Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcakes

These little gems have been a favourite for us this year and really easy to whip up last minute when someone at school is celebrating a birthday or we go to afternoon tea at the park and can't indulge in all the goodies the other Moms bring!

The recipe comes from 'The Gluten Free Cookbook for Kids' by Adriana Rabinovich.  I've made several of her recipes and they all work beautifully.  I adapted the recipe and use my Thermomix to make my icing sugar, caster sugar, ground almonds and buttercream but you can buy all of these ready made if you want to.  I have put the Thermomix instructions side by side if you want to do it yourself.

You will need:

100 g gluten free plain flour (I like Orgran)
50 g ground almonds (nut to nutmeal 8 to 10 seconds sp7)
1 1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder (I use Wards or Bob's Red Mill)
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt (I use Himalayan pink fine salt additive and preservative free)
150 g unsalted butter (20/25 seconds at 50 degrees on speed 4 softens hard butter nicely without melting it)
175 g caster sugar (you can use Rapadura or I use raw sugar 2 seconds sp 9)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (I use Queens Organic Vanilla Paste for extra flavour)
1 tbsp milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and line your 12 x cup cake tray or 24 minis.

Combine the flour, almonds, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt in a separate bowl.

Cream the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.  Add the eggs in one at a time beating well after each addition until the batter resembles a thick mayonnaise.  Add the vanilla.

Add the almond/flour mixture to the butter/sugar and be careful not to overmix.  Add the milk and spoon the mixture into your cupcake tray.  I always use an ice cream scoop with a trigger to help release the batter.  This way I get an even amount in each and it also helps give the baked cupcake a lovely dome - the perfect base for decorating.

Bake the standard cupcakes for approximately 15 minutes (mine take over 20 minutes because of my old oven so you will know your own appliances) and mini cupcakes for around 10 minutes.

You can use your favourite frosting/buttercream recipe however I found this one on the Thermomix Recipe Community and it worked beautifully and was so easy to make. 

I like to add fresh lemon zest for extra flavour and you can add the colour of your choice just before you finish mixing.  Hopper colours are made from natural fruit and vegetable colours.  I get mine online from Happy Tummies as well as a variety of Hoppers sprinkles for extra 'wow'! 

All of my cake decorating gadgets, nozzles etc are in storage at the moment but I added a simple buttercream swirl using a kit from Coles and added a few Hoppers gluten free sprinkles. 

Enjoy!