What gave me this idea of making these colorful cup cakes? I mean my kids are not so young anymore (I know… very sad!) and they are not old enough for me to be having grand kids either 🙂 Well, today is Holi , which is the festival of colors and in India, it is celebrated very enthusiastically by throwing colors and water on others. Holi signifies the victory of goodness over evil and weather wise it also heralds spring. Enough reasons for merriment right? Holi is sure one ‘fun’ festival and after moving to the US, we have been missing this festival a lot. However, if the weather here in New England permits we still manage to host a Holi party in our home every once in a while. And this year we are having one over the weekend! Exciting!
And as it so happened, this week my son is having spring break and he wanted to invite some of his college friends over to our home for dinner (you see his friends follow me on instagram and seeing all of my food posts has been making them hungry 🙂 ). As you can imagine, I was more than happy to oblige and set about quickly planning the menu – Shrimp Biryani, Tandoori Chicken, etc etc and when it came to dessert, I was confused since my kids and Hubs had different suggestions none of which I liked. I thought I should make something that is special for Holi. Now all the traditional Indian Holi desserts are not something that my kids fancy so I decided to do ‘cup cakes’. And then I thought why not make colorful ones with different natural fruit based frosting. That excited me so much that I went shopping early morning just to pick up different fresh and frozen fruits (ones that would give me lovely colors!) 
OK so I ended up making two batches of these cup cakes. For the boys, I made the cake recipe based on my dairy free chocolate cake recipe which is a recipe I make regularly since family and friends have given their stamp of approval repeatedly. So I thought why tweak something that is already great! For the frosting, I made four different kinds of fruit purees and then mixed them with coconut cream to form the different frosting. And for my AIP version, I made the cup cakes based on ‘Crazy Chocolate Cake’ recipe by Otto’s Cassava Flour. I tweaked it a bit based on what I had available on hand. Honestly, this base cake is delicious (I have used it in my Peach and Plum Upside down Cake too. It may not be as spongy as your typical cup cake but it is tasty and the fruit based topping helps it to make it moist. Seriously the toppings (strawberry, blackberry, mixed berry and mango) I gave them were so delicious and that’s what made this recipe really special and worthy of posting on my blog! I am thinking this will be a great idea for kids’ parties etc. since it is allergen free and has delicious fruit for a frosting! Yum!
- 1½ cups Otto’s Naturals – Cassava Flour
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ⅓ cup carob or cocoa powder (use carob for AIP)
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup water
- About 1 cup coconut cream (from top of a coconut milk can) divided into 4 portions
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- pinch sea salt
- About 1 -2 tbsp fruit puree each of blackberries, mixed berries, strawberries and mango(see instructions below)
- ¼ tsp turmeric (only for the mango one, optional)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and carob (or cocoa) together into a large bowl. Mix.
- Make three wells. Pour extra virgin olive oil into one well, apple cider vinegar into second, and vanilla extract into third well.
- Pour cold water over all and stir well with a fork.
- Pour into 12 muffin pans lined with cupcake liners.
- Bake for about 20-22 minutes, or until knife inserted comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes before frosting.
- First prepare fruit purees/blends by taking each fresh / frozen fruit and blending it in a small food processor jar. If you don't have a small food processor jar, you may need to do a bigger quantity and freeze it for use later in smoothies etc.
- In a small bowl, mix all the frosting ingredients except the fruit puree and whisk till fluffy and smooth. Divide this into 4 separate bowls. Now into each bowl, add a different fruit topping and mix to form a smooth blend. For the mango one, add the turmeric too (if adding). Frost individual cup cakes with the different fruity frosting. Drizzle some extra puree on top of the frosting to identify the flavors. After frosting, let sit in the refrigerator for 30 mins before serving.
Could you make these into vanilla cupcakes please – could I minus the cocoa powder and add one cup coconut milk in place of water?
Yes that should work I think! They may not be as white in color as the regular flour vanilla cupcakes though since cassava flour when baked turns brownish. Hope that helps. And sorry for the delay in responding!