Gluten-Free Vegan Vanilla/Yellow Cake Recipe & Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cupcakes Recipe

Podcast Note: I find it ironic that I said the date in the podcast was "Saturday April 4" lolol... so I obviously subconsciously knew that this would not go live until Monday April 4th! lolol Happy Monday y'all!!

Printable version of today's recipe.

Today’s recipe came from a failed experiment. A few of my colleagues and I are celebrating a friend’s birthday tomorrow and they have auto-immune health issues and eat a low inflammatory diet. What this means for baking is that they avoid gluten, eggs, coconut, and bananas. 

I asked our birthday colleague what kind of cupcakes they liked, and out of all the choices I offered, they said chocolate cake with chocolate icing -OR- chocolate chip cookie cupcakes. Personally, I think anyone who really enjoys baking, also wants to show off their baking… so I opted to make the more complicated “chocolate chip cookie cupcakes.” 

Silly, silly me. 

I’ve made chocolate chip cookie cupcakes in the past, but never as a vegan recipe without eggs. So I attempted to try a shortcut and made a gluten-free box cake mix recipe with an egg substitute (a mix of water, baking powder, and oil), but I knew trying to replace 4 eggs would be tricky. And anytime you use a LOT of baking powder, you generally taste it in the final product. Surprisingly to me, the batter tasted great… but the finished product? A total flop. They tasted terrible and I wasted a perfectly good gluten-free cake mix. Oh well. 

Then I spent about an hour looking at gluten-free vegan yellow cake recipes online. There are plenty to choose from, but I was hesitant to try any recipe with a lot of additional baking powder or baking soda. I finally decided to start with a recipe from Allergylicious. Many of the vegan cake recipes I saw were based on wartime “crazy cakes” or “wacky cakes”, or cakes that were made when things like milk and eggs were rationed during war times. Those cakes tended to have more oil than a traditional cake and increased leavening powder. If baking soda was used, an acid like white vinegar or apple cider vinegar was added to activate the soda to rise. Baking powder already has an acid added (cream of tartar) so it doesn’t need an additional acid. Some recipes even called for using both, which also helped with creating a better rise on the final product. 

From the comments I read on the Allergylicious post, I decided to cut back slightly on the gluten-free flour and add a tablespoon of ground psyllium husks, which helps to hold the shape of risen baked goods, along with adding texture that is similar to wheat. I also added a little bit of turmeric to add yellow color, which would normally come from egg yolks, and I added butter extract (in addition to vanilla extract) to better replicate the flavor of a yellow cake. Finally, I added ½ cup of Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips. The mini chocolate chips are key, because they aren’t heavy enough to weigh down the batter and sink to the bottom while baking. 

The cupcakes rose beautifully and I went with store bought shortcuts to finish them. I frosted with store-bought vanilla icing and decorated them each with a half of a Cybel’s ‘Free to Eat” allergen free chocolate chip cookie. They are my favorite store bought gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and they just happen to be vegan as well.  If you DO want to make your own homemade gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, I highly suggest my award-winning recipe, but I might be biased!

Gluten-Free Vegan Yellow Cake Recipe &

Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

The recipe is adapted from: Allergylicious.com 

It’s also Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Vegan, and Soy-Free

Makes 2 - 8” cake rounds, 18 cupcakes, or 1 - 9 x 13 baking dish

Printable version of this recipe

Dry Ingredients

2 ¾ cups all-purpose gluten-free flour for baking (I used King Arthur Gluten-Free Measure for Measure flour)

1 ½ cups white sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon turmeric (for yellow color - OPTIONAL)

1 tablespoon psyllium powder (for helping hold the texture of the cupcakes when they rise, fiber is a bonus)

Wet Ingredients

2 cups non-dairy milk (I used oat milk, but only because my store was out of my normal almond milk)

2 tablespoons white vinegar

⅔ cups extra virgin olive oil (or any oil that doesn’t have a lot of flavor)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon butter extract or flavoring

Add-In’s: 

½ cup mini chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life Allergen-Free Mini-Chocolate Chips)

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

• If making cake in round cake pans, line pans with parchment paper rounds and/or non-stick cooking spray, or line cupcake pans with paper liners, if using a 9x13 pan, spritz with non-stick cooking spray. 

