Food Find: Delish Gluten-Free Cupcakes

Gluten-free eating, for me, has also meant much healthier eating. Less processed ingredients and more whole, and organic when possible, foods. That has me feeling and functioning a lot better. That means treats usually come from my own kitchen. I love to bake, but don't have enough time to really indulge in it. So when I do, I want it to be something really good and really worthwhile. Most of the gluten-free snacks or treats I've tried have been frozen, stale, and often, full of gums as thickeners that leave me feeling bad. No thanks. And while some traditional bakeries make gluten-free treats, I'm nervous about cross-contamination.

Before going gluten-free, I tried a cupcake from Delish in downtown Austin. They were good. Really good. But after going gluten-free, I figured I'd have to find my own recipe for a tasty cupcake. Cake is a once or twice a year thing for me, usually. So it hasn't been high up on my list to experiment with just yet. But I kept reading raves about Delish's gluten-free cupcakes. Then I ran across this article from the Alamo Celiac Group outlining the lengths they go to to avoid cross-contamination. I'm not going to repeat the article here, you can read it for yourself. But I was really impressed by the effort they're making to keep their kitchen and gluten-free products free of cross-contamination. I know that if there's flour around, then there's always a possibility of problems. But I really appreciate what they're trying to do. But none of that would matter if their gluten-free cupcake tasted like cardboard, like most gluten-free cupcakes.

I had their gluten-free vanilla cupcake freshly crowned with their vanilla frosting this weekend and I was blown away. I think it was the best cupcake I've ever had, even compared to those full of gluten. I bought two. I had the first one, and then stared longingly at the second for the rest of the evening. I tried to save it for dessert that next day, but didn't make it. I gobbled it up after breakfast. My husband is usually the one who's in the kitchen swiping the baked goods, but this time, I wouldn't let him near these precious treats. I wish I'd gotten a picture of them for you. But I was too greedy. I'm not even sorry. Their cupcake was moist and incredibly flavorful. I love vanilla and this one is full of vanilla richness. And they frost their cupcakes on demand so it's perfect. Seriously, that frosting is like crack. Beware.

I also asked the gal behind the counter what ingredients they used — expecting to hear xanthan or guar gum. But no! No gums!

So if you're eating gluten-free and get a hankering for an indulgence, try Delish. This is the cupcake by which I will now measure all others.

(And just for the record, this is my own personal experience with Delish as a paying customer.)



Delish
203 West 3rd Street, Austin
512.473.4118

Caramel Cake

I clipped this recipe out of Gourmet magazine almost two years ago and ran across it recently. Boy, have I been missing out. This shy little cake sounds good generally, but doesn't seem to shout. But it so deserves to be center stage. It's a soft, moist, cloud-like cake made so very tender and slightly tangy with buttermilk. Top that with a gooey caramel glaze and it becomes transcendent. It's the kind of cake you want to crawl into and roll around and pull around you like a warm quilt on a cold winter day. Like that.

I made this to take to some friends we were having dinner with. It was just the right size for our small group. It bakes in a square cake pan and makes about nine pieces if you cut it squarely.

I thought it was best eaten the day it was made, especially when the caramel glaze is still soft and gooey. The cake is its best that way, still moist and dense. And next time, I think I'll save a bit of the caramel to drizzle over the cut pieces when serving. It would look really pretty that way. Who can resist caramel oozing all over their plate?

Be sure to use cake flour for this so it will be truly tender. And remember to take out your butter and eggs beforehand so they can reach room temperature before you start to mix your batter. The cake needs to cool for an hour before glazing, so plan accordingly.



Caramel Cake

For the cake:
2 cups + 2 tablespoons cake flour, sift before measuring
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk, shaken well
cooking spray
parchment paper

For the caramel:
1 cup cream
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
salt
candy thermometer


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray an 8- or 9-inch square cake pan with cooking spray and line with a square of parchment paper. Then spray the parchment. Set aside.

Whisk together sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

With your mixer, beat together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla and mix in. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each. On low speed, add in the buttermilk and mix until just combined. (Gourmet says it may look curdled here, but mine didn't.)

Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing just until each batch is incorporated.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and tap on your counter to make sure there aren't any air bubbles in the batter.

Bake approximately 35 minutes until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Then let cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from pan. (Tip: place a plate or platter over your cake pan, then flip the cake over on to it. Lift the pan off and remove parchment, if necessary. Then you can use another plate to flip it back over on to it's bottom.) Let cool one hour before glazing.

