Chocolate Apple Cupcakes filled with Almond Butter for Valentines

We hit the jackpot with this recipe! These cupcakes are healthy and delicious at the same time. They are healthy enough to have for breakfast but can also be served as a dessert. We loved them when we bit into them. They tasted sooo good! These would be great for Valentines Day to keep it healthy or for any day of the year. You can fill the almond butter as deep as you want.

If you don't want to go to the effort to make them so cute, just frost the whole top with the almond butter icing, place a paper template of a heart on the cupcake, dust with powdered sugar on the remaining cupcake, and then remove the paper. I think they could be just as cute!

They can be made gluten free, if you prefer, or using whole grains. They use no butter, no white sugar (except for the dusting of powdered sugar), are egg free, and yet are incredibly moist! You will love them!

Ingredients
2 C gluten free flour or 1 3/4 C spelt, kamut or wheat and 1/4 C quinoa flour
1/4 cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 C grape seed oil
1/2 C honey
2 T plain Greek yogurt
3/4 C almond milk
1/4 C water
1 apple, grated

Filling
1 C almond butter
2 T honey
1 tsp vanilla

cupcake liners (found these cute ones at Walmart)
powdered sugar to sift on top
heart cut out of paper

Directions (makes 12)
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl pour in flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir with a wire whisk until all combined.
2. In a separate bowl pour oil, honey, yogurt, milk and water. Blend with a wire whisk for a couple of minutes. 
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid mixture. Stir until just combined.
4. Fold in the grated apples until all combined.
5. Place cupcake liners in the muffin pan. Pour evenly among the cups.
6. Bake about 18 minutes or until cooked all the way through. Cool on a wire rack.

Don't the cupcake liners look so cute?!

7. In a small bowl combine almond butter, honey and vanilla until all combined and nice and smooth.
8. Sift powdered sugar on the cupcakes.
9. Place small paper heart on top of each cupcake and cut around it into the cupcake as deep as you want the filling. We did about 1 inch down.

cutting out the shape using the paper heart as a template

10. Scoop filling into a plastic sandwich bag. Seal shut, releasing the air first. Cut a small piece off of one corner of the bag.

squeezing in the icing from the plastic bag

See the cute little heart?

11. Squeeze the filling into the heart. You can get a butter knife and smooth over the top. I dipped my finger in a little water to make it all smooth. Enjoy! You will want to serve these soon after making them, because otherwise the powdered sugar will be absorbed into the cupcake because it is so moist.

So pretty! Dig in! They taste as good as they look!