What is the difference between a Muffin and a Cupcake?

 

I continually get asked what the difference is between cupcakes and muffins.  Here is the best answer I have. 

A muffin is a quick bread that is baked in the shape of a cupcake.  The batter can also be baked in a loaf pan, but not in a cake pan (would not bake properly).  A muffin is usually does not have icing, however, some do have an icing/glaze and Muffins are normally eaten mainly for breakfast.

A cupcake is a cake batter that is baked as "little" cakes.  Cupcakes have frosting on them, are much sweeter (higher sugar and sweet ingredients ratio than muffins (which have a higher four ratio) and are often eaten as dessert.

In the end, they both end up making our bums and tummies bigger :-(  But they are also worth it :-)

 

There you have it :)   What do you think?  Do you agree or do you have a different definition?

The coolest aprons ever.....

I am so excited. I found this apron on google while searching for pictures of cupcakes.  I clicked on the picture and found that it is something you could order.  So I did.  They are made by a lady names Lana who sells them in her shop Sassy Apron through Etsy.com.  She even will  make matching headbands too.

I can not wait to get this apron. Even wondering if it would work as an Oktoberfest apron if I am still here in Munich next year :-D

Thank you for visiting. 10 different contries so far. #glutenfree #gf #gfree

Just a quick thank you for visiting my blog. I am really enjoying doing this and it helps fill my time (currently unemployed).

So far, there have been over 800 hits and people from 10 countries who have visited my site

-Germany, US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Netherlands, Spain and India.

Please feel free to pass along the blog to anyone you know who had to eat Gluten Free.

Thanks!!

Thank you to Winget Art Studio for the coolest cupcake clipart ever!!!

I would like to send a huge thank you to Susan Winget for allowing me the privileged of using her oh so cool cupcake clipart on my blog.  I LOVE IT!!  Thanks so much!  Also, for anyone who this appeals to, she does loads of different artwork.

Oh Happy Day!!

My friend Kat brought me some supplies from the US.  I can not make prettier cupcakes now that I have proper piping bags, cupcake liners and colors (all very very difficult and sometimes impossible to find in Germany.  She brought me some cool other things too including 2 homemade carry bags :-)

Thank you so much Kat!!!

Flours in my pantry

So, since I was diagnosed and spent the first bit of my GF years in the States, I of course took on the standard GF flour blend (rice/tapioca/potato).  But since living in Europe and trying for many years to produce nice baked goods, but always coming up with mediocre (and those you can buy, even worse), I started experimenting. I now find that I can substitute ANY recipe with a mixture of my flours and it turns out just as nice!  It  may take a couple tries and changing a few other ingredient amounts, but in the end, it always works.  I discovered this when I was trying to make Nan bread (the one thing I still have not perfected, close, but not as good as the real thing) and experimented with Teff.  I now use that as one of my main flours.  

One MAJOR thing that is an absolute must with GF flours is to measure by weight.  If you need to convert to grams, use an online converter (link at very bottom for the best one that I have found-even has butter conversion).  1 cup of Wheat flour does not equal a cup of GF flour.  And 1 cup of Teff does not equal one cup of Corn Starch.  You have to find the density of the flour and convert to grams.  Not all flours are listed, you have to do a little searching, but you can find them all.  If you can't just choose the flour with the closest texture to convert. The link I have below does this for you.  This is my biggest and most valuable lesson that I have learned.

As for the Lactose Free part.  I simply substitute lactose free milk (in Germany I use only the fresh MinusL brand, not the HMilk (ie long life shelf milk) and I also use the MinusL butter.  Things just dont work out nor taste as nice with margarine.  MinusL (http://www.minusl.de/105) also do quark and yogurt as well as cheese and several other things, so you can nearly always make things lactose free without losing any flavor at all.

I am actually Milk Intolerant.  I do not on a normal basis even drink/use the MinusL (I do this as my partner is lactose intolerant).  I switched to Soy milk (only the one that is only soy/water, not the sweetened stuff) but just do not like it and do not like the outcome of baked goods with it.  You can bake with it (but it  MUST be the soy that is 100% only soy/water - hard to find) but I prefer not to.  My intolerance is not so bad yet that I can not handle a tiny amount in baked goods when using the Lactose Free, so this is what I do. 