While the cake is cooling, make the glaze.
In a heavy saucepan, combine cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, and a pinch of salt. Bring up to a boil over medium heat. While it's coming to a boil, stir it until the sugar dissolves. Boil until it reaches 210 degrees on your candy thermometer, about 12-14 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

With your cake on your serving platter, gently pour hot caramel over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. I did this a little at a time instead of all at once. I didn't want it just running off completely, so I poured it on a bit at a time to let the glaze cool a little and stay more firmly on the cake. Let cool a few minutes so glaze can set a bit. Or who am I kidding? Cut into that bad boy and get runny caramel all over your face. Just don't burn yourself! It's so good. I dare you to eat just one piece.

Approximately nine servings.

Adapted from Gourmet magazine, January 2008.

Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake

Despite temperature gauges in Austin reaching 99 today, tomorrow is officially the first day of fall. And, just in time, a "cold" front is due to drop our temps into the 80s tomorrow. This is the time of year when I just have to have faith. It will cool off. Eventually.

So even though temperatures here are not exactly appropriate for warm, comfort foods, I like to pretend. It gets me in the mood for fall. While it's not very green of me, I just have to crank up the a/c and turn on the oven.

I have one more San Francisco recipe to share with you from our adventures in June Taylor's conserve class. I'll post that soon, but I just got my hands on a copy of the newly-released Big Sur Bakery Cookbook by Michelle and Phillip Wojtowicz and Michael Gilson. I love Big Sur and the rugged coast of California. I've never been to the bakery, but this book makes me want to eat everything they offer. It includes not only delicious, tummy and soul-satisfying recipes, but also shares the stories of the people who source their provisions. Makes me want to live there in a big way.

This cake is the first recipe I've tried from the book. It's big, warm, rustic, and comforting flavors lured me in. Instead of cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla are used to compliment the apples and it's a nice change. The nutmeg flavor is big here though, so I scaled it down just a wee bit so as not to be overpowering. I added a little more vanilla too, since I love the combination of apples and vanilla from my favorite apple bomboloni recipe so much.

First, you make a quick apple sauce or apple butter to use in the cake. The recipe called for making double the quantity you need for the cake. It's yummy stuff. You could use the extra in oatmeal at breakfast. But next time I'll just make what's needed for the cake, just to make the apple peeling go a little faster. So I'm cutting the quantities in half below to give you just what you'll need.

Then you make an easy caramel and roast apples in it.

Add the cake batter, bake, and flip. The flip is the trickiest part. Be sure you have a plate or platter larger (by at least a couple of inches all around) than the pan you're cooking the cake in. I made the mistake of not looking for a platter until the cake was in the oven and I didn't have one big enough. We ended up using our largest cutting board. Note: the caramel may run a bit after flipping, so be careful. It's hot stuff.

This makes a luscious cake. It's one of the most comforting desserts I've ever had and it's the perfect thing for fall. The caramelized apples in the bottom (that end up on top after you flip it) turn a burnished golden color that looks like the color of fall itself. If colors could have flavor, this is what deep orangey golden richness should taste like.



Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake

apple butter/sauce:
1/2 vanilla bean
3 apples, (I used Granny Smiths)
juice of half a lemon
1/8 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 cup sugar

caramel apples:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
5 apples

cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups flour

First, take out your butter to soften to room temp.

Make the apple butter/sauce: Split the vanilla bean half lengthwise and scrape out the beans with the back of your knife. Put the beans and the vanilla pod into a saucepan. Peel the apples, core and cut them into 1/2-inch cubes. Add them to the vanilla. Add the lemon juice, apple juice, nutmeg, and sugar. Stir together. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes until the apples are soft enough to mash with the back of a spoon.

Remove the cover, turn down the heat to low, and continue cooking to let the moisture evaporate. Stir frequently. Remove from heat and let cool. Then remove the vanilla pods.

Now, make the caramel apples: preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel and core the apples for the caramel apples. Then cut each apple into 8-10 slices.

Spray or oil a deep oven-safe skillet (about 10 inches). Set aside for use in a moment.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer for a couple of minutes. Turn out into the prepared skillet. Cook the sugar and butter on medium heat until it caramelizes to a deep golden color. This should take 7-10 minutes. Add the sliced, peeled apples. A fan pattern is pretty here. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the apples are tender, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool while you make the cake batter.

Make the cake: cream the butter, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, and vanilla in a mixer. Add the egg and 1 cup of your apple sauce/butter. Mix to combine. Add the flour and mix on the lowest speed until just before it's all incorporated. You don't want to overmix it here. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir gently to finish incorporating the flour. Pour out the batter into the pan with the caramel apples and spread it evenly with a spatula.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes until a toothpick tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

Place a platter or plate (larger than the cake pan) over the skillet. Pick up both platter and skillet at the same time using oven mitts and quickly flip the cake over, holding on tightly to both. Set the platter down on a table or counter and then gently lift off the skillet. If any apples remain stuck to the skillet, you can take them out with a spatula and replace them on top of the cake.

