gf chocolate and jam cupcakes

I recently made a batch of gluten-free cupcakes for Kristy. This was Danni's great idea, but masterfully executed by me in a very warm kitchen on a very warm day. GF cupcakes aren't difficult, most non-GF recipes can be altered to be gluten-free, but I paid attention to the alterations that I made because it's not quite comparable.

When I'm GF baking, it tends to take me a little bit longer because I pause to check that every item I'm using is GF. This is because lots of things have hidden wheat, such as some baking cocoas and baking powders.



This photo is a cheat! I am using it to illustrate this post because I failed to take photos of the actual cupcakes I baked yesterday. Sorry! I swear they looked just like this! Only the tea towel was blue, not yellow. And I baked them in little foil cup cake cups so that I could put them all in a little basket.

Gluten-Free chocolate and jam cupcakes

For reference, this link is my usual recipe. Some of the changes are immediately noticeable. I use more liquid because the Orgrans GF flour is a lot drier than gluteny flour, and will crumble if there isn't more liquid. I use slightly more flour, because I have a lot of trouble getting GF flour to rise. And I don't use baking powder! SJ, who is my GF baking guru, told me long ago that some combined baking powders use wheat to bulk it up, so to ensure there's no risk, I tend to use a combination of cream of tartar and bicarb soda.

ingredients
2 heaped cups white plain GF flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 heaped cup cocoa (I use Nestle, even though Nestle kills babies, because it is the only cocoa I've so far found that is both GF and vegan)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
two thirds of a teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100 gm melted nuttelex
4 heaped chinese soup spoons of apple sauce
1 and a quarter cup soy milk (please note that some soy milks are not suitable, so check the box)
3 tablespoons jam
1 cup chocolate bits
extra jam, to top

method
Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, bicarb and cream of tartar. Mix in vanilla essence, nuttelex and apple sauce. Slowly mix in milk, until the batter is thick. Add a little more milk if the batter seems too thick - it needs to be very smooth and of a nice liquid consistency, but don't worry if there are the occasional lumps. GF flour is quite clumpy.

Mix in the jam and the chocolate bits. Grease cupcake pan, and divide equally in to twelve cupcake moulds. Drop half a teaspoon of jam on to the top of each cupcake.

Bake 180C for 35ish minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.