Orange Pancakes with Zesty Coconut Cream+Cuppies Review

This is where I ate dessert a few days ago.

Finally, finally there’s a decent marvelous cupcake store in the South Bay area!  You see, there aren’t that many cupcakeries in my area to begin with, and those that I have tried I’ve only liked, but my taste buds haven’t necessarily craved more of those fine desserts since they weren’t very memorable…that is until I made my way into Cuppies, a newly opened store in the city of Torrance.  Yay!

While the decorum in this place is rather simple aside from their ultra bright pink walls, the atmosphere is welcoming because of the friendly employees and happy feel that it gives the customer.  Now all they need is to provide their customers with some tables and seats so that I can spend my moment of cupcake indulgence relaxing in this cute little space.  It takes a lot of concentration to review and indulge in some dessert, you know?

When I asked the woman behind the counter what their popular flavors are, she told me that most people tend to love their Hot Cakes ‘n Bacon cupcake.  Doesn’t that sound crazy interesting?!  Well, I wasn’t in the mood to try a bacon concoction since I’m not a big fan of bacon anyway, and as usual my eyes quickly led me to the lemon flavored cupcake.  I always seem to fall back on the lemon version whenever I try a new place since it happens to be my favorite flavor, and it is never too sweet that I can’t take more than one or two bites.  Ahem, I’m talking to YOU Red Velvet!

This cake is actually called the Lemon and White Chocolate, and dare I say that it was one of the best cupcakes I’ve ever had?!!!!!!!!!!

The frosting to cake ratio is 1:1 so it’s perfect, because I don’t like it when they skimp out on either one as I like it to stay even till the very last bite.  The frosting is perfectly sweet with a refreshing zest, and the bread was absolutely moist and heavenly.  I’m afraid that I’ve found my new hang-out spot, although I do have a problem with that because of my diminishing wallet and (hopefully not) expanding waistline.

So why am I telling you this story/review about one of the best cupcakes in the world?

Because this morning I found myself wanting yet another lemony dessert or breakfast.  Or…dessert FOR breakfast?  Hm, not sure.

I scoured through my crowded fridge and found no lemons.  But I found some luscious and sweet oranges, score!

So I went ahead and did a much needed recipe experiment, as I’ve missed coming up with fun breakfasts like I used to pre-pregnancy.  These pancakes are gluten free because:

• I’ve always had a weird obsession with mixing up different kinds of flours and challenging myself to succeed with them
• A little while before I was pregnant I experimented to see if my tummy issues would subside with GF recipes and it became a FUN ‘hobby’! (right now my stomach doesn’t seem to give me too much trouble)
• If a GF recipe works, then it can definitely be customized with regular flour.  This leaves room for anyone to try the recipes and enjoy them.

Orange Pancakes with Zesty Coconut Cream

This recipe may be customized by using only oat flour or regular white flour.  Anything conventional goes!  If the recipe is halved, then it would be a good idea to scramble the egg in a small bowl and pour in only half of it instead of using only egg whites or egg yolk.

Makes 6 pancakes

Ingredients for Pancakes

• 1/2 C Gluten free oat flour (I grind my oats in the Magic Bullet)
• 3 TBSP white/brown rice flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1.5 tsp coconut oil (I use virgin olive oil)
• 1/4 C greek yogurt
• 1 TBSP water
• 2 tsp orange juice
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1 TBSP pure maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp orange zest
• oil spray

Ingredients for Cream

• 2 TBSP coconut flour
• 1 TBSP+1 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp orange juice
• 2 1/2 TBSP almond/soy milk
• 1/8 tsp orange zest

Directions

1. Grab a medium bowl and combine the flours, baking soda and baking powder together.  Melt the coconut oil and add it to the flour mixture and whisk.  It might be a bit crumbly but that’s okay.
2. Add the egg, water, vanilla, syrup, and then the juice, zest, and yogurt last. This keeps the acidic reaction from acting too quickly.
3. Heat a skillet or pan on medium heat and spray with oil, let it warm up a bit.  Pour a little less than 1/4 C of batter onto the pan and when it starts to bubble you may flip the pancake.  Cook for almost 1 minute on each side.  Transfer to a plate.
4. Grab a small bowl and mix all of the cream ingredients together, then spoon it on top of the pancakes or drizzle it with a sandwich bag that you’ve snipped off at the tip if you want to be fancy.

I had some more coconut cream left and was looking forward to eating it with a bowl of oats some other time, but it was so flavorful and perfectly sweet that I finished all of it.  Oops.

Mmmmm.

Cupcake craving, kind of satisfied.  I mean really, cupcakes and breakfast pancakes are still on a different ball game.  Zesty and refreshing ‘frosting’ craving?  I think I’ll be good for today! 

Do you have a favorite cupcake flavor?  A favorite cupcake store?

Are you a fan of unique pancakes, or do you prefer the plain buttermilk kind?

-I like all of them but I can only stomach so much of the original kind.  These are a different story.

Love,

Ellie <33

Tagged as: breakfast, cupcakes, desserts, Gluten Free recipes, restaurant review