Gluten Free Strawberry Cupcakes

Our baby girl turned two this month and requested cupcakes for her birthday.  She calls them "Happy Birthdays".  I love that.  She loves the color pink lately and strawberries are one of her favorite fruits, so strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting was the only way to go!  My husband says these are the best cupcakes he's every had and probably his second favorite dessert behind Aunt Betty's Chocolate Cake.  They really are that good!

Gluten Free Strawberry Cupcakes

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (3 oz package) gluten free strawberry jello mix
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups gluten free flour mix
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4-6 strawberries; chopped and mashed or pureed to equal 1/2 cup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a muffin pan(s) with 12-15 cupcake papers.  In a large mixing bowl beat sugar, jello and eggs at medium speed for 1 minute.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix on medium speed for 1 minute.  Pour batter into the pans dividing evenly and filling each cupcake 2/3 full.  I like to use my 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop and put 2 scoops of batter in each cupcake liner.  Bake cupcakes in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of cupcake comes out clean.  Let cupcakes cool for a few minutes and then remove them from the pan to finish cooling.  Frost cooled cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting. (below)

**I never frost all of my cupcakes.  Instead I put half of them in the freezer, unfrosted and I store the extra frosting in the fridge.  Whenever we want cupcakes I grab a few out of the freezer along with the frosting from the fridge.  The cupcakes thaw on the counter within 20 minutes or 15 seconds in the microwave.  Just frost and enjoy.  Fresh cupcakes every day for a week (less in our house)! 

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

2 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 Tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
1 strawberry, chopped & mashed or pureed (1-2 Tablespoons)
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)
milk if needed

Place cream cheese, butter and pureed strawberry in a mixing bowl and beat until combined. Mix in the lemon juice (optional but brightens up the flavor).  Add the powdered sugar and mix on low until combined then turn mixer to high and beat for 1-2 minutes until frosting is light and creamy.  Check the frosting's spreading consistency at this time.  Cream cheese frosting tends to be on the soft side so you probably won't need any additional liquid.  If the spreading consistency is too stiff mix in some milk 1 teaspoon at a time checking spreading consistency after each addition.  Store frosting in the refrigerator until ready to use. 

**The strawberry makes the frosting a pale pink.  I added a little food coloring to make it brighter.


Strawberry "Happy Birthdays"

10 comments:

Lee Ann said...

Those look devine!

I wanted to share with you what is by far the best GF Choc. chip cookie I've made. http://withstyle.me/2011/07/21/best-36-hour-gluten-free-chocolate-chip-cookie/

I just found this blog and it looks like she has lots of great stuff on there.

Also....as the holidays approach, I'm wondering if you've tweeked your sugar cookie recipe? It's the one I use, but in the recipe you said it's "close" to perfect. I agree. Almost there.

Thanks so much for posting all of your fabulous recipes!

Evelyn @ Hanging by a Silver Lining said...

I just found out that my daughter and myself have CD. I've been searching the internet for recipes and have been so overwhelmed that they are so gourmet and intense. These look doable and delicious!!! Thank you so much for giving me a little bit of hope again. :)

Wendy said...

Thanks for sharing your gluten free strawbery cupcakes recipe. I went to the supermarket to look for all the things needed but could not find any potatoe starch. Do you know if i can substitute for something else or maybe replace with corn starch? Not sure if corn starch would do the trick? Thanks

Meredith said...

Wendy- If you can't find potato starch corn starch would be the next best thing. It's funny, but I can find all of my gluten free flours except potato starch at my local health food store, but my local grocery store always has potato starch in stock (and none of the other flours). The things we do for good food!!!

Karen said...

Hi Betty! I wanted to make these without the jello, how do you think the recipe would come out? Would the strawberry flavor be strong enough?

Meredith said...

Karen -
If you omit the jello you'll need to increase the sugar to 1 cup. Without the jello the strawberry flavor will be more subtle, but I'm sure they'll still be delicious.

lindsay said...

I just made these and they're amazing!!! SOOOO good! I did throw in quite a bit more strawberries into the frosting because it wasn't strawberry enough for me... That made it runny. ha Oops. It was still good drizzled on top, but if you wanted to add more strawberries to the icing, do you suggest anything to keep it thick?

Meredith said...

Lindsay,
I'm glad you like the cupcakes! The first time I made strawberry frosting like you I added more strawberries and ended up with a icing instead of frosting. Here are 3 ideas to try: You could add a little more powdered sugar (but that might overpower the cream cheese flavor); you could add 1/2 teaspoon or so strawberry jello powdered to get more strawberry flavor; or the option I like best is garnishing with sliced strawberries. Good luck!

Sarah Cassidy said...

I tried these and LOVED them. Then I got to thinking of all the different flavors you could do with the different jellos. This time, I made some with lime jello. I used key lime marmalade in the batter and frosted them with lemon creme frosting. Super citrus treat! Thanks for sharing this versatile recipe! I am thinking maybe orange jello and cream cheese frosting next!

Meredith said...

Sarah, I'm so glad you love these cupcakes as much as we do! Your flavor combinations sound delicious. I also make this into a cake and use lemon jello instead of strawberry. When the cake is cool I poke holes in it with a fork and then cover the cake with a lemon glaze (1/2 cup powdered sugar plus 2 Tablespoons lemon juice).