Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

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These gluten free chocolate cupcakes are the perfect indulgent treat. They are a healthier alternative to the regular chocolate cupcakes. Almond flour makes these cupcakes gluten free and their natural fat and nutty flavor adds depth, flavor and richness to the final product, while lending extra moisture to the baked good. 

Gluten free chocolate cupcakes

After gluten free brownies, I am here with a gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe. The recipe is adapted from Foolproof Living here, and its a keeper. I did replace some of the almond flour with oat flour. Also, I used regular sugar as maple syrup is more difficult to get and super expensive in India, though I am sure maple syrup would be a great addition too. Since I used regular sugar and did reduce the amount, I compensated it with a little extra liquid to keep the cupcakes moist.

I would love to try these with dates for the sweetness and some orange zest the next time I try them. Will update when I do 🙂

Store bought Vs Homemade Almond Flour

Since almond flour is super expensive, I have started making almond flour at home. It does require certain pre preparation. You need to blanch the almonds, remove the peel, let the almonds dry and then dry grind them on pulse to get a fine powder. Once you sift the powder, the fine flour you get is almond flour that you can use to bake cakes and cookies.

The reason why I use oat flour in both the gluten free brownies recipe and these gluten free chocolate cupcakes is so that I can fine grind any leftover unsifted almond flour. This way all of the blanched almonds is used in a single recipe.

You could of course make these gluten free chocolate cupcakes with store bought almond flour, but then what’s the fun in that. Also storage for nut flours is critical to avoid rancidity. You need to keep your almond flour either in the refrigerator or freezer, and since I am always struggling with refrigerator space, making one recipe portion almond flour at home, helps me avoid storing store bought almond flour problems.

Store bought almond flour is of course finer but having a powerful and reliable grinder or food processor makes it easy to get fine almond flour results at home too. I use my Hamilton Beach JMG for it, and although slightly expensive its one of my most used kitchen equipment. In collaboration with them I also made a video for making these cupcakes, and you can watch it here on my instagram.

 

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Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream cheese frosting (Video Recipe)

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My favorite red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting recipe.  These red velvet cupcakes are light, have the trademark red color with a hint of chocolate flavor and a little tang from the buttermilk.  They are perfectly moist with the most delicious cream cheese frosting

Red Velvet Cupcakes with the best cream cheese frosting {Video Recipe}

When I was working on my home based baking venture The Pink CakeBox, these red velvet cupcakes were the most requested cupcake flavor and I always got a great feedback from whoever received them. Even after I stopped baking for orders, there are a few customers who still come and request these red velvet cupcakes.

I have made this recipe at least a 100 times, if not more and it has never failed me. I do a mix of oil and butter in the batter. The oil makes these red velvet cupcakes moist, and the butter gives that great butter flavor that just oil cakes lack.

The highlight of these cupcakes is of course the cream cheese frosting, which I have perfected over the years. Its not overtly sweet, perfect amount of tang from the cream cheese and frosts well too. The trick to not getting a runny frosting is to make sure you don’t beat the cream cheese too much. That is why I always beat the butter separately to make it light and fluffy first, before adding the slightly beaten cream cheese and then once the cream cheese is added only beat for another minute or so.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with the best cream cheese frosting {Video Recipe}

I know I have posted a recipe for red velvet cupcakes before but for the past couple of years I have been using this recipe, so thought will post the recipe here. Since, its Valentine’s Day on the 14th, I thought these would be perfect for you to make for your loved ones or just for yourself, because why not!

I also did a video for the cupcakes. My friend helped me shoot it and I then edited it. I am planning to do more videos for the blog. Hopefully, between client shoots, I do get time to work on the videos I have planned. Let me know what you think of this one.

If you do make these cupcakes, please make sure you tag me on instagram, facebook or leave a comment here. While the recipe yields 12 cupcakes, it easily doubles to make 24.

Red Velvet Cupcakes Recipe Video from Shumaila Chauhan on Vimeo.

Video: Anubhav Sood

Edit and recipe: MuddyChoux Photography

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A review: Katy Sue Design Moulds

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Review of Katy Sue Design Moulds

As most of you who have been following my page know that few months back I started my home based baking business in India by the name of The Pink CakeBox (yes I know there is a fairly famous Pink Cake Box in the US, and honestly it did not strike me till only after it was too late to change, but we are not related – I wish we were but we are not).

Baking and decorating for TPC is the reason why I have been away from blogging these days. I try my best to post as often as I can, but this place still keeps getting neglected. I do miss blogging immensely, and while I enjoy baking for others (especially when you receive wonderful feedback), I do miss baking and cooking for myself. I also do miss styling and shooting the food I make. And truly wish I could do it more often.

To keep the blog more active, I did mention that I will post about my cakes and bakes here once in a while. So today I am sharing a review of these new Katy Sue Design moulds I bought from a local store in Chandigarh, Chef’s Gateway.

Though not many, but I do have a few silicon moulds for my cake decorating- you know the cheap ones- some bought off ebay or amazon, or a local craft shop that carries stuff that is made in china. For the price, they do get the job done fairly fine, but after spending a good deal on these katy sue moulds, I realize that quality does come with the price. And while the katy sue moulds are more expensive, they do deliver a good quality product and I am sold.

Generally I have to fairly dust the mould with corn starch to get the desired shape out and even then it does not always come out perfect, but when I used these moulds to make the pots, I didn’t use any dusting and the shapes came out fine. The same held true for the frame mould (the final product shown in the picture above). To be on the safer side, a light dusting will not hurt.

I am including a step by step process of using these molds, but in case this is not as helpful, there is a video tutorial on youtube which should explain the process better.

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