Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Easy Fluffy Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes





I had never made gluten free cupcakes before so I was curious how they would turn out when a friend asked me to make some. I knew I could make a good gluten free cupcake, I just wasn't sure if they would be up to par the first go around and decided to make time for a few test batches before committing to a recipe.

In my mind, I though of gluten free cake to be either flat or dry. I mean, unless you were a total GF pro, it had to be, right? I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

I started by scouring Pinterest for recipes, taking note of any common techniques or ingredients among recipes. When making something new, I tend to gravitate toward more complex recipes because the extra work usually pays off. Baking is a science and sometimes skipping a seemingly unimportant step can take your finished product from amazing to just ok, or even a total fail. However, I found one recipe that peaked my interest. It was an easy, one bowl recipe but seemed to include ingredients that might fix the problems associated with GF baking and the author did a satisfactory job of explaining why this recipe worked just as well as the more complex ones did. With some minor modifications, I gave it a go and the puffiest, most beautiful chocolate cupcakes emerged from the oven on my first try. Can't beat that!

Then came the real test. I gave one to Jordan, I gave one to my brother, and I gave one to my dad and they all agreed that "Hey, these are pretty good!" Test passed.

I do have to say, they are not completely, 100% identical to regular cupcakes. The texture is ever so slightly different and they are just a little more dense than a classic cupcake; however, if you didn't say anything, no one would probably notice the difference.

These cupcakes are extremely chocolatey and are also less sweet than a regular cupcake - so dark chocolate lovers rejoice! If you love super sweet cake, feel free to adjust the sugar amount, but, with icing, I had no complaints, even from sugar lovers in the room.

-1 1/2 cup GF flour blend with xanthan gum in the ingredients  - I used Olivia's Outstanding Multi-Purpose Flour Mix (or add 3/4 teaspoon xanthun gum to a flour that doesn't already contain xanthun gum)
-1 cup baking cocoa 
-1 1/2 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 cup hot water or coffee
-2/3 cup melted butter
-1/2 cup sour cream (or you can also use dairy free yogurt)
-3 eggs

  1. Preheat your oven to 325F, and prepare your pans. *tip: I usually preheat the oven to 350F and then reduce it to 325F when I put the cupcakes in the oven. This will usually give your cupcakes a higher rise.*
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, brown sugar, flour blend, baking soda, and salt.
  3. Add the hot water and oil to the dry ingredients and THEN stir using a silicone/rubber spatula (if you stir in just the water, the batter will be very thick so when you try to stir in the oil it will take a long time and splash all over.)
  4. Stir in eggs and sour cream.
  5. Fill your prepared pans (For cupcakes, about ⅔ full. For layer cakes, evenly divide the batter between both pans). Bake until the cake springs back if gently touched, or a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out mostly clean, with maybe a little crumb or two.
  6. Mini cupcakes should bake 15-20 minutes, regular cupcakes 20-25 minutes, and layer cakes or 9x13 cakes 30-35 minutes.
Recipe adapted from Flippin' Delicious

Still feel intimidated by gluten free baking? Try one of Emma's Mixes! She makes gluten free baking super easy. Click HERE to find out more about Emma and her delicious cookies and more!

3 comments:

Makayla said...

Super excited to try this recipe! I'm Gluten Free and it's always nice to have one more yummy thing you can eat. Thanks so much for sharing!

~ Makayla♥

Anonymous said...

Totally want to try this. Wow. I should eat more gluten free things as many of my 36 first cousins have gluten issues and think that I don't have anemia but gluten problems. . .granted my blood tests prove otherwise, but gluten free eating is better off anyway.
+Victoria+

Liah said...

thanks for sharing this Sarah!I have a friend who can't eat gluten and this will be a very good snack:) ---Liah