Gluten, Soy, Wheat and Almond free Cupcakes!

You might be asking, "Why is she making something with so many restrictions?" Well, I have a friend who recently had to eliminate a bunch of things from her diet in order to combat her allergies. This included soy, wheat, dairy (all cow/sheep/goat), eggs, almond, tomatoes, peas, barley, kidney and pinto beans, Brazil nuts, cheese, pumpkin, rye, and yeast. WHEW!

So basically I thought I'd adapt the Chocolate Gluten Freedom Cupcake recipe from my favorite cookbook, "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World". The book didn't have a ganache that catered to all those allergies, so I made one in a double boiler on low heat with Dark 99% Cacao, rice milk, a touch of vanilla, and agave nectar to sweeten (you can use sugar or maple syrup as well). Make sure to keep your eye on it, stirring with a whisk. If you start to see it burning or ceasing, quickly take it off the heat, add more rice milk, and stir like a mad woman! Sometimes it's a lost cause by this point, but you can try!

Okay, on to the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup rice milk
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon chocolate extract (use almond like the original recipe if you can't find chocolate extract)
1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill tapioca flour (Natural Food markets should have this)
2 tablespoons ground flax seed (I only found whole flax seeds, so I ground them myself)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill white rice flour
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Wheat, Gluten, and Dairy free all-purpose flour (a mix of Garbanzo Bean Flour, Potato Starch, Tapioca Flour, White Sorghum Flour and Fava bean Flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees and line muffin/cupcake tray with cupcake liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine rice milk, canola oil, sugar and extracts. Mix with an electric mixer on medium speed just to combine. Add tapioca flour and flax seed and mix vigorously for about a minute, until the tapioca flour is dissolved and the mixture is well emulsified.
3. Add the cocoa powder, white rice flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix on medium-high for about 2 minutes. It's important to mix really well and you don't' have to worry about over-mixing because, hey, THERE'S NO GLUTEN!
4. Fill cupcake liners a little over three-quarters full, these won't rise as much as traditional cupcakes so you can fill them a little more than usual. Although that gave me only 11 cupcakes, but what the heck!
5. Bake for 20-23 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted through the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.