Gluten Free!

As I was driving back from my hometown today, I stopped by Ashland and picked up some gluten free flours (white rice and coconut) determined to create a delicious gluten free cupcake by the end of the day. And...I think I have! I had hours really to think about it and how it should be done. What I was NOT prepared for was the actual event. Holy crap! Those flours can soak up liquid like they're living in a desert or something! Without panicking too much, I quickly added in another 1/2 cup milk, saving the first trial from a complete disaster and making vanilla cement. Trial one ended with a nicely flavored cake, but was more destined for muffin type work than cupcake. So, my brain was thinking lighter. At this point you maybe asking....Aren't you just using a gluten free recipe? Uh, no.... Like the saying goes...."Keep things simple stupid." The recipes I've come across call for adding in cornstarch and lots of different flours, not to mention gluten free versions of things. Well, (my brain said), why can't you just keep to naturally gluten free stuff, don't add weird things, and keep it simple. Not wanting to upset my brain, I agreed. Anyway, wanting to "fluffify" my cake was going to take some doing and what's fluffier than whipped egg whites??? That led to trial two cupcake that was much lighter and still tasted great. So here I'm thinking I've got it and now I'm onto trying chocolate, until my mother tells me a little secret exchange I can make in my batter that may make it EVEN FLUFFIER!!! Immediately, I knew this was it when it was in the oven! The Trial 3 cupcake using the secret ingredient in combination of the fluffed whites, had created a gluten free cake that could stand toe to toe with any regular cupcake! And now Swirls can proudly offer these amazing GF cupcakes at their next event!!!! It was really quite an evening to say the least. Time to relax and have something salty!