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Gluten Free Cupcakes with Clementine Orange Frosting

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Gluten-Free Cupcakes with Clementine Orange Frosting I just love how recipes develop. You start with an idea, which you try. Hopefully it works out to some degree. You tweak it and try again until you have something good. Then one day you think, “If I took out some of this, and added some of that, I’d have…” So you modify it again, to create something different. Often this happens to me because I want to make one of my recipes, and I don’t have all of the ingredients 😉 That’s how I came up with these cupcakes. I wanted to make this gluten free orange cake, but I had clementines, not large oranges, and three rather than four eggs. It occurred to me that less orange and egg would make for a dryer mixture. Cupcakes maybe? Fortunately, it worked. Probably because I wasn’t trying to substitute flours, which can cause trouble as we all know 🙂

Baby and I were very happy eating one of these frosted cupcakes. I hope you and your family enjoy them too.

Gluten Free Cupcakes with Clementine Orange Frosting

(gluten-free, grain-free, casein-free, dairy-free)

Boil 2 clementines (peel and all) for about 80 minutes.*
Remove. Rinse in a bowl of fresh piping hot water for one minute.
Let the clementines cool until you can touch them.
Remove the peel from one of the clementines, and save it for the frosting.
Add the clementines (one missing it’s peel) to your food processor, after putting in the blade.

Add:
3 eggs
1/4 cup arrowroot flour
3/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/8 tsp vanilla liquid stevia
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder (see my Grain-free Baking Powder recipe)
Puree for a few minutes.
Fill unbleached paper cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Makes about 10.

*I think it’s especially important to use organic oranges in recipes like this, that call for eating the peel.

Clementine Orange Frosting

Add to food processor:

the other boiled clementine peel
1 cup plain cashews
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil, liquified
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup nut milk, or more as needed
Optional for color: about 2 tsp dehydrated carrots that have been ground into powder in a coffee grinder

Puree till creamy and smooth.

Refrigerate to thicken.

Keep frosting (or frosted cupcakes) in the fridge if there are leftovers after the day it’s made.

 

♥, Kelly

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  3. What a great idea, Kelly! I’ll have to try this. I do have a question though, do you think it’s alright to use the seeds of the clementines in the recipe? I know that apple seeds should not be eaten because of the cyanide they contain, but I know nothing about citrus fruit seeds. Have you heard anything about this?
    Laura

  4. No, You don’t soak them for this one 🙂

    There weren’t any seeds in mine. I cut them in half and looked before putting them in the food processor.

  5. Is the 80 minutes the correct amount of time to boil the clementines? These make me think of the orange rolls from a tube my mom made when I was a kid — loved them, but full of junk!

  6. Hi Kelly,
    Fantastic! Never would have thought of boiling and pureeing whole oranges before. I can’t wait to try it. So, do you think I could just use one large organic orange instead of the 2 clementines? I really do not have access to affordable organic clementines. Thanks!

    Barbara

  8. Hannah, I wrote you back on Spunky Family 🙂

    Yes, I boil them for 80 minutes.

    Barbara, I think so. May need to cut back the oil though to compensate.

  15. I just made these for a friend’s birthday and they are delicious! super moist. I didn’t have liquid stevia so I used about 1/4 tsp of powdered stevia and 1TBL of coconut sugar. turned out yummy and they were very well received by all who ate them.

    Thanks for another great recipe!