Babycakes gluten free Chocolate Cupcakes and Pumpkin Spice Muffins

I have missed posting on here the past few days, as I mentioned before I am being strict with myself to get my new site finished. It is almost done! I can't wait to show everyone, I just need to do the last few tweaks :) I have a backlog of interesting things I want to show.

__________________

Here in the meantime is a cookery experiment I tried today..

As I have mentioned on Twitter, I recently bought the Babycakes cookery book which contains recipes from the NYC bakery of the same name. The recipes are vegan, mostly gluten free, and mostly sugar free. I am not allergic to gluten but as half my family are I like to try out gluten free recipes so that at family get-togethers we can all eat the same thing. For a family 'do' this weekend I gave the Chocolate Cupcakes and the Pumpkin Spice Muffins a try.

Some notes on the ingredients:

• Most gluten-free chefs will probably be familiar with potato starch, arrowroot, and xanthan gum, these are not too hard to find in the local wholefoods and bigger supermarkets will have them too.
• Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour that is used throughout the book isn't stocked in the UK that I could find so I substituted Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour.
• I could not find Garbanzo-fava bean flour or anything similar anywhere in shops or online in the UK so I substituted rice flour as recommended on the Babycakes site. I used brown rice flour.
• I found coconut oil in a large South Asian shop. I melted this gently before using, it turns to liquid anyway in a hot kitchen. The agave nectar was not hard to find, I got this in the local wholefoods.
• I made my own apple sauce for the cupcakes, bought stuff would taste the same I am sure but I couldn't find any that didn't have citrus (another allergy!).
• Something to note is that in the book it refers to 'baking powder' but make sure this is gluten free baking powder. You should be able to find this in a whole foods store too.

This might seem all a bit of a mission :) however gluten free cooking is like a science experiment and it is worth getting the right ingredients. Anyway once you have the ingredients in your cupboards it is then easy peasy to whip up a batch of whatever GF item you want.

The icing in the book is vegan and uses soy milk and soy milk powder but.... yes... soy is another allergy in my family. So for the icing I scrapped the vegan element (no one is a vegan anyway) and I topped the Chocolate Cupcakes with a small spoonful of whipped cream, a thick smudge of chocolate ganache (melt dark chocolate with cream and a small dot of unsalted butter, cool until spreadable), and a dusting of cocoa powder. To go on the Pumpkin Spice Muffins I mixed cream with a little nutmeg, ginger, and unrefined confectioners sugar. I chilled both the topping until spreading them on just before serving.

The results:

The verdict:

Thumbs up all round. All were agreed that you would not know that the cake part (not the icing) was gluten free, sugar free, and vegan. Without the sugar you don't get the swoop and crash of blood sugar or cravings which is great.

The vote was pretty evenly split between the Pumpkin Spice Muffins and the Chocolate Cupcakes. They were both fudgy and moist. I myself liked the Pumpkin Spice the best but the Chocolate Cupcakes were good for a special occasion. I don't see any real reason why the cake mixture would not work spread out in a cake tin if you wanted to have one whole cake. Note that the cakes do not rise very much so do fill up the cake papers almost to the top.

My final thoughts are that this book is fairly specialised, if you are a gluten free person yourself the spelt recipes would not be suitable (although I read somewhere that you could substitute in a GF flour), however if you have an interest in GF cooking or simply want healthier cakes then this book is helpful. I will definitely be making more things from this book. The recipes worked well and tasted good.

Comments

[ai]

while i think these muffins look gorgeous and i'd probably try cooking them if i had an oven, i just can't wait for you to finish up and reveal your new site!

and how are your kittens?

[baby cakes]

This is great, I am always trying to find recipes for gluten free cakes. Usually they do not come out very moist, but I am excited to try these!

[Towe]

Those cupcakes looks delics! Yum! Happy Holidays! towe.

[viagra online]

These brownies seems to be delicious ?

[generic viagra]

Anyway once you have the ingredients in your cupboards it is then easy peasy to whip up a batch of whatever GF item you want.

[Jordan 1]

I like the style of your article! I was shocked that you think it!

[Windows Activator megaupload]

Fantastic read, i was chatting to a friend the other week about the same subject and gave him this url to visit.

[סדנאות שוקולד]

The muffins look delicious, but unless I'm missing something, it appears that the wet ingredients aren't listed. Can you double check, because I'd love to make these for fall mornings. Thanks much!

[True Religion Outlet]

Survey and professor at the University of Debrecen. Kretzoi recognized in these fossils evidence of the early phase of hominization. He called this new species Rudapithecus hungaricus and published his findings in 1967. "Rudi," as he's affectionately known, displays certain features present in the higher apes that point the road to the direct ancestors of humans.

[truereligion]

This one article alone shows off your excellent writing skills. I am very impressed with your views and interesting content. I hope you intend to continue writing more informational articles.

[yiwu]

I really appreciate the effort you have given to this post. I am looking forward for your next post. I found this informative and interesting blog. I just hope you could make another post related to this. This is definitely worth reading.

[yiwu agent]

For me as a reader is a pleasure to give congratulations to the creators of this article is fabulous, I think that long ago I have no chance to see a blog with such interesting topics and so popular, I think it's great to have had the delicacy to share with readers this information.

[femmes]

Thanks for showing pictures.

[mbt sandals]

For years he welcomed us into the dimension of imagination which we called The Twilight Zone,Asics shoes but now audiences will look into a different dimension in the form of a biopic about the supernatural series creator and narrator Asics running shoes Rod Serling.

[ghd straighteners]

Hello, this is my first time i visit here. I found so many interesting in your blog especially on how to determine the topic. keep up the good work.

[tory burch outlet]

Love Tory Burch flats. I have a few pairs but I think these are my favorite. They add a pop of style with skinny jeans and a T-shirt, and the animal print is so in right now.

[burberry outlet]

Good work,hope your blog be better!I just want to make a blog like this!

[zma]

I love it. Now I got some ideas for christmas.