This recipe was made for my friend Gina, who has a gluten and lactose free diet. As a long time vegan/vegetarian, I feel for people with dietary restrictions(I don't feel restricted really--just more creative), so I conjured up this recipe for her birthday cupcakes! I highly recommend making a Valrhona chocolate "buttercream", to compliment this recipe--it adds that magical chocolately goodness that we all look for in a righteously yummy dessert(okay, maybe I'll finally make a recipe for my valhrona "buttercream"). Also, you will find this recipe is gum free, as there are many documented allergies to these gums--and they're also expensive. Happy baking!
Yield: One 9 inch cake tier, or 14 - 16 regular sized cupcakes.
Preparation:
Make your oat flour(use classic gluten free oats), chia and flax meal: in a cleaned out coffee grinder(I grind on "espresso" setting, two times per batch), Vitamixer, or food processor. The idea is to grind oat flour to replicate the fine texture of regular all purpose flour and in my opinion it tastes better the finer it is, as it will mix better.
Mix dry ingredients together thoroughly with wire whisk.
Make your gluten replacement: put flax and chia into a separate bowl and add 1/2 cup of hot coffee or water to this mixture. Mix for a minute until mixture has thickened, then add remaining coffee/water and mix thoroughly.
Add flax and chia mixture to dry ingredients, as well as oil and remaining wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly, 1 - 2 minutes.
Let stand for 20 minutes and now preheat oven to 350 degrees(let's save some energy). You might be excited to get this recipe in the oven, but this 20 minute stand time allows the recipe to rise a lot better.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes for cake and cupcakes, or until toothpick comes out clean!