Friday Night Foodie: Baby Shower!

What do you get when you cross an insomniac with a gluten intolerant foodie who has a baby shower at the office in the morning? Late night baking whilst watching waaaaay to much TV. This week I meant to make gluten free sweet potato gnocchi but in light of said baby shower (and the aforementioned insomnia) the plan changed. I had to scour the internet because most recipes had odd ingredients that no normal person has just sitting around in their pantry (what the heck is xanthan gum?) but I finally found a somewhat simple recipe (apparently it's a polysaccharide secreted by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris,[2]used as a food additive and rheology modifier,[3] commonly used as a food thickening agent…what kind of rubbish foodie am I?).  From there it was relatively simple…sorry I don't have many pictures, it was getting late…

• 2 cups of gluten free flour (thanks Michelle!)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup of baking cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar

Mix dry ingredients first and then add the wet.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (mine needed 25) and then dust with powdered sugar.

The good: absolutely delicious flavor and not dry like every other cupcake I've ever made in my entire life.

The bad: I didn't have any frosting…but that's not on the recipe.

The different(?):  it was much thicker than normal cupcakes but I kind of liked that aspect.  It was more bread like and not quite as fluffy.  

I took it into work and was pleasantly reminded that the wife of our shop manager (who is the one the baby shower was for) is also gluten intolerant.  If I hadn't brought them she wouldn't have gotten a cupcake at all…ok, it's the small victories.  I would definitely use this recipe again.