Sometimes I’ll make a recipe for the first time and it’ll be perfect.

Other times I’ll make a recipe and I can’t stop myself from playing with it. Case in point: these chocolate cupcakes from Elana Amsterdam’s Gluten-Free Cupcakes. It began as a simple affair, with mixing wet and dry ingredients together. The cupcakes, as they stand in the original recipe, are already great. I just couldn’t resist putting my own spin on it.

So I began to play with the recipe.

I had used butter and melted it instead of grapeseed oil, because that’s what I had on hand. Then I read that using melted butter in a cake recipe can give it a muffin texture and that it’s better to cream to the butter, as the pockets of fat are distributed and melt while baking – resulting in a fluffy crumb. Well, the cupcakes with the melted butter were soft but were also kind of dense. Point proven.

So I creamed the butter. Better results. (Afterward, I liked the results even better with coconut oil.) Then I decided to separate the eggs – remembering when I did this in a recipe for coconut flour lemon cupcakes and it had a lovely moist, fluffy crumb. I don’t know what the exact science is, but in my experience I have noticed that when baking with coconut flour, it’s better to separate the eggs for a fluffier and moist texture than when using whole eggs. I creamed the butter with the honey and mixed in the egg yolks. That was mixed with the dry ingredients. Then in a separate bowl, I beat the egg whites to soft peaks and folded them in. So far so good.

The resultant cupcakes were cakey, moist and fluffier. The final step was upping the cocoa powder to increase the flavour of the chocolate and a bit of vanilla to round it off.

A special note about the artwork in this post: the drawings were lovingly made by my sister, who is a talented artist and to whom I am most grateful. To see more of her creative work, you may visit her blog here.

Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted with permission from Gluten-Free Cupcakes: 50 Irresistible Recipes Made with Almond and Coconut Flour by Elana Amsterdam (Celestial Arts, 2011)

Makes 9 cupcakes (or 24 mini cupcakes)

Since making these cupcakes with butter, I’ve also used coconut oil with similar results. When made with coconut oil, the batter is actually batter (when made with butter, it’s more like dough but they both bake up the same) and the cupcakes peel away more easily from the paper liners with little to no crumbs left behind. In fact, I now prefer to make them with coconut oil and use butter for the buttercream frosting.

1/4 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup honey
55 grams (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened or at room temperature or solid coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350ºF and line 9 muffin cups with cupcake liners. Blend together the coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl.

In a medium or large bowl, cream together the butter or coconut oil and honey until thick and creamy. Add egg yolks and mix until pale yellow in colour.

In a separate, large metal bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.

Assemble the batter: Dump the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix with a whisk or spatula until it’s mixed into a thick and luscious batter. Now begin to gently fold half of the beaten egg whites with a spatula to lighten, then add the remainder, and continue folding until there is no visible white remaining and the batter is smooth without any lumps.

Fill prepared muffin cups half full or about 2 tablespoons per, and bake for 18 to 20 minutes.* Remove from oven and cool completely in muffin tin before frosting.

Enjoy!

*For mini cupcakes: use 1/2 tablespoon of batter per (I used a cookie scoop to measure it out) and bake for 15 minutes. Cool completely.

Chocolate Buttercream

I’ve been making this chocolate buttercream for years. It’s my go-to since it’s simple and quick to make, and can be made with little notice. The measurements provided are approximations, as usually I just eyeball the amounts. Make as needed.

1/4 cup soft, unsalted butter
1 spoonful cocoa powder
About 1/2 tbsp. honey

Mix butter, cocoa powder, and honey together with a fork in a small bowl until completely mixed and smooth. Spread generously on cupcakes.

I had tried making an oat-free version of these chocolate chip oatmeal cookies by simply leaving out the oats. Alas, the dollops of cookie batter spread and fused together as they baked, becoming flat and crumbly. Thankfully, there was still some batter left – I’d only used half of it for the attempted cookies – and I baked the rest as muffins. As muffins, it worked out beautifully.

It’s been nearly a year since I experimented with that recipe and since rediscovering the recipe, they’re currently my favourite muffins to make and to eat. Good eaten on their own, they’re especially good spread with some butter or solid coconut oil. (In fact, when I tried one with coconut oil, I liked it more than butter.)

The only thing I had to work on was their crumbly nature, which was fixed with a small amount of xanthan gum – it would’ve been an over-allowance to simply just call it a delicate crumb. (The crumb shouldn’t be so delicate that one can’t put butter on it without it falling apart!)

I’ve now made this recipe multiple times, and every time they’re a big hit. Sometimes I make double batches.

With their buttery, cinnamon spiced flavour I imagine these would also make excellent banana muffins. (I’ve noticed that cinnamon seems to enhance the flavour of bananas, including these pancakes.) I’d mash 1 or 2 bananas, depending on size and ripeness, and mix it into the batter. Possibly baking for a further 5 minutes, due to extra moisture from the bananas.

Cinnamon Spice Muffins

The cookies recipe that this is based on uses millet flour instead of quinoa flour. Quinoa flour has a grassy, earthy flavour and you can taste it mildly in these muffins. If, however, you’re not fond of quinoa flour or don’t have any on hand, simply substitute it with an equal amount of millet flour.

Note: the muffins seem to peel away more easily from the cupcake liner when coconut oil is used instead of butter. And if you want the muffins to have some extra height, as in the muffins rising above the paper liner, fill almost to the top and bake for the same amount of time.

Makes 9 muffins

3 ounces (75 grams or 1/3 cup) unsalted butter or solid coconut oil
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 medium or large eggs
1/2 cup (60 grams) brown rice flour
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. (42 grams) cornstarch
1/4 cup (30 grams) quinoa flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 9 cups of a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Mix together eggs, honey, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Melt butter or coconut oil in a small pot or saucepan over medium heat. Take off the heat and cool slightly before mixing into the wet ingredients.

In a medium bowl blend together the cornstarch, brown rice flour, quinoa flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and xanthan gum. Pour in wet ingredients and mix until it’s a thick and smooth batter.

Divide batter among lined muffin cups, filling each about halfway full (if you want taller muffins, see note above). Use a flexible rubber spatula to scrape all the batter from the bowl. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool muffins in tin.

Enjoy!