A Trio of Gluten Free Cupcakes

I found a silicone mini-cupcake tin on sale this past weekend, so I decided to make a trio of cupcakes that use the same batter base. By mixing gluten free chocolate sandwich cream cookies (I recommend Glutino brand), strawberry pieces, or additional vanilla flavoring, you can customize a basic cupcake batter to your tastes. My personal favorite are the cookies and cream cupcakes, which variety would you choose? The frosting recipe I use is this (http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/sturdy-whipped-cream-frosting/Detail.aspx). I love the light fluffy texture of it.

Yields: 6 dozen mini cupcakes, ~2 dozen regular
Cook Time: 12 minutes per mini cupcake tin, 15-17 per regular cupcake tin


Base Batter


Dry Ingredients:
-1 cup white rice flour
-3/4 cup brown rice flour
-1/2 cup tapioca flour
-3/4 cup potato starch
-1 1/4 tsp xantham gum
-1 tbsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
-1 cup butter
-2 cup sugar
-5 eggs
-1 tbsp vanilla
-1 cup milk
-1/4 cup cream, whipped

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease your tins or line with paper.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
3. In a second medium large bowl, beat the butter until fluffy. To this beat in the vanilla, and the sugar by the half cup until well blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
4. Alternate beating the flour and the milk into the wet mix until well combined. Fold in the whipped cream.

5. Customize: From here, make the kinda of cupcakes that you want. For super vanilla cupcakes, add another tbsp of vanilla. For cookie and cream, fold in 5-6 crushed cookies per third of batter. For strawberry, fold in 4 chopped strawberries per third of batter.

6. Spoon into your cupcake tins, and bake for 12 minutes if mini cupcakes, 15-17 for regular cupcakes. Cupcakes are ready when an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool cupcakes completely before icing.
7. Customize Frosting: For strawberry frosting, add diced strawberry (1-3 strawberries for taste) to the frosting. Use regular frosting for cookies and cream icing, just top with a piece of cookie after frosting.

For a blog post that has a collection of really awesome confections, go to this blog post.