Gluten-Free Salted Caramel Mocha Cupcakes

I like making cupcakes. I like getting creative with them...And apparently other people like that too. These are for a friend from work who recently went on a gluten-free diet and has been dying for something sweet.

Since I'm not going to buy gluten-free ingredients separately for a dozen cupcakes, I decided to go with a mix, and then add my own special touches.

I started out with Betty Crocker Gluten-Free cake mix in Devil's Food. It was about $5.

The box says all you need to add is a cup of water, a stick of butter, and 3 eggs. But I wanted the flavor to have more depth, so I substituted coffee for water, then sprinkled in some espresso powder, brown sugar, and extra cocoa powder. These ingredients not only add more flavor, but fine ingredients also help to make gluten-free cakes moist, which is often an issue. I also added a splash of vanilla and almond extracts.

Betty Crocker says to bake at 350 for 18-23 minutes, and I found that these needed the full 23. They did rise up nice and pretty.

So now for the filling. I actually started this part a few hours before the cupcakes because it takes a while, but it's well worth the wait. Take a can of sweetened condensed milk and boil it in a pot of water for about 2 hours. When you take it out and let it cool off, you'll have your own gluten-free caramel filling!

I have a handy little cupcake-corer, but a knife or even the back end of a pastry tip will do the job. Core your cupcakes, and put the filling in. Make sure it goes all the way to the top of the cupcake or else the frosting will sink in when you get to that part.

I sprinkled the caramel with just a little bit of sea salt.

Then I started with a basic butter cream frosting recipe and got creative. I sprinkled in some more espresso powder, cocoa powder, and vanilla. Instead of milk, I happened to have some chocolate caramel coffee creamer (which happened to be gluten-free) so I used that. Milk will do just fine though.

I used my star pastry tip to pipe the frosting, then sprinkled with a bit more sea salt.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out. My husband agrees that you can't tell they're gluten-free, and he's really picky about his sweets. This is definitely something I would enjoy eating, even though I don't intentionally eat gluten-free.. And of course I didn't sneak one or two extras for myself.