Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

At some point in the last year I attempted to make Red Velvet Cupcakes, well Green Velvet anyway (I'll explain in a second), and did not like them.  Recently I was inspired to try them again, and looked up a new recipe, I am currently obsessed with them, and so is Ceci!  She can't get enough of them, when we had them she asked to eat one constantly, I had to bargain with her so she wouldn't try to eat all of them at once.  I was really pleased with the taste and tenderness of the cake, and who doesn't love cream cheese frosting to top off everything??

It turns out that there were a lot of problems with my first attempt at Velvet Cupcakes and subbing green food dye for the red was the least of the issues.  My husband thought for years that he was allergic to red dye, from some incident back in his college years, and until he saw the allergist this year we just avoided all forms of red dye.  The Dr told him that it was a made up allergy and he had never heard of it in all his years of practice.  So now I can use all the red dye I want in cupcakes.  The other major issue with the first batch of cupcakes was the recipe used oil instead of butter, so they came out greasy and unappealing, even the cream cheese frosting couldn't save them.

You can understand why I was hesitant after that disaster to try Red Velvet again.  Like I said previously I was inspired, I had purchased buttermilk to use for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies and had left over so I thought hard about other recipes that use buttermilk and came up with Red Velvet Cupcakes.  After some research I found what looked like a good recipe and worked to convert it over to Gluten Free.

We took them to a 2nd Birthday/House Warming Party for some family friends, one of the other guests had brought lots of fancy mini cupcakes from the famous bakery in NYC, Crumbs.  He told me he preferred my cupcakes to the fancy store bought ones!!!  That makes my day!  Having people who can eat gluten tell me that my gluten free versions taste better than the regular ones, especially when they are saying it's better than expensive boutique cupcakes!

I hope you enjoy them as much as Ceci does!

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

1 1/4 Cup Sweet Rice Flour
1   Cup Tapioca Starch
1/4 Cup Soy Flour
1  tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2  tsp Salt
2  Tbs Coco Powder (Dutch Processed)
1/2  Cup Unsalted Butter at Room Temperature
1 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
2   Eggs
1  tsp Vanilla Extract
1  Cup Buttermilk
2  Tbs Red Food Coloring
1  tsp White Distilled Vinegar
1  tsp Baking Soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).  Line about 20-24 cupcake tins with paper liners and set aside

Mix flours, xanthan gum, salt, and coco powder in a mixing bowl and set aside.  Cream butter and sugar in stand mixer, add eggs and vanilla, and beat well to combine, scrape down the sides of the mixer after ingredients are well combined.  Measure buttermilk, and wisk red food dye directly into buttermilk.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately pour the flour mix and the buttermilk mix into the mixer, beginning and ending with the flour.
In a small cup, combine the vinegar and baking soda, allow it to foam, and then quickly mix it into the cake batter.
Quickly portion the cake batter into the prepared pans and move to the preheated oven.  Bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool for several hours before frosting them.  Use Cream Cheese Frosting to top them with.  You can cut the frosting recipe in 1/2 so you don't end up with a TON of frosting.