are the easy to follow step by step photo instructions to make the fantastic LikeHotKeto strawberry cupcakes:

Start by sifting the dry ingredients (except for the sweetener) for the keto strawberry cupcakes together into a separate bowl: coconut flour, unflavored pea protein isolate, baking powder, baking soda and xanthan gum.

This step will remove any lumps and fluff up the ingredients, specially the pea protein that’s usually all clumped together. This will help the cupcakes get fluffier.

Then, crack all the eggs into your standing mixer bowl (or into a larger bowl if using an electric mixer). Add the powdered keto sweetener and whisk on high speed until the mixture is until tripled in volume, pale and thick.

It will take from 3 to 5 minutes with a standing mixer, a little longer with an electric mixer.

Warm up the butter in the microwave just until melted (do not make it too hot). Add the melted butter, ACV and pure vanilla extract to the foamed eggs and mix to combine.

Then, add the sifted dry ingredients, half at a time, mixing well until fully combined. You can still use the whisker attachment here (no need to switch to paddle), as the batter is really soft.

Add all of the strawberry reduction, except for 3 tablespoons that will be added to the strawberry cream cheese frosting later.

Mix until the batter is uniform in color, with no red strawberry sauce streaks left.

Divide the batter into 12 cupcake liners. Fill each liner about 3/4th of the way up, or a little over it. Bake the low-carb strawberry cupcakes in the oven fully preheated to 180 °C (355 °F) for 20 to 22 minutes.

Let the keto cupcakes fully cool down before adding the frosting.

How to make sugar-free strawberry cream cheese frosting

This sugar-free and low-carb strawberry cream cheese frosting is deliciously creamy, very light (when compared to buttercream frosting) and not too sweet. It’s also much easier to make!

You’ll need 2 bowls: one to whip the heavy cream, and another to whip the cream cheese, sour cream and strawberry sauce.

Starting with cold heavy whipping cream and cream cheese will make beating them to stiff peaks faster. Stiff or firm peaks is when the points stand straight up and don’t curl.

To make the keto strawberry cream cheese frosting, start by whipping the heavy whipping cream into stiff/firm peaks. Set aside.

Then, in a separate bowl, whip together the cream cheese and powdered sweetener to stiff peaks.

Add the sour cream for a touch of extra tangy taste and the reserved strawberry reduction, which will add both delicious fruity flavor and natural pink color. Mix until the color is uniform.

Lastly, fold in the whipped cream. I like to start with a spatula, and finish up whisking on low speed until it’s fully combined. The frosting is easy to pipe. But it’s light and soft, so it’s not suitable for detailed work like buttercream.

Spoon the sugar-free strawberry cream cheese frosting in a large piping bag and refrigerate until it’s time to frost the keto strawberry cupcakes.

Storage and freezing

The keto strawberry cupcakes, while unfrosted, can be kept outside the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. They will keep well refrigerated for up to one week, and in the freezer for up to 3 months.

With the frosting, these cupcakes need to be kept refrigerated because of the dairy ingredients. You can leave the cupcakes outside the fridge for up to two hours. In a hot and humid day, the frosting will soften up and might start melting into the cupcakes.

I do not recommend freezing the strawberry cream cheese frosting or the frosted cupcakes. Because the frosting is light and airy and with a very high water content, the texture won’t be as good after thawing as it is fresh.

More delicious keto cake recipes

Happiness is: Indulging in cake while staying on track with your health and fitness goals.

I love eating my low-carb, gluten-free and high protein cakes that are super nutritious and actually good for me, instead of eating “the regular stuff” and feeling bad afterwards.

If you liked these keto strawberry cupcakes, check out my other cake recipes:

This upside down orange cake with olive oil used to be my all time favorite (I even asked Daniel to bake it for my birthday), until it was dethroned by The Best Keto Carrot Cake (yes, self proclaimed and deserving of title case!)

If you prefer chocolate, I suggest you try these chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. A delicious high protein cupcake recipe with lupin flour and whey protein!

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