• In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. 

• In another bowl whisk together all wet ingredients. 

• Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk together until ingredients are well incorporated and smooth, there should be no lumps. 

• Allow batter to rest for 10 minutes to allow the psyllium to thicken the batter. 

• After resting the batter, whisk the batter again, it should be thickened,  IF you are making the chocolate chip cupcakes, then gently stir in the mini chocolate chips, if you just want a yellow cake, leave out the chocolate chips.

• Add batter evenly to round cake pans, a 9x13 greased baking dish, or evenly into individual cupcake liners. If making cupcakes, fill nearly to the top. 

• Baking times: for cupcakes = 18-20 minutes, for 8” round cake pans = 30-35 minutes, for a 9x13” baking dish = 30-35 minutes. 

• Test the cake for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the middle of the cake or cupcake. It should come out mostly clean, with a crumb or two, you don’t want to see wet batter coating the toothpick. 

• When the cake is done, remove it from the oven and allow to cool completely before removing from pans, and then frosting & decorating. 

Kitchen Notes: 

• Turmeric. The turmeric for color is completely optional, leave it out or don’t use it if you don’t have it. 

• Sugar. You can probably use other types of sugar in this recipe if you don’t want to use white sugar. But I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know how it would turn out. If you use a liquid sugar like honey or maple syrup, you may want to decrease the other liquids by ⅓ of  a cup. 

• Psyllium husk powder. This is relatively easy to find on Amazon or in your local health food store. If you don’t want to use this, then increase the all purpose flour to 3 cups instead of 2 ¾ cups and just leave it out altogether. However, I have not made it without the psyllium, so I can’t guarantee the cake will come out as well. 

• Non-dairy milk. Honestly, I think you can use whatever milk you prefer. Coconut milk, almond milk, even dairy milk will work fine in this recipe if that is what you would prefer to use. 

• Olive oil. If you do not have or do not like to use extra virgin olive oil, I would recommend using a light tasting vegetable or coconut oil. If you can use butter all the better. If you do use butter, you can leave out the butter flavoring. 

Kitchen wisdom for today's recipe:

photo from wikipedia.com

• 
  

• “I want people to fall in love with themselves and to be really proud and full of joy for the space they take up. If someone else appreciates the space you take up, then that’s icing on the cake.” — Jonathan Van Ness

Need another serving? 

Please join me on facebook.com/Gingerlemongirlblog to share any comments and/or questions that you may have about today’s recipe. Happy gluten-free baking! 

Afternoon Coffee, Procrastination, and Peanut Butter Cookies

Don't judge... Yes, that's instant coffee! I'm the only one who drinks coffee in the GLG household, I don't like the environmental impact of K-cups.. and let me tell you, Nescafe is darn better than Sanka (well, Sanka circa 1990 which tasted like charcoal.. I haven't tried it lately though... ;-) 

It's a quiet Sunday, I was enjoying a small afternoon cup of coffee and I pulled out my "Introduction to Library and Information Science" to begin reading chapters 8, 9, 10  for my assignment next week and then it dawned on me, it was a great time to make cookies.  I know, I thought it was brilliant timing too! 

My favorite peanut butter cookies are the ol'  "1 cup of peanut butter + 1 cup sugar + 1 egg" recipe... but I didn't want to use THAT much peanut butter (do you know how expensive peanut butter is these days?) or THAT much sugar... or really...let's be honest...do I need THAT many cookies?

Probably, I don't need any cookies...

A few months ago I bought a used hardback copy of the 1974 edition of the Joy of Cooking. I wanted to get a copy I could actually use since the beloved paperback that my Dad had when I was growing up, is literally falling apart.

I love that cookbook. His favorite chocolate chip cookies came from Ms. Irma Rombauer and probably a bunch of other meals we used to eat growing up like meatloaf, oyster stew, and chicken a' la King. I wonder where Irma learned to make chicken a' la King.

