Homemade & Almost Grain Free Chocolate Cupcakes

For those cupcake kind of days.  Not short on sugar, but maybe less than the standard counterpart, and just right for birthdays.  According to me.

We had a birthday celebration a few weeks ago.  I realized the night before that I had forgotten to buy GF cake mix, which had been the plan.  I did have instant chocolate pudding mix, which I've learned from my friend with celiac, is a secret ingredient to add in order to make moister GF cupcakes.  The kids were already in bed.  I didn't want to go to the store late at night nor early in the morning.  So I made this recipe up.  And it actually turned out.  What?  Yes.  The addition of my favorite sweet, homemade buttercream frosting was just right.  I was pleasantly surprised by these, and thought they were worth sharing, for those times that call for a cupcake.

I label them as "almost grain free" because there is cornstarch and other stuff that I don't know what it is in the pudding and confectioner's sugar.

And due to our travels, the photos are of a 3 day old cupcake.  Old cupcakes don't bother me :)  Still worth eating.

1 small box chocolate pudding mix
2 T. cocoa
1/2 c. almond meal
1/2 c. almond butter
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. sugar
1 and 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. soda
1/2 t. cinnamon (I love cinnamon and chocolate together.)
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 large bananas, mashed

The eggs I used were mediums, but if anything, the recipe could stand to have a touch more moisture in it, so I think large would be perfectly fine.

I mixed all the ingredients really well with an electric mixer.

I baked the batter in a silicone muffin pan w/ paper liners at 350 degree for 23 minutes.

Frosted with buttercream: 1 cup room temperature butter, 3 cups confectioner's sugar, 1 t. vanilla, and 1-2 T. sour cream.

Enjoy, even if sparingly.  I'm glad primal-ish baking is cost prohibitive.

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