Ginger Oktoberfest Cupcakes - Gluten/Lactose Free

I made Ginger cupcakes and Vanilla cupcakes and decorated them in Oktoberfest colors.  I had wanted to decorate them like the lebkuchenherzen (see a pic I took at Wies'n of these below) but realized once I did the first outer piping of white, there was no room to write anything on them.  So, I asked my partner what he thought and it was his idea to do the white/blue/white.  I did the final touch of adding the center blue and the white hearts which I am so happy I happened to have on hand - as think it really adds to them.  The cupcake liners are blue/white as well and these were a gift to me from my friend Kat - so they were perfect for these cupcakes.

We will have our anniversary get  together at the Oktoberfest tomorrow (we met there, through friends - not randomly ;-) so will take these as well as some sekt to have a toast and cupcakes before we go into the tent we have our reservation in.

I am VERY happy with the way that these turned out!!!

WHAT I DID:
So, the ginger cupcakes were a total experiment from scratch. I found 3 different recipes for ginger cupcakes but did not really like any of them - so combined them.  Here is the recipe.

In a saucepan, combine the following

100g Molasses (or Treacle) (I used zuckerrohr molasse)

125 g Lactose Free Butter (I used MinusL butter)

100 g Muscovado sugar (I used Gepa Moscobado Zucker)

Cook this mixture until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved.

Then add the following and mix well with whisk

75 g Lactose Free Milk (I used MinusLFrisch milk)

75 g Lactose Free Buttermilk (I used MinusL Buttermilk)

1 egg beaten

In a separate large bowl - add the following ingredients

75 g Millet Flour

75 g Quinoa Flour

50 g Teff Flour

25 g Corn Starch

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

pinch of salt

2 tsp ground ginger

Sift the above dry ingredients several time (very important)

Then add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix using a whisk.  You don't want to over mix the GF flours.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake in a preheated oven 350°F for 20 minutes.  You may need to bake 1-5 min longer depending on your oven/altitude etc..  I use a toothpick inserted into the middle row of cupcakes to test for doneness.

Cool in cupcake pan for 10 min, then remove and cool on wire rack until completely cool.  Then decorate.

This made 16 cupcakes.

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE

I think I might try adding some ground fresh ginger next time. I had wanted to this time, but the ginger in my fridge was well past it's being used life :-(  I would also try a bit diff mix of flours - or sift the ones I used several more times to lighten the flours (GF flours are more course than wheat flour,so can produce a grainy texture).  

I also found them to be a bit greasy in the cupcake liners on the bottom. I would perhaps use less butter next time and perhaps less molasses and add US style dark brown sugar to make up that difference.I would also use a bit more of each of each of the baking soda and baking powder - as they did not rise as well as I had hoped.

Here are the typical gingerbread hearts that you find at the Oktoberfest.  I wanted to decorate my cupcakes similar, but they are just too small.  Perhaps next year I will try to do some of these lebkuchenherzen .