Would it be a surprise to you if I told you I was really excited to post about this recipe? I am sure you are stunned that I could hardly wait to post about a cupcake that is made with beans? What kind of a cook have I turned into? I think I am officially one of those ‘crazy’ food storage ladies! I know there will be those of you that read this recipe and think to yourself, ‘alright..she has gone a little too far’ Well, that may be the case, but you will just have to put this recipe to the test before you place your judgment. I hope I haven’t let you down thus far, so you should be able to trust me 🙂 These cupcakes were everything I had hoped they would be–chocolaty, moist, soft, high in fiber, and healthier than the average cupcake (NO oil–that’s awesome!).
So, onto my recipe for these Black Bean Chocolate Cupcakes. Now, the original recipe I found said that all you need is one can of black beans and one chocolate cake mix. I have yet to try just these two items (why settle for anything but the best), so my version is a little less food storage friendly, but much better tasting I am sure. (If any of you have tried the 2 ingredient chocolate cake, let me know how it turns out).
I decided to soop up my cupcakes a little bit with a few additional ingredients. This will now be my go-to recipe when using a boxed cake mix–delicious! (My husband even said..’Wow! I think this is the best cupcake I have ever had’–now..that could be because they were peanut butter and chocolate, but either way..he was naive to the fact they were made with beans 🙂
One added benefit to making these cupcakes with beans is they turned out so pretty and tall. They were by far the prettiest cupcake I have ever baked–sometimes my cupcakes tend to be a little flat 🙁 One more reason to bake with beans. (I am thinking next time I will experiment with white beans in a yellow or white cake mix and then pinto beans in a carrot or spice cake–I will let you know how they turn out)


- 1 box Devil's Food Cake or Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
- 1 can black beans
- 2/3 c. sour cream
- 3 eggs
- 1 small chocolate instant pudding mix
- Drain the can of black beans and then refill to the top with water. Put beans and water in a food processor or blender and blend until completely smooth. Pour the cake mix into a large bowl and add the pureed beans. Add the sour cream, eggs and dry pudding mix to the cake mix and stir until smooth. Grease 18 muffin tins (or use muffin wrappers) and fill with the cake batter. Bake at 350 for 10-13 minutes, or until cooked through (don't over cook or they will dry out--who likes dry cake? Ugh!). Remove from the oven and let cool until ready to frost.


- 1/2 c. chunky or creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cube butter, softened
- 1/4-1/3 c. milk
- 1 t. vanilla
- 1/3-1/2 c. cocoa powder (or more if you like it really dark chocolate)
- 3-4 c. powdered sugar (enough to make the frosting thick, but not too thick you can't frost)
- Cream the peanut butter and butter together until smooth. Add the cocoa powder and whip. Add the milk and vanilla and whip until smooth. Add enough powdered sugar to make your frosting light, fluffy and thick enough you can frost a cupcake with it. Frost cooled cupcakes. Top with broken up pieces of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups or other candy bar of your choice.
MMMMMM MMMMMM Very tasty food I really like it. I will tast it but and try to my home base.
thanks for the nice post.
Oh very sweet and tasty food I like this food can thanks for the nice idea and instruction I love more than.
Yummy!! Really Lovely and cool its chocolate, My favorite food Chocolateeee. so friends say chocolate boy me.its chocolate very very testy and great idea . so thanks
Oh, looks so good! I'm trying it today:).
A question about the beans and water: Do you use a full can of water, or just replace the bean juice with water so that the can is full of both the beans, and the water? I hope that makes sense.
Sorry I didn't make that more clear. Just drain out as much of the slimey can bean juice as you can and then with the beans still in the can, fill it up to the top.
*I just had a leftover half of a cupcake for breakfast today–delicious! One tip..DON'T over bake these. I think I might have cooked mine a minute or two long. The more underdone they are (not gooey obviously, just soft), I think the better they will be 😉 I will try and get an exact amount of time when I make these again Thursday for my beans/food storage class.
Thanks!
I for sure was one of those that thought you may have gone to far, but then I LOVE everything I try. My Husband said what will you do if she does not do it anymore, my response was she better never stop then!Thanks so much you have helped our family through a very difficult year!
could you add nutritional analysis to your recipes? That would really be helpful
I am sorry…I am trying to use the contact link but I do not have outlook set up on my computer and have no way to email. I had to cancel my subscription (I loved the product but needed to unsubscribe for a bit) but I am still getting billed through paypal. I have tried twice to cancel whatever payments are going through but without luck. I thought it would have been canceled on your end when I canceled my membership. My email is danielletaylor.porter@gmail if you could let me know. I unsubscribed end of January and still had a billing go through end of Feb though I hadn't been using the service and no longer had access. I am sorry to bug you this way, but I figured you could just get the info and delete the comment. Please let me know- thanks!! Danielle
Oh..how I wish I had time for that! Perhaps someday when my kids are grown up and don't moan at me every time I open my laptop, that may be an option. For now however, I think you may want to find one of those free sites that you can enter in the ingredients and the amounts and it will tell you what the nutritional information is for them.
Personally..sometimes I would rather not know 🙂
LOVED these! mM kids did not even know there was beans in these! The frosting was to die for! Thanks so much!
I echo the Franc Family, We loved these and no one knew the secret ingredient!!! Don't know if I want to tell them…Don't want them asking in the future! What they don't know won't hurt them! 🙂
The frosting was oh so hard not to just eat it right out of the bowl!! My son wants to try it on brownies!! Way Yummo!!!!
I know, it's amazing how good they are without using oil!
I have been doing calculations and realized that a regular cake mix made with 1/2 c. of oil has 88 grams of fat (ahhh!) I eat cake like it's going out of style–not good for me! However…when you make these cupcakes with one can of black beans and fat free sour cream, you will only be eating ONE gram of fat if you ate the entire cake! Isn't that awesome? Such a simple change can make such a big difference. Love it!!!
Tried these and they were delicious…can't taste the beans, looked pretty, and I loved that it was not an overly sweet cake (without the frosting) which is how my family ate most of them!
John LOVED them!! I loved the no oil…
I haven't tried the cupcakes yet, but the frosting is just amazing, I could eat it like pudding… mmmmh… Thank you for this recipe!
Oh good, I'm glad you loved the frosting. Me too! Thanks for your comment 😉