These are basically the peanut butter cookies in Joy of Cooking (1974 ed.), but I made them gluten-free (of course) and halved the recipe. You could easily make this recipe egg free, If you choose to do that I would replace it with 1 tablespoon of water mixed with 1 teaspoon of ground flax seeds. Stir that mixture together and allow it to 'gel.'

If you decide to double the recipe below, just use a whole egg instead of an egg white (or double up on the flax seed substitute.)

Basic Peanut Butter Cookies
adapted from the 1974 edition of 'Joy of Cooking' by Irma Rombauer
gluten-free, soy-free, easily egg-free, vegetarian
yields 30 - 1.5" cookies

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine of choice, (or even extra peanut butter if you're a big fan)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (we like chunky, all natural)
• 1 egg white (or 1 tablespoon water mixed with 1 teaspoon ground flaxseeds)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Dry Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup arrowroot starch (or starch of choice -- potato starch, cornstarch, tapioca starch, etc...)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
2. In a large bowl cream together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and peanut butter, until creamy and fluffy.
3. Stir in the egg white and vanilla. 
4. In another bowl whisk together all dry ingredients. 
5. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until you have a sticky, slightly wet cookie dough. 
6. Drop batter by small spoonfuls (about a teaspoon and a half per cookie) onto the cookie sheet. Placing a few inches between each cookie - we make 12 cookies per batch. 
7. Flatten cookies by gently pressing with the back of a fork in a criss-cross pattern. To keep the fork from sticking to the cookie, dip in granulated sugar between criss-crosses. 
8. Bake for 11-14 minutes until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. 

Celebrating Local NC Food: The Porterhouse Chop with the NC Pork Council

You may remember that last month I started working with the North Carolina Pork Council to help promote local pork products. I'm thrilled to partner with NCPC because Eastern North Carolina is a major producer of pork and it provides many jobs in our area. Many of our restaurants and grocery stores support local farmers and ranchers and so the pork products we generally buy in this area are from regional farms.

The cut being shared this month is the Porterhouse Chop (formerly known as the bone-in loin chop). If you're confused about the names of different cuts of pork, you're definitely not alone. The industry recently changed many of the names of different cuts in the hopes of cutting down confusion on the previous names. You can read more about reasons why the names changed in this article. To see exactly what cuts have changed and how to recognize them, please check out this helpful pdf. 

A few of the ingredients for this dish: chopped bacon, sliced onions,
chicken stock, bay leaves, and brown sugar.
No worries, there is NO cherry jello in this recipe! lol

I thought about many different ways to cook these chops... whether to grill them, to roast them, to pan sear them... I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Finally, I settled on using my old standby... the slow cooker! I can always count on my slow cooker for a tasty and relatively easy meal. My first cookbook was centered around gluten-free slow cooker recipes, so I was excited to figure out a way to make these chops super delicious and tasty in my favorite appliance. 

Cooking the pork chops in the bacon fat to brown them before
placing in the slow cooker. 

I researched a lot of different recipes, both in my cookbook, in Stephanie's cookbook, and several online recipe databases, but I just couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something savory without a lot of added sweetness like apples or jam. And I generally try to avoid recipes calling for soy sauce because I react to it, and I haven't found a good savory substitute for 1/2 cup of soy sauce! (You'd be amazed how many pork chop recipes call for 1/2 cup of soy sauce! yeesh!) 

Rendering the fat out of the bacon, to use as our cooking fat for the chops,
the onions, and the garlic. 

I also checked out a few food bloggers and finally found this recipe that really appealed to me. I loved that the sauce didn't contain any soy sauce, and since the pork is slow cooked, it basically creates it's own stock for a quick sauce/gravy while it's cooking.

Overall I made the recipe very similarly to the original recipe, however I did change things along the way just to make things a little easier. I didn't need to use canola oil, I actually used 6 chops, used less stock to make a thicker sauce, and well... you get the picture..

Random cat picture.... you're welcome... :-) 

The finished recipe really produces a great flavor on the chops and the gravy is just killer! While I enjoy grilled meats, I'm not a big fan of grilling personally, so using the slow cooker was right up my alley.

