These gluten free Candy Cupcakes are your answer to the annual quandary: Halloween has come and gone, but what to do with all that candy??!
By now, you’ve no doubt painstakingly poured over the loot that your kids dragged home or the leftovers you might have from your own Halloweening. You’ve identified the treats that are free from gluten and other allergens that may concern you, and set the others aside – perhaps to donate to kids in Haiti like our local Girl Scouts are doing? (If you are unsure about which candies are GF safe, please read my article on safe gluten-free candies!)
My kids are actually getting paid by the pound to hand their candy over to the dentist (who will either trash it or send it to the troops – hard to tell!). Speaking of which, I’m starting to think I really need to get in on this action (didn’t I somehow enable this money-making scheme?!?). But I digress …
So it’s safe to say that right about now, you may be staring down something akin to a hill of candy. Lucky for you, I have a tasty answer to help you get rid of at least some of your loot! You can make yourself feel better by focusing on the peanut butter (has a lot of protein, right?!), milk (calcium) and cacao (raw chocolate is high in antioxidant flavanoids) in this recipe, or you can be brutally honest and just acknowledge it for what it is: a special occasion treat!
Happy post-Halloween candy recycling!
(Note: If your family cannot tolerate peanuts, simply substitute another candy you enjoy in the cake, and try sunflower nut butter for the frosting, or choose a vanilla frosting you like instead!)
Gluten Free Candy Cupcakes Recipe
The perfect way to re-purpose all your leftover Halloween candy: gluten free Candy Cupcakes!
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs*
- 1/2 cup mild cooking oil like safflower, sunflower, avocado, vegetable or non-GMO canola oil
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup granulated cane sugar
- 2 2/3 cup (360 grams)gfJules™ All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
- 2 Tbs. cacao powder (raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder)
- 1 Tbs. baking powder
- dash of salt
- 1 package gluten-free vanilla instant pudding (3.4-3.8 oz) (Jell-O brand -3.4 oz- is currently GF & dairy-free; Dr. Oetker Organic Vanilla Pudding & Pie Mix – 3.8 oz – is also GF & dairy-free)
- 1/2 cup milk of choice (dairy or non-dairy like soy, almond, hemp, rice – vanilla flavored)
- 1 cup chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, M&Ms or other gluten-free candy of choice
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325° F or 300° F convection.
Combine all liquids in a large mixing bowl and beat until combined; sift in dry ingredients and beat for 2 minutes on medium speed – expect the batter to be very thick and taffy-like.
Oil at least 20 muffin cups with gfJules® All Purpose Flour (or you may use paper cupcake liners). Fill the muffin cups only 1/2– 2/3 full of cake batter. Bake for 20-30 minutes – test with a cake tester or toothpick to ensure that it is clean when removed from the baking cakes.
Notes
*To Replace 4 Eggs in this recipe (use all of the below):
- ½ cup dairy or non-dairy yogurt (not Greek style, not fat-free) OR vegan mayo (to total 2 eggs)
PLUS
- 2 recipes of commercial gluten free egg replacer like Ener-G® Egg Replacer (to total 2 eggs)
Tries searching for vanilla cupcake recipe…only found the one with cocoa….do you have one without the cocoa?
Of course, Carrie! Not sure why it wouldn’t come up. Did you search “cupcakes”? I have loads of recipes. Here’s one of my favorite go-to gluten free vanilla cupcakes recipes.
Enjoy!
~jules
Would this recipe work with more cocoa powder and no candy?
They are in the oven…I’m a bit nervous, as they are really, really thick. Your recipes have never failed me, so I am sure they will be perfect.
They turned out perfect. I should have known they would, as every Jules recipe has been fabulous. This will now be a go-to recipe for cupcakes. Thank you!
Oh Rhonda, that’s wonderful to hear! Thank you!!
hmmmm YUMMY!!… I like what you did with the cupcakes, my little cousins will surely want’s to eat something like this. Jules can I copy the ingredients and procedure then? Oh I hope you could personally teach me on how to do it.
Debbie – feel free to print the recipe and use it anytime! Hope your cousins enjoy it!
I just made these with chocolate chips instead of Reese’s cups, since that is what I had. They are yummy, but I think would be better with the Reese’s cups since the peanut butter would add just a touch of salty. If I make it again with chocolate chips, I’ll cut back on the sugar a little. I do have a question – has anyone else had trouble trying to do the 2 minutes of mixing. It kept climbing up the beaters and trying to go into the motor of the mixer. I didn’t get to finish even a minute of the mixing. Should I be using something other than regular beaters?
Thanks,
Tolly
In certain recipes, like this one, where the batter is particularly thick, having a paddle attachment instead of beaters works better. I agree that the salty peanut butter makes this recipe really yummy – straight up chocolate could be too much unless you’re a total chocoholic!