make. these. now.
I got the following recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Love and Olive Oil.
I had these cupcakes bookmarked for months and finally got around to trying my hand at them last night. These are the most delicious cupcakes I have ever made. They are chocolatey, moist, rich, and the cinnamon and cayenne give them the tiniest kick. So that Matt could enjoy them as well, I used gluten-free baking flour. Although the back of the bag does say that you can substitute it 1:1 for regular flour, they still recommend adding xanthan gum. I didn't do this, as I wasn't in the market for buying a 1/2 lb. bag of something I would probably use 1 1/2 teaspoons of. And my final product came out just fine. A bit of a dip in the center of the cakes, but nothing a bit of frosting can't cover up! If I decide to make gluten-free baking a regular thing, perhaps I will try this recipe with the addition of xanthan gum [I will definitely try it with regular flour, too!].
Anyhow - below is the recipe - the link for the original is here.
I made some modifications, as I didn't have access [read: couldn't afford] some of the ingredients.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes
1 c. coconut milk
1 T ground flaxseed
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn flour or very fine cornmeal [I bought cornmeal bulk from Whole Foods and then put it in the blender to make it as fine as possible. This was ridiculous. Spend the few extra bucks and buy yourself some corn flour]
1/4 c. almond meal [I had sliced almonds in the freezer. I threw these into a coffee grinder and made my own almond meal]
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
1 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t ground cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
1 c granulated sugar
1/3 c canola oil
1 t vanilla extract
1 t almond extract
For the frosting [and a note on this: I believe the original recipe is missing the amount of cream cheese..so my frosting consisted of only the ingredients below..and at least to me seemed to be not what was intended..but, if it's looks you're going for, this frosting will do the trick]
1/2 c. butter or margarine, room temperature
1 1/2 c. confectioners' sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract
2 T milk or soymilk [I used vanilla soymilk]
Preheat oven to 350. Line your cupcake pan with liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together coconut milk and flaxseed. Let sit for 10 minutes and then whisk in sugar, oil, vanilla & almond extracts.
In a larger bowl, sift together flour, corn flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne.
Gently mix in wet ingredients.
Fill cupcake cups with 1/4 c. of batter [approx. 2/3 full]. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool.
For the frosting, cream the butter [here is where it says to cream butter with cream cheese...but i'm not sure how much cream cheese...my gut says 8 oz, but i didn't have any so i didn't do this]. Slowly add 1 c. of the confectioners' sugar, a 1/2 c. at a time, until mixture is smooth and fluffy. Add soymilk, extracts, and if you wish, food coloring. Add your last bit of powdered sugar, and at this point you can add more if you think the consistency or taste should be different.
You can spread the frosting on the cakes if you'd like, or you can put the frosting in a plastic ziploc bag, cut off one of the bottom corners of the bag, and squeeze the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. And voila - they look like little dollops of whipped cream!
Then eat, and be sure to share with your friends, who you can bet will ask you to make another batch pronto.
enjoy!!!
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