Banana Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting {Gluten Free}

You all know that I love to bake.

I’m sure that by now you’re aware of my love for cupcakes, and somewhat healthier ones, might I add. (Okay okay, I love ‘em every which way)

Need I mention that I love DIY gifts, especially if it means baking for others?

I’m not even going to mention the fact that 50% of my treats contain cinnamon and banana.

Well, I think that these moist and delicious cupcakes meet all those criteria!  Luckily, these “trial & error” cupcakes came out perfect on the first go since there was no error in the process.  Good thing too, because I didn’t have to put myself nor my sister’s taste buds through any torture on her special day.    But always remember that sometimes, what’s perfect to me isn’t perfect for you!  There.  Now I’m free of any accusation that these are subpar cupcakes although I’m pretty certain anyone would enjoy them.  Perhaps even love them.

As with any baked good that contains banana as an ingredient, it is best to use really ripe ones for maximum flavor.

Banana Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting {Gluten Free}

These cupcakes may seem intimidating to make due to the GF label and the lesser known flours that might not be in everyone’s pantry.  However, I made sure to use ingredients that are rather easy to access in regular grocery stores—although some of them are definitely guaranteed to be found in a health food market as well as Asian stores.  For the oat flour I basically ground up approximately 1/2 C of GF oats to make 1/2C of flour.  These cupcakes don’t contain too many processed ingredients, but if preferred, you may use 1/2C of sugar altogether instead of 1/3C sugar+Stevia.  Enjoy! : )

Ingredients for cupcakes

• 1/2 C GF oat flour (I used Trader Joe’s)
• 1/2 c white rice flour
• 1/2 C brown rice flour
• 1/4 C millet flour
• 1/4 C cornstarch
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 whole egg+1 yolk
• 1 1/2 large bananas, mashed
• 1/2 C Safflower oil (or other neutral tasting oil)
• 3/4 C milk (or almond milk)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 C pure cane sugar
• 10 drops of Stevia
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 C walnut pieces for garnish (optional)

Ingredients for frosting

• 1 stick butter, room temp (1/2 C)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 C powdered sugar
• 1 tsp milk

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F degrees. In a large bowl stir together all of the flours, xanthan gum, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon with a whisk.  Set aside.
2. Grab a medium bowl and mash the bananas, then add the eggs, oil, and sugar+Stevia and whisk together until creamy.  Add the milk and vanilla and whisk until it’s all incorporated.
3. Add the wet ingredients into the bowl with dry ingredients and whisk just until it’s mixed rather well, but do not over mix or it will get tougher in texture.
4. Have a cupcake pan ready with paper liners and spoon the batter into the holes up to 3/4 of the way.  Bake for approximately 16-18 minutes.  Let cool on a rack.
5. To make the frosting, a stand mixer or hand mixer is preferable.  Put the butter in and beat at a medium-high speed.
6. Add the cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, and beat until it’s creamy smooth in consistency and scrape the sides as needed.  Add the milk little by little to see if it needs more or less liquid.  Refrigerate for about 20 minutes or more.
7. Once the cupcakes are cooled down, spoon the frosting into a ziploc bag and snip one edge with scissors.  (Size varies according to preference)

Whisk the flours and get that pan ready!

Thoroughly mix those liquids.

Now we’re talking!  This is the fun part.

This is even more fun. Snip the edge off of the ziploc bag filled with frosting and squeeze away.

This time I started from the outer edges, but there are so many ways to frost beautifully.  The colder the frosting is, the easier it will be to shape it.

Surprisingly enough, these don’t taste grainy or feel gritty in texture.  They were husband and sister approved, if that says anything.  Weee!

In regards to gluten free eating, I’ve been doing an OKAY job, though there are times when I’ll scarf down my favorite Korean pastries, only to find out that my stomach is aching and I can’t even say that I’m in pain because it’s my fault in the end, haha.  So I haven’t gotten any tests done as of yet, and when the time for that comes I’ll make sure to start eating just like I used to in the past.  Although gluten or wheat might not be the cause of the problem, I can attest to the fact that I’ve been feeling much better lately.  I don’t know!  Maybe it’s the placebo effect?!

In conclusion to that thought, if I want a happy stomach I’ll just have to have more self control in the pastry department.

Even before I saw Jen’s marvelous “Falling into Good Habits” theme, I started to take to heart a lot of the things that awesome people like Amanda have been writing about.  I felt like her post went along really well with my post regarding the importance of un-striving for perfection.  I will still be exercising as much as I want because I enjoy it so much, but one thing that Amanda got me thinking about is that so many of us (myself included) tend to over exercise perhaps because of habit and perhaps because of fear of weight gain.  Although I do exercise for its health benefits, I am afraid to declare that the vain aspect of it does take the passenger’s seat sometimes.  Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting to stay or get in shape!  After all, that’s one of the reasons why I like to make healthy food for loved ones, as they want to learn to eat better while losing weight.  But I’ve been realizing more and more that in order for me to truly be physically healthy, adopting more of the mellow fitness routines and balancing it out would do me lots of good.  Moving in itself is such a gift from God!  So I want to take care of what He’s given me by not overdoing it, regardless of how good I feel when I sweat like a beast.  And lastly, although I am a follower of Christ I always have my own struggles just like anyone else—the only difference is that I know He loves me and fights on behalf of me so that no idols will take his place in my life.  HE LOVES ME IN SPITE OF ME.

Thank you guys for always inspiring me in so many ways.  I want you to know that your posts really help little ol’ me!

PS:  Eeeek!  I am so excited for Autumn that I can hardly contain it!  Something about it is so beautiful and leads me to get even more reflective than usual about life’s blessings.  And please…let’s keep Costa Rica and its surrounding countries in prayer.

Have you ever tried gluten free cupcakes?  How were they?

Do you have more successful recipes the longer you cook or bake?

What habits are you changing or adopting?

Tagged as: baking, birthday, cupcakes, desserts, fitness, Gluten Free recipes, God's grace, WIAW