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Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes {Grain Free}

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Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes ... these grain free cupcakes are pure bliss! You won't find any junky stuff in them either, just real food ingredients. | Recipes to Nourish

I absolutely love Boston Cream Pie!

But I haven’t had it in many years because I’ve never seen a gluten free version in any bakery. Plus this kind of cake is usually loaded with sugar and instant pudding with food coloring in the center. No thanks! I prefer to stick to real food ingredients and no refined sugar. 

My Tiny Love and I have birthdays back to back. This year she asked for Strawberry Cake, so I knew I had one cake to make first. For my birthday, I decided to make cupcakes instead of cake. I was determined to make my favorite … Boston Cream Pie … in cupcake form. 

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes ... these grain free cupcakes are pure bliss! You won't find any junky stuff in them either, just real food ingredients. | Recipes to Nourish

Lately I have been only baking with my new favorite flour, Otto’s Cassava Flour. I love that cassava flour is a resistant starch when eaten cool {resistant starch = prebiotics that feed probiotics + supports digestion and the gut}. 

I really love that I don’t have to add extra gums or other flours to make baked goods stay together and not crumble. This flour works so well as a 1:1 flour substitute in most recipes. 

I was so excited to eat these cupcakes on my birthday. My husband made me a lovely dinner, which was perfect and so good … I may have enjoyed a bit of the cupcake filling first. I couldn’t resist. 

These grain free vanilla cupcakes are filled with homemade vanilla custard and topped with beautiful chocolate ganache. So good!

The cupcakes only lasted until the next morning. We devoured half of them on my birthday and the rest the next day for breakfast. Yes, I ate some with my breakfast. And I enjoyed every single bite. 

Boston Pie Cream Cupcakes ... these grain free cupcakes are pure bliss! You won't find any junky stuff in them either, just real food ingredients. | Recipes to Nourish

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

 

YOU WILL NEED: Muffin Pan, Unbleached Muffin Wrappers, Mixing Bowls, Hand Mixer, Medium Saucepan, Whisk

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Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes (Grain Free)

Ingredients

For the Vanilla Cupcakes:

For the Vanilla Custard Filling:

  • 2 cups organic whole milk
  • 3 pastured or organic egg yolks
  • 1/3 cup light colored honey {not wildflower - I used creamed clover}
  • 4 tablespoons organic non-GMO corn starch
  • 1 tablespoon pasture butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Ganache:

Instructions

To Make the Vanilla Cupcakes:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a mixing bowl, combine cassava flour, collagen, baking powder and sea salt. Stir and set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, cream softened butter and maple sugar with a hand-held mixer. Add vanilla and mix just until combined.
  4. Add eggs and mix just until combined.
  5. Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk in two batches, stirring with the mixer just until combined. Do not over mix.
  6. Evenly distribute the cupcake batter, pouring into cupcake wrappers.
  7. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs {not wet}. Do not over bake. [Note: I checked mine at 15 minutes and they were done at 17 minutes. All ovens bake differently, so make sure to check them around 15 minutes to gauge doneness.]
  8. Allow to rest in the muffin pan for about 5 minutes then carefully remove cupcakes from muffin pan and place on a cooling rack. Allow cupcakes to cool completely.

To Make the Vanilla Custard:

  1. In a medium size mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks. Add the milk and stir to combine.
  2. In a medium size saucepan over medium-low heat, add honey and cornstarch. Stir to combine then slowly add egg-milk mixture, whisking to prevent lumps.
  3. Whisking constantly, continue cooking over medium-low heat until a low boil starts and custard starts to thicken. Once it starts to boil, allow boil for about 1 minute then immediately remove from heat. The custard should be thick, like pudding consistency.
  4. Add butter and vanilla extract. Stir to combine until butter has melted. Pour into a glass bowl {I used a shallow glass pie dish} and store the custard in the refrigerator until chilled {at least 1 hour}.

To Make the Chocolate Ganache:

  • In a small saucepan, gently heat the chocolate chips, butter and sea salt over low heat, stirring occasionally until fully melted and glossy. Set aside to cool slightly.

