Artisanal Gluten-Free Cupcakes

I have mentioned several times that I am now making cupcakes out of a new book.  I am not altering the recipes and I will not be placing the recipes online. 

I love this book and highly recommend it for a gluten free household!  The recipes all utilize a gluten free flour combination of brown rice flour, sorghum flour, corn starch, potato starch, potato flour and xanthan gum.  I find that the cook times accurate (something that is hard to find in gluten free recipes).  The recipes are well organized, easy to follow, and relatively fast to make.

This weekend I made the vanilla with chocolate frosting cupcake. (Page 45).  My family loved the vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting.  It is one of the more standard cupcakes we have made.  By standard I mean no fillings, no candy ingredients, no fruit, no cookies or fancy frosting.  Of course, sometimes simplicity can be simply understated.  My family ate all 24-30 cupcakes over last night and this morning (I would know the exact number, except they kept disappearing as I made them).  Ramona wants her birthday cake made from this cake and frosting recipe.  My man actually asked me to make more (a high compliment from him).

On a Maffeoberry scale this book gets 5 out of 5 maffeoberries. 

Happy Saturday Morning!

Heartland Gourmet Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes

There are so many aspects of the gluten free lifestyle that are hard, but nothing compares to the complete isolation from the more broad food community.  I was reminded of this today when a man from my high school posted a highly gluten offensive snack on his facebook page - a snack we all ate during our morning recess.  A bun, stuffed with cheese and sausage.  A memory provoking snack for all high schoolers from our community, but also a painful reminder for some of us, that we are no longer able to eat the same treats as we did from our youth.  Within seconds he had many likes from former classmates and comments, all ecstatic to see a treat that propelled them into their youth.

It is time likes these I want to be careful to act with the grace I expect my daughters to use.  I know for the rest of the high school community this a great memory; therefore, I want them to enjoy the memory.  Yet, I need to take care of myself and my other gluten free community members struggling with the diet.  I walk to my pantry and find a snack that is gluten free, one I am building new memories with, one I can indulge in with my gluten free community  My food community is smaller now, but we do exist.  Sometimes the gluten free diet means being resilience to the innocent enjoyment of others... and a well stocked pantry with treats always helps!

Heartland Gourmet made today a little easier on me.  A Nebraska based, family owned, organic, vegan friendly,  gourmet baking mix company.  Heartland Gourmet also has demonstrated philanthropic efforts by donating 20% of all website orders on November 18th to the Red Cross of America for Hurricane Sandy victims.  They are a licensed USDA, FDA, and Certified Organic Manufacturing Facility; however, there is no present gluten free certification.  I made the Red Velvet Cupcake Mix for my daughters and they loved it!  Very easy, prep time is 10-20 minutes, cook time is 20 mintues.

Jelly Filled Cupcakes

Orange Zest, Glazed, Jelly Filled GF Cupcakes for Hanukkah

Being a gluten free family sufganiyot, jelly filled doughnuts, is not a dessert we can partake in for Hanukkah - at least not until I get brave enough to attempt to make gluten free doughnuts. 

The holiday season is a combination of exciting and exhausting.  Maxed out on fun the girls and I zoned out watching one of our favorite shows on the food network, the Cupcake Wars.  The girls are always joking we should have our own cupcake wars.  Beezus insists that daddy "can make our display and we can invite the book club ladies over to judge".   Cupcakes have become a bit of a family weekend tradition in our house.

Once I tucked the bugs into bed it dawned on me, that we could make jelly filled cupcakes!  This of course seems a natural and obvious extension - however, it had to dawn on me.  ;-) 

I spent a good deal of time online looking for a jelly filled cupcakes recipe I could convert; however, most recipes demand solely yellow cake as a base for the jelly filled cupcakes.  I felt that this might be a bit boring.  So, I consulted with Martha Stewart's cupcake book and found a jelly filled cupcake recipe that utilized orange zest.  This sounded more fun.

Below are our Orange Zest, Blue Glazed, Jelly Filled GF Cupcakes.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, rm temp

3 cups Jules GF Flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest

4 large eggs, separated, rm temp

1/2 cup milk

Strawberry Jelly - GF

Directions: 

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk together in bowl GF flour, baking powder, and salt.

