Air Fryer Chocolate Orange Cupcakes
Delicious, moist, & gluten free, these Air Fryer Chocolate Orange Cupcakes are a treat for when those chocolate cravings hit, and you don’t want to fire up your oven! Talk about quick and easy.
One of my favorite kitchen gadgets is my air fryer. It has given me this decadent, mini, Cheesecake, these tasty chicken tenders, these crispy okra and this droolicious salmon!
Right now, I am still in the honeymoon stage of my love affair with it! Which means that no matter how many chocolate cake recipes it ruins, I will keep on air frying! I’m not gonna lie, there have been many, too many air fryer chocolate cakes that were only fit for the inside of my garbage can.
There were times when an air fryer chocolate cake baked up as solid as a hockey puck! And other times, like when I tried to air-fry my favorite, gluten free chocolate cake recipe. I have oven baked this chocolate cake so many times. Well, I figured I would doctor it up some by adding orange peel to it and air fry it.
And, whoa, what an EPIC FAIL that first attempt was.
This cake just would not solidify in the air fryer – not even after 40 minutes (twice the time it should have taken) at which point the outside was turning into charcoal!
So, I tried and tried and failed and failed… gah, I feel salty tears welling up at the thought of all the good chocolate I had to throw away!
But, along the way, I managed to come up with these tasty, gluten free, Air Fryer Chocolate Orange Cupcakes that were tenderly moist in the middle and had such an intoxicatingly tantalizing chocolate-orange flavor and aroma!
While I haven’t managed to successfully air fry a whole gluten free chocolate cake yet, I figured that I could at least try to air fry some gluten free Chocolate Orange Cupcakes by using silicone muffin/cupcake molds.
How I Made These Air Fryer Chocolate Orange Cupcakes
After many tries, what seemed to work was “tenting” the silicon molds (after the batter had been spooned into them) with aluminum foil for the first part of their air-frying time.
Then, I would take the silicon molds out of the air fryer carefully and wrap the aluminum foil around them for the rest of their air-frying time. This seemed to keep them from burning or overcooking on the outside and being uncooked in the middle.
When the cupcakes were done, I let them sit in the foil for about 10-15 minutes. Then, I removed the foil and placed them on a cooling rack to cool them completely before frosting them and enjoying them
These Air Fryer Chocolate Orange Cupcakes are made with 7 ingredients:
- Good Quality Chocolate
- Coconut Oil
- Almond Flour
- Brown Sugar
- Orange Zest
- Vanilla, and
- An Egg!
These Air Fryer Chocolate Orange Cupcakes are perfect for those times a chocolate craving hits and you don’t want to fire up your oven. And, if you are like me and only have 4 silicone molds, then, they are perfect for portion control as well 😉
Ingredients
- 6 ounces Chocolate (good quality) chopped
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Oil
- 1/8 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 cup Almond Flour
- 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Orange Zest
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 Egg
Instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 320°F.
- Meanwhile, melt coconut oil and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and mix together with a whisk.
- Add in the orange zest and vanilla and whisk too.
- Then (make sure the chocolate-oil mixture isn’t too hot before) adding in the egg and whisk well.
- Add in the almond flour, brown sugar and salt and whisk well.
- Spoon into silicone molds and place molds in your air fryer.
- Tear/cut large pieces of foil and gently, but firmly tent the foil over the top of the molds.
- Air fry cupcakes at 320°F for 7 minutes.
- Stop, carefully remove silicone molds out of air fryer, spread out aluminum foil tents and wrap around the molds to make a package (as seen in the photo). Place aluminum foil wrapped silicone molds back into the air fryer and air fry cupcakes at 300°F for 7 more minutes.
- Remove from air fryer and let sit about 10-15 minutes in packages. Then remove and let cool. Frost with your favorite frosting and enjoy!
Nutrition
These Gluten Free Air Fryer Chocolate Orange Cupcakes first appeared on Food Fanatic. Please do check out Food Fanatic if you are looking for recipe ideas and inspiration.
Really fun recipe! I’ve never had cupcakes made in an air fyer. Very creative — thanks.
Boy, you can really do all sorts of things in these air fryers! These cupcakes would be gone in a heartbeat in my house!
I love the combination of orange and chocolate! I can’t believe these were made in the air fryer!
I don’t have an AirFryer and had no idea you could make a cake in it. Your cupcakes look super moist and that icing is drool worthy.
Yum!! Adding this to my must make for as soon as I get an air fryer!! I love the Orange with the chocolate.
Oh man these looks SO good. That frosting is unreal
They turned out very beautiful!
You get an A+ for determination here, Shashi! I might’ve given up after that chocolate cake went kaput. But going with cupcakes and wrapping them with foil makes perfect sense. I’m still in awe that you’ve managed to bake cakes (err, cupcakes) in an air fryer. I love experimenting like this…even if it means some fails along the way. I’m working on a Southern tea cake recipe right now, and I think I’m about to start on round 5. I might get there one day. (Key word: might.) 🙂
I love the chocolate-orange flavor here! Speaking of fruit in chocolate, have you tried chocolate-pineapple? Lindt makes a chocolate pineapple bar (The pineapple must be dried…), and it’s amazing! Either way, I hope you and Lil S are having a great week so far!
They look sooooo chocolatey and decadent! I’m so glad you weren’t defeated after all those flops–the things we’ll do for the perfect cake right? Hope you’re having a great week, Shashi!
Oh, the love affair of a new kitchen appliance…I totally know what ya mean. I don’t yet have an Air Fryer, but it sounds like one amazing unit! And cupcakes in it? That’s pretty cool! LOVE chocolate + orange together so these are totally calling my name. And your piping is perfect! Wish I could grab one (or 3). Hope your week is going great, Shashi! XOXO
You go girl!! Making cupcakes in the airfryer. that took some serious recipe testing. Loving the frosting to deliciously moist cupcake ratio. Bet these won’t last long.
Very interesting. I’ll bet they have a great texture. I love the combination of almond flour and chocolate.
Great looking chocolate cupcakes and made in an air-fryer. Wow, now you have me interested in an air-fryer. Don’t you love it when after a kitchen fail (or three) you make it work?
Surely some of those air fryer chocolate cakes that have gone into your garbage can could have been saved? I’m sure I could have made use of them. Or at least my tummy could have. Ha ha! Well there’s certainly nothing wrong with these air fryer chocolate orange cupcakes. What I would do to get my hands on one of these beauties!
Cupcakes in air fryer sure sound like fun. I am glad you cut that cupcake, to let us have a peek inside. That texture and those flavors are making me crave them
That’s creative and fun recipe to try!
Can you make this without the air fryer baking pan? Is tenting the cupcakes enough?
Hi Brittany – yes, you can just bake this without the air fryer baking pan – I did;t use the air fryer baking pan for these cupcakes – just added them to silicon molds and placed those into the air fryer.