We were having a big birthday party during a meeting for the cohousing group I’m a part of. Someone was already making chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, but I figured nobody might have thought about the vegan and gluten-intolerant folks in our group. It sucks to see cupcakes and have to turn them down, so I set out to kill two cupcakes with one recipe. I poked around online but wasn’t terribly happy, so I ended up cobbling the below recipe together. If hadn’t told people they were vegan and gluten free, nobody would have known.
Vegan/Gluten-Free Banana Cupcakes
Ingredients/Directions
Sift together:
- 2C All Purpose Gluten-Free flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
- 2t Baking Powder
- 1.5t Baking Soda
- 1t Xanthan Gum
- Spices to taste (I used 1t each of cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg)
In a separate bowl, combine
- 1/2C vegetable, canola or safflower oil
- 3/4C honey
- 1/2C soymilk, almond milk, rice milk, etc.
- 1.5C banana puree
- 1/2C apple butter (or apple sauce, or more banana, or pumpkin, or anything in that texture/consistency group)
- 1t vanilla extract
- 1/2t almond extract
Add in stages to the dry ingredients and blend using a mixer or by hand until combined. Pour into muffin cups and bake at 350F for around 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This also makes a great little cake, and can be baked in a greased (with vegan shortening) cake pan.
For the Frosting, blend in a refrigerated metal bowl:
- 1.5C powdered sugar (don’t use an old stale bag – get a fresh bag, or it’ll taste gross)
- 1/2C vegetable shortening
- ~1T soymilk (more or less for consistency)
- 1t vanilla
- 1/2t almond extract
This is a great, flexible frosting that you can add more or less liquid to in order to make it softer or drier. If you want a more buttercream flavor, use 1/4t of imitation butter flavor or sub part of the shortening for vegan margarine.
Frost the cupcakes once they’re cool. They have a great springy texture that holds together really well, and they don’t taste vegan or gluten free, so regular cupcake-eaters may also enjoy them!
