gluten free chocolate cupcakes - delicious & effortless

I love baking, but I guess you’ve figured that one out already, and I bake more often than not for the sheer indulgence of it.  Creamy Butter, rich and yolky free range eggs, heavy cream, crème fraiche, valrhona chocolate, silky ganache, more cream, more butter… you get the picture.  Don’t get me wrong, I know what healthful is.  I religiously have my green juice every morning, eat plenty of lean protein and veggies, sprinkle LSA on salads and in smoothies and lately have been scattering chia seeds on anything that hangs around long enough!  But I believe baking and baked goods are the flip side of that 80/20 coin and shouldn’t be meddled with.  On the other hand if I had a penny for every time my mother has asked for a bran and cranberry loaf, wheat free low sugar muffin or more recently a half fat half chia seed (!!) cake I’d probably be richer than those thomas keller brownies!

I do however make exceptions, obviously, for people with allergies and intolerances.  There’s nothing worse than seeing a celiac friend stare longingly at a beautiful cupcake, or a pile of scones.  So when I was asked to make gluten free (GF) cupcakes for my friend’s sister’s 30th birthday I wholeheartedly took on the challenge.  I have made GF cupcakes before (for Christmas one year, and a v.cute baby shower) and although the heavier cake has never really bothered me, the texture always has.  They’ve often been grainy and almost gritty, I think due to the variety of flours used.  Oh and can I mention complicated – 1 cup sorghum flour or brown rice flour, another cup almond or hazelnut flour, 3 tablespoons of tapioca or potato  starch, 1 teaspoon xanthan gum,  ¼ cup each of sweet rice flour and coconut flour and the list goes on – your mind boggling yet? (umm.. what’s sorghum?).  Don’t get me wrong, if you bake GF all the time and have these things on hand to whip up the worlds best GF cupcakes, go for it, but for people like myself who maybe bake GF once or twice a year I needed something simpler!

And oh boy did I find it!

Can I just cut in with an aside here?  I have a couple of rules when it comes to cooking and baking and with this recipe I broke two.  The 1^st , Don’t make cakes from weird healthy stuff (no matter how much your mother pleads) and the 2^nd, Never reveal creepy unpalatable ingredients that may put people off (just smile sweetly and claim it’s a secret).  Either this recipe is just simply a ‘must share at any cost’ or I’m just getting old and soft – you decide.

Not only is this cake one of the most straightforward recipes ever, it actually tastes delicious.  Great chocolately taste, nice moist crumb and they look gorgeous, unfrosted, cracks n’all! I did frost them obviously; they were birthday cakes after all! But forgot to take pics, so here’s a recipe for what I think are the most effortless, palatable and delightful gluten free chocolate cupcakes you’ll ever come across.  Oh and for the record, they’re my mum’s new favourite cakes!

Delicious & Effortless – Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 10 cupcakes

• 15 oz (425g) can of chickpeas – there! I’ve told you! l’ingrédient mystere!
• 1/3 cup almond milk (any liquid would work)
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• ½  cup decent dutch processed cocoa powder (although I imagine regular would work fine – just make sure it’s good quality)
• 1 tsp baking powder (gluten free)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (although I reckon you could try ½ a cup)

• Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F – Line 1 x 12 muffin tin cups.

• Rinse and drain your chickpeas and place in a blender.  I used my Vitamix TNC, as the smoother you blend it the better.  A regular food processor would also do the job.

• Add the almond milk and puree until silky smooth.

• Add the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.

• Add the coconut oil, cocoa, baking powder and sugar and blend until very smooth.

• Spoon into muffin tin filling liners until almost full.

• Bake for 25 – 30 min until a cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Note on blending – if using a regular blender or food processor, follow this step-by-step method.  If however using something as powerful as a Vitamix or Blendtec an all-one-method should be fine.  I actually found the 2^nd time I made these with the Vitamix, that the all-in-one method worked better.

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25 Nov This entry was published on November 25, 2012 at 10:54 pm. It’s filed under chocolate, cupcake, gluten free and tagged 2012, almond milk, birthday, cakebook, chickpeas, chocolate, coconut oil, cupcake, dessert, easy, food, garbanzo beans, gluten free, healthy-living, hong kong, low carb, paleo. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.