Paleo Vanilla Cupcakes with Banana Curd Filling & Whatever-Color Frosting
Move aside Sprinkles cupcakes! These are Paleo, perfect for kids, and easy to make! The frosting can be made into an array of colors without any synthetic food coloring or fructose corn syrup. You don't want to get your kids addicted to refined sugars at a young age only to then wonder why they're throwing sugar tantrums. These cupcakes have been taste-tested and approved by many kids. Last year, we had several versions of these cupcakes at the Taste of Paleo food festival and we sold out completely!
Do not be intimidated by the length of this recipe! I wrote more tips than I usually would (notice how short all the other recipes are?) just to really ensure everyone can make this. Yes, there are 3 elements (cake, filling, frosting), but each element is VERY easy to make.
Banana curd filling
3 ripe bananas
3 eggs, room temperature
3 tbsp. grassfed ghee, room temperature
1½ tbsp lemon juice
1 /4 cup coconut sugar
Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until fully incorporated and smooth
Transfer the mixture into a medium saucepan and stir on medium-low heat. Use a whisk to stir vigorously for 12-15 minutes until the mixture becomes thick and begins to boil. Like making your typical custard, you want to stir frequently and make sure no mixture sits at the bottom of the pan long to cook and burn
Remove from the heat and let it cool completely. I recommend transferring it into a bowl and have the bowl sit on an ice bath to accelerate cooling and thicken it up- this make its easier to place in a piping bag and pipe it in the center of your cupcakes!
Vanilla Cupcakes
6 large eggs
¾ cup coconut flour
½ cup coconut oil + 2 tbsp, divided
½ cup raw honey
¼ cup maple syrup
2 vanilla bean, spilt and scraped
¼ tsp salt
¾ tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 350 F and line your muffin pans with silicone cupcake liners. With the 2 tbsp of melted coconut oil and a brush, very lightly brush each silicone liner
Combine all the wet ingredients in a mixer, and in a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients
Add the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients in the m ixer and mix until completely smooth
Equally divide the batter amongst the cupcake liners and bake for 16 minutes. To check if the cupcakes are done, insert toothpick in the center and the toothpick should pull out clean!
Once done, let it slightly cool for 10 minutes before transferring cupcakes out of the liners onto a cooling rack. Let your cupcakes cool completely before carving out center holes for the banana curd filling and more importantly, before frosting
Frosting:
This can be made with Matcha powder, acai powder, grinded freeze-dried fruits, or a liquid all natural food coloring that has no synthetic ingredients or fructose corn syrup (A great brand is India Tree) Get creative! The base for this frosting recipe is originally from The Urban Poser who is amazing! It has been modified but check out her original recipe at http://theurbanposer.com/strawberry-or-raspberry-whipped-no/)
A few choices:
-Green: Matcha powder, or Spirulina powder, or mix the blue food coloring from India Tree- the blue mixes with the yellow of the palm shortening to create this sea-foam mint green color as pictured
-Pink: grind freeze dried raspberry and mix with a little beet juice
-Purple: Acai powder mixed with water that you've steeped hibiscus in
-Yellow: India tree has a solid yellow color
-Tan/ vanilla: vanilla extract or vanilla beans and sprinkle with pumpkin spice perfect for upcoming fall!
4 tsp of your choice of your powder colorant e.g 4 tsp of Matcha powder
1 cup organic palm shortening
2 tbsp cold coconut cream (scrape the top part of a chilled can of full fat coconut milk) 1/3 cup raw honey
1/3 cup maple syrup 4 tbsp tapioca flour 4 tsp coconut flour
Place your mixing bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes while you measure out your ingredients
Remove the bowl from the freezer and combine all the ingredients with the exception of the coconut cream
Beat on high speed until the mixture increases in volume and has a light yellow color instead of the dark yellow you started off with from the shortening. Because of the light yellow color, any food coloring you add will change slightly- for instance, adding blue food coloring will yield a more pastel mint color.
Add the coconut cream and matcha powder and beat to incorporate till you have a fluffy mixture
Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes before putting in a pipe bag and frosting your cupcakes.
To assemble:
Use a little measuring spoon, scoop out the center of your cupcakes to make a wide hole. Don’t dig past the bottom! Generously pipe your banana curd into it, then pipe your frosting on top! As seen in the picture above, a piping tip will give you the best aesthetics and can be bought for a few bucks. However, if you don't want to buy one, you can just cut the corner of a zip lock bag, and use that to pipe your frosting.
Garnish with bee pollen for a yellow kick and shredded coconuts. This cupcake frosting will melt at room temperature past 3-4 hours so store in the fridge. The frosting will completely harden in the fridge but don’t worry, it will return to its fluffy state at room temperature so just take it out an hour or so before consuming!
Finally, enjoy the cupcakes with complete peace of mind <3