2.  Mix in kitchen aid on medium high speed, cream butter, sugar, and zest - until pale and fluffy.  Add yolks one at a time.  Reduce low speed add dry ingredients alternating with milk till all ingredients are added and mixed together.

3.  In another bowl with mixer whisk egg whites together until they are sufficiently peaked.    Gently gold into batter. 

4.  Place butter into lined cupcake sheets so that the batter is 1/4 filled.  Create indent and spoon 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoons jelly.  Cover jelly with a batter so the liners are 3/4 filled.

5.  Place in oven for 40 minutes.

Icing:

I have decided that I am not fond of Martha Stewart's Icings.  Stewart as a tendency to use so much butter that an instantaneous heart attack is not entirely improbable. So I took her idea and just did it my way...

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk

1 mini orange squeezed for juice

Mix- adding sugar or milk for right consistency.  I wanted to glaze - so I made it rather liquidity - however, in a rush I let it get too liquidity.

Notes:  I find that Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour is not a great 1:1 ratio.  I have consulted with other gluten free cooks and found that a 3/4:1 ratio is better. 

The whole family enjoyed these cupcakes - despite the girls saying any cupcakes filled with jelly they would never try.  I find they get brave once the cupcakes are actually in front of them.  The family decided to eat them cupcake wars style with forks and commentary.  I put up with the commentary till my man joined in and then I said, "well, you can make them yourself next time!"

Another Link to Hanukkah Cupcakes:
kveller (A Jeiwsh Twist On Parenting)

Reindeer Cupcakes!

I made some standard chocolate cupcakes for Beezus's Holiday Class Party today.  I used a premix Pamela's Chocolate Cake and Betty Crocker Gluten Free Frosting.  Entirely gluten free.  I used standard milk chocolate M&Ms for the eyes and nose.  I used gluten free pretzels for the antlers and marshmallows for the white in the eyes.

I got the idea from the Martha Stewart Website.  It looks waaaay better there, but it was fun and I think the kids will think they are neat.  Then again, there is one little girl I know who will give it to me straight.  If I can get these past her, then I am golden.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday week!

Lots of love,
Blindconformity

Sunday Banana Cupcakes

*Ingredients:
3 Ripe Bananas
2 cups GF King Arthur Flour gluten free multi-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cups sugar, granulated cane
3 large eggs room temperature cup, separated
1/2 cup sour cream (gluten free)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (gluten free)


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F, place unpeeled bananas in oven.  15 minutes later take bananas out to cool and set oven to 350 F.
2. In one bowl whisk together gluten free flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Then place this bowl aside.
3. In a mixer cream butter and sugar together.  Add in 3 egg yolks, roasted and peeled bananas.  Add flour in three parts alternating with sour cream and beat in vanilla. 
4. In a separate bowl with a hand mixer whisk the 3 egg white till they have a good peak.
5. Fold egg whites into batter.  Scoop batter into lined cupcake sheets.
6. Cook cupcakes for 30 minutes.

Frosting with Honey and Cinnamon
*Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 Teaspoon honey
• Pinch of cinnamon

Directions:

1. Mix butter and sugar together in electric mixer.
2. Add in honey and cinnamon.
3. Enjoy frosting!

*Always check ingredients to make sure they are gluten free.  Recipe adjusted for gluten free eating from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book.

GF Devil's Food Cupcakes

Counting Down to Halloween and making Devil's Food Cupcakes.

*Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened - Hershey's Cocoa Natural Unsweetened
• 3/4 cup hot water
• 3 cups GF King Arthur Flour gluten free multi-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 1/2 cup (3 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar, granulated cane
• 4 large eggs room temperature cup
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (gluten free)
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature (gluten free)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In one bowl together gluten free flour, baking soda, baking powder and place to the side for later use.
3. Melt butter in a sauce pan on med-low heat stir in all sugar slowly. Remove from heat, and pour into mixing bowl. Stir on medium speed for 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Melt cocoa into hot water in sauce pan until well combined, place in bowl to side.
5. In the mixer with the butter and sugar mixture add one egg in at a time, then add in vanilla and the cocoa mixture. Add in gluten free flour mixture in many parts, alternating with the sour cream cup.
6. Once all ingredients well combined in mixer place in cupcake tin filling to a little over half way, but not 3/4 full. Lastly, cook for 30 - 35 minutes, rotating at 20 minutes.

