Chocolate Cupcakes

I like to make cupcakes for events. Reason being, they are perfect little portion sizes, do not need to be cut and if they require a candle to be blown out the spittle is only on the individual cake.
I made chocolate cupcakes this valentine's day for my honey. I tried a mix that I had not used before - Gluten Free Dream from Cherrybrook Kitchen. I found the mix at Target, but have also seen it at Shop and Shop and the local health food store. They came out nice and moist - this was surprising as the mix is "everything" free - dairy free, egg free and nut free. My experience is that the free of everything mixes and recipes can be iffy. All I needed to add was 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 cup of water and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. I added a few chocolate chips to each little cake. We don't care for frosting, so I left that off. I did top one of mine with nutella (yum).

A few months back I made chocolate cupcakes from scratch that were very nice. The texture with gluten free baked items is a little different from wheat flour based baked goods. The texture is fine because of the lack of gluten. The gluten makes the structure and the larger crumbs.
The following recipe is on the back of Bob's Red Mill quinoa flour.
The cool thing about quinoa flour is that it is higher in fiber and protein than the other flours.
For 1/4 cup it contains 4 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein. Buckwheat flour is 2 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber, Brown rice flour is 2 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein.

Sour Cream Fudge Cupcakes -
1/4 cup unsalted butter or trans-fat free margarine
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa powder - i like to use dark cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups quinoa flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, serparated
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup lite sour cream

Preheat oven to 375. Place the butter and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in cocoa powder. Sift together the sugar, quinoa flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt (I use a mesh collander for this). Add the cooled cocoa mixture, egg yolks, vanilla and sour cream, blend well. Beat the egg whites until stiff, and forms peaks. Fold into batter. Spoon into muffin tins lined with cupcake liners (I like the silicone ones - they are reusable and fun) Bake for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Makes 12 cupcakes.