Pina Colada Mini Cakes

Pina Colada Mini Cakes (gluten, dairy, soy and peanut free)

Variations for egg-free and corn free are listed at the end.

Ube powder is a vivid purple starch from the purple yam, or taro root. It adds a slightly sweet taste and a pale purple colour to the cakes. If you can't find it, it may be omitted, but should probably be replaced with some extra flour AND slippery elm powder, guar or xanthan gum.

WARNING: If you are using any of the bean flours, please be careful not to taste the raw batter. It is not recommended that people ingest raw dried beans. Like using dried beans in chilis, etc. the beans become safe once cooked, but until then refrain from sneaking a taste - besides, bean flours taste awful raw!

Ingredients

1 1/2 c tapioca starch
1 1/2 c corn starch *
1 1/2 c sweet rice
3/4 c garfava, chana or potato flour
1/2 Ube powder (aka purple yam)
2 c pineapple tidbits (drained - retained the syrup)
2 c shredded coconut
3 tblsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c sugar (or 1/4 tsp stevia)
1 c pineapple syrup (saved from draining the pineapple)
3 eggs (or equivalent in egg replacers)*
1/2 c water
1 c canola (or other preferred cooking oil)*
1 tblsp lemon juice
1/2 c chopped walnuts, pecans, or pine nuts (may be omitted)
1 c Perrier or other sparkling water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 ° F.
Prepare muffin tins by greasing them or spraying with a safe vegetable spray.
Cover and set aside until you have the batter ready.
Sift the dry ingredients (except coconut, sugar and walnuts) together at least twice to add lightness to the flours and to mix the salt, Ube and baking powder throughout the flours. This is extremely important with non-gluten flours as they are so fine they tend to clump together, leaving you with a gritty tasting product.
In a separate bowl, combine eggs with oil and sugar and beat by hand until frothy.
Stir in the water, lemon juice and mix again.
Pour the flours into the liquid a cup or so at a time and mix well.
The batter will be thick and hard to stir.
Mix in the pineapple, coconut, walnuts and blend well.
Batter will now be less thick but still should not be runny.
If it is runny at this stage, add another 1/2 c of your preferred flour to thicken it.
Finally, add in the Perrier water. This will activate the baking powder and it will bubble. Children love this part.
Blend by hand until the batter is able to be poured into muffin tins.
Pour batter into the prepared tins and bake in the pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes.
If the day is moist, the batter may take longer to cook inside and the cakes may have to be flipped over once. For this reason, do not use cake papers in the muffin tins.

Makes 3 dozen cupcakes.

Corn Free:

Instead of corn starch, substitute a blend of potato starch and arrowroot powder (3:1 or 1/2 c arrowroot to 1 c potato starch).

Egg Free:

There are several ways to replace eggs in baking and the ideal method depends on the role of the eggs in the recipe. In this recipe, if you cannot use commercial egg replacers, or prefer not to, try using 1 packet of Knox Gelatin for each egg, or 1 inch of strip agar agar (aka Kosher gelatin) for each egg.

Sugar Free:

If you are sugarless for diabetic, candidis or other health reasons, the sugar in the recipe is only to add sweetness and make a quick bread into cake. The sugar can be replaced with 1/4 c of honey, 1/4 tsp of white stevia powder, 1/4 c birch or maple syrup or other sugar replacer of your choice. Using honey or syrup can require that you increase the liquid in the recipe, but you should be able to tell that when all the ingredients but the Perrier have been added.

Reduced Fat:

Quite by accident, when Melanie Comito was testing this recipe for her daughter, she ran out of Canola oil and had to replace 2/3 c of canola oil with rice milk. Both she and her daughter were well pleased with the result. Vance's DariFree, Homemade Rice Milk, or Soy Milk, will probably also work. I almost always use less oil now when I bake these.