Rich Chocolate Frosting (directly from Martha Stewart's cupcake book)
*Ingredients:

• 6 ounces semi sweet chocolate (gluten free)
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup (gluten free)

Directions:

1. Get heavy cream and corn syrup to a simmer. 
2. Then pour over finely chopped semi sweet GF chocolate.
3. Give a minute for chocolate to start melting.
4. Stir starting in middle and working out.
5. Frost cupcakes immediately.
6. Place in frosted cupcakes into refrigerator to firm frosting up.

Ramona enjoying the chocolate!

Thank you to Martha Stewart for the Cupcake book in which this recipe is based off of. This recipe was adjusted for gluten free & nut free eating!  Gluten free cupcakes cook slighter slower than gluten cupcakes so 30-35 minutes is in place of 20 minutes.

*Always use common sense, check each ingredient to make sure it is in fact gluten free.

GF Devil's Food Cupcakes

Fall is here!

*Ingredients:

• 1 apple, pre-cut and skinned
• 2 cups Jules GF all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/8 ground cloves
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups Apple Sauce Mott's (gluten free)
• 1 cup cooked apples w/cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar and soy nuts

Directions:

1. Cook in a frying pan on med heat the pre-cut and skinned apples with a teaspoon of butter, pinch of sugar, cinnamon and brown sugar.  Place to side.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
3. In one bowl whisk together gluten free flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.  Place to side.
4. Cream butter and both sugars in an electrical mixer until pale and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating in until well combined.  Add applesauce and then bowl of gluten free flour mixture.  Stir in cup of apples and soy nuts by hand.
5. Using an ice cream scooper place cupcake mix into lined cupcake pan.  Fill each liner individual until 3/4 full.
6. Cook for 30-35 minutes.

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting (directly from Martha Stewart's cupcake book)
*Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (gluten free)
• 1 cup light brown sugar

Directions:

1. Mixer on med-high speed, beat butter, cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth.  Done!  Simple!

Thank you to Martha Stewart for the Cupcake book in which this recipe is based off of.  This recipe was adjusted for gluten free & nut free eating!  Ginger was used in place of nutmeg, but in a 1/2 to 1 ratio.  1 cup combined of chopped apples and soy nuts cooked in a pan is in place of 1 cup of pecans.  Gluten free cupcakes cook slighter longer than gluten cupcakes so 30-35 minutes is in place of 20 minutes. 

*Always use common sense, check each ingredient to make sure it is in fact gluten free.

Streusel Cupcakes

I am cooking my way through Martha Stewarts Cupcake book, gluten free! I bet I do not get a movie deal based off that. However… maybe if I go to jail to for insider trading…! It is ok Martha you are helping me stay sane while adjusting to a new life style. ;-)

Note before you start: Make the Streusel Topping BEFORE the cupcake batter. The Streusel Topping is below cupcake batter recipe.

Streusel Cupcakes
Ingredients:
2 ½ Cups Jules Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour
½ tspn baking soda
1 ¼ tspn baking powder
½ coarse salt
½ cup plus 2 tbspn unsalted butter (1 ¼ sticks)
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ tspn pure vanilla extract gluten free
1 ¼ cups sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together gluten free Jules flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

2. Mix on medium-high speed with kitchen aid mixer cream butter and sugar till fluffy and pale. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla (Martha says by hand – I feel this overly fancy and irrelevant) – Add gluten free Jules flour mixture and sour cream. I did hand stir this by hand, but you can do it either way.

3. Martha says fill liners up half way then take the Topping recipe and fill the other half and press down the topping into the batter carefully. I found that filling the cupcake liners a fourth of the way and then putting in a fourth of the topping and pressing down works better. Too many of the ½ and ½ cupcakes came out overflowing!

4. After placing ¼ and ¼ batter and topping and then gently pressing toppings down sprinkle reaming topping on – do not press down and cook for 30 plus minutes.

