Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

Gluten Free & Dairy Free

 Now that we are getting a little more settled in our new home, I FINALLY rounded up what I needed to make my gluten free flour blend, a combination of white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, salt and xanthan gum.  I made Silvana's Flour Blend from my new book Cooking For Isaiah which has amazing looking recipes that are all gluten free and dairy free.  These cupcakes were the first recipe we decided to try out.  I was really really impressed and so was J.  She keeps referring to them as the best cupcakes ever in the whole wide world!  These are so tasty with the strawberry puree in the cupcake batter and the strawberry puree in the frosting!  I was also really impressed with the texture, these cupcakes were soft, moist and had just the right amount of density, I was relieved they were not dry, gritty nor crumbly like other gluten free baked goods we have tried.  I don't think ANYONE would guess these were gluten free and dairy free cupcakes. The plan was to make these and freeze them individually so we could take one out for an occasional treat, but these were so good that did not happen.  They quickly disappeared and I have absolutely NO IDEA who is mostly responsible for that....hmmm....not one clue! I SWEAR! 

 

Cooking For Isaiah Gluten Free & Dairy Free Recipes

I'm happy with this cookbook so far! It's my first time using a gluten free cookbook and using a gluten free flour blend.  There are some other books out there that I'm interested in getting, but I picked up this one on Amazon because, for someone who likes to bake, it looked really good and because of the donuts! I can't wait to try making the donuts! And I even lucked out and found a mini donut pan at good will the other day for $2!  

a couple other books on my wishlish I would love to try are

Artisnal Gluten Free Cookbook

Flying Apron

Also, another great gluten free cooking resource is The Gluten Free Cooking School.  There is a gluten free flour blend recipe with accompanying recipes, and a good sandwich bread recipe that my mom has been making and I'm planning to try that out this week!

 

Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting! Happy Birthday SweetPea!

Gluten Free Cupcakes with Dairy Free Buttercream Frosting

Well, we got home from our trip late a night and the next day was J's birthday! She is now FOUR years old and I can't believe it, although now that she is officially 4, she feels very big and has been acting as mature as possible.  Such a cutie.  Anyways, I had a box of better crocker Gluten Free cake mix to make up, (I use earth balance vegan buttery sticks instead of butter when making it) but then I had no clue what to do for frosting.  It was a crazy day, I didn't have time to go to the store, I was out of everything plus every recipe I have for frosting calls for milk, butter, heavy cream, whipping cream, ect.  I was SO happy when I found this recipe which only used shortening, water and confectioners sugar and luckily I had just enough of everything to make half of this recipe.  Which was the perfect amount.  The Sprinkles weren't really sticking so I poured them all into a bowl and then rolled the frosted cupcakes in the sprinkles after I had already stuck on the M&Ms (I just took the M&Ms off when eating for the baby and I to make it dairy free again).  Anyways, this frosting was super good and it made me so happy when J saw her cupcakes, she looked at them and her eyes got real big and then she asked "Are those gluten cupcakes for other kids?" and I said, "No, honey, they are your birthyday cupcakes made special for you. They have no gluten at all!" She was SO excited!  And as far as taste, these were just as good as any other box cupcakes with frosting, no one felt deprived in this house!