A Perfect Day for Cupcakes!

It was my birthday last Tuesday, so the kiddos and I took the day off of homeschool and did some baking in the morning.  Baking with (and without) my kiddos is one of my favorite things to do on my birthday. It’s usually freezing so I like to warm the house by using the oven.  However, this year the weather was fantasticly warm, but we decided to bake anyway. I can’t tell you how many of my birthdays have been full on blizzard.

I had a wonderful week of celebration. Yes, a full week.  Although I am now 34 years old, my birth “day” somehow became a full week event. This started because I couldn’t decide what birthday dinner I wanted so we decided to have a whole week full of my favorites.

• Tuesday we went out to our family favorite restaurant (Hu Hot-we had a birthday coupon).
• Wednesday I made zucchini lasagna.
• Thursday was Crispy Chicken in the oven.
• And now as I write this on Friday we are ordering Famous Dave’s (to-go… another birthday coupon) and snuggling up as we watch Inside Out.
• Saturday we will have our typical Taco Salad (never gets old).
• And Sunday we will have leftovers (can you say day two of zucchini lasagna goodness?!?)

So back to the baking. On Tuesday the kiddos and I made Chocolate Cupcakes. We used coconut sugar to sweeten them. While I don’t usually eat any kind of sugar (even coconut- which is lower glycemic and less processed than white table sugar), I thought this day called for a special treat. They were amazing. Especially since I’m not used to such sweet treats. So this helped me to not indulge in DQ cake (which is fine in moderation, but would have made me wake up feeling like bunk since my body isn’t used to all that dairy, sugar, and processed stuff).

And I got the idea to use avocado in a cupcake recipe from some other blogs. Never thought of using it in baked goods before. But they are so good in my chocolate avocado pudding that I thought I would give it a try.

Here is the recipe! This will make 12 small cupcake (11 if you fill them all the way up):

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oat flour (I just grind up my gluten free organic oats in the food processor to make this but you can buy it premade here)
• 1/2 cup cacoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder (preferably aluminum free. I make my own: see notes below. **)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt We buy our Redmonds Real Sea Salt at Thrive Market
• 1 avocado
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar (you could use whole cane sugar if you don’t have coconut). I bought mine at Trader Joes but you could buy it here.
• 2 farm fresh eggs
• 1/2 cup homemade almond butter (you could sub any nut butter if you don’t have almond)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (use the stuff without corn syrup)
• 2 TBS coconut oil
• 1/2 cup beef gelatin collagen (not optional-cupcakes don’t have the same consistency without) We buy ours cheapest on sale at Thrive Market

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare a cupcake pan with liners.

2. Melt your coconut oil (never use a microwave, I place a small jar of coconut oil in a bowl and run hot water in it to allow it to melt).

3. In a food processor mash your avocado.

4. Add almond butter, vanilla extract, and melted coconut to the avocado then process till smooth.

5. In a medium bowl mix oat flour, coca powder, baking powder, beef gelatin powder, and sea salt. Set aside.

6. In a large bowl mix your eggs and coconut sugar.

7. Add the wet ingredients from the food processor to your bowl of wet ingredients and mix together.

8. Then add the dry ingredients into the large bowl and mix till blended.

9. Use an ice cream scooper to scoop your mixture into the cupcake liners in the cupcake pan.

10. Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes (or until the toothpick comes out clean when you check it).

11. Take them out of the cupcake pan right away and let them cool a little. Then place them in the fridge to cool and allow the gelatin to set.

12. Use your favorite frosting on top or eat them as is. (See frosting recipes below.)

Here is my baking helper. He liked chocolate frosting best.

We used a chocolate frosting I whipped up in the food processor which calls for:

• 1 avocado
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 6 TBS organic maple syrup (you can use more or less depending on desired sweetness) I buy mine at Trader Joes but you can get it here too.
• 2 TBS almond butter (you could use any nut butter. I make my own almond butter and it’s amazing.)

I halved the chocolate frosting recipe and made a faux cream cheese frosting for the other half. I don’t have it down perfect yet but it turned out delish.

I blended the following in my food processor:

• 1 cup soaked cashews
• 3 tsp lemon juice
• about 1 TBS organic coconut sugar (you could use any quality sweetener for this)
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• could have used a pinch of salt and a dash of vanilla (like I said, it’s a work in progress)

But they were super yummy. I indulged and had one of these almost every day this week. Good stuff!

My 2 different frostings…

This kid loved his cupcakes.

My sweet girl took a birthday photo with me.

I had a fantastic birthday week.  My family and friends made me truly feel loved. Thank you all!

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**I make my own baking powder and it’s super easy. Just mix 2 parts cream of tartar to 1 part baking soda (for example 2 TBS cream of tartar with 1 TBS baking soda). I usually make a cup of it and store for later.