These gluten-free strawberry cupcakes are a perfect balance of sweet vanilla cake with sweet and tart strawberries. They are easily made dairy-free too with just one easy substitution! The ingredients are simple and, if you have baked gluten-free from scratch, you should already have everything you need.
Fresh Strawberries
Fresh, sweet strawberries are the best option for this gluten-free cupcake recipe. I have adjusted the liquid amount to compensate for the moisture that will come from adding strawberries to the batter. Frozen strawberries don’t work as well because they will break down more and make the cake mushy.
I make it an option to mix powdered sugar in with the chopped strawberries. If yours are not very sweet, you might want to add it. I leave out the powdered sugar because I like the balance of tart and sweet flavors.
Gluten-Free Cupcakes – Ingredients
Gluten-Free Flour
I have used several different gluten-free flour blends for this gluten-free strawberry cupcake recipe and they all worked well. See the notes in the recipe for a super simple DIY gluten-free flour blend or my blog post on how to make gluten-free flour blends. My custom blend of sorghum, millet and brown rice is my favorite. It has more flavor than your average rice flour blend.
Here is my special flour blend that I love for this recipe and many more of my gluten-free recipes:
- 1 c sweet white sorghum flour
- 3/4 c millet flour
- ¼ c brown rice flour
- 2/3 c potato starch
- 1/3 c tapioca starch
If you prefer a store bought blend, I like King Arthur Flour All Purpose Gluten-Free flour the best. If you use a gluten-free flour blend that includes xanthan gum, omit the xanthan gum called for in the recipe.
Gluten-Free Cupcake Toppings
These gluten-free strawberry cupcakes are awesome on their own, but of course cupcakes are supposed to have frosting, so here are some options:
- For a double dose of strawberry, try my strawberry buttercream frosting. It’s uses just freeze-dried strawberries to flavor and color the frosting. No extracts or food dyes needed!
- Chocolate and strawberries are a perfect combination, so this vegan chocolate frosting is wonderful on these cupcakes.
- If you are a vanilla fan, this vanilla buttercream frosting works great too.
- If you want a lighter topping, use a simple white icing (photo above) by mixing 1/2 c powdered sugar with 1 tbsp water or orange juice. Orange and strawberry are a great combo!
- Or for a low sugar icing, try my Icing without Powdered Sugar which uses coconut cream as the base.
Gluten-Free Strawberry Cupcakes
These gluten-free strawberry cupcakes are the perfect combination of sweet vanilla cake with tart strawberries.
Ingredients
- ⅔ c finely chopped strawberries
- 2 tsp powdered sugar (optional)
- 1¼ c gluten-free flour blend*
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp xanthan gum
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ c sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ c oil (sunflower, avocado, canola)
- 6 Tbsp milk or milk substitute
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or powder
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F and prepare a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Finely chop the strawberries. If desired, add 2 tsp of powdered sugar and stir. I like the contrast of tart strawberries with the sweet cake, so I leave it out. You choose!
- Combine the gluten-free flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk.
- In a small bowl, beat the sugar, eggs, oil, milk and vanilla thoroughly. Stir in the strawberries.
- Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and stir until smooth. If using an electric mixer, mix no more than 1 minute.
- Fill the liners about 2/3 full and bake 18-20 minutes or until the tops are set and bounce back from a gentle tap.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Top with simple icing, vanilla buttercream frosting or eat them plain!
Notes
*If using a gluten-free flour blend that contains xanthan gum, omit it from the recipe.
For an easy DIY gluten-free flour blend, combine:
2 c brown rice flour
2/3 c potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca starch
Or see my post on how to make your own gluten-free flour blend.
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