Have I got a treat for you today! Chocolatey cupcakes with sweet, satisfying, crunchy surprises inside.
Flourless chocolate pistachio cupcakes; perfect on their own for a snack, or garnished with an icing of your choice. And the best part is, the recipe for these cupcakes is flourless, gluten-free and dairy free! {The icing is not, but the great part is that these taste amazing without the icing – I just felt like decorating cupcakes for a back to school theme, and just maaaaybe wanted to tie in the apple theme with what (or who ;-)) I’ll be sharing with you. More on that in a bit}.
It may come as a surprise that someone with a blog named, Sweetopia, be concerned about such things, but the truth is, although I do like love my sweets, for the most part I try to eat well, and if a dessert I find, like this one, is pleasing to my palate and healthy, I’m thrilled about the discovery. And I hope you will be too.
My beautiful friend, Amie of The Healthy Apple, is the creator behind the delectable flourless chocolate cake recipe, which you can find here, and you’ll want to check out her impressive array of other scrumptious, clean eating recipes. Chock full of vibrant, inspiring ideas, you’ll find everything from gluten-free snacks, to healthy dessert options, helpful hints for smart food shopping, and so, so much more.
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Back to School Apple Themed Cupcakes
For a fun, back to school theme, garnish these cupcakes, either with or without icing, with a little marzipan apple. So easy to make; I just colored and rolled some marzipan into a ball, dusted it with some red petal dust, made a hole with a toothpick and inserted a small brown, marzipan stem. For a little added glitz, dip the stems in brown disco dust.
I couldn’t help but think about one of my favorite books, Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, while I was making them, and The TomKat Studios’s sweet, green, polka dot cupcake liners matched perfectly too. Kim’s also got simply adorable Back to School Printables I was looking forward to using.
Hope you enjoy some back to school baking fun!
xo,
Marian
Janine (sugarkissed.net) says
I’m really excited to here about Aime’s blog. I love my sweets too but try to balance it by eating healthy most of the time. I have been derailed a lot lately so I’m on my way to check out The Healthy Apple!
P.S. Super cute marzipan apples!
Aikko says
Oh goodie! These cupcakes look lovely and healthy, too! Will check out Aime’s blog. Thanks Marian! 🙂
niner bakes // sweet treats says
I love these!!
I am sure they taste heavenly, Marian.
Thanks so much for sharing, I love your posts, especially on Mondays!! 🙂
xoxo to you my friend 🙂
niner
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar says
So fun! These are adorable!
Judi Taylor says
These are adorable. Would you be willing to share what frosting you used? The frosting looks heavenly. Thanks.
Maria says
Perfect treat for back to school time!
JulieD says
Which icing recipe did you use? I love that it looks so creamy!! Your cupcakes as always look so beautiful!
And I love great tasting healthy desserts!
Paula says
Hard to believe that the summer is almost over and all the kids will be back to class soon. These cupcakes will go a long way to ease the transition for them I’m sure!
victoria says
Hi Mariam!!!!!! beautiful cupcakes, cute tiny apple!!!!!!!!
Rowaida Flayhan says
Beautiful love
sue @ Cakeballs, cookies and more says
I saw you shared this on another blog but wanted to say how excited I was because I am looking for something gluten free to make for a wedding and this is perfect!
Maria Theresia says
cute idee again! gluten free recipe is good to have.
I love your blog.
ML
Amanda @ Bluebirdcakes says
Where did you find the adorable polka-dot cups? I have been searching for them everywhere.
Amanda @ Bluebirdcakes says
@ Amanda @ Bluebirdcakes: maybe I should have looked at the text more closely (tee hee)
Marian (Sweetopia) says
@ Amanda @ Bluebirdcakes: 😉 No worries! I’ve done the same thing before.
Thanks everyone for the comments!
Samantha Lee says
What a great recipe for me to try. Pistachio+Chocolate=Heavenly!!! So cute with the cutie apple on the frosting…Yummy to the max! I will finish them up before my kids getto try 😛
carrian says
These are so stinking cute!
marian says
Sweet thanks, @ carrian and @ Samantha Lee 🙂
Jen @ Savory Simple says
These are all so gorgeous! I love anything with pistachio.
The Ninja Baker says
Sooo cute, Marian. Thank you for letting us know where you got your perfectly theme-matched polka dot cupcake cases.
Kyoungmi says
They look minimalistic gorgeous and delicious! Yumm!
Sarah says
What? Chocolate AND pistachio? Fantastic as usual! I love your blog and have followed it and envied your creativity for quite some time. I’ve awarded you the One Lovely Blog & Very Inspiring Blogger Award! You can find out all about it by clicking here (http://www.zoeslunchbox.com/2012/09/one-lovely-blog-very-inspiring-blogger.html). You’re under no obligation to accept it, I just wanted to recognize you 🙂 Thanks for all the wonderful blogging!
marian says
Thanks for the comments everyone!
@ Sarah: You made me smile, thank you for the lovely blog award. xo
Sara says
Sounds delicious, I love pistachios! Although I find it a bit odd to have “Back to School” cupcakes with pistachios in them – at least around here, nuts are not allowed at school! 🙂
archive.org says
Neat blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A design like yours with a few simple tweeks would really
make my blog jump out. Please let me know where you got your theme.
Thank you