To Assemble the Cupcakes:

  • When cupcakes are fully cooled, use a paring knife to carve out a small portion in the center of the top of the cupcakes {making a cone shape}. I removed about 2 tablespoons of the cupcake center - place those excess pieces in a mason jar and store in the freezer for later use {or just nibble on them now}.
  • Evenly distribute tablespoonfuls of the cold vanilla custard into the carved out center tops.
  • When the cupcakes are filled, spoon the ganache over the tops of the cupcakes, fully covering the top. If needed, tilt the cupcakes to the side to allow excess ganache to fall off.
  • Let the ganache set up before serving. If you need to speed up the process, place cupcakes in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes.

Notes

I have not tried making these with other sweeteners. I do not recommend replacing the maple sugar with honey or maple syrup since this will change the texture of the cupcakes. It's possible other unrefined sweeteners like coconut sugar or Sucanat would work too, but please note the color of the batter will be darker.

It's important for all ingredients to be room temperature. If you need to remove the chill from the eggs really quick, place them in a bowl of warm/hot {not boiling} water for about 7 minutes. This will help bring them to room temperature fast.

* I highly recommend using the collagen in the cupcakes. It helps provide a really lovely "soft" texture to the cupcakes. It's also gut-healing and protein-packed, so it adds a health benefit as well. It cannot be swapped with grass-fed gelatin - while both gelatin and collagen provide the same health benefits, they are not interchangeable in this recipe. You can choose to omit the collagen - it will change the texture a bit, but not drastically. I've linked to my favorite collagen brand in the ingredients - I love the company, the quality and the price point is the best I have found. It's also the brand that my family uses daily for health purposes.

STORAGE: These cupcakes are best eaten the same day but can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Cuisine American

 

Are you on Pinterest? I pin lots of yummy real food recipes + more there. I have a board just for Gluten Free Treats too. Come follow along. 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Hi there! My hubby loves anything Boston Cream related, so I’m excited to make these cupcakes for him for Valentine’s Day. They sound amazing! However, I had a couple questions. Do I really need casava flour? I’ve never heard of that one and I already have a few different grain free flours, such as coconut and almond. Would one of those work? Also, what is the deal with the hydrolyzed collagen. That is another thing I haven’t heard of before. Could you substitute grass fed gelatin? Thanks in advance! 🙂

    Reply

    • Hi Michelle, yes, this recipe does call for Otto’s cassava flour. I highly recommend this flour if you’ve never tried it before – it’s my favorite grain free flour. Check out this post my friend wrote, she goes into more detail about the health benefits of cassava flour, make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the post too – she discuses more about it in terms of digestion. You could absolutely try almond flour, but I can’t guarantee the results since I haven’t made these with nut flours. I wouldn’t recommend coconut flour since that flour is not one that can be swapped 1:1 for flours … it requires a lot more liquid and usually more eggs. Collagen is the same as gelatin except it is cold water soluble, so it will dissolve in any liquid, gelatin won’t. They cannot be substituted/swapped in this recipe. Most grass-fed gelatin companies also make collagen. I link to the brand I use and highly recommend in the ingredients. I really recommend adding the collagen to the cupcakes because it helps provide a really lovely “soft” texture {plus adds more protein and it’s gut-healing too}. You can leave it out altogether if you prefer. I’ll edit my post to make it optional. Hope that helps!

      Reply

    • Thanks John! I know there are a lot of steps to this one, but it really is pretty simple. I love baking with Otto’s cassava flour now, my favorite dry unrefined sweetener is maple sugar – it’s so delicious, and the collagen … well, it’s just awesome stuff {plus adds a gut healing and protein boost}.

      Reply

  19. I just got a bag of Otto’s! I don’t know if I should make these though…I’m afraid I’ll finish the whole pan or my hubby would and he definitely don’t need extra sugar! These looooook amazinnnnng!

    Reply

    • Hi Marybeth, I haven’t used arrowroot in this recipe, so I’m not sure. Sometimes arrowroot works in “puddings/custards” but arrowroot can also be finicky with heat and dairy. So, I can’t say for sure but if you try it let me know 🙂

      Reply

  24. Holy moly! I am in loveeeee! These look insane! My mom would adore them too if she and I could actually eat them! WOMP! But thank you for the visual food porn! 😉

    Reply

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