Let cake cook for 20-30 minutes before cutting and serving to allow to rest, like a steak. This would be really good with some vanilla ice cream or just a spoonful of whipped cream, but we ate it straight up and loved it.

Adapted from the Big Sur Bakery Cookbook by Michelle and Phillip Wojtowicz and Michael Gilson.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

It's birthday season around here again and time to try out some new cake sensations. I was hoping for a fully-saturated strawberry experience and this is it. Often, commercial cupcakes have that pretty but flat-tasting frosting. I think they're probably made with shortening instead of real butter. If I'm going to indulge in a treat, it better be worth it. And this one is.

This recipe comes from Sprinkles Bakery (there are several now around the country) when they appeared on Martha Stewart. (There isn't one in Austin yet, so I haven't tried their cupcakes, but it was fun to try out this recipe.) I didn't get to see the episode, but bookmarked the recipe to try later. And I'm glad I did. The cake is just dense enough and the frosting is decadent. The recipe calls for fresh or frozen berries, but I would definitely recommend fresh, especially this time of year when you can find lots of organic berries around. (Did you know that strawberries are one of the most pesticide-heavy commerically farmed items? So remember to take the time to find organic.)

I like that this recipe is based on a yield of a dozen cupcakes. I got a little more, making about half a dozen mini-cupcakes with the extra. But I only filled my cups a little over half full so that they wouldn't go past the tops of the papers. You could probably double this for a party, but I'm glad for the smaller yield. I'm not sure we could be trusted with a giant batch of these around the house.

I used the puréed berries right out of the processor in the cake batter, but strained the rest of the purée for the frosting because I didn't want little seed crunches to mar the smoothness of the frosting.



Freeze-dried strawberries make for nice decoration. I crumbled them up into dust on the mini-cupcakes and stuck a slice into each regular-sized cupcake. I also thought of taking some strawberry fruit leather and cutting shapes out of it with mini-cutters. I'll try that next time.

I used most of a pound of fresh organic berries to make the purée for the cakes and the frosting. You'll have a few left, chef treats.

These are pretty quick to make. Just remember to take your eggs, milk and butter out of the fridge ahead of time to reach room temperature.

Note: I've had trouble lately with my KitchenAid mixer overbeating eggs and butter in batters. I'm run it on low speeds but this seems to happen anyway. Not sure if it's running too high or what. So this time, I used my hand mixer for both the frosting and the batter and it worked just fine.



Strawberry Cupcakes

1/3 cup organic strawberry purée (fresh strawberries puréed with immersion or regular blender)

1 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose), sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg, at room temperature

2 egg whites, at room temperature


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line muffin tin with a dozen cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, stir or whisk together: flour, baking powder and salt.

In another small bowl, stir together: milk, strawberry purée and vanilla.

With a mixer, cream butter until light and fluffy. Slowly, add sugar and keep mixing until it's incorporated completely and turns fluffly again. Add the egg and egg whites and mix on lower speed until just incorporated.

Add half the flour, then mix on low until just combined. Add half the liquid mixture, and mix again on low. Continue with the rest of the flour and then the rest of the liquid, mixing on low after each until just combined.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl with a spatula to make sure you get everything combined.

Spoon the batter into the lined cups, filling just over half full. Bake 20-25 minutes. (I pulled them out at 20 minutes and tested them with a toothpick. Poke a toothpick into the center of the cake and if it comes out clean, you're done.)

Since I pulled them out on the early side of the cooking time range, I felt more comfortable letting them cool in the pan, where I knew they'd continue to cook a bit more. Pulling them a little early allowed for that.

Be sure to let these cool completely before frosting or it'll just melt into a tasty, but gooey mess.



Strawberry Frosting

1/4 cup strawberry purée, strained to remove seeds

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter – you want it a little cooler and firmer than room temp for this

pinch of salt

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Freeze-dried strawberries to decorate


Beat butter and salt together until light and fluffy.

Add powdered sugar, in several increments, and mix in.

Add vanilla and strawberry purée and mix until just blended together. Be careful not to mix too much air into the frosting, it should be dense.

Refrigerate the frosting for 15-30 minutes before using on cakes. It'll be easier to handle this way, especially for piping.

Frost with an offset spatula or use a piping bag to swirl it on.

Crumble the freeze-dried strawberries into dust and sprinkle over frosted cakes, or use them however you'd like to decorate.

Yield: about a dozen regular-sized cupcakes

Adapted from Sprinkles Bakery recipe on Martha Stewart.