Gluten Free Vegan Living

Strawberries are some of the first new fruits of the season.  And along with strawberries is, of course, Strawberry Shortcake!  Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake cupcakes are even more fun!

The following recipe is especially interesting because the author, The Daily Dietribe blog, has avoided many of the “questionable” ingredients that are allergy triggers.

 Strawberry Shortcakes

(Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free, Vegan)

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
2 2/3 cups white rice flour (422 grams)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup coconut cream*
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon NuNaturals Liquid Stevia

Filling: 
Coconut cream**
Sliced strawberries

*For coconut cream, get a can of full-fat coconut milk. The cream rises to the top, so you can simply skim that off the top. There’s just about 1/2 cup of coconut cream on top generally.

*To get enough coconut cream for all 12 shortcakes, you’ll need a few cans. I’m not sure how many because it was too expensive for me to purchase that much. So I generally made a batch of cream from one can, made as many shortcakes as I could from that, and then ate the rest of the cupcakes plain or with Earth Balance Coconut Spread. To make the cream, I skimmed the cream off the top of the can, added a few drops of vanilla stevia to taste, and whipped it with a hand mixer until it resembled the texture of regular whipping cream.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a 12 muffin cupcake tin or use cupcake liners.
2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the orange juice, coconut cream, applesauce, vanilla extract and stevia with a hand mixer on medium for about 30 seconds. Slowly add in the dry ingredients, continuing to beat until completely mixed.
4. Spoon batter into cups, filling each one completely. Bake for 23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool a few minutes before removing cupcakes to a cooling rack. Cool completely, then slice in half, filling with coconut cream and strawberries.

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We have made “whipped cream” from coconut milk many times.  Our method is to put the unopened cans in the refrigerator for several hours.  Once they are very cold, scoop the milk into a mixing bowl, add a bit of maple syrup and vanilla to the mix and beat well.  We use our Vitamix.  The cream is a bit runner than conventional whipped cream, but you don’t waste half the can with this method.

If you try this recipe, we find that Thai Kitchen Pure Coconut Milk works the best!

Do you have a unique recipe for non-dairy whipped cream that you would like to share with us?