Do take the time to brown the chops and cook the onions before adding them to the slow cooker. IT really gives the meat and gravy a great flavor and color, that you don't get by just tossing the ingredients in the cooker and letting them go.

Slow Cooked Smothered Porterhouse Chops
adapted from this recipe and shared by Carrie of Gingerlemongirl.com
free of gluten, dairy, eggs, and soy
printer-friendly recipe

Pork Ingredients:
4-6 porterhouse loin chops
4 slices of thick cut bacon, diced into small pieces
1 large yellow onion, sliced thinly
2 teaspoons freshly minced garlic (about 2 small cloves)
1/4 cup water
2 bay leaves

Initial Sauce Ingredients:
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 cups low sodium chicken stock
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins is gluten-free)

Later Sauce Ingredients:
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dried parsley (+ more for serving)

Directions: 

1. Add a sprinkling of salt and pepper over the raw pork on both sides. Set aside. 
2. Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet on medium high heat. Once the pan is hot add the diced bacon. Cook for 5-6 minutes until the fat has rendered from the bacon and the diced bacon bits are golden and crispy. Remove the bacon bits onto a paper-towel lined plate and allow them to cool. Then refrigerate bacon bits until serving the pork. 
3. Add the pork chops to the hot pan of bacon fat and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side just until browned. Add pork chops to the slow cooker. 
4. Add the sliced onions and 1/4 cup water to the same pan of bacon fat and cook onions until softened and translucent, about 5-6 minutes. While the onions are cooking, stir around the pan getting up all the brown bits from the bacon and pork. Then add garlic and cook just until fragrant, about another minute. Pour this mixture over the chops in the slow cooker along with the bay leaves. 
5. In the same pan add the chicken stock, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and Dijon mustard. Whisk until dijon is combined into the stock and cook on high until the sauce mixture is boiling. Pour over the meat in the slow cooker. 
6. Cook browned pork and sauce on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours. 
7. Once the pork is fully cooked and you're ready to serve, remove the pork, most of the onions, and the bay leaves from slow cooker. Discard the bay leaves. The pork chops should be tender enough to pull away from the bones. Cover the pork chops with aluminum foil and put in a hot oven while you continue to prepare the sauce. 
8. Pour the remaining sauce from the slow cooker into a large sauce pan and place on medium-high heat. 
9. In a small bowl mix together the cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of water, cider vinegar, and dried parsley. Whisk into the sauce. 
10. Allow the sauce to cook until boiling. Cook an additional 5-6 minutes until sauce has thickened to your likeness. If you want it thinner add a bit more water. If you prefer it thicker, add a bit more cornstarch that's been added to a little bit of water (a cornstarch slurry = 1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1 tablespoon water.)
11. When ready to serve sprinkle each piece of pork with some of the crispy bacon bits and then ladle the thickened sauce over each chop. Also, you can add additional parsley sprinkled over each serving. We ate this with seasoned rice and broccoli. Refrigerate any leftovers for up to 3 days. 

NOTES: 

• Alternately, instead of using a slow cooker you could bake the browned pork chops in a large casserole dish with the initial sauce, covered with aluminum foil at 300 degrees for 3-4 hours. Finish the sauce as directed above. 
• I had a hard time finding the exact type of pork chop that was needed for this post. The pork chops I found were simply listed as QUARTER LOIN CHOPS, which I think is an older term that's not used in all grocery stores anymore. But they worked great for this recipe, so don't sweat it if you can't find the exact bone-in cut called for. 
• If you want an even more flavorful, smooth, and silky sauce/gravy, you can stir in 2 tablespoons of butter when you're ready to serve the sauce. Allow it to melt and dissolve into the sauce and you're ready to go. 

GLG Disclosure: 

This post is part of a new monthly series featuring local NC pork products sponsored by the North Carolina Pork Council. The NC Pork Council provided me with a gift certificate to purchase pork products and create a recipe to share. The opinions and photography in this post are completely my own.