Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting: gluten free, dairy free, vegan

"Mom, what can I bring to Thanksgiving this year?" I ask. Mom says, "Could you please bring a dessert for the Intolerants?" That's what she calls those of us who can't have this or that.
I hang up the phone and start to ponder. Do I go with making a gluten and dairy free version of the pies that will already be there, or do I come up with a dessert that goes with the Thanksgiving theme, but is it's own happy little dessert. Cupcakes! Everyone and their mother, sister and brother are making everything in cupcake form these days. I pulled out my Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World cookbook for some inspiration. I love all of the creative cupcake ideas in this book but have yet to bake out of it. This cookbook series lured me in because it's so adorable, with other titles like Pie In The Sky. Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero have some really great cookbooks that you can get on Amazon.com.

Like with any cookbook, I still need to make some modifications with it. As I flip through the pages my eye catches the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing. Yum, pumpkin and chocolate, two of my favorite things. I review the recipe. Let's see here; I'll use less oil and add applesauce, instead of soy milk I'll use coconut milk, instead of all purpose flour I'll use gluten free flour, then I'll add some flax meal to make up for the missing gluten. I like the taste of ginger in pumpkin, so I'll add a bit of that too. Instead of Cinnamon Icing, I'm going to create a vegan maple buttercream frosting. So, here's my take on their recipe.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting: gluten free, dairy free, vegan and nut free
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Ingredients:
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/3 cup apple sauce
3 tsp canola oil
1 tbsp flax meal
1 cup organic pure cane juice sugar
1/4 cup So Delicious Vanilla Coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 and fill your cupcake tin with cute cupcake papers.
In a bowl or mixer combine all wet ingredients and mix.
In a seperate bowl, combine all dry ingredients and wisk together.
With the mixer on low, add your dry ingredients to your wet until well combined.
Add the chocolate chips and stir by hand so you don't break your chocolate chips with your mixer.
Fill your cupcake paper lined cupcake tins with 1/4 cup of batter in each.
Bake in your oven on 350 for 25 - 28 minutes.
The cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Immediately and carefully remove the cupcakes out of the cupcake tins.
Cool your cupcakes on a cooling rack.
Frost when completely cooled.


Maple Buttercream Frosting: gluten free, dairy free, vegan, nut free

Ingredients
1 lb. powdered sugar
2/3 cup - 1 stick Earth Balance
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 5 tbsp 100% pure maple syrup

Directions
In your mixer, combine powdered sugar, Earth Balance, vanilla,  and salt.
Mix starting on low, then moving to high speed.
Go back to low speed and slowly add the maple syrup until well combined.
Bring mixer speed back up to high and whip your frosting for a good couple minutes.

Use a piping bag or a plastic sandwich bag with a small bit of the end cut off to pipe your frosting on your cupcake. Here I added a blob to the center of the cupcake.

With a kitchen knife, I patted the frosting as I moved the cupcakes in a circle. I then finished it off with a swirling motion with the kitchen knife. Thanks for the tip, Mom. :-) I topped them with a few chocolate chips to give you an idea of what's inside.

Serve them up to those you are thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chocolate Cupcakes: gluten free, dairy free, egg free, vegan

Halloween cupcakes, beautifully decorated for Halloween by my children.

I am a huge fan of Bob's Redmill products. Their website offers a ton of recipes to choose from. Many address food sensitivity and food allergy issues. I still find that I have to make my own personal alterations. This post is a great example of that.

My mom loves to have fun with our kids for Halloween. She was so sweet and planned to do cupcake decorating with our kids during our one of our October Sunday dinners. She wanted to be sure to make them so they accomidated my kids, my Dad, and myself, so she asked me for a recipe. I pointed her to the Bob's Redmill site for ideas. She found this gluten free chocolate cake recipe that I link to here that is gluten free.

Here's how I used it as a base and change it into a recipe for gluten free, dairy free, and egg free chocolate cupcakes. This is a great example of how you can make a few subsitutions to accomidate your specific needs.

Chocolate Cupcakes: gluten free, dairy free, egg free

Makes 12 cupcakes.

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Ingredients

1-1/2 cup Bob's Redmill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour

1 cup Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar

1/2 cup Cocoa powder, unsweetened

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Flax Meal

3/4 tsp. Salt

1/2 cup vanilla So Delicious Coconut Milk or other dairy free milk

1/3 cup Earth Balance

3 tbsp apple sauce plus 1 tsp baking powder mixed

1 tsp. Vanilla

3/4 cup warm brewed Coffee or decaf chai tea (this brings out the chocolate flavor)

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepared cupcake tins with cupcake papers.

