I was lucky enough to receive a bunch of fresh kumquats from a dear friend, Celina, and I wanted to do something fun with them. I love pairing kumquats with chocolate, and it just made sense to go that route. It has been a minute since I made a cupcake, and I wanted to make not just any cupcake, but one that was completely gluten-free and vegan! I love making chocolate cake, which should be to no surprise to anyone, but I do make a mean gluten-free and vegan version. To make mine gluten-free, I used a combination of tapioca starch and kinako(toasted soy bean powder), which is one of those ingredients that ends up tasting kind of like peanut butter. I also use black cacao in the cupcakes in lieu of regular cocoa powder – black cacao, or dutch processed or alkalized cocoa, has these floral, fruitier notes that make for a less bitter, more pleasant chocolate flavor. I also added olive oil to the cake batter because it gives the cake a mild, grassy note that plays off of the complexity of the cacao, rounding out any of the bitterness and giving the final cake this really soft texture. Since the cake is gluten-free, I used xanthan gum to hold it all together in place of gluten, and a the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar is another binding agent in place of eggs. The cake portion will literally taste like a rich, fudgy chocolate cake, and you will never even know that it’s gluten-free and vegan!

For the other components, we also have a tofu chocolate mousse, a charred kumquat puree, tempered chocolate pieces, and macerated kumquat slices. I highly recommend using a blender, or at least a food processor, for this recipe. The blender will help with pureeing both the tofