Gluten Free Pink Velvet Cupcakes

These gluten free purple velvet cupcakes are buttery and wealthy with mild chocolate taste and a light-weight and tremendous tender crumb.

My vanilla-first, gluten-free son at all times picked purple velvet for his birthday to maintain the chocolate lovers blissful, too. And the festive purple coloration is right for Valentine’s Day too!

Why this recipe works

These cupcakes have the modest chocolate taste and delicate tang you count on from purple velvet due to a mixture of actual buttermilk and apple cider vinegar. Their enjoyable red-brown coloration comes from pure cocoa powder plus highly-pigmented gel meals coloring (a bit goes a good distance).

Reasonably than simply utilizing the batter from our basic gluten free purple velvet cake to bake cupcakes, the elements listed here are balanced otherwise for cupcakes that bake up flat and keep tremendous moist.

The two-ingredient chocolate glaze is a simple strategy to costume them up, however you may additionally frost these along with your favourite gluten free frosting.

Recipe elements

Listed here are the ingredient you will must make these cupcakes at dwelling, and a bit in regards to the function every one performs in recipe success:

• Gluten free flour mix: Gives a lot of the cupcakes’ construction. Make sure to use a well-balanced mix with a finely floor rice flour as its base for mild cupcakes with none grit. I like utilizing Higher Batter’s unique gluten free flour mix or Nicole’s Greatest with added xanthan gum. Bob’s Pink Mill 1-to-1 gluten free mix with a further 1/2 teaspoon gum ought to work nicely, too.
• Cocoa powder: Provides only a trace of chocolate taste. Utilizing pure cocoa powder, which has a lighter brown coloration, helps hold the cupcakes purple, however Dutch-processed provides extra taste.
• Baking powder and soda: Add rise and assist the cupcakes brown frivolously within the oven. The baking soda reacts with acidity within the buttermilk, vinegar and pure cocoa powder, if utilizing.
• Salt: Brightens different flavors.
• Buttermilk: Provides the correct amount of moisture which brings the combination collectively, reacts with the baking soda to create rise, and provides vivid tangy taste. If you do not have buttermilk, you may add 6 tablespoons (or 3/8 cup milk) to 1/2 cup bitter cream as a foolproof buttermilk different.
• Vanilla: Vanilla extract provides depth of taste. For extra taste, use vanilla bean paste as an alternative.
• Apple cider vinegar: Helps add some extra tang and reacts with pure cocoa powder to create a reddish coloration.
• Butter: Provides buttery taste, and helps lighten the crumb by including air when creamed with the sugar.
• Sugar: Provides sweetness, locks in moisture for a young cake, and lighten the crumb when creamed with the butter.
• Eggs: Add binding and leavening, the yolks add richness, the whites add moisture, and the whites assist the cupcakes maintain their form as they cool.
• Gel meals coloring: Provides extra purple coloration than you’ll get from pure cocoa powder alone. Make sure to use gel meals coloring, since liquid meals coloring solely has sufficient pigment so as to add coloration in portions so giant that the cupcakes can have a bitter style. Americolor model “tremendous purple” gel meals coloring is gluten free and my alternative.

The best way to make gluten free purple velvet cupcakes (with step-by-step pictures)

This is a visible illustration of methods to make these cupcakes. For full directions and ingredient quantities, please see the recipe card beneath.

Whisk the dry elements
Whisk collectively the entire dry elements (gluten free flour mix with xanthan gum, baking powder and soda, salt, and cocoa powder) to make sure even combining with none pockets of concentrated leaveners.

Make the buttermilk combination
To the buttermilk, add vanilla and vinegar, and whisk to mix nicely. This may even guarantee no clumping.

Cream the butter and sugar
Within the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or in a big bowl with a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar for lower than 2 minutes. It will lower the sugar crystals into the butter so as to add some air for a light-weight and tender crumb, however not a lot that the cupcakes rise right into a dome. Ensure the butter is at room temperature, between 68°F and 70°F, so it would not simply create a pebbly, lumpy combination.