Place all ingredients, except coffee, in large bowl and blend with wisk or your favorite mixer. I use my Vitamix and so does my Mom.

Add coffee and mix until thoroughly blended.

Pour batter into cupcake papers in cupcake tins and bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcakes comes out clean.

White Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

2 - 4 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp clear vanilla extract (using clear keeps your frosting white. Regular vanilla extract will turn your frosting a bit off white)

1/4 - 1/2 cup Earth Balance (sticks or spread works)

Directions

Mix the above ingredients in you favorite mixer. I use the Kitchenaid for this with the paddle attachment.

Be sure your cake or cupcakes have cooled before frosting them. Spread over your cupcakes or scoop into a plastic zip bag with the end cut, or your favorite piping bag and pipe onto your cupcakes.

Mummy faces created with white frosting and orange and black cake decorating gel.

My son made his own version of a cupcake ghost.

Here are some gluten free, dairy free, egg free mummy cupcakes. My mom got this idea by searching for images of "mummy cupcakes" on-line. There are several interpretations. This is what we came up with.

Enjoy!

Pancakes: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Soy Free

I was just on the phone with my BFF who was saying that she saw a really promising looking gluten free pancake mix and wanted to buy one to make pancakes this weekend for the kids but didn't because it was $7.00 for a little bag! I thought I'd better get the recipe that I've been working on up here just in time for the weekend.

 

There are so many great gluten free mixes out there for things like pancakes, muffins, cakes and cookies. More and more continue to come on the market all the time. Bob's Redmill, Bisquick (just saw it for the first time at QFC),Pamela's, Cherrybrook, Gluten Free Pantry, Arrowheadmills, to name just a few. Seriously!
The problem is that they tend to be super pricey! We are using pretty basic ingredients here that we should have in the pantry anyway, if we are doing this type of baking.
I've tried the Pamela's and Cherrybrook. I liked the Cherrybrook lane mix the best. The Pamela's was great but I realized to late that it had buttermilk in it.

 

Pancakes are a tricky recipe to make gluten free, dairy free and egg free. I think the pancakes miss the eggs the most! I have been working so long on trying to perfect this recipe. I've had so many failures. This one isn't 100 percent yet but I want to post it so you can try it and give me some feedback. What worked, what didn't. I apologize for not having a picture. I'll make them this weekend and will post one. :-)

 

Here's what has worked best at this point for me.

 

Pancakes: gluten free, dairy free, eggs free, and soy free (revised)
by: Kendra (Mrs. Substitution)
2 1/3 cup Gluten Free Flour Mix: 2 cup GF Oat Flour plus 1/3 cup potato starch or tapioca flour. You can use your favorite All Purpose Gluten Free flour mix if you wish.
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp flax plus 3 tbsp warm water (or 3 tbsp apple sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp unrefined sugar or honey
1 1/2 cup Rice Milk (or soy, cow, almond, or coconut) mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.
1 tbsp vanilla (or more, depending on how much you like vanilla.)
Earth Balance as needed for frying pan

Directions:
Mix your flour mixture in a large bowl and whisk with a wire whisk or sift to combine.
Add in baking powder, xanthan gum and salt to the dry flour ingredients.
In a small cup mix your flax and water and let it sit for a minute or two.
In your measuring cup add Rice milk plus apple cider vinegar and let sit for 1-3 minutes or so.
In another bowl or your mixer, Vitamix, or blender, add rice milk, flax and water mixture, sugar or honey, oil, and vanilla. Blend or Mix on high until well combined.
Add in flour a bit at a time and mix until well combined, 3-5 minutes usually does the trick. You don't need to worry about mixing the batter too long as you would when using wheat flour because you won't have any gluten build up. The batter should look runny, likw pancake batter.
Cook in a frying pan on medium to low heat, as you would regular pancakes. Use your canola cooking spray, or something like Earth Balance in bottom of the pan just for the first pancake. Pour about a 1/4 cup scoop of the batter in the pan. (optional: Sometimes at this point we put some chocolate chips on top.)

Once bubbles start to form at the top, check to see if your pancake is ready to flip. Once it's on the other side, cook until that side is cooked all the way through. Top with your favorite butter replacement, 100% maple syrup, or jelly. I like to put Sunflower butter on them and make them into a sandwich. Serve immediately or let cool and refrigerate for up to 4 days or freeze in a ziptop bag. You can thaw in the toaster, frying pan. Leftovers make a great quick breakfast during the week. :-)

Enjoy!