Gluten-Free Strawberry Cupcakes and a giveaway!
Baby steps.
I need to take baby steps when it comes to gluten-free baking.
Maybe the flours confuse me. Maybe I have no idea what guar gum is. Maybe arrowroot is intimidating.
… It’s just that I know exactly what all-purpose flour is going to do when I combined it with baking soda and buttermilk… it’s going to make me delicious, fluffy pancakes. I like knowing that.
But I’m being a brat. A total brat. I like the sound of coconut flour. I learned that arrowroot is just a thickening starch that comes from a plant. I can still use eggs in gluten-free baking, and I’m totally on-board with agave nectar.
I made gluten-free cupcakes. I was a brat for thinking that it would be torture. Considering how delicious these are… I’m totally done being a brat, probably until the next time something challenges my sensibilities.
There’s a new book in my collection. Gluten-free cupcakes I can get down with. All of the recipes are made with either coconut or almond flour. They all have agave nectar, sometimes coconut oil (yum!), and arrowroot. I was amazed at how sweet coconut flour is. Seriously… amazing. And boy is that stuff absorbent! Crazy. Yes. You’re watching me learn new things. Bare with me.
I’m stoked on this book, Gluten-Free Cupcakes. Elana has made gluten-free baking feel not so daunting… not to mention that these cupcakes are totally delicious. Her recipes have as little as three ingredients, usually six or so. Totally do-able. I want one of you to have a copy of this book. I also want one of you to have a bag of coconut flour and a bag of arrowroot powder. I’ll send those along too. Get started! There’s nothing that should stop you from gluten-free goodness.
Leave a comment with this post. Tell me what you’re doing this weekend that might me just slightly outside of your comfort zone. A winner will be chosen on Sunday night and announced on Monday. Get on it!
UPDATE: Winner! Kerry Edwards! You randomly won the Gluten-Free Cupcake Book! I’m stoked! I hope you are too!!
It’s strawberry time.
I’m totally ready to perfect my strawberry dice.
Listen… sometimes pictures of batter aren’t as glamorous as you want them to be. Well… most time they aren’t.
But there is some coconut flour and arrowroot magic going on here.
This recipe called for 4 large eggs and half a cup of coconut flour. I said… no way. And yet… way! These cupcakes turned out tender, moist, cakey, and delicious. Fan.
I topped these little cakes with agave sweetened Cream Cheese frosting. I am absolutely amazed at how simply delicious these are. I think I just got 46 times more popular with my gluten-free friends. I’m just sayin’.
Gluten-Free Strawberry Cupcakes
makes 8 (or 9) cupcakes
recipe from Gluten Free Cupcakes
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 large eggs
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries (plus more for topping the frosting)
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with 8 or 9 foil or paper liners. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together coconut flour, arrowroot powder, salt, and baking soda. If the coconut flour has a few stubborn lumps in it, make sure to whisk them out.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, agave, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients, all at once, to the dry ingredients and whisk together. You can do this by hand or with a handheld mixture. Whisk until all ingredients are well combined. You’ll feel the mixture begin to thicken as you stir.
Fold in the strawberries.
Scoop batter into lined cupcake pan. Fill papers to two-thirds full.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven. Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack. Once completely cool, frost with cream cheese frosting.
Cupcakes will keep, in an airtight container in the fridge for up 2 or 3 days.
Cream Cheese Frosting
makes: enough to smear 8 or 9 cupcakes. If you’d like to pipe this frosting, I suggest doubling the recipe.
1/3 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons agave nectar
dash of pure vanilla extract
In a large bowl, whip heavy cream into stiff peaks using a whisk or a handheld mixer. In a separate large bowl, whip the cream cheese, agave, and vanilla together until smooth and pliable. Using a rubber spatula, fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. Fold until evenly combined.
Spread onto cooled cupcakes or place in a piping bag to pipe over cupcakes. Sprinkle with small diced strawberries.
Frosting will keep, in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 or 3 days.
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i love elana! i’ve been following her blog for quite awhile now. this weekend i taught a yoga class of 40 people! i was SO nervous but they were all amazing and i had such an awesome time!
yum!! this weekend i took a class on how to build an earth oven for baking bread, wood-fired pizzas, etc. so very fun to play with dirt and dream about baking in it!!
