Chocolate Cupcakes

In looking for a gluten free recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes- one of my all-time favorites- I was finding pretty complicated ingredient lists.  I decided to take things into my own hands, and I feel good about what I came up with.  To show what I mean, I'm going to show one of the recipes I found on-line, and the recipe I came up with.

What they said to do:

Ingredients

 1/2 cup sorghum flour

 1/2 cup tapioca flour
 1/2 cup rice flour
 1 cup cocoa powder, sifted
 1 1/2 tablespoons xanthan gum
 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
 1 teaspoon baking soda
 3/4 cup butter at room temperature
 3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
 1 cup white sugar
 3 eggs
 2 egg yolks
 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the sorghum, tapioca, and rice flours with the cocoa powder,    xanthan gum, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in the brown and white sugars; whip until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks one at a time. Add the vanilla. On low speed, alternately combine the buttermilk with the flour mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan.

13 ingredients, almost ½ dozen of eggs, alternating combining buttermilk and flour- this is too complicated and stressful for me (although it does produce very good cupcakes)

Here is what I did:

Ingredients:

1 ¾ sticks softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
3 eggs, beaten
¼ cup Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill Baking Flour)
¾ cup Almond Meal (mainly for flavor)

 Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper liners
2.       In a small bowl, combine sugar, cocoa powder, flour and almond meal 
3.       In a larger bowl, beat together butter and eggs
4.       Combine the dry ingredients slowly to the eggs and butter while mixing together and blend until smooth
5.       Spoon batter into paper liners to about ¾ full
6.       Place in pre-heated oven for about 12-15 minutes.  
                  *These took longer in my oven,  after 12 minutes I was checking the cupcakes every 3 minutes with the toothpick test until they were done.  My oven also does not heat evenly so I was rotating the pan each time I checked the cupcakes.

7. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

*Makes about 1 dozen cupcakes

With half the ingredients, I made some cupcakes that came out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself.  I brought them into work and my co-workers were all surprised that they were so rich and moist while also being gluten free!