Gluten Free Double Chocolate Butter Rum Cupcakes

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Yields: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients For the Cake:

• 3 cups Gluten free flour blend (All-Purpose Gluten Free bought or make your own blend. If using your own blend make sure it has Xanthan Gum in it. If not, add in 1 tbsp of Xanthan Gum. All gluten free flour blends act differently so beware of various results if using a different blend than below.)

• 1/4 cup cacao powder or cocoa powder

• 1 cup granulated cane sugar

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 2 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 4 eggs

• 2/3 cup vegetable oil of choice (olive, vegetable, corn, safflower, sunflower, avocado, coconut, etc.)

• 1/4 cup melted butter (half a stick)

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 2 tsp Pure Vanilla (I used pure powdered vanilla bean

• 1 cup Milk (Full Fat Dairy milk or Oat Milk for Non-Dairy recommended)

My Gluten Free Flour Blend:

For this Recipe I used:

• 1 cup Rice flour

• 1 cup Tapioca Flour

• 1/2 cup Sorghum Flour

• 1/2 cup Potato starch

• 1 tbsp Xanthan Gum

Ingredients for the Frosting:

• 1 bar (4oz) of unsweetened Baker’s Chocolate

• 8 oz of heavy whipping cream

• 1/2 cup powdered cane sugar plus 2 tbsp powdered cane sugar

Ingredients for the Butter Rum:

• 1/4 cup butter (half a stick)

• 4 tbsp spiced rum

• 4 tbsp brown sugar

Step 1. Preheat your oven to 350°F / 176°C. In a mixing bowl, put together your flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, sugar, and if using powdered vanilla include that, too. If using liquid vanilla save that for your liquid ingredients. Whisk together until everything is nice and blended.

Step 2. Create a well in the middle of your dry ingredients. Break open four eggs and beat them in the well until scrambled. Melt 1/4 cup butter and allow to cool. Don’t place it in the bowl yet or it will be too hot and the eggs will do weird things.

Step 3. Add in your oil, milk, and apple cider vinegar. Start whisking batter together and gradually add in melted butter. Mix only until ingredients become one. (Over-mixing may cause cupcakes to sink!)

Step 4. Line a cup cake sheet with paper cups or spray non-stick cooking oil inside. I do both so the cupcake tops don’t stick if they rise too much. I didn’t feel like getting a second cupcake pan out so I made 12 cupcakes and half a bundt cake. (Sue me, whatever.)

Step 5. Place in oven in the middle rack and set a timer for 25 minutes. After timer goes off, check your cakes with a toothpick to make sure the toothpick comes out clean. If not, cook an extra 5 minutes.

Step 6. While your cakes are cooking, let’s prepare the chocolate frosting. This frosting recipe is very light and makes you want to eat it by itself out of the bowl. It made my boyfriend eat the frosting off the cupcake and then try to come back to get his cake “refrosted.” No. I saved it for myself.

Measure out exactly 4oz of heavy cream and 4 oz of Baker’s chocolate (or one standard bar.) The chocolate to cream ratio will be 1:1. Take a sharp knife and chop & shave your chocolate into little tiny bits. Add them to a glass bowl or a bowl that will handle hot liquid.

Step 7. Place your cream in a sauce pan over medium heat. Heat your cream just until the edges start to bubble. Do not let it get to a full boil or your cream will be too hot. Let it simmer with the edges bubbling for 3-5 minutes while occasionally stirring. Don’t let your cream boil or it will burn the chocolate.

Step 8. Once cream is thoroughly warm, remove from heat and immediately pour over the chocolate in your bowl. Let it sit for about a minute and then gently start stirring.

Step 9. Once the chocolate is well melted, add in 2 tbsp of powdered cane sugar and keep mixing.

Step 10. Add 4 oz of your remaining heavy cream into a mixing bowl and use your hand mixer to whip the crap out of it. Keep mixing until the cream starts forming wrinkles that stay by themselves. Once wrinkled, add in 1/2 cup of powdered sugar gradually while still mixing. If you’re impatient and want to dump the whole thing in, that’s cool, too. Just make sure you take a spoon and mix it in the cream for a second first before you continue to mix. The powder goes EVERYWHERE if you don’t. A friend told me that. I totally didn’t do that…

Step 11. Take your chocolate mixture and put it in your bowl of whipped cream. Mix again on high speed until the whipped cream and chocolate cream become one with the force. Place your cream in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

Check on your cakes! Perform the toothpick test. If cooked, let the cakes cool completely. You can take a shishkabob stick now or tooth pick and poke very many holes in the cake.

Step 12. The butter rum sauce! Grab your sauce pan that you just washed from the chocolate 😉 and place over medium heat. Melt your 1/4 cup butter. Once melted add in 4 tbsp brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Add in 4 tbsp spiced rum and let simmer for 5-10 minutes on low heat until thick and syrupy.

Step 13. Pour your butter rum sauce over the tops of your cakes very slowly, allowing it to soak into the holes you poked. Then top off with the chocolate frosting fluff and eat them all right away.