Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! I've had a great birthday and birthday weekend. For my cake this year, I wanted to celebrate with a real cupcake in my favorite flavor - Red Velvet. I haven't had Red Velvet Cake since I became gluten free a year and a half ago, which has been way too long. Since I like to complicate things, not only did I want a real Red Velvet Cupcake, but I wanted to bake it flourless with natural colors. This is how that attempt turned out...

Great flavor, but way too moist with sunken tops. I wanted so badly to try again, but it's my birthday and it's a gorgeous day out. Experimenting in the kitchen is not how I wanted to spend my day. Instead, I made some notes to improve my recipe next time (which will be soon) and turned to Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake Mix, red food coloring, and my husband to help. The outcome was...

completely and utterly successful! These gluten free Red Velvet Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting taste delicious and just like a real Red Velvet Cupcake. Happy Birthday to Me!

Click here for the Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake recipe - I followed the directions exactly. Instead of making one cake, I made 16 cupcakes which baked for 15-20 minutes.

Click here for the Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting recipe

Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger: Elana's Pantry

For the June Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger event, hosted by Celiacs in the House, I adopted Elana at Elana's Pantry. Not only does she have a top-notch blog full of a wide variety of delicious recipes and gluten-free information, but she is also (according to me) the Queen of Gluten-Free Cupcakes with a new Gluten-Free Cupcakes cookbook available. Many well-respected gluten-free bloggers have reviewed Elana's cookbook and tried a few of her recipes, and they all have had nothing but great things to say.

Since I love flourless recipes and the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, it was only fitting that I chose to bake Elana's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (which only require 7 common pantry ingredients, bonus!). I substituted honey instead of agave and omitted the salt because I used salted roasted peanuts.

My batch of Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes baked perfectly with great flavor and texture. As you can see from the non-frosted cupcake in my picture, my gluten-free AND flourless cupcakes did not sink (yay!!)! These cupcakes remind me of my all-time favorite candy - Reese's. I frosted my cupcakes with a Chocolate Powdered Sugar frosting - absolutely delectable!

In previous Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger events I've made:
·Kelly at 18 Hour Kitchen's Black Bean Cupcakes
·Shirley at Gluten Free Easily's Flourless Pizza Crust AND Garlic Cheese Biscuits
·Carol at Simply...Gluten Free's Cherry Cola Ribs
·Lynn at Lynn's Kitchen Adventures Homemade Vanilla Pudding, Mexican Chicken Lasagna, and Green Chili and Cheese Cornbread

Pink Grapefruit GF Cupcakes

With the spring-like weather lately, I was in the mood to bake something light and fruity. I found a grapefruit in the fridge and decided to create my own Pink Grapefruit cupcake recipe. I've never had a Pink Grapefruit cupcake before, but I'm really pleased with my outcome! My Pink Grapefruit GF Cupcakes are delectable - very flavorful, citrus-y, light, and refreshing!

When I pulled the cupcakes out of the oven, the tops were very poofy. And, of course, they started to sink a little when they were cooling. Luckily, the tops just flattened out to stay a little poofy, and they didn't sink completely like my Black Bean Cupcakes did! I was afraid of what the texture of the cupcakes would end up like, but to my delight they are moist and spongy!

Ingredients:
·1 large grapefruit, zest and juiced
Cupcake Ingredients:
·3 large eggs, separated
·¾ cup sugar
·¾ cup GF all-purpose flour
·½ tsp xanthan gum
·1 tsp baking powder
·½ tsp baking soda
·¼ tsp sea salt
Frosting Ingredients:
·2 TBS butter, softened
·1½ - 2 cups powdered sugar
·1 TBS maraschino cherry juice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Zest grapefruit and then juice it. Set aside in separate bowls.

Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. In a kitchen stand-mixer, beat egg yolks for 3-5 minutes until light yellow in color. Add sugar and beat until well-combined.

In a separate bowl, combine GF flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to egg mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in 1-2 TBS of grated grapefruit zest and ¼ cup of grapefruit juice.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites on high until fluffy. Then fold egg whites by hand into cupcake batter until completely combined.

Pour batter into muffin tins filling about ¾ of the way up. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool in the muffin pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

In kitchen stand-mixer, beat butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add 2 TBS grapefruit juice, ½ cup of powdered sugar, and maraschino cherry juice. Mix until smooth while also gradually adding the remaining powdered sugar. Fold in 1 TBS of grapefruit zest by hand.

