Gluten Free Hummingbird Cupcakes

Sooo yeahhh, it's been over three months since I last wrote of my baking shenanigans.  You probably thought that law school has taken my soul.  Which it is definitely trying to do....  My real reason for not blogging, however, was that I really hadn't been baking, since baked goods of all varieties were making me feel horrible.  As a runner, there are few things in life more demotivating than not being able to reward yourself with good food after a good run.  (And I have been doing a fair amount of running this spring - an hour trail run every Saturday, as well as getting my second best time in a half with a temp of 26 degrees, 20 mph winds, and two bridges, a 1:32)  In high school it was Publix's cherry cheesecake pie or Ben and Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream, at William and Mary it was Aromas' layer cakes...it may sound silly but the promise of curling up on the couch with a sweet treat and a cup of coffee would motivate me to run faster and farther.

After two surgeries, I was told to stick to low-fat sweets.  Hence the development of a serious fro-yo addiction.  Thank God for taro and cake batter and frequent buyer punch cards!!  I also found that reducing the amount of gluten in my diet made me feel and run better.  (This is not to say that I am eating totally gluten free, or that I am eating low carbs...honestly I could not live without carbs!)  So I started to experiment with gluten free baking.

I was completely oblivious about gluten free foods and gluten intolerance until two summers ago when I visited my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Massachusetts.  My cousin had recently been diagnosed with Celiac, so my aunt and uncle's kitchen was totally gluten free.  At first, I was mortified that they did not have any Thomas bagels or Eggo waffles in their refrigerator...they didn't even have Quaker oatmeal!  For my Grandma's 80th birthday, we drove a few towns over just to go to Whole Foods to get Cherrybrook Farms gluten free chocolate cake and frosting mix.  (Luckily we also happened upon a Panera on this excursion)  I didn't have high expectations for the cake, since I've never really liked chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and I thought Gluten Free meant tasting like dirt.  One forkful of the moist and creamy cake, however, was all it took for me to abandon my misperceptions of Gluten Free baked goods.

In the last month or two, I've baked Cherrybrook Farms cupcakes on a couple of different occasions.  I haven't blogged about it since I don't really consider baking from a box "baking."  But I must admit these cupcakes rival store-bought cupcakes any day, in fact they might even be better...and my mom and dad will second me there! Since it's Spring Break I finally had the time to experiment baking gluten free from scratch.  Inspired by images of Peeps on Pinterest and Southern Living's classic Hummingbird Cake, I decided to create GF Hummingbird Cupcakes.  Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients
-3 cups gluten free all-purpose flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-2 cups of sugar
-3 eggs
-2/3 cup canola oil
-1.5 tsp vanilla extract
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 cup crushed pineapple
-3 large bananas, mashed

-cream cheese frosting
-green sprinkles
-yellow Peeps

Preparation
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12-cupcake pan with cupcake holders
2) Mix first three dry ingredients
3) Stir (do not beat) eggs and add to dry ingredients; also add canola oil and stir
4) Mix in vanilla, cinnamon, and salt
5) Fold in pineapple and bananas until batter is thoroughly mixed
6) Pour into cupcake holders and bake 25-30 minutes until cupcakes are golden brown around the edges
7) Let cupcakes cool, then frost and decorate by sprinkling green sugar sprinkles and perching yellow Peep in the frosting.
Bon Appetit!
~E