Gluten-Free Lemon Salt Cupcakes

Trevor and I have been doing some house research the past few weeks. It’s exciting and scary and I can’t wait to leave my tiny kitchen behind. We’re not quite ready to upgrade our condo yet, but we’re gathering information for when we do.

There is one thing I have learned so far… my dream kitchen only exists in multi-million dollar homes.

It’s really quite unfortunate.

I don’t need for much. A gas range. A wall mounted oven..

Perferrably two.

Lots of natural light, lots of counter space.. walk-in pantry.

Well it doesn’t have to be walk-in. But there has to be a pantry. A real one with a big door, not just a single cupboard next to my oven that I call my “pantry”.

Finding my dream kitchen would be a lot easier if I were a millionaire (as would obtaining a lot of shoes), but I’m not one. I think what I want isn’t completely unreasonable, it’s simply that no one designs houses the way I would design houses.

I would have a massive kitchen, with vaulted ceilings, skylights, walk-in pantry, Viking gas range, convection wall ovens, wood topped island… surrounded by very modestly sized other rooms.

I would make the house 1300 sq. ft. because that’s what I can afford, but 500 sq. ft. of it would be kitchen.

Trevor finds this unreasonable.

I find him unreasonable.

Unfortunately, from the research we have completed thus far, most (all) home architects seem to agree with Trevor. I don’t think they understand a lady of my priorities.

So I may never get that dream kitchen, but maybe I’ll find myself an average sized pantry, next to an acceptable amount of counter space, surrounding a stove that’s not by Viking… but is gas.

And it will be in the heart of my warm, loving home, resided in by my lovely husband and adorable puppies.

And so it will be perfect.

Adapted from Tartlette

This recipe makes a rather dense but delicious cupcake. Although I have never tried it, it would probably work well if you simply replace the GF flour and xanthan gum with 1 1/2 cups regular AP flour.

Cupcakes

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1½ cups Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour (or your GF flour mix of choice)
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup buttermilk
• zest and juice of one lemon

Buttercream

• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water + 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• zest of a lemon

• lemon salt (recipe below if needed) or wide flake sea salt

Directions

1. Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350F and position a rack in the middle. Prepare a muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until smooth and airy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition.
4. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt.
5. Lower the speed of the mixer and add the flour mixture and milk alternatively to the butter/eggs mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Add the zest and lemon juice ad beat until smooth.
6. Fill cupcake tins about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out free of raw batter. Let cool completely before frosting.
7. Buttercream: Place the yolks in a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment.
8. Bring the sugar, water and lemon juice to 238F (on a candy thermometer) in a medium saucepan set over high heat.
9. With the mixer on low to medium, slowly pour the hot syrup over the egg yolks and continue to whisk until room temperature.
10. Change to the paddle attachment and beat in the butter, one tablespoon at a time. Add the lemon zest and continue to beat for a few seconds until completely smooth. (If buttercream separates, just keep beating! It should come back together.)
11. Assembly:  Pipe buttercream on to cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with a few flakes of lemon salt.

Makes approx. a dozen cupcakes.

Lemon Salt

Lemon salt is available some stores (be careful, some stores mark citric acid as “lemon salt” but you actually want lemon flavoured salt.) but if you can’t find it (which I couldn’t!) you can make your own like I did –

Mix together..

• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon very fine lemon zest

in a bowl, with a fork, making sure all the zest gets distributed (it likes to stick to itself). Line a cookie sheet with foil and spread the salt mixture on the foil in as thin of a layer as you can manage. Let dry, uncovered, for 2 hours, perferrably overnight. Store in a non-reactive container or a ziploc bag and use to add intrigue to lemon cupcakes or extra zestiness to meat!

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