Taste it Tuesday: Gluten Free Apple Spice Cupcakes

In the immortal words of Eddie Murphy, "Your mama can cook her ass off!" is what my husband usually says to our boys as we sit down for dinner.

I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I've gotten a WHOLE lot better at throwing down in the kitchen since the lame 3 meal repertoire I had going on 8 years ago.

One thing that has eluded me is the ability to bake. Don't get me wrong, I can follow directions, throw a pre-packaged dessert in a bowl and call it "baking". But no where in that description will you see the words, "from scratch"...EVER!

I once tried to make biscuits from a recipe I saw on the Food Network and I wound up with pancake looking cookies, with a texture closer to wet sand than fluffy biscuits.

Sad, sad, sad.

Gluten free baking poses a whole other set of challenges. But I can safely say I've gotten a lot better.

So tomorrow my 6 year old gets to share his favorite snack with his class, and guess what he picked? MY CUPCAKES!

That's right. He trusts me NOT to embarrass him with some awful tasting science experiment because the last time I made these bad-boys, he actually LOVED them, and so did the rest of my family.

Gluten Free Apple Spice Cupcakes

What You'll Need:

Cupcakes: (I doubled this recipe because I had to make 21 cupcakes)

1 package of Bob's Red Mill Vanilla Cake mix 

1/2 coconut oil

1/2 water

4 tablespoons chunky applesauce (I substituted this for the 3 eggs)

Bake according to the packaging.

Icing:

1 cup butter

3 tablespoons heavy cream

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

I will admit I still need to work on my decorating technique. I was originally going for a Halloween pumpkin theme, kinda like this...

Except my test cupcakes looked more like this train wreck:

Yes these were my actual cupcakes.

So I decided to know my limits and keep it simple...and VOILA! A Halloween-esque cupcake fit for publicly serving.

These are so soft and delicious, with just a hint of apple goodness, I promise your kids will LOVE them too!

So what are you the WORST at cooking? Share your epic fails below! :-)

Improving my Skillz in Granolaville, 

Posted in: cupcakes,food,gluten free,recipes,taste it Tuesday,vegan