A year and a half ago, I made the most amazing cupcakes. They were lemon-vanilla, with a lemon-coconut frosting, and a big hit with everyone that tried them. I had discovered a perfect recipe, gluten-free, vegan, soy free, and fairly easy to make sugar-free; and as soon as I finished the batch, I resolved that I would make these cupcakes again soon.
One problem: I couldn't find the recipe.
I was sure I'd gotten the recipe from my favourite gluten-free baking blog, Gluten-Free Goddess, but when I went back to check, she had no lemon cupcake recipe, and in fact all of the cake and cupcake recipes on her blog required ingredients I have never had in my kitchen (like potato starch, and coconut oil). And if I'd written down the recipe on a sticky note to use while actually baking them, it had certainly been thrown out as soon as baking was concluded. Aside from knowing I'd used sorghum flour, I had absolutely no information to use to reconstruct the recipe.
Until now! Or rather, until last week, when I decided to delve into the user comments on all of the online recipe postings, and I found a reference to using lemon juice and a milk substitute instead of orange juice in an orange creme cupcake recipe. And then realized that I must have decided to just try and use tapioca starch instead of potato starch, and given I liked the cupcakes, clearly it had worked. And so, yesterday, I tested it out. And the winning cupcakes were so light and soft and fluffy and struck the perfect balance between sweet icing and not-so-sweet cake than they were a complete hit at the party I took them to, even though they were gluten-, dairy-, egg- and soy-free. The entire batch was eaten in less than 24 hours (although admittedly, it's a small recipe, and I did much of that eating myself).
A few notes: the cupcakes and the icing are both a slightly bland beige colour. I'm sure someone who was more into visual presentation that I am could concoct a prettier presentation, but I was in a hurry and adverse to using food colouring and generally was ok with them looking not-super-fancy. However, I also didn't feel the need to take a picture, because I don't think their appearance does them justice. Please also note that this is a very small recipe which I would highly recommend doubling if trying to serve any size of group. Once baked and iced, though, the cupcakes can get cut into halves or quarters to become a perfect two-bite dessert. (Or, if you owned a mini-muffin tin, you could make teeny-tiny cupcakes; but I don't have access to such fancy hardware at the moment).
Finally, as I discovered yesterday: it's entirely possible to make this entire recipe in the food processor. Just chop the lemon zest, mix in the other dry ingredients, and add the wet ingredients. Then rinse, and use the processor all over again to make the icing too! And at the end of the day, minimal clean-up, and no hand-held egg beaters required. (Fact: hand-held egg beaters scare me. Not entirely sure why, but I try to avoid using them because they just kind of give me the creeps).
So, what you all actually care about, the recipes:
Luscious Lemon Cupcakes (with much inspiration owed to GFG's orange cupcake recipe)
3/4 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup tapioca starch
(although the original recipe calls for potato starch, so I'm sure that would work too)
(although the original recipe calls for potato starch, so I'm sure that would work too)
3/4 cup cane sugar
(although I used brown sugar this time because I was out of Sucanut)
(although I used brown sugar this time because I was out of Sucanut)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
Zest of at least one lemon (if not using a lemon-flavoured icing as well, I'd recommend more)
2 tablespoons light olive oil or vegetable oil*
1 tablespoon raw organic agave
or honey
or honey
Juice of 1 lemon, plus enough milk or substitue to make a total of 1 cup liquid
1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer
whisked with
1/4 cup warm water (or 2 eggs)
whisked with
1/4 cup warm water (or 2 eggs)
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla
*I realized, while typing this, that I forgot to add the oil entirely (although I do remember being confused at the time that the recipe hadn't needed oil). I often just use straight olive oil in these recipes; but I guess the take-home message is in this recipe you can cut or omit the oil and it won't be a disaster.
Instructions:
The original recipe calls for whisking together the dry ingredients, then adding the wet ingredients and beating on medium speed for two minutes minutes until the batter is smooth
and fluffy. Personally, I chopped up my lemon zest in the food processor, added in the dry ingredients, pulsed a few times, added the wet ingredients, and ran the processor until everything was smooth. This seemed to work, although my cupcakes were kind of flat, so maybe if I'd used beaters I would have gotten a bit more rise.
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 12-cupcake pan with paper liners, or oil a silicone muffin tin. I used a very shallow muffin tin, and got 12 thin cupcakes. In future, I plan to use a deeper cupcake pan and just make fewer, taller cupcakes which I'll cut up after they've made. Also, these cupcakes like to stick to paper liners, so I'd recommend oiling the muffin tins and omitting liners, or (my personal preference) using silicone reusable muffin liners.
Let the batter sit a minute before spooning it into cupcake liners, then spoon the batter evenly into twelve lined cupcake cups.
Bake in the center of a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until golden and firm (they should be slightly tender but too soft). Try not to open the door to peek until the very end of baking time- you don't want to jar the cupcakes and make them deflate. I baked mine for 22 minutes and they were perfect, but I also had very thin cupcakes - you might need more time for deeper muffin tins. But these can get very dry, so be careful not to overbake - a toothpick that comes out with loose crumbs is perfect.
Remove and cool on a wire rack.
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