Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe with coffee flavored icing

Cupcakes for the In Crowd

Gluten-free cupcakes are hot. Or should I say, HAWT. Tack on vegan status, too, and you've got a food trend worthy of the most BoHo WeHo GoGo. So I'm reprising this chocolate cupcake recipe to tempt you into baking this week. These little beauties remind me of Devil's Food Cake. Dark, tender and chocolatey.

So go ahead. Grab your inner Domestic Goddess by the hand and stir up some trouble.

But before we get to (what happens to be my favorite) chocolate cupcake recipe from the archives, I want to share something. Maybe it's the new moon just around the corner in early June, that cyclic siren pulling us toward wholeness, to embracing our shadow, urging us to let go, shed the outworn for the sake of authenticity. Or maybe it's the fresh start of a new summer season, possessing me with cravings for leafy walks and the scent of lavender with its clean as a cloud fragrance, conjuring flashes of new beginnings.

Whatever it is, I surrender to it.

I found two Polaroids during our recent move. Me in a hospital bed holding our newborns, three years apart. Two of the happiest days of my life.

I won't tell you how many years have passed since these images were snapped. How many moons have waxed and waned. Let's just say my sons and I are warm weather babies, born into sunlit heat and generous greenery, the open window sounds of summer, our lullabies.

Looking back across the seasons feels dreamlike. I float through it. And all too soon realize I cannot grasp anything. I cannot hold on to the past. My mother-hands are empty. And truthfully, that's okay. Though a secret piece of me sometimes aches for that once clear definition my maternal role carved out for me. That bone deep sense of identity and purpose. My days are my own now. Fluid and restless. And I've been thinking. And wondering. What comes next? How much time is left?

How much energy am I willing to focus on squeezing myself into one-size-fits-normal. Tired of accommodating the firehose of social media input and expectations. Weary of scanning my post-menopausal body through a Madison Avenue lens. Too bored to pretend one even cares about the trends in fashion, (it's obvious, I don't). I find I am increasingly immune to the ancient automatic reflex to fit in, please others, be what is expected of a woman of a certain age.

It sneaks in slowly on tiny paws, this anarchy.

This wildness.

It starts in dreams and keeps you awake at night with its low throated hum. You can feel it growing, toothy and buzzing inside you, like some fractal shattering cracking spiral candy. Like flinging honey and bee stings into thunder. Inescapable. A rush. A roaring undertow- this need for life.

A life lived true.

Karina
xox

Gluten free chocolate cupcakes with coffee icing

Karina's Wheat-Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Icing- a Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free Vegan Recipe

Updated 2025. Posted by Karina Allrich 2010.

Gluten-free chocolate cupcake heaven. Yep. And if you don't care for the taste of coffee, use rice milk or coconut milk in the batter in place of the coffee and make a vanilla, coconut, or chocolate flavored icing.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with parchment or paper liners.

Ingredients:

3/4 rounded cup sorghum flour
3/4 rounded cup cassava or potato starch, cornstarch or tapioca starch
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 cup warm coffee (not too hot or it will make the starch gluey)
1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer beaten with 1/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons organic canola or coconut oil
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon light tasting rice vinegar

Instructions:

Whisk together the flours and dry ingredients.

Add in the coffee, egg replacer, oil, vanilla and vinegar. Beat the batter for a full two to three minutes until all the ingredients are incorporated and the batter is smooth.

Using an ice cream scoop, plop the batter into the cups and smooth the tops.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven till done- about 20 minutes or so.

Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack (don't let them sit in the baking pan too long or they'll get soggy).

Frost when completely cooled. See recipe for coffee flavored icing below.

Notes on gluten-free vegan batter:

Gluten-free vegan batters are a tad different than wheat and white flour batters. They are stiffer at first, then stretch and get sticky as the xanthan gum and egg replacer do their thing.

If the batter "climbs" the beaters, slow down the speed and slightly lift the beaters to encourage the batter to move back down into the bowl. Move your beater around the bowl in figure eights, at a slight angle. Practice your technique- soon you'll be winging around gluten-free vegan baking like a pro.

Vegan Coffee Icing Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar
2-3 tablespoons Spectrum Organic Shortening or vegan margarine

2-4 ounces cold coffee, as needed
1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla

Instructions:

Starting with the least amount of liquid, beat the sugar to incorporate the shortening, coffee and vanilla. if you need more liquid, add a small amount at a time. beat for two minutes or so until smooth.

If you need to stiffen the frosting, add a little more confectioner's sugar.

Chill the frosting before using it. I chill it, covered, for roughly an hour.

Frost the cupcakes. Cover in an air-tight container until serving. best eaten the first day. If making ahead of time, chill frosted cakes briefly in the freezer before wrapping individually and freezing.

Cook time: 1 hour, total

Yield: Serves 12