Add the eggs and meals coloring
Beat within the 2 eggs and about 1/4 teaspoon tremendous purple gel meals coloring for a easy batter that is vivid purple. The colour will fade throughout baking, so make sure that it is brighter than you need the baked cupcakes to be.

End the batter
Add the mixed dry elements in 3 batches and the buttermilk combination in 2 batches, starting and ending with dry. That is designed for even combining of the entire elements with out pockets of the dry combination.

Divide the batter
The batter will likely be easy, comfortable and reddish brown in coloration. Fill the lined wells of cupcake tins about 2/3 of the way in which full with batter. In the event you overfill the wells, the cupcakes will rise right into a muffin-style dome as an alternative of the flat high we would like for cupcakes to carry a chocolate glaze or frosting.

Bake the cupcakes
Bake at 325°F, a comparatively low temperature, to encourage the cupcakes to bake slowly with out doming, and all through with out burning on the underside. Let the cupcakes cool very briefly earlier than eradicating from the tin so they do not steam within the liners and develop into chewy or shrink.

Add the non-obligatory glaze
Soften chopped chocolate and shortening within the microwave for a glaze for added richness and shine with out creating a tough shell. Dip the cooled high of every cupcake within the glaze, then flip upright to take a seat till the chocolate glaze is ready.

Skilled suggestions

Do not whip the batter an excessive amount of

The aim of beating beat sugar with room temperature butter is to dissolve the sugar for a fluffier and extra tender cupcake, and so as to add some air into the batter. However in case you overbeat the combination to whip it somewhat than simply creaming it, the cupcakes will bake into extra of a dome like muffins, somewhat than baking flat. Cease beating after not more than 2 minutes.

Use solely gel meals coloring

Keep away from liquid meals coloring, which isn’t pigmented sufficient to work with out including a lot that it makes the cupcakes bitter. Americolor model is gluten free, and their “tremendous purple” coloration is very pigmented, so a bit goes a good distance. Do not forget that the colour fades within the oven, so your batter must be redder than you need your cupcakes to be after baking.

Nest the cupcake tins

A intelligent strategy to match one full commonplace 12-cup muffin tin on one rack of the oven with one other with empty wells is to nest the total tin within the empty wells of the second tin. See the picture gallery above for a visible illustration.

You can too let the batter of the second tin relaxation whereas the primary bakes. The second tin of cupcakes might rise a bit greater than the primary, however not an excessive amount of greater.

Ingredient substitutions

If you could keep away from extra allergens, listed here are my strategies for what to make use of as an alternative:

Dairy free

Instead of buttermilk, add 6 tablespoons of nondairy milk to 1/2 cup nondairy bitter cream or plain Greek-style yogurt. Instead of butter, attempt block-style vegan butter like Soften or Miyoko’s model. Keep away from something that is available in a bath, which is generally oil. For the chocolate glaze, be certain your chopped chocolate is dairy-free.

Egg free

You’ll be able to attempt changing the two eggs with chia eggs, Bob’s Pink Mill Egg Replacer, or JustEgg liquid egg replacer within the refrigerated part.

Meals dye free

You’ll be able to at all times simply pass over the meals coloring if you could keep away from meals dye. It will not have an effect on the flavour in any respect, both means.

Shortening

For the shortening within the chocolate glaze, I like to recommend both Spectrum or Crisco model. As a replacement, you should use virgin coconut oil, the sort that is comfortable strong at cool room temperature.

Storage directions

The baked and cooled cupcakes will keep contemporary in an hermetic container at room temperature for about 2 days. As soon as glazed, the glaze helps seal in moisture, serving to them keep contemporary for nearer to three days.

For longer storage, freeze the cupcakes. The chocolate glaze might bloom within the freezer giving it white solid, however that will not have an effect on the style. Let defrost at room temperature. You can too microwave unglazed frozen cupcakes for 20 seconds to defrost.

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