There have been quite a few requests for a basic vanilla gluten free cupcakes recipe.
To be honest, I went through many failed gluten free cupcake attempts before arriving at the recipe posted below. One experiment was too dry; another too crumbly; still another tasted like plaster of Paris poured into cupcake liners and baked.
(In case you were wondering, that experiment went straight into the trash.)
I’m glad I didn’t give up on the gluten free cupcakes recipe (although I did seriously think about it after the unfortunate plaster debacle…). These basic vanilla gluten free cupcakes turn out soft, perfectly domed, and delicious every single time.
Above, the gluten free cupcakes are iced with my Healthy Nutella Recipe.
Gluten Free Cupcakes
Ingredients
Gluten Free Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup plus 3 tbsp Bob’s gluten free flour (regular white flour or spelt will work for a non-gf version) (90g)
- 1/4 tsp xantham gum
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup xylitol or sugar of choice (90g)
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise spread (such as Earth Balance, Vegenaise, or even homemade cashew mayo) (58g)
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp water (95g)
Instructions
Gluten Free Cupcakes Recipe: Preheat oven to 350F. Place 6-7 liners inside a cupcake pan. In a large bowl, combine first five ingredients and stir well. In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients and whisk together until the mayo spread is completely smooth. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir until just evenly combined. Divide among the liners (these cupcakes rise a lot), and bake 22 minutes or until cupcakes have domed and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let sit 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Refrigerate for optimum freshness. (The recipe for the healthy chocolate frosting shown in the photos is linked under the second picture in this post.)
Question of the Day:
Have you had any recent recipe failures?
With my job requiring multiple recipe experiments each day, I have recipe failures all the time! Some recent ones would include chocolate cheesecake cupcakes that blew up in the oven (not exactly a joy to clean up), super gummy quinoa cookies, and an extremely unfortunate attempt at a Butterfinger pie. (Butterfinger pie sounds really good, right? It wasn’t!)
Ooh, or remember the exploding cake in my post on Food Photography Gone Wrong?
These look really tempting to make tonight… 🙂
Those look super yum!
These look wonderful, I may need to make them for hubby this weekend. Thanks!
I love these – they look so delicious and simple! haha my recipe failures as of late included beet brownies which did not turn out well at all (in the least bit!!!)
If you have sensitive taste buds, this will taste like beans to you. Bob’s GF flour is Ok in chocolate, or other highly flavoured cupcakes, but vanilla is just too delicate to cover it up. If you have access to Authentic Foods Classical Blend, I recommend that instead.
Kim, did the authentic foods classical blend give you a fluffy cupcake with THIS recipe?
I never try to make gluten free things, but I have many friends who now are gluten intolerant and I feel bad when they can’t try all of the food at get togethers. I will have to try these for the next time so they can indulge too!
Hi Katie. Thanks for sharing those. They look yum! My GF baking is not great and trying to get better at it. And yes, a few recent recipe/ baking failures, the best one was GF banana bread. Still not sure went wrong but it was so dense and had no banana taste. I ended up throwing it out 🙁
Those look really great! I love your website and all the healthy recipes you post and I was wondering if you could do a healthy, vegan take on meringues? Thanks!
Meringues are actually super hard to make vegan because of how the egg protein builds structure and holds air.
Some adventurous vegan bakers have risen to the challenge:
http://www.veganbaking.net/recipes/cookies/pistachio-meringue-cookies
I haven’t made that one, but I really like the post because it goes through all the science of making meringues. 🙂
It’s not very healthy, admittedly. Here is a bit of a healthier take,
http://www.artisanveganlife.com/intensely-baking/
though no word on how to bake them, except in some of the comments (at max 200 F). You may be able to take inspiration from both these posts!
thanks , thats great :)!
Just founf this, on the flax meringues:
http://forum.theppk.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=25665
To minimize the mess from exploding foods in the microwave I have two tools.
First, is a sheet of microwave safe plastic-like material with lots of holes to let out the heat. I picked it up at the “Dollar” store and I have since run into duplicates at kitchen stores for more than 5 times that amount.
Second, is an old microwave safe bowl with a large crack in it I saved for this purpose. I invert it over my dish and the crack allows the pressure to vent while containing my experiments. I have a concern that it may effect the cooking time and I’m considering drilling 1/16″ to 1/8″ holes to allow in it (or another bowl) to allow heat/steam to vent easier.
Katie, these were both simple and delish!!! I used coconut sugar as the sugar and doubled the batch. They came out great and were nice and domed. I had to try them right out of the oven, they smelled so good. I haven’t decided on peanut butter or chocolate frosting, yet. Maybe some of each!!! Thanks for making healthy eating a pleasure. I couldn’t do it without some of your awesome recipes!!!
Thank you so so much for making them!