Vanilla Cupcakes

Here are the vanilla cupcakes the Maestro wanted for his birthday party. When I got ready to take the picture, Hildr wanted me to include her green fish.


The Maestro has needed cupcakes to take to birthday parties he had been invited to previously, but he has always asked for dark chocolate. For those I used an Amy Perry chocolate cake recipe, baked in muffin tins. Vanilla, now that poses a new challenge. Vanilla cupcakes are supposed to be white. Anyone who made Shauna's artisan bread recipe knows that sorghum-based baked goods don't always turn out white. My most recent muffin recipe uses some brown rice flour for firmness, which while not exactly dark, isn't white either. So, enter white rice flour into the equation...

As my starting point, I used the everyday cupcakes recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.

1/2 c shortening
1 3/4 c all purpose flour
1 c sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 c milk
1 tsp vanilla
Bake at 375° F for 20 minutes

As I said, I wanted a light color, and some firmness, so I used my 2:1 sorghum flour/tapioca mix, and combined it 2:1 with white rice flour. When I got the oven heated up, I found that I didn't have any eggs, and the dietician neighbor wasn't home, so I substituted a heaping Tablespoon of soy flour and a Tablespoon of water for the egg. I suspect that the actual egg substitute is supposed to be a heaping teaspoon of soy flour, but I couldn't remember so I decided to err on the side of over-kill.

Also, these need to be casein free, so no milk. I've decided recently to use water instead of soy milk in my baking. We don't always haev the same kind of soy milk and 8th Continent Vanilla gives very different results than Great Harvest Plain. Hildegard can't have soy, and water is cheaper than Rice Milk by a long shot. So water it is. It turns out that everything turns out fine. Riley took a Food Science class as an undergrad, and I think it was there that she was told that the main reason to use milk instead of water was to increase the protein content of your food. Sorghum has high protein anyway (better than quinoa, even) so the lack of milk isn't a problem.

This is what I ended up with:

1/2 c shortening
1 3/4 c GF mix*
1 tsp Xanthan gum
1 c sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping Tbsp soy flour + 1 Tbsp water (instead of 1 egg )
3/4 c milk
1 tsp vanilla
*flour mix was 2:1 sorghum flour/tapioca starch, mixed 2:1 with white rice flour)

They tasted very good, especially with Pilsbury "Cream Cheese" (actally no dairy in it) frosting. They didn't raise very high, but the Maestro didn't care. I think that next time I would add more liquid. White rice flour seems to absorb some of the water, and the few times I've used it, the batter turns out very thick.

The Maestro had a great day. Here is a parting shot of him enjoying his favorite birthday gift, a plastic saxophone from the dollar store. His collection of real woodwind instruments is sorely lacking, so he enjoys toy instruments when he can get them.