Carrot Cake Cupcakes (recipe courtesy of The Joy of Cooking)

Well, it's been quite a while since my last installment of Comparative Cupcakes. I hope you'll agree, though, that it was worth the wait.

Several weeks ago, I tested out yet another cupcake recipe, and used another gluten-free flour blend, in the hopes of creating two batches of cupcakes that were equal in texture, flavor, and over-all yumminess.  I invoked the assistance of Elizabeth who ultimately made good on her promise to actually taste the cupcakes once they were done! She is the only kid I know who resists cupcakes. Go figure.

For this experiment, I used a carrot cake recipe from the tried-and-true cooking classic, The Joy of Cooking. Here is the original recipe:

Carrot Cake (from The Joy of Cooking):

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 
2/3 cup vegetable oil 
3 large egg 
1 1/2 peeled and finely grated cup carrot 
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped (I omitted these)
1 cup sugar 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 
1/2 freshly grated or ground teaspoon nutmeg 
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 
1/2 teaspoon salt    

I mixed the batter together according to the directions, resulting in a light, albeit thin batter:

The final product resulted in a light and fluffy cake, cooked to a nice golden hue, and with a moist crumb that beautifully highlighted the spices and carrots that make it so unique.

Elizabeth dissected her first cupcake, sniffed it, nibbled at it, and declared it delicious. Yeah!

Now, time for the gluten-free version. 

I had done an Internet search looking for a suitable substitute for cake flour, as opposed to a substitute for regular, all-purpose flour. Why cake flour specifically? Well, traditional cake flour and all-purpose flour differ on several levels, most notably for their protein content. Cake flour has a lower protein content and, as such, has less gluten, making it more ideal for light and fluffy cakes with a particular crumb and texture.

But, we're going for gluten-free here!! And, so, my Internet hunt procured the following flour blend that received raved reviews as an ideal substitute for cake flour:

Cake flour blend:

2 cups rice flour

2/3 cup potato starch

1/3 cup tapioca flour

1 teaspoon xanthan gum or guar gum.

So, this is what I made, and these are the ingredients I used:

 

I went with the guar gum this time

Substituting this flour blend cup-for-cup in the revised recipe, my gluten-free recipe for carrot cake was as follows:

1 1/3 cup gluten-free cake flour blend (see above)
2/3 cup vegetable oil 
3 large eggs
1 1/2 peeled and finely grated cup carrot 
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped (I omitted these)
1 cup sugar 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 
1/2 freshly grated or ground teaspoon nutmeg 
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 
1/2 teaspoon salt   

The batter came together in a jiffy, and looked remarkably similar to the gluten-based recipe.

The notable difference occurred one they started baking in the oven. As you can see, they puffed up very well ...

And, as suggested by the cupcake in the right-hand foreground, perhaps they got TOO puffy ...

Once out of the oven, they deflated pretty quickly.

But, never one to judge a book by its cover, Elizabeth and I dug into this new batch, once it had cooled down nicely. The result? Flavorful bliss!!! The taste and texture were an extremely close match to the gluten-based recipe, although, once cooked, they appeared to have browned a bit more.

Of course, no carrot cake is complete without a good dollop of cream cheese frosting:

And once these little beauties were properly frosted with creamy goodness, they became almost indistinguishable, one from the other.

In short, this gluten-free flour blend seemed to do the trick nicely! I'll be using it again in my next recipe, which will be a simple vanilla cupcake. Stay tuned!