Ooh! I wanted strawberry cupcakes for my birthday. I still enjoyed way too much decadent layers of a chocolate truffle cake coated in ganache, but this is exactly what I want…right now!
Getting a dog! Never had one, always wanted one, now’s the time and we found the perfect one.
I went camping!
played a great match of rugby down in New Zealand, then went to find some alpacas!
They look yummy! but I’ve had my fill of cupcakes this weekend, I baked some coconut cupcakes and topped them with dulce de leche
I just learned that Osama Bin Laden has been killed and his body captured. It’s blowing my mind and making me feel all sorts of things. I came here to give my brain a bit of a break before our Prime Minister Harper comes on to talk about the announcement.
Unfortunately, this weekend, I’m taking care of my injured bf. So lot’s of hanging, watching tv, baking for him (he’s so spoiled) and eating out when we can wobble out of the house. Luckily that led to Bi-rite creamery in SF, not too shabby :)
Today I tackled cinnamon buns and almost made something delicious happen (almost.)
I know that baking takes attention (of this I am often short.)
There was a newspaper on the island right by the oven (just a quick peek at the headlines.)
Hmmm, that timer should’ve gone off long ago….
Ah, and so it did.
3 hours and 12 flour paperweights later, I’m ready for gluten free.
This weekend my parents are coming to visit me from Los Angeles…i hope they fall in love wit Portland,OR like i did…Thanks for the chance to win…e*
For once I didn’t listen to other people’s advice and got what *I* wanted. :)
too late to post? I sunbathed on a nudi beach earlier today… not in my comfort zone!!
It’s probably too late for the contest for me, but I wanted to say I am excited about the gluten free recipe — one of my co-workers has an allergy and was so glad that I made your peanut butter cookies and brought them into work. She said it was the first time in a LOOOONG time that she got to participate in the joy of homemade baked goods!
As for this weekend, furthest out of my comfort zone was trying to buy art for my place at a fair. I don’t know how to talk to artists at all!
These look divine. I plan on making them this weekend and taking them with me to the Himalayas for a picnic if the weather is nice.
Or maybe just Central Park. It’s closer.
I’m pretty sure I’m too late, but I wanted to share anyways. This weekend I made new friends at my new job. Sounds lame, but for an introvert like me it’s pretty great.
Oh yeah! and I made an amazing (-ly easy) crust for a quiche with just spelt flour, oil, water and salt for a gluten-sensitive friend who can handle spelt flour in small quantities.
My mom is allergic to gluten. I will totally be making these this weekend for her for mothers day!
<3 Sarah
theantiquepearl.blogspot.com
Definitely going to bookmark this recipe for when I see my friend who can’t eat gluten. He’ll absolutely love these! As, I’m sure, will I. :)
This weekend I went out and worked on my first non-assigned story that I’m hoping will be picked up by a newspaper. Yeah….just a bit scary. :)
thank you again, from both my sister and i! <3 joy the baker!!
GF cupcakes yummmm :) Food is a big part of our culture and the way we interact with each other. Ever since I was diagnosed with Celiacs (after a sudden critical amount of weight loss and inability to keep food down) I have a great appreciation for the tools ( aka GREAT recipes) that enable me to be included and participate in family, work and school gatherings. It is so much more fun than feeling denied while watching everyone around you partake. My test for a recipe is making it and serve it to gluten eating individuals…if they are surprised when you tell them it is GF than the recipe is a true success!!! I have a good feeling about these cupcakes, they will be a wonderful addition to the toolbox. Thank you for sharing :)
This weekend hmmm…what an adventure!!! I actually rely on a wheelchair for mobility but several years back before my life changed I was a ballet dancer….this weekend I had the joy of being invited to join a professional fully able bodied Dance company http://www.odcdance.org/ and perform on stage it was AMAZING to reconnect with my body in that way. I applaud the vision of the choreographer to incorporate my manual wheelchair into the piece. It was a thrill to be whirling around
to the music almost like an ice skater and my partners’ confidence and years of performance experience added the perfect balance to our number. Sooo, while that was a little outside my usual comfort zone it was very rewarding. My weekend than was rounded off with the Walk Ms fundraiser at Legoland, church and a lesson in archery given to me by my boyfriends’ 9yr old nephew. FUN STUFF!!
