The Ultimate Gluten Free Birthday Cupcake

Eleanore's birthday has come and gone, thank god, because as fun as it was, it was exhausting. Not only did we go to the Dallas World Aquarium, but we had homemade cupcakes and ice cream with Elie's best friend, Charlotte. Yes, we even make our own ice cream (a little chocolate soy milk, some sugar and stevia, blah blah blah). I'm past the phase where everything has to be made completely from scratch, though. Over it. Really. These days I have absolutely no shame, and will gladly open up a box of cake mix. The easier, the better (I'm not supermom). I'd been wanting to try the new Betty Crocker gluten free mixes (for any new readers that don't know, we're a gluten free household, with a few extra food allergies sprinkled on top) since I heard about them, but hadn't seen them anywhere, and wasn't about to order them in bulk off of amazon without trying them first. I got an email awhile back, letting me know that they were at one of the grocery stores (the high end one that costs buckets of cash to shop at), so while out shopping for craft supplies one day, my friend Marie and I stopped by specifically to collect them.

I introduce to you, The Ultimate Gluten Free Birthday Cupcake...


Just a minute ago I admitted to not being supermom, but, with these cupcakes, I'd like to think I'm at least a closer runner up?

Making the cupcakes was the easy part. I prepared the gluten free Betty Crocker yellow cake mix into batter, divided the deliciousness (what, use egg beaters and its totally safe to lick) into 4 different bowls (I had seen this done by multiple people, and decided very last minute to try it myself), used Betty Crocker gel food colorings (I sound like a freakin' commercial don't I) to warp the plain batter into wacky unnatural looking pools of color, and then using a separate spoon for each color, dropped in dollops into the cupcake papers at random. I popped them in the oven for the minimum amount of time listed on the back of the box, and pulled them out when the oven told me to. So easy I almost felt guilty about calling them homemade.

But the frosting. That was the fun part.

I make my frosting from scratch, always. I freeze my sugar, to make sure its nice and cold, and then scoop a few cups into my dry Vita-Mix container, along side some tapioca starch. This can be done in any kind of blender though, I think I've done it my Magic Bullet before, too? It takes me less than 30 seconds to turn the granules into a fine powder. Or, obviously, you can just use powdered sugar that you have on hand. We don't buy powdered sugar, the reason for making my own. Anyways. I altered a recipe that I found online (I'm almost positive its from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World), ever so slightly, and this resulted in a delicious cookies & cream icing...

GF Cookies & Cream Frosting:

-1/2 cup Earth Balance (I'm sure you could use butter)
-1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
-1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
-1/4 cup milk (cow, soy, rice, whatever)
-1/2 package gluten free "Oreo" cookies

Combine everything except the cookies, beat until super duper fluffy. Put the oreos into a large zip lock, use a drinking glass or rolling pin to smush them. Add them into your fluffy frosting mixtures, beat on high for 30 seconds, and TA DA!

For the cupcake toppers, you can check out a simple tutorial that I put together by clicking here.

So yeah. There you have it. The ultimate gluten free birthday cupcake.


Nom nom nom.