Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes

My friend Amy saw my French Toast and Bacon CupKates the other week and was so bummed she couldn't have one because she is allergic to wheat. Well, this past weekend, we all had a picnic and I decided to try making gluten-free cupcakes.

Very interesting.

I never realized how complicated a gluten-free life can be! Gluten can show up in some of the unexpected of ingredients: soy sauce, tomato soup, beer, pudding.... Read more about it here. It used to be that in order to create gluten-free baked goods, you had to mix half a dozen types of flours in precise proportions and add some kind of gum to simulate the texture that gluten produces. Luckily, now there are brands of "all-purpose" gluten-free flour mixes that take out the guesswork. But the finished product between a cupcake baked with regular flour and one baked with gluten-free flour is often still detectable. But what an adventure!

Turns out that the chocolate cupcakes tasted pretty good. (I think Amy had two and took one to go!) They were moist, but noticeably more crumbly than regular cupcakes. And they didn't rise with little mounds like regular cupcakes do. They did rise but were pretty flat on top.

When following the recipe below, it's important to not fill the cupcake liners too full because they will rise over the cups and will be impossible to remove without destroying them.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
• 2-1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups gluten-free flour mix (I used the 365 brand from Whole Foods--$3.99/16 oz.)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup Hershey's syrup

Directions:

1. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
   Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
2. Combine the gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and coffee powder into a medium bowl.
3. Measure the milk, vanilla, and chocolate syrup into a small bowl.
4. Starting with the dry ingredients, alternate adding the dry mixture and milk mixture to the butter/sugar while mixing, finishing with the dry.
5. Fill cupcake molds about 2/3 full.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
7. Let them cool completely before frosting them.

I frosted mine with vanilla mousseline buttercream and a royal icing dot.