I’m so excited to make these cupcakes. I’ve been able to adapt a lot of your recipes to gluten free, they always turn out perfectly. Especially the chicken pot pit with the chive biscuits! *Swoon*
Thanks so much!
This weekend I did a half ironman triathlon. With a wicked cough. Somehow I don’t think that’s what you meant when you said outside your comfort zone. Regardless, I am gluten free, so I am totally stoked about the cupcakes. I think I deserve one, don’t you think??
I’m volunteering with a dog rescue group and I know NONE of these people. Should be interesting.
Also, the boyfriend has agreed to have dinner with my mother, brother, aunt, and uncle Saturday night at a German restaurant. Good ol’ family time!
Pray for us.
These sound sooooo good! And being gluten-free, I should probably try making them too. And I’ve never used coconut flour, so I might give it a go :)
So I saw this recipe and thought: that’s what I can do with that bag of coconut flour in the cabinet!
I’m currently not eating any processed foods of sugar of any kind. Well, except for fruit. I’m doing really well (surprisingly well considering the disgusting amount of sugar, cookies, ice cream and junk that I usually sustain myself on). I have both coconut flour and agave nectar – neither of which I use, so I thought I’d give your recipe a whirl. If you’re anything like me, you bookmark a thousand recipes and maybe make 10%, if you’re lucky. So I was excited to give them a try. You should know that I have a hard time sticking with recipes. I always tell myself that I’ll make it as written the first time, then I can improve it…never happens. So here is how I ruined your recipe:
I was freaked out by the full 1/2 cup agave nectar, so I only put in 1/4 cup.
I don’t like strawberries in baked goods (or really any fruit unless it is pureed), so I subbed out apples and cinnamon. I added more than the 1/2 to try and replace some of the sweetness from the agave.
I also throw in a bit of ground flax and ground chias seeds, for healthiness.
Then I added a teensy bit of milk because I was afraid the flax/chias would suck up too much liquid and the batter looked a little dryer than your pictures.
Instead of frosting, I sprinkled them with a tiny bit of tubinado sugar and cinn.
SO…they turned out surprisingly good. They’re alittle bit too wet inside. Maybe they needed another min in the oven or maybe a little less apple sauce.
I highly recommend this recipe for anyone trying to avoid white flours, not just gluten free, but do yourself a favor and stick with the original recipe.
Joy – I’d love some more recipes with whole grain flours. I’d constantly experimenting, but usually failing.
Wow! Those look so delicious!!! I will have to try them sometime soon!
Seeing “gluten-free” in your post title made me all sorts of happy! You’ve got a growing fan base in us Celiacs!
Sounds delicious!
**FRIENDLY REMINDER….not all cream cheeses are GF. Check the label. I am some friends that are seriously celiacs, and have reacted to cream cheese that have been contaminated.
Ooh!! Good reminder. I did not know!
Kory thanks so much for the heads-up! I am making these for a children’s birthday party and that would have never crossed my mind. Definitely checking the labels when I get home!
A good friend of mine has been following your blog for a while and turned me on to it and I am now hooked as well. We decided to take on this recipe and had such fun making it together. We did them as strawberry rhubarb and strawberry coconut flake. I felt like they were more like delicious breakfast muffins than cupcakes but wow coconut flour is amazing. We didn’t have cream cheese so we made an improv buttercream and put strawberries into the frosting. Next time we will have to try the cream cheese! Love your photos too!
LOVE this!
The cupcakes are absolutely gorgeous cupcakes! They look so tasty and yummy.
I can’t wait to make these for my family. Great cupcake recipe!!
These gluten-free strawberry cupcakes are the dreamiest cupcakes I have seen. I love the idea of the nutty and creaminess of coconut paired with the sweet brightness of strawberry. I wonder if this will work with frozen strawberries since strawberries are out of season in the East Coast? If not, I will just have to dream some more for these darlings!
I tried these out, substituting agave nectar for equal measure of honey (Gozitan, delicious, look it up:))
The result was delicious, smelled divine but alas too sticky to get off the cupcake papers. I’m still going to be eating them and giving them away though. Probably next time less honey, or I’ll try them with sweetener.