Six weeks ago I went gluten free. While I could probably write a whole series of blog posts about learning to live without my favorite food group, Pop-tarts and Little Debbie Cakes, I’m going to dedicate this post to my new favorite dessert – Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcakes.
Most of the gluten free “sweets” and bread products I’ve tried in the past six weeks have a noticeably grainy texture. Like someone whisked a cup of beach sand in with the batter before they cooked it. Then, while desperately searching for some form of sweet-tooth satisfier the week before Thanksgiving, I stumbled upon this Gluten Free Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcake recipe by Andrea Wyckoff.
I didn’t hold out much hope for them. But since I had the ingredients on hand I threw a batch together. Before they finished cooling, I took a tentative bite. Wow! They were delicious. So delicious that the kids ate nearly all of them before I could even get them frosted. (I used vanilla frosting instead of the cream cheese one.)
The cupcakes were moist and tasted like spice cake. And while there’s no nutritional information posted (that I could find) I assume they’re relatively healthy. There’s no oil or butter in them, though there is a cup of sugar.
They’re super easy to make as well (which is a prerequisite for me cooking anything). From mixing bowl to cooling rack they took less than half an hour. I do recommend using a “waxy” type of muffin cup over plain paper ones. The second batch that I made stuck to the paper and half the cupcake peeled away with the cup.
Among other things at Thanksgiving, I was thankful for these little bites of bliss! I was beginning to think my sweet tooth would drive me nutty.
Now if only Kellogg would make a tasty, gluten free version of their brown sugar cinnamon Pop-tarts…