Let the Love Affair Begin

So I did it... I made a gluten free cupcake! Todays recipe was made to the soundtrack of my Monster 80's power ballad playlist on the Ihome. And it was pretty good. I will share the recipe with you now. This recipe comes from a few places in order to make it free of dairy and refined sugars as well. But the bulk of it comes from 1000 Gluten-Free Recipes by Carol Fenster. This is slowly becoming one of my favorite cookbooks. Ok here it is:

Dairy-free Buttermilk:
Add 1 tbsp cider vinegar to a one-cup measuring cup.
Fill the rest with soy milk.
Let sit for 10 minutes to thicken.
Any extra will store in airtight container for 7-10 days.

Yellow Cupcakes:
1 Stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature. ( I used earth balance butter)
.. you can also use 1/3 Cup canola oil
3/4 cup of evaporated cane juice sugar
2 Large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 C. Carol's sorghum blend (1 1/2 cups of sorghum, 1 1/2 cup of potato starch, 1 cup of tapioca flour)
1 tsp xanthum gum
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 Cup of buttermilk (or soy mixture from above)
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

I forgot I didn't have a cupcake pan.. but I did have some star pans so they worked.
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees with rack in the middle of the oven.
Generously grease muffin pan or spray cups with nonstick spray. ( I used spectrum vegetable shortening, its made of palm oil.)

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium until smooth. Add sugar and beat until smooth. Add in eggs one at a time beating in between.

3. In a separate bowl, sift the sorghum blend, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and xanthum gum

4. In a measuring cup or bowl, whisk together vanilla and almond extract with buttermilk.

5. Add dry powders, and buttermilk mixture to the butter, sugar, and egg mixture. Alternating the two, but start and end with sorghum mixture. Beat on low. Pour into muffin cups evenly.

6. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center of cupcake comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack and let them cool completely.


ok so onto the frosting....

First off I made my own confectioners sugar... It is super easy. My disclaimer is that I am not 100% satisfied with this frosting. The flavor was good... but I need to perfect my confectioners sugar.. it just wasn't fine enough but here is what I did...

The Frosting recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar so...

Add 2 1/2 cups of evaporated cane juice and 4 tbsp of Potato starch to a food processor... and let it go into a fine powder. And there you have it.


I wanted pink frosting. I didn't have any beets, which may have worked best, so I threw a few strawberrys and raspberries and a half a cup of pomegranate juice into a pot on medium low heat and let it reduce down. I put it in a mesh sieve and let the remaining juices cool in the fridge. It came to about 2 tablespoons.


Buttercream Frosting Recipe

1/3 cup spectrum vegetable shortening
1/4 cup (1 stick) earth balance butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons coconut milk ( or soy or rice or almond milk)
2 tablespoon of strawberry raspberry puree

Mix it all together at medium speed... let it whip for a while... it wasn't quite as fluffy as I was hoping for but I will perfect it.


So there you have it... Stars are a little harder to frost but the fruit on top was a good replacement for sprinkles. My nephews and niece loved them. The were moist and not nearly as crumbly as normal cupcakes... and they weren't as sweet either. I really liked them .

So I recommend trying it... just make sure you have some time set aside. Have fun!