Goodbye summer – hello fall! I’d have to say this is my favourite time of year! The colour of the leaves are changing, there’s a slight crisp in the air, big bowls of comfy soup are being consumed often, and of course…fall fashion (alright! It’s time for funky knee high socks!). So, to welcome in the fall season, I decided to whip up a batch of cupcakes. These aren’t you’re ordinary gluten free chocolate cupcakes though – these have got a kick to them! I looked at my go-to gluten free cupcake recipe and thought…hmmm, how can I make these a bit more interesting. Then it hit me – adding some Mexican Hot Cocoa to the mix – to be exact I used the Purest brand Mexican Hot Cocoa mix:
You can check out this product and many of their other tasty products here. So, I added 2 heaping tbsp of the hot chocolate to the almond milk, plus I added 1 tbsp of cocoa to the recipe, because hey, let’s face it..everything tastes just a bit better with chocolate. The final product results in a cupcake which had a subtle spicy aftertaste…mmmmm delish! Of course, no spicy chocolate cupcake could be complete without a swiss meringue buttercream, so I decided to go with a gingerbread one. I adapted the recipe from Sweetapolita. On a side rant, I discovered Rosie’s site a couple of months ago and I fell in love right away! Her recipes are awesome (not gluten free, but you can always adapt), her photos are beautiful and always nicely setup (makes me want to take a photograpy course), and her little girls are sooooo adorable!
So back to the buttercream….I adapted the recipe from Sweetapolita by adding in 1.5 tsp of freshly squeezed ginger. It gave the buttercream just a bit more of a kick. If you’re wondering how I squeezed the fresh ginger: I always keep a peeled ginger root in my freezer, so I cut some slices and let them completely thaw. Then with the back of a spoon, I pressed the juice out of the slices onto a plate. The final product was soooo yummy that I was truly tempted to forget about frosting the cupcakes and just eat the buttercream straight out of the bowl. But, I resisted temptation and got to work frosting those babies!
Once frosted, I topped them off with some white pearls, which I was so happy to find these as they were labelled gluten free (yippee!). I know white pearls aren’t exactly a ‘fall item’ but hey, who could resist making these babies just a little fancy.
I’d have to say, these cupcakes are super awesome – that’s right, not just awesome, but SUPER awesome! With their hint of spicy chocolate and perfectly spiced frosting, it makes you want to curl up on the couch, put on a good movie, and wrap yourself in a blanket while you indulge in a big bowl of cupcakes.
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Pure deliciousness!
Here are the recipes, enjoy!
Gingerbread Swiss Meringue Buttercream adapted from Sweetapolita
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup rice flour
- 1/4 cup potato starch
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp cocoa
- 1 tbsp gluten free baking powder
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup softened butter or gluten free margarine (room temperature)
- 2 cups sugar
- 6 large eggs (room temperature)
- 2/3 cup milk or milk substitute (I used almond milk)
- 2 tbsp of Purest Mexican Hot Cocoa (mixed into milk)
- 5 large egg whites (5 ounces)
- 1 ¼ cup dark brown sugar (I used golden yellow brown sugar)
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
- 1 ½ tsp freshly squeezed ginger juice
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- pinch of salt
Method
- Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare pans with liners; set aside.
- Mix together in bowl all dry ingredients and set aside.
- Slightly warm up milk (or milk substitute) and mix in cocoa until dissolved. You need to heat the milk just enough so the hot cocoa mix dissolves completely.
- Place butter (or margarine) and sugar in bowl of mixer with paddle attachment. Beat well until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs 1-2 at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add flour mixture and milk to bowl in batches and mix until smooth. After final flour batch has been added, mix until light and fluffy (about 3 min).
- Pour mixture into prepared pans, making sure to only fill liners 1/2 - 2/3 full.
- Bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean – about 22 minutes, until tops are lightly golden. Let cool in pan for 3-5 minutes before transferring to cool completely on wire rack. Once completely cooled, you can frost.
- Wipe the bowl and whisk attachment of an electric mixer with paper towel and lemon juice, to remove any trace of grease.
- Add egg whites and brown sugar and simmer over a pot of water (not boiling), whisking constantly but gently, until temperature reaches 140-160°F, or if you don’t have a candy thermometer, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot, about 5 minutes if you used room temperature egg whites. About 8+ minutes if they were cold.
- With whisk attachment of mixer, begin to whip until the meringue is thick, glossy, and the bottom of the bowl feels neutral to the touch (this can take up to 10 minutes or so and is so important–never add butter to warm meringue).
- Switch over to paddle attachment and, with mixer on low speed, add softened butter in chunks until incorporated, and mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture (if curdles, keep mixing on medium-low and it will come back to smooth).
- Add ginger juice, vanilla, salt and spices, continuing to beat on low speed until well combined.
Thanks for stopping by! Comments are always welcomed and encouraged.
Eva
