Cupcakes! No Eclairs!

I decided to pass up this month's Daring Baker's Challenge because I'm not a fan of eclairs. It's true...but I love cupcakes and cake! I'm happy to share that my first batch of gluten-free cupcakes came out lemony and tasty. In fact, I can't even tell that they're not 'glutened' :D. Who do I have to thank for my success? Gluten-Free Baking Classics, an awesome book that anyone on a gluten-free diet should own.

The first few pages include 'recipes' for flour mixes. I was inspired by the brown rice flour mix and Pamela's mix, a pre-made flour mix that I purchased the first week I was on the diet. I like the texture of Pamela's baking mix; the almond flour has a lot to do with it. So I slightly tweaked the brown rice flour mix in Gluten-Free Baking Classics to match Pamela's by adding in a bit of almond meal. This is the almondy brown rice flour mix that resulted (it can be used for cakes and cookies too)...

Almond Meal Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 cups brown rice flour
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup almond meal



As for the cupcakes, I used the basic measurements for the yellow cake recipe in my new, nifty cookbook and tweaked it. I divided the recipe in half, added less sugar, added less oil and a bit of butter, substituted the milk for rice milk, and added a few lemony ingredients (lemon peel, extract, and lemon juice)...because I was craving lemony cupcakes, after all :). This cookbook is awesome for folks who love experimenting with their own from-scratch recipes. Every recipe is like a template that can be easily altered a little (or a whole lot :) here and there.

The frosting is from a recipe I came up with after many unsuccessful experiments working with frostings that either melted too quickly at room temperature or were too buttery (and contained too much shortening). I basically just substituted a good amount of butter for two tablespoons of rice milk and lemon juice (I wanted these cupcakes to be really lemony :). I also added a 1/4 tsp of pure lemon extract. The result? A frosting that is thick, rich, and looks like fluffy clouds :). It'll keep its shape on a warm and humid day, it won't get all over the place. Because it somewhat hardens at room temperature, it's best to keep it covered with a damp cloth when frosting the cupcakes, so that it doesn't dry too quickly.


I ate two already! They're really tasty.