Adventures in Cupcakery: The Quest for the Mochi Cupcake

Awhile ago, the boy and I hosted a paella party and one of our guests brought gluten free cupcakes. None of our guests had celiac disease, but this friend was taking the remaining cupcakes to a work function the next day and one of her coworkers has celiac. OMG, these cupcakes were good! They were like mochi cupcakes, primarily because they were made with rice flour. The recipe she used for her cupcakes is here.

Due to not so recent obsession with homemade rice noodles, I have oodles of rice and tapioca flours hanging out in my pantry, so my quest has become to make even more chewy mochi cupcakes with these remants. Today was try #2, and my recipe tweaks (use oil instead of mayo, use agave syrup instead of white sugar, use glutonous rice flour and regular rice flour) are getting me closer!

The reason I say I'm getting closer instead of "Eureka!" is that these cupcakes are, for lack of a better term, fugly.

Oh, they start out really promising when you take them out of the oven. They are golden and plump!


But a minute later, they deflate and they look like shrunken heads.


I crowned this cupcake Fugliest of All.


A dollop of cream cheese and honey frosting helped disguise the wrinkles, but I need to work on my frosting skills before these can be for public consumption. Another friend swears up and down that using piping bags for frosting application is the best and easiest way, and at this point, I'd have to agree.


I will have to try another recipe tweak again because I already have some ideas on how to make these cupcakes more mochi-like and cute.