Happy 4th! Celebrate with gluten-free cupcakes topped with naturally colored buttercream.

CUPCAKES

1 ¼ cups all purpose gluten free flour (I used @bobsredmill)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp sea salt
2 eggs, room temp
6 tbsp non-dairy butter
½ cup coconut sugar
½ cup non dairy milk
1 ½ tbsp avocado oil, or neutral oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract

BUTTERCREAM

4 cups unrefined powdered sugar or powdered monkfruit
1 cup non-dairy butter
2 tbsp non-dairy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup red, white & blue sprinkles
1 Color Kitchen Blue and Pink Color Packets (add a little Orange to Pink for deeper red color)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin tin with wrappers.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder/soda and salt.

In another large bowl, beat together coconut sugar & non-dairy butter with a hand mixer or stand mixer for 3-5 mins until smooth. Do not skimp on the beating, this is what makes the cupcakes soft and fluffy!!

Now mix in eggs, milk, oil & vanilla and beat until well combined. Mix in dry ingredients and beat again until smooth and creamy, about 2 min.

Scoop batter into lined muffin tin, about 2/3 way up evenly across the 12 liners.

Bake 16-18 mins until tops are brown and bounce back when lightly poked. Let cool on cooling rack until completely cool.

Beat together all buttercream ingredients with a mixer until a smooth frosting forms. Divide up the frosting into 3 bowls and add ½ - full color packet into 2 bowls. Leave one bowl for white. Mix well. Add all 3 frostings into a piping bag, trying not to mix them.

Cut little circles into the cupcakes and remove the cake. Then fill with patriotic sprinkles (or berry jam!) and place the cake piece back on. Pipe frosting over, or frost each color with a butterknife. Store in fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

~Gutsy Baker, Stephanie Charbonneau