holiday recipe

Spook-tacular Halloween Cupcakes

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I know that Halloween isn’t about cute things, but seriously…this has to be the cutest ghost and skulls n’ bones I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t resist making a batch of gluten free cupcakes to adorn with these little ones.

gluten free halloween cupcakes

A while back, I saw a post on Sweetapolita’s blog on how to stamp fondant. Such a simple technique which allows you to easily dress up any cupcake (thanks Rosie for this tip!).

gluten free halloween cupcakes

So I recently found these stamps in my local Michael’s store and couldn’t resist – they were just too cute to pass up! The plates I found at Winners.

gluten free halloween cupcakes

Since the stamps were more on the cute side, I thought, now how can I make these cupcakes a little spooky? I was tempted to make some chocolate cupcakes and dye them black, but I’ll be honest, I did previously try this, and it completely flopped. Let’s just say I learned my lesson – never mess with a good ol’ fashion gluten free cupcake recipe. 

gluten free halloween cupcakes

So instead, I decided to fill them with some ‘blood’ (or better said, some berry jam ). For this recipe, I used Smucker’s SimpleBlends Fieldberry jam for the filling. On a side note, I’m happy to report that this jam is in fact gluten free. When I called Smucker’s to inquire if it was, they informed me that all Smucker’s jams are gluten free (yippee!).

gluten free halloween cupcakes

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gluten free halloween cupcakes

Pure deliciousness!  Happy Halloween! 

Here are the recipes…enjoy!

Print
Spook-tacular Halloween Cupcakes

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time: 22 minutes

Makes: 12-16 cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup white rice flour
  • 1/4 cup potato starch
  • 1/4 cup tapioca starch
  • 1/2 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar (I used golden yellow brown)
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine (softened, room temperature)
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup milk, or milk substitute
  • 1/2 cup or so jam or your preference (I used Smuckers SimpleBlends Fieldberry)
    • For Gingerbread Swiss Meringue Buttercream
  • 5 large egg whites (5 ounces)
  • 1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar (I used golden yellow brown sugar)
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare pans with liners; set aside.
  2. Mix together in bowl all dry ingredients; set aside.
  3. Beat sugars and butter until light and fluffy.
  4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  5. Add vanilla extract and mix well.
  6. Add flour mixing on low speed and slowly add milk. Once all milk has been added, mix well until smooth (about 3 min).
  7. Pour approximately 1 tbsp of mix into each liner, then drop in 1 heaping tsp of jam into each liner. Top off each liner with more mix ensuring the jam is fully covered in each one.
  8. Bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean – about 22 minutes.
  9. Let cool in pan for 3-5 minutes before transferring to cool completely on wire rack. Once completely cooled, you can frost.
    10. For Buttercream
  10. Ensure your mixer bowl is free of any grease prior to starting.
  11. Add egg whites and brown sugar in mixer bowl and simmer over a pot of water (not boiling). Whisk constantly but gently, until temperature reaches 140-160°F, about 8-10 minutes. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, test the mixture by rubbing a bit between your fingers. If egg whites are hot and you do not feel granules of sugar, it’s ready.
  12. Remove from heat.
  13. 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. It is important the temperature of the bowl has cooled down as you should never add butter to warm meringue.
  14. 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).
  15. Add vanilla, salt and spices, continuing to beat on low speed until well combined.
http://www.pastelbakery.ca/gluten-free-halloween-cupcakes/

Thanks for stopping by! Comments are always welcomed and encouraged. 
Eva

Halloween Cookies

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Halloween always feels a bit nostalgic to me, reminding me of things from my childhood. I think of the Monster Mash song (not sure why because I know it’s from before my time) and classic Scooby-Doo cartoons. But what I remember the most is Disney’s Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman – I loved watching that cartoon as a kid and always looked forward to this time of year when it would be aired on tv. You can watch part 3 of the movie here, and part 4 of the movie here (I do not own these clips from YouTube). Ok, I guess I also remember running door-to-door for treats – was I the only one who carried a pillow case? 

gluten free halloween cookies

In a recent trip to my local Winners store, I found these cute Halloween plates and couldn’t resist buying them.

gluten free halloween cookies

So what could be better than filling these plates with some gluten free Halloween cut-out chocolate cookies? Off to work I went.

gluten free halloween cookies

Boo! A few ghostly treats.

gluten free halloween cookies

What can I say I couldn’t resist making a few Jack Skellington cookies…I mean afterall, this is Halloween 

gluten free halloween cookies

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Pure deliciousness!

Here are the recipes…enjoy!

Print
Halloween Cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups white rice flour
  • 1/2 cup potato starch
  • 1/2 tapioca starch
  • 1/2 cup premium cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg, room temperature
    • For Icing
  • 2 1/2 cups of confectioners’ sugar
  • Roughly 1/4 cup warm water (make sure to add the water slowly while mixing as you may find you do not need the full amount)
  • 1 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

  1. Combine all dry ingredients in bowl and set aside.
  2. Cream butter and sugar for about 1 minute.
  3. Add egg and mix well.
  4. Add vanilla extract and mix well.
  5. Add dry ingredients and combine until dough sticks together, being careful not to over mix. Flatten dough and put in fridge for about 1 hour. I spread the dough on a plastic tray so it wouldn’t stick and covered it with plastic wrap.
  6. Just before removing dough from fridge, preheat oven to 350°F.
  7. Roll out dough in batches and cut out shapes. Ensure to keep thickness of cookies as even as possible placing cookies of the same thickness on the same cookie sheet.
  8. Bake for 8-10 minutes (depending on size of cookie).
  9. Let cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
    10. For Icing
  10. Combine sugar and cream of tartar in bowl of mixer using paddle attachment.
  11. Add vanilla and stir.
  12. Begin to slowly add water (roughly 2 tbsp at a time), continuing to mix on low. Closely keep an eye on thickness of icing ensure not to add too much water.
  13. Every so often, stop the mixer and do the ’10 second test’ by dragging a knife through the icing and counting to 10. If it takes 10 seconds for the line to dissolve, you have achieved the correct consistency. If the line dissolves before 10 seconds, the icing is too thin. You can thicken it by adding more sugar 1 tbsp at a time until the correct consistency is achieved.

Notes

Couple of notes to share on the icing: To ensure you have the right icing consistency, drag a knife through the icing doing a 10 second test (noted below with the recipe). When I made this icing, I did not have meringue powder on hand. Even though every royal icing recipe I’ve seen requires meringue powder, I did not want to use it. The only reason really was because I have bought it in the past and because I’d only decorate cookies maybe once a year, it ends up expiring on me and I end up having to throw it out. So I decided to just add more cream of tartar to the recipe to ensure the icing dried hard enough. This royal icing recipe takes a bit longer to dry than the typical royal icing recipe using meringue powder (took me about 1 day and a half for the first layer to dry). If using this royal icing recipe, do not cover it with a damp towel. I did, left it overnight in an airtight container and it actually dried out the icing. The damp towel absorbed all the moisture. However, I had a second airtight container with some icing, without a damp towel, and it was still good. Just needed to be rewhipped by hand (using a spoon). Water measurement below is a rough estimation. You need to add the water slowly checking the icing continuously to see if it passes the 10 second test. You may find you need more or less water. I start with about 1/4 cup water and take it from there.

http://www.pastelbakery.ca/gluten-free-halloween-cookies/

Thanks for stopping by! Comments are always welcomed and encouraged. 
Eva