The softest little maple cakes topped with a sweet maple glaze! Heavenly.
I’m just going to come out and say it. These mini maple cakes are undoubtedly one of the best desserts I have ever made. Or eaten. And I’ve made and eaten a lot of dessert. They could not be easier to make (no mixer required!) and they take just 20 minutes to bake. The result of your hard work is an incredibly moist, fluffy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet cake topped with just enough of an oh-my-word-can’t-I-just-have-this-by-the-spoonful maple glaze.
The glaze gets shiny and a little crackley when it cools, which makes the mini cakes look just as amazing as they taste. I’m calling them mini cakes because to me, a cupcake needs to have a more serious icing situation. A “mini cake” sounds like it could be happy with just a sprinkle of powdered sugar or a dip into some warm glaze. Very low-maintenance, those mini cakes.
Can you see the perfect fluffiness of that cake? We owe a lot of that, and a lot of the moistness, to the yogurt in the cake. I used vanilla Greek nonfat yogurt. Not only did it keep the cakes soft, it also provided a nice flavor component. Something there to subtly boost that maple flavor. And oh boy, that maple flavor is good. Like, “why would I ever make pancakes and put maple syrup on them ever again when I know I can bake something with all of my maple syrup and have it taste this heavenly” good. Just kidding, I’ll definitely still be making gluten free pancakes and waffles. But every time I go to pour that maple syrup on them, I’ll know that in 25 minutes I could be sinking my teeth into these flavorful mini cakes, and that is a hard thing to resist.
You definitely want to use real maple syrup here. By that I mean, please don’t use your Aunt Jemima and then get upset when they don’t turn out well. This needs real syrup! I used Grade B, but I’m not even entirely sure what the difference in the grades is, so feel free to use whatever kind you want. Serve these warm, serve them cool, eat them all yourself, it’s all perfectly acceptable.
Gluten Free Mini Maple Yogurt Cakes
Prep: 5 min Bake: 20 min Makes: 12 mini cakes
Ingredients:
For Cakes:
1 ½ cups all purpose gluten free flour (I used Cup4Cup.)
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ cup maple syrup
¾ cup yogurt
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup oil
For Glaze:
3 tablespoons butter, melted
¼ cup maple syrup
1 cup powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a standard size muffin tin with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the GF flour, sugar, and baking powder.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, yogurt, eggs, vanilla, and oil until fully combined.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until the batter has come together.
5. Fill the muffin tins about 2/3 full, using about ¼ cup of batter. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are springy when touched, edges are just starting to turn golden, and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean.
6. Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
7. While cakes are cooling, make the glaze by stirring together the melted butter and syrup and then adding in the powdered sugar. Glaze will be thick! It is easiest to use when it is still warm.
8. Remove cakes from the muffin tin and dip the tops of them into the glaze to coat.
9. Allow to finish cooling more on a wire rack, or serve immediately.
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