Paleo Birthday Cupcakes

We celebrated my son's 6th birthday in January. I love making these Paleo Birthday Cupcakes for his  birthday and so far I haven't missed a year. He gets so excited about it and it makes me feel good to know that they’re not filled with crap!

He went through a chocolate loving phase which made things pretty easy. Chocolate desserts are so forgiving. The last couple of years he's asked for vanilla cake with strawberry frosting. Last year's coconut flour cake was a hit with most everyone except my son. It can have a bit of a grainy texture and somewhat of a belly bomb. 

So this year I knew I wanted to cut the coconut flour with nut flour in hopes of lightening things up a bit.

I've also noticed that most coconut flour cakes have you just put all the ingredients in and blend. I'm not a pastry chef but what about technique?  So, I started hunting for recipes and then I started to pull pieces from here and there and came up with this creation. 

Results... it was a hit with everyone, including my Natey boy!

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• ⅓  cup softened organic, grass fed butter (substitute coconut oil or lard for dairy free)

• ½  cup honey (you could also use coconut sugar or maple syrup)

• 5 eggs, separated

• ⅔  cup milk or cream (substitute coconut milk for dairy free)

• 1 tablespoon vanilla

• ⅔  cup coconut flour

• ¾  cup cashew flour (you could also use another kind of nut flour)

• ½  teaspoon aluminum free baking soda

• ¼  teaspoon sea salt

Frosting:

• 12 tablespoons grass fed butter, softened

• raw honey to taste (start with a few tablespoons and work up from there)

• 1 - 3 tablespoons organic cream

• ¼  cup organic freeze dried raspberries or strawberries (optional - used for pink frosting)

• 1 teaspoon organic vanilla

• ¼  teaspoon organic vanilla powder (optional)

Directions

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and honey together on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla, egg yolks one at a time and milk (do this slowly so it gets well incorporated).

3. In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients. On low speed, add to the wet mixture.

4. Fold in the stiff egg whites with a rubber spatula.

5. For cupcakes, fill a lined muffin tin and bake for about 20 minutes. For a cake, add batter to a lined 9" cake pan and bake for 40 minutes.

For the frosting:

1. In the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light and fluffy. I like to do this on a pretty high speed for about 5 minutes (you want it to be light and fluffy).

2. Add in the honey, vanilla and freeze dried raspberries.

3. Then add in the cream until you get a nice texture.