More and more people seem to be following gluten-free diets these days. Sometimes this is out of necessity (due to things like celiac or other intolerances), sometimes it's out of the belief that wheat- or grain-free diets are inherently healthier than diets that include these starches. Regardless of the underlying reasons, the result is that it's becoming increasingly likely that a given group of people will include someone who can't (or is chosing not to) eat wheat.

Given that, I felt that it might make sense to make a few gluten-free goodies to send along with the regular cupcakes for the Kidlet's class. I've generally had good luck with America's Test Kitchen recipes, so I turned to them for a good gluten-free cupcake option.

These cupcakes were okay, but somewhat underwhelming. It's difficult to evaluate fairly though because I don't like confetti cupcakes to begin with. The Kidlet says that she ranks the cupcakes themselves about the same as the non-gluten-free ones that she made from a box mix (although she didn't really care for the vegan icing that I topped them with). TF tried one and said that they were just so-so. Given that, I'll probably try a different gluten-free recipe next time.

I do appreciate that the folks at ATK explained their recipe though. They noted that since GF flour doesn't absorb fat as readily as wheat flour, they found that they needed to swap out the butter for oil and reduce the quantity in order to avoid greasy cupcakes. Then, to restore some of the flavour and richess lost by removing the butter, they added a bit of white chocolate and sour cream. The xanthan gum is needed to help the cupcakes rise in the absence of gluten. My GF flour blend already contained xanthan gum, so I didn't bother going out and getting extra, but I think I probably should have since much cupcakes did not rise very well.

This all sounded good in theory, but I wasn't super impressed with the final result. And while some of that may be down to the missing xanthan gum and the resulting lack of rising, I don't think a lighter texture would have solved everything. As noted, I'll probably be looking for a different GF recipe next time. But at least this one did the job on this particular occasion.

Gluten-Free Confetti Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 115g white chocolate
• 6 Tbsp. oil
• 185g gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. sour cream
• 1/4 c. rainbow sprinkles

Frosting¹

• 3 c. vanilla frosting
• 3 Tbsp. rainbow sprinkles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and add paper or foil liners to your muffin tin.
2. Heat oil and white chocolate gently, stirring often, until melted and smooth (3-5 30-second bursts in microwave). Set aside to cool.
3. Sift baking powder, baking soda, and xanthan gum into GF flour.
4. Mix in salt.
5. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with vanilla.
6. Whisk sugar into egg mixture.
7. Beat cooled chocolate mixture into eggs.
8. Stir in sour cream.
9. Add dry ingredients to wet and whisk until smooth.
10. Mix in sprinkles.
11. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin.
12. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for ~20 minutes.
13. Let cool in tin for ~10 minutes.
14. Turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
15. Meanwhile, make the frosting.
16. Stir sprinkles into frosting.
17. Once the cupcakes are completely cool, decorate with frosting as desired.

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¹ I didn't want to have to make three separate batches of icing, so I skipped the vanilla confetti icing for my GF cupcakes and just used some of the vegan chocolate frosting on them instead. Perhaps not as gastronomically harmonious, but it saved me a bunch of effort, ingredients, and dishes, so that worked for me! ^Back