My partner now eats 100% GF when at home now and to be honest, I don't think he even can tell the difference anymore.  This is how good you can cook GF - DO NOT let anyone tell you you have to put up with the heavy, doughy, expensive pre-packaged breads/cakes/sweets they sell on line or in health food shops.  YOU CAN do this on your own and make wonderful light/airy/inexpensive wonderful baked goods.  It only takes a bit of practice.

Happy Gluten Free Baking!!

Here are the flours I have in my pantry that I use quite often:

Teff (from Teff Grass)

Almond (nut flour)

Corn Starch

Millet/Sorghum

Amaranth

Buckwheat (not wheat at all)
Quinoa (actually a seed)

Graham (aka chickpea/Garbanzo bean)

And here are the others that are their, but hardly ever used:

Rice

Sweet Rice (only used for pie crust - pie crust to die for that is ;)

Tapioca

Potato starch

Potato flour (only used to make German Knodel)

Things I can not find in Germany:

Brown Rice Flour (I use Teff instead)

Almond Flour (I have a friend bring this to me when she comes over) 
Xanthan Gum (you can get this, but in teeny tiny packets.  I have someone bring me over the large container of it.  But to be honest, I rarely add it unless I am making bread. 

Converter

http://www.onlineconversion.com/cooking.htm

Mostly Cupcakes, but also so much more...

So, while the main focus of this blog will be about my cupcake mission (turning every cupcake from this awesome cupcake book I have into a lovely edible Gluten/Lactose Free cupcake) I also make loads of other "experiments" too.  Here are just a few.  If you would like the recipe (or approx, again, I am horrible at writing down what I actually do, just let me know.

Homemade Cherry Pie.  Made from fresh cherries.  This was the absolute best pie crust  I have ever ever made (or eaten for that matter, including ones with wheat flour).  I also put sliced almonds in this and on the top. It really made it taste that much better.  With a little warm milk and brown sugar sprinkled on top - it was marvelous!! 

Focaccia made with tomatoes and rosemary.  This was my first attempt at anything like this and it turned out great.  Would use different flours next time though (think I used Teff in this one).  We sliced it while warm and ate with freshly grilled chicken breast and grilled red peppers.  The rest was saved for breakfast, but we ended up eating it all in one day.

"Normal" Cupcakes" made with wheat flour. I made these for a friends birthday.  They were so nice looking :-)  With the spinkles and each had a little animal face on them.  I also learnt that day that sprinkles were also known as Jimmies on the East Coast and Hundreds and Thousands in the UK.



Mixed Paella.  I got this recipe from MaWithFlavor. It was so awesome!!!  I found some GF Chorizo.  This is definitely something we will make again!

Carnitis with homemade Salsa.  This was a whole day task.  I made 3 different types of salsa and the carnitas took hours to cook. We also made homemade corn tortillas.  These are something you can not find in Germany, so must make them ourselves.  Which ensures they are GF.

Chipotle Steaks with Balsamic Roasted Tomatoes.  This was yum yum

Bhuna Ghost (Lamb Bhuna) with Onion Bhaji. My absolute favorite Indian meal.  I make some sort of curry several times a month.  It is also my favorite to eat out, as is one of the few types of restaurants where wheat flour is not used in the cooking (only the Nan bread).  We only use whole seeds and spices - roast them and grind them for our curries.  Makes all the difference in the world.

I LOVE cupcakes

It is not so much the making of them, but the decorating of them that I love (cakes too). The other day I bought a cupcake book and decided I would make every cupcake in the book - but adapting the recipes to be Gluten and Lactose Free.  I am actually milk intolerant, however, it is not as bad as the Gluten so for these I can have a bit, but the Lactose Free does help.

I tend to make up recipes as I go along. I never follow a recipe at all, even a great GF one.  I always change things.  However, I am horrible at actually knowing what I did.  My goal with this blog is that I start to note down what I change so I can make it better the next time and also remember when it turns out awesome.  I once made the best corn bread on Earth - but can not do it again, as no idea which flour blends I use. :-D

2 important things I do. I always use electronic scales (none of this "cups" crap from US recipes - just does not work with GF)  One cup of wheat flour does not equal one cup of another type of flour.  I also never use the typical US GF blend of Rice/Tapioca/Potato - I use Teff, Amaranth, Quinoa and other flours. They turn out SO much better!!!

For more info on Gluten Free http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten_free

For more info on  Milk Intolerant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_allergy

For a GREAT conversion site (including flour weights) http://www.onlineconversion.com/cooking.htm