Carrot Cake Cupcakes (gluten-free!) 
Recipe Redux – April, 2013: The Cupcake Conundrum
April – a month of new beginnings. Here in the US, April marks the start of Spring, and everywhere you turn new, glorious fruits, flowers and shrubs are bursting open with life.
In celebration, this month I made Carrot Cake Cupcakes. I normally use this Carrot Cake batter to make a double layer carrot cake (delish), so it was fun to revamp it to cupcake-size.
These cupcakes are so super-moist that they really don’t need any frosting to be enjoyed. Nevertheless, I did pipe up a few with cream cheese frosting florets since cupcakes do take much better pictures when fully “dressed”.
The apple sauce replaces much of the fat normally found in carrot cake recipes, and the flours used here are all gluten-free and most are whole grains.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup Sorghum flour
½ cup Buckwheat flour
½ cup Tapioca Starch
½ cup Millet flour
3 teaspoons Baking powder
3/4 teaspoon Xanthan gum
2 1/4 teaspoons Cinnamon, ground
½ teaspoon Nutmeg, fresh grated
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Dark-brown sugar
½ cup Sugar
1 cup Apple sauce
1/3 cup Olive oil
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
3 large Eggs
About 1 pound Carrots, peeled, shredded (food processor works fast and easy!)
1 cup Pineapple, chopped
½ cup Golden raisins
1/3 cup Coconut, shredded
2 tablespoon Candied ginger, minced
1 cup Frosting (optional)
PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl add the flours and starch, baking soda, xanthan gum, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and mix to combine.
In a medium bowl, add the sugars, apple sauce, oil, vanilla and egg and whisk to combine. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients, along with the carrot, pineapple, raisins, coconut and ginger and stir to combine (mix all you want-you can’t overwork your batter because it’s gluten-free!)
Fill 24 medium cupcake pans with cupcake liners, or spray with non-stick spray. Evenly scoop out filling into cupcake molds.
Bake until cakes spring back to the touch, about 30-40 minutes.
Allow cakes to cool before adding frosting, if desired.
Makes 24 medium cupcakes. Serving size 1 cupcake.