Frost cupcakes once cool and garnish with grapefruit segments.

Yields: 12 cupcakes

I've also shared this recipe on: Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Seasonal Sundays, Gluten Free Wednesdays, This Week's Cravings

Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

WOW!! I am shocked that these PB&J Cupcakes taste SO SO SO good!! It's a peanut butter and jelly chocolate dessert heaven! My husband is helping me quickly scarf these down - so I know they are as good as gluten!

When I was traveling last week for my Oprah trip I came across a recipe in an airline magazine for PB&J Brownies. The chef, James Boyce, accidentally came up with the hit recipe by placing a brownie on a sheet of phyllo dough, topping the brownie with peanut butter, strawberry jam, and chocolate chips, and then wrapping it up and baking. Seeing his recipe was my inspiration for Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes. I think this recipe would be equally as good as a brownie batter cupcake.

Ingredients:
·1 recipe of your favorite chocolate cupcake batter or brownie batter (I slightly modified my GF blogger adoption Black Bean Cupcake recipe - see below)
·Homemade strawberry jam (about ½ cup)
·¼ cup peanut butter
·1 cup powdered sugar
·1 TBS milk
·¼ tsp vanilla
·2 oz cream cheese

Directions:
Follow the recipe for your favorite chocolate cupcake or brownie recipe. Preheat oven according to your recipe. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Fill muffin cups ¼ of the way up with cupcake batter. Then, add a spoonful (about ½ TBS) of jam into the center of the cupcake batter.

Finish filling the muffin cups with cupcake batter until muffin tins are filled about ¾ of the way up. Bake according to cupcake recipe directions.

Meanwhile, mix peanut butter, milk, and cream cheese. Slowly beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Adjust ingredients to get the right frosting texture and flavor you desire. Stir in vanilla. Frost PB&J cupcakes once cool.

Here's the center of my PB&J Cupcakes! I added way too much strawberry jam into some (about 1-2 TBS), which requires us to use a spoon to eat. Still delicious, nonetheless!

Black Bean Cupcakes Recipe

Adapted slightly from 18 Hour Kitchen

Ingredients:

·1 ½ cups canned black beans

·3 eggs, separated

·1 TBS vanilla

·¾ cup sugar

·¼ cup cocoa powder

·½ tsp baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. In a blender, puree black beans, egg yolks, and vanilla until completely smooth. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy. In a medium brown, mix sugar, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Add in black bean puree. Beat on low (or whisk) until all ingredients are completely combined. Fold in egg whites.

Pour into muffin tins filling about ¾ of the way up. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting. Makes 12 cupcakes.

I've also shared this recipe on: Seasonal Sundays

Gluten-Free Blogger Adoption - Black Bean Cupcakes

I recently learned about "Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger," and this month I was excited to be adopted by Kelly at 18 Hour Kitchen. Honestly, I was shocked, excited, and truly honored to learn someone in blogger-world adopted me! I hadn't heard of Kelly's blog until she adopted me. So, I quickly checked it out and decided I was going to adopt Kelly in return. I love the recipes on her blog and was anxious to try a few.

I love flourless dessert recipes, so when I saw Kelly's recipe for Black Bean Cupcakes I knew this was the recipe I just had to try. You can visit Kelly's blog - 18 Hour Kitchen - by clicking here for her Black Bean Cupcake recipe.

I only made one modification - since I'm not sugar-free, I used regular sugar. I frosted my cupcakes with chocolate cocoa frosting, and let me tell you these cupcakes are SO rich, moist, delicious, and chocolaty. I was hesitant to bake with black beans, but you can't even taste them! They even passed my as good as gluten test - my husband said they were good!

Unfortunately, my cupcakes sunk in the middle. I think this is because I either whisked the batter too long or didn't cook them long enough. But, there is a silver lining to sunk cupcakes! It makes a nice little pool where you can add even more frosting! Who doesn't love extra frosting?!

Have you ever baked with black beans? If so, how did your dessert turn out?
 In case you're wondering, what is Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger? Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger, hosted this month by Lexie's Kitchen, is a monthly online event where you adopt a GF blogger who's recipes you'd like to try, try one of her recipes, and then blog about it.