If you’re familiar with Bill Cosby’s early comedy routines, you probably remember the above jingle! Cosby told an incredibly funny story about his wife asking him to make their kids breakfast one morning. He decided that leftover chocolate cake was perfectly healthy and acceptable as a breakfast food since it had wheat, eggs, and milk in it!
My husband Michael loves Bill Cosby’s comedy… and he also loves chocolate cake! And since I’m trying some gluten-free recipes, I thought we could give chocolate cupcakes a whirl! I haven’t done much baking with gluten-free flours, so this is my first attempt since I've been eating this way! I found a delicious looking cupcake recipe on Gluten Free Mommy’s website. I thought that would be a good place to start. I changed the recipe slightly since I didn’t have a variety of gluten free flours, and I didn’t have any xanthan gum. I also added chocolate chips!
One thing I will really miss when baking gluten-free, is the time-honored tradition of licking out the leftover batter in the mixing bowl! Once the cake was mixed I tasted the batter, and to be quiet honest, it didn’t taste nearly as good as a traditional wheat flour chocolate cake. There was a subtle hint of the bean flours that were incorporated into the GF all-purpose mix I was using. BUT, I wasn’t giving up. I had made some vanilla cupcakes for a gluten-free friend once (made with soy flour), and while that batter didn’t taste great either... the finished cupcakes were delicious! So I continued with baking the chocolate cupcakes.
The frosted cupcakes were not quite as moist as I would have liked, and they did taste slightly different than traditional wheat flour cupcakes, but they were still very good! Michael said they tasted much better than he expected, and that’s a big compliment coming from him!!
Next time I make them, I will definitely try to find the sorghum and tapioca flours that were mentioned in the original recipe. I may even try this with just rice flour, which I did have on hand. ALSO, for those of you who are not on any special diets, you can certainly substitute regular all purpose flour and I’m sure you would have some great cupcakes! I may also throw in some additional egg whites or applesauce to give the cupcakes more moisture. At any rate, they were still some very pretty cupcakes and I look forward to having one with my lunch today!
Double Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cups All-purpose GF baking mix (I used Bob’s Red Mill brand)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla
- 1 1/3 cups of buttermilk
- 1 1/2 cups of sugar
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 3-6 oz. GF chocolate chips
- Favorite Gluten Free Frosting (I used Duncan Hines Homemade Fluffy White, you mix this at home with water, and it’s completely GF!! Yummy!)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 20 muffin tins with liners. In a med. bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and baking soda together. In a large bowl or in your stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Slowly add the buttermilk and the flour mixture alternately until combined. Add chocolate chips, stir until mixed in. Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling each 2/3 full. Bake the cupcakes for about 17 minutes (or less until done –check them carefully!). Cool on wire racks. Frost after the cupcakes have cooled completely.