Rami’s Birthday Cupcake

Gluten-free, Vegan, Soy-Free, Nut-Free Option

My youngest nephew has a laun­dry list of food aller­gies, due to a diag­no­sis of FPIES (Food Pro­tein-Induced Ente­ro­col­i­tis Syn­drome) which is a unique type of food aller­gy that affects the gas­troin­testi­nal tract. His list of “safe foods” changes on a reg­u­lar basis, and to say it’s lim­it­ed is an under­state­ment. When my sis­ter-in-law men­tioned that she would be stick­ing a can­dle in an apple slice for his first birth­day, I knew just what my next recipe cre­ation would be. Every­one deserves a cup­cake on a birth­day! Inspired by an oat­meal cook­ie and an apple spice cake, this cup­cake is sure to delight taste buds, both young and old.

Ingredients

Use organ­ic when­ev­er possible

Cupcake

• 3 cups oats (be sure to use cer­ti­fied gluten-free oats)
• 1 red apple, diced (peeled if desired)
• ⅔ cup applesauce
• ½ cup slight­ly melt­ed peanut but­ter (sub­sti­tute sun but­ter for nut-free option)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 4–5 table­spoons coconut sugar*
• 1 cup non-dairy milk
• Pinch of sea salt

Frosting

• 2 cups pow­dered coconut sugar*
• ½ cup peanut but­ter (sub­sti­tute sun but­ter for nut-free option)
• 1–3 cups table­spoons non-dairy milk

Instructions

1. Pre­heat the oven to 375℉
2. In a large bowl, com­bine the oats, cin­na­mon, coconut sug­ar and sea salt.
3. Add the apple, apple­sauce, peanut but­ter and non-dairy milk and stir to combine.
4. Line a 12-cup muf­fin pan with paper or sil­i­cone liners.
5. Fill each to the top and press down slightly.
6. Bake for 20 min­utes, remove from oven and cool in pan for 5 min­utes before mov­ing to a cool­ing rack to cool completely.
7. While the cup­cakes are cool­ing, com­bine pow­dered sug­ar and peanut but­ter in the bowl of an elec­tric mix­er. Slow­ly bring the mix­er up to medi­um low speed, stop­ping to scrape down the sides as necessary.
8. Add non-dairy milk 1 table­spoon at a time until frost­ing is thick and slight­ly sticky. Pour frost­ing into a pip­ing bag or Ziploc bag and store in the fridge until slight­ly thick­ened (at least 2 hours).
9. When cup­cakes are com­plete­ly cool and frost­ing has thick­ened, cut the cor­ner off of the Ziploc bag and pipe a swirl of frost­ing onto each cupcake.
10. Serve at room tem­per­a­ture, or store in the refrig­er­a­tor to enjoy anoth­er day!

*To make pow­dered coconut sug­ar, place sug­ar in a high-speed blender and pulse until fine­ly ground. Alter­nate­ly, you can use tra­di­tion­al confectioner’s sug­ar for the frost­ing and tra­di­tion­al white sug­ar for the cup­cake, if avoid­ing refined sug­ar is not nec­es­sary for dietary needs or preferences.*