Gluten free cupcake recipes?

I have to bake at least 3 dozen gluten free cupcakes for a birthday party next weekend. These will also need to be frosted. Am I better off purchasing a mix like Cherrybrook (recommended by a friend at the kids' school), or buying ingredients to make them from scratch? And if from scratch, does anyone have a good recipe to share? Preferably chocolate. We fortunately have no gluten issues in our household, and I have no clue on what would work best. Thank you in advance for any help.

Posted by: cranberry
February 19, 2012

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11 Comments

11 Comments

Evalee November 17, 2012

Elanaspantry.com She has a cupcake cookbook all gluten free.

cranberry February 24, 2012

Thanks, I'll look into babycakes for future.

My total is now up to 100 cupcakes. Wish me luck. I will be baking today, frosting tomorrow. 24 will be gluten-free, the rest regular.

MaryGiron February 24, 2012

BabyCakes sells cupcake mix out of the bakery now, you can order it on their website www.babycakesnyc.com

cranberry February 19, 2012

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I've looked over the options and think that with the various flours I would need to purchase, plus the learning curve, I am going to go ahead with a mix - likely Cherrybrook. (And yes I normally avoid mixes LOL.) I also have to make 3 dozen regular cupcakes, so those will be from scratch as I have the ingredients in my pantry already.

SeaJambon February 19, 2012

There are a few gluten-free websites that are really good: www.artofglutenfreebaking.com or www.glutenfreegirl.com

Cooking gluten free from scratch requires a good gluten-free flour mix. IMHO, most store mixes have their limitations -- either gritty or "beany" flavor results. Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as taking a rice flour and substituting it one-for-one for the wheat flour in the original recipe. If this is a one-off project, I'd go with the cake mix recommended by someone who has traveled this road already. If, however, you are thinking (or need) to do this as a lifestyle change, then invest the time and energy in experimenting with the different flour mixes to find the one you like best -- you may find different combinations work best for different recipes. Also, the ingredients you will need for your GF flour mix may not be readily available in your local supermarket -- the exception being Whole Foods, as they have everything.

Don't want to be a downer, but also realize that you may be surprised not to get the results you expect the first time out -- so, if this is one off, consider packaged mixes (something I'm sure most of us on this site normally avoid) or even purchasing premade (again, Whole Foods can help you out).

SKK February 19, 2012

Here is a chocolate cake recipe (gluten free) you could turn into cupcakes. http://www.food52.com/recipes/8634_chocolate_wedding_cake

I know Syronai and her recipes are delicious.

SKK February 19, 2012

By the way, Syronai is glute free because of health issues and her recipes are thoroughly tested and brilliant. I
highly recommend her. There are not the concerns that SeaJambon posted. She also has a blog.

SeaJambon February 19, 2012

Absolutely no disrespect to Syronai or anyone else - I agree that she's brilliant! And, looking over her recipes, I see that she (unlike most) doesn't use a GF flour mix per se, but rather adds the appropriate items (amaranth flour; potato starch; etc) as separate ingredients. Personally, I find a GF flour mix easier to navigate, but that's just me. The overall point was simply that GF cooking isn't as simple as replacing the wheat flour with a single source other flour (e.g., rice flour) as the protein content of the different flours varies ENORMOUSLY resulting in very, very different results. For a one time event, most will find it easiest to use a ready made mix, or buy premade. As a lifestyle, it is important to understand the different results the different flours can provide and start from there when making recipe adjustments.

BTW: I didn't know Syronai had a blog, but was delighted to view it at beyondcelery.com -- thank you for pointing it out. I'm always on the hunt for good GF resources and it is fabulous to be able to add another to the mix (so to speak). :)

jmburns February 19, 2012

Try www.cupcakeproject.com. Tons of cupcake recipes

SeaJambon February 19, 2012

I couldn't open this link -- "blog not found" -- is there another link or maybe this is a private site?

drbabs February 19, 2012

You could try this: http://www.food52.com/recipes/12606_chocolate_orange_spice_minicakes

And I did a site search of gluten free cakes. You could probably turn one of these into cupcakes: http://www.food52.com/recipes/search?category_id=39&page=2&recipe_search=Gluten+free

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