Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Birthday Cupcakes: Gluten and Dairy free!

Hello My Free-eaters! It has been so long and I feel so guilty! School does not wait for me to catch up and I had to keep up with Fall semester (which went well by the way!), but I am back! My birthday was last week and so was my niece's so we had a joint celebration at BJ's Restaurant. BJ's is a certified gluten-free restaurant and I am never afraid to eat there. On top of my allergies, my niece has dairy allergies so I took it upon to design some delicious dessert for our festivities. In addition, I got a new standing mixer (from my husband for Christmas--he knows the way to my heart!) that helped make these cupcakes in a snap!

I am a firm believer in "Keep Calm and have a Cupcake" so I made vanilla cupcakes with a pink birthday flair (my niece loves everything pink). These simple but delicious cupcakes were a hit with our whole family...my nephew likes to always say "I can't tell its your organic stuff Auntie Mary!" that's how he encompasses all my baking and cooking because it would be absurd to name all the allergens I avoid! So, I thought I would share the recipe for these cupcakes and the frosting! This way all you free-eater can have a party for any gluten-free birthday! I got this recipe for Vanilla cake from http://www.livingwithout.com/recipes/gluten_free_vanilla_cake-1417-1.html. You will notice I tweaked it a tad but its all the same ingredients. This is a magazine that has a lot of great recipes!

Birthday Cake Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups of flour mix (I used 3 cups of sweet rice flour and 1/2 cup of oat flour)
1 Tablespoon of baking powder
*If you make your own baking powder like I do (1tsp baking soda/ 2 tsp cream of tartar) then that will be 1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of Xanthan gum 
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 Organic eggs (apologies to egg free eaters because I have not mastered egg-free baking- look to my blog about chia gel to replace eggs) *eggs need to be at room temperature when baking cakes. If you are in a hurry run some tap water to  warm temperature and let sit while you
1 cup dairy free margarine (you can use shortening if necessary)
2 cups of sugar 
1 cup of soy milk or any dairy free alternative (I like to use the organic vanilla silk milk because the extra vanilla makes it even more birthday cake like) 
2 tsp of vanilla extract 

Directions 
  • Preheat the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. 
  • Beat (on medium-high speed) margarine and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and vanilla. 
  • Using a whisk mix flour blend, baking powder and baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt. Incorporate this mixture slowly (half at first) to the wet mix. Then add the soy milk. Mix well. 
  • The batter should rise and be fluffy in the bowl. 
  • Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 20 min. The yield will be more than 24 cupcakes, but I ended up making a dozen mini cupcakes with the remaining batter.
Frosting:
note: I colored my frosting, but you do not have to because its delicious either way! IN addition, I did not full on over frost the cupcakes so if you are a frosting fiend (which some days I can be) you might need to use a whole stick of shortening and add 2 cups extra of powdered sugar. 

Ingredients:
1/2 stick of shortening
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups of powdered sugar 
1 Tablespoon warm soy
  • Beat shortening with vanilla and powdered sugar; add the warm soy to make it smooth. Depending on what thickness you wish to have add 1 tablespoon of hot water at a time until desired thickness is achieved. (I ended up adding only 1 extra tablespoon of hot water because I wanted to be able to decorate so it needed to be a tad thicker)
  • color if desired.


In the end all my family members commented on how delicate and not too sweet ("just right!" was what they said!) these cupcakes tasted. I even left some unfrosted to eat plain! These cupcakes are a frazzle-free recipe and so delectable for your gluten-free experience! This recipe is simple baking just with the easiest gluten-free substitutions that it can make a new to gluten-free baker (and eater) happy! No non-sense just from scratch baking is my favorite kind of baking! 
Enjoy your January and keep eating "free"! 
More to come,
Mary