This is part recipe and part product review. Eventually, I want to develop my own cake and frosting recipes cause while these are serviceable, they’re just not really fantastic. And that is what I’m striving for. Cupcakes worth raving about. But until there, these are really great, especially for kids. Perfect for a birthday party or just an after school snack!
The cupcake came from a mix: The Gluten-free Pantry’s Old Fashioned Cake & Cookie Mix. This is the best boxed cake mix I’ve found so far. Some friends have mailed me the new Better Crocker GF mixes. I’ll be reviewing them next week.
In the meantime, I added 1/3 cup of cocoa to the mix. Next time I’ll add a 1/2 cup and a 1 tsp more vanilla than it calls for. Other than that, I made it according to package instructions. It doesn’t have a cupcake baking variation (why the hell not? That seems really basic!) So I baked them for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool completely on a baking rack. And I mean completely, or your frosting will melt and slide right off. So I’ve heard… uh… anyway. The mix I used is pictured below.
While they were baking, I whipped up a chocolate buttercream frosting. I took the original recipe I found at Cooks.com and made a couple of substitutions to make it casein free. Here’s what I ended up with:
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup casein free margarine (I used Nucoa)
2 tsp. vanilla (I always use double vanilla, tip I got from a Wiltons cake instructor)
4 cups powdered sugar
3-4 tbsp rice milk (depends on how stiff or thin you want your frosting)
3/4 cup cocoa
Cream together shortening and margarine. Stir in vanilla. Add two cups of sugar and carefully mix thoroughly. Add remaining two cups of sugar and cocoa, again stirring carefully. Gradually add in milk 1 tbsp at a time until desired consistency. That’s pretty much it. Frost away!
After frosting all the cupcakes, I filled a bowl with chocolate jimmys. I took a frosted cupcake and dipped it upside-down into the jimmies, pressing and twirling to get jimmies all over the top of the cupcake. Repeat with all cupcakes. Caution: at this point, cupcakes are totally irresistable!! Not responsible for total cupcake consumption and blowing of entire week’s worth of calories in one sitting!!