Martha says 20, but as per usual with Gluten Free adjusted recipes you could easily cook for 40 minutes. Look for a golden brown on top. The knife coming out clean does not necessarily mean done – I usually cut one open to make sure it is not still overly dough-y in the middle. I find with Jules All Purpose Gluten Free flour if you take it out too soon they cupcake caves in on itself!

Streusel Cupcake Topping:
Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups Jules All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
¾ cup packed dark brown-sugar
2 ¼ tspn ground cinnamon
¾ coarse salt
½ cup plus 2 tbspn (1 ¼ stick) unsalted butter

I hand mixed all ingredients in a bowl – using both a whisk and my hands! Refrigerate for 30 minutes before applying!

Then Milk Glaze/Icing:
1 ½ cups milk
3 table spoons confectioners’ sugar

Whisk together in mixer or with mixer. Pour over cupcakes in a zig zag fashion – not covering the whole cupcake.

Gluten Free Marble Cupcakes

Another recipe from Martha Stewarts Cupcake book redone gluten free!

Ingredients:
1 ¾ Jules Flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
½ Teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup milk, room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder (we used Hershey’s)
¼ cup boiling water
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir GF Jules flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine Milk and Cream.

2. With an kitchen aid mixer on medium speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each one in. Beat in vanilla.

Martha always likes to say “scraping down the bowl as needed” – I feel this is most likely common sense – but if you are the type of person to not scrape down the mixing bowl as needed I will include – SCRAP DOWN THE BOWL AS NEEDED.

Martha also likes to remind us to place the paper liners in the cupcake tins. Again, I hope you are doing that without me mentioning it. If not, maybe you should reconsider cooking, as you are in way worse shape than me! Haha!

3. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two addition of milk mixture and beating until combined.

4. To make chocolate batter, measure out 1 cup batter and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa and the boiling water in a bowl. Stir into reserved 1 cup batter.

Tip: You need to be able to do this quickly and you might need to play around with the exact amounts. I found that 1/3 a cup of the cocoa was too much. Again I used Hershey’s cocoa gluten free from the store and that might have something to do with it. I used closer to ¼ a cup cocoa.

5. Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter, filling each three-quarters full. Run the tip of a paring knife or wooden skewer through the batter in a figure eight motion to make swirls. (This might work great for you – I had a terrible time! Find the strategy that works well for you – I ended up just using a spoon).

6. Bake until tops are golden and cake tester comes out clean, roughly 20 minutes. (Took mine closer to 30 – again, might be the Gluten Free aspect).

7. Dust with sugar for appearance.

 I find storing these cupcakes difficult. They came out great (on my second try) and I could have served them immediately, but overnight in the refrigerator they suffered. Freezing them will probably work out better – even just for over night. They are my favorites so far – more adult than kid cupcakes – my kids did not like them as much as the other cupcakes we have been making.

GF Pound Cake Cupcakes, New Icing and Jules GF Flour

A nice, GF and nut free cupcake and icing recipe derived from our favorite lady Martha Stewart with minor alterations in cook time:

Brown Sugar Pound Cakes
3 Cups – Jules GF flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 ¼ cups packed light brown sugar
4 Eggs, room temp (I did not bother with room temp)
¾ Cup butter milk

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Mix it all together – add butter last. (Martha write more, but I was in a hurry and just did it this way and it turned out fine).
3. Cook for 25 minutes. That is what Martha says… it took closer to 30 minutes. Not sure if that is a GF flour issue.

• We used Jules GF flour. It utilizes a modified tapioca starch. It is an awesome 1:1 alternative to regular gluten all purpose flour. It is however extremely expensive even for a GF flour. ALSO - in this recipe the GF cupcakes need to cook for closer to 40 minutes - check on them at 30 and 35 and wait until they have started to get that golden brown on top - not burnt - just slightly golden on top. Otherwise they tend to sink. A knife will come out of the cupcake clean long before they are actually done cooking. Otherwise the best flour alternative and cupcakes we have made so far.

Icing (I LOVED THIS ICING!):
½ cups (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 Cups sifted confectioners sugar
2 Teaspoons pure GF vanilla
2 Tablespoons milk

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan (I mixed with spoon), until nut brown color (I did not wait that long), about 10 minutes (I did more like 5).
2. Pour into bowl, add sugar, milk and GF vanilla and stir until smooth.

Cheesecake Cookies n Cream Cupcakes

I made the GF cupcakes/cheesecake and Beezus loves them! Vacationing with gluten free is not very practical. So I made the cupcakes as dessert while we were staying in Omaha. I got the recipe below directly from Martha Stewarts Cupcake book p.104.

2 pounds GF cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 tspn GF vanilla
4 eggs room temperature (Although I did not bother with that)
1 cup sour cream

42 Oreo cookies… for us we use GF K-Toons by Kinnikinnick You can find K-Toon at Whole Foods, Specialty stores, but also HyVee and I think Safeway. K-Toons come in both chocolate and vanilla cookies. I like both, my family likes many the vanilla. In this recipe I would use chocolate because how it will look.

1. Preheat oven to 275 F. Place cookie into the lined cupcake tin.
2. Medium/High beat the whole 2 pounds of cream chesses until it nice and smooth.
3. “Drizzle” in lightly beaten eggs. Add slowly, not too fast.
4. Beat in sour cream and salt
5. Stir in cookies by hand. How many cookies you stir in is ultimately your proactive. I put in roughly 6. I also did not do this by hand. I let the electric mixer/my favorite kitchen appliance and then after a minutes stirred it together a bit better and more evenly by hand.. Keep in mind that there is still that one solid cookie which will stay in the cupcake.
6. Cook for up to 22 minutes. I needed to go longer, but I am sure it depends on the oven you use.
7. Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours or over night.

GF Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I have been spending a little more time on making cupcakes this last year. It turns out there is a whole underground subculture with a cupcake obsession. As a result the web is full of cupcake junkies with blogs.

I got decent at making chocolate chip cupcakes for the kids birthdays from the Pamela’s chocolate cake mix (I used milk instead of water and added chocolate chips).

To contend with the many non-GF baked goods that are paraded in front of Beezus at school, at birthdays and at fairs/carnivals/amusement parks, I need to stay up to date on creative, new and inventive ways to make cupcakes. I need to make our diet more and more appealing to stay current with the gluten competition. Luckily I have always enjoyed healthy, and not so healthy, competition. I love the whole free market crushing your opponents with better products. Game on!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cupcakes
This recipe is converted to GF from the blogger Cupcake Queen on her blogsite . I also consulted Martha Stewart’s newer cookbook Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone’s favorite treat.

Ingredients:
1 package Gluten Free Cake Mix “Devil’s Food” (Betty Crocker)
1 cup water
3 eggs
1 stick butter

½ cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 table spoons baking coco/coco powder

1 Snack Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Add together the Gluten Free Cake Mix, 1 cup water, 3 eggs, ½ cup peanut butter, 2 table spoons cocoa, 1 teaspoon vanilla and lastly add 1 stick butter softened at room temperature. Mix on low for about a minute and switch over to high for another minute or two. Check to make sure all dry ingredients (especially at bottom) or sufficiently blended.

Place Reese’s cups at bottom of each lined cupcake holder. Use ice cream scoop to place batter on top Reese’s cups - Martha recommends this a more even cooking cupcake.

Cook for 18 minutes. At least start checking then. I found it took slightly longer, closer to 20 minutes.


I felt that these came out AMAZING. Light, fluffy… just much better than any I have made yet. My man, also really loved them. The kids actually did not like the Reese candy at the bottom (I tried both the snack side and the minis). Thus I made another batch without the candy at the bottom which they liked a lot more. Because this utilized more batter the cupcakes cooked for at least 5 minutes, maybe closer to 10 minutes longer.


Icing:
For Icing I used Betty Crocker pre-made frosting which is gluten free. I try avoid using this, but there are times when you are rushed and an easy backup is always wonderful! For the Easter holiday I threw on this icing with a Peep on top and done! Some kid friendly, gluten free, peanut butter cupcakes. Woohoo.

Icing in general is easy to make gluten free and I have a bunch of recipes I want to make… I will try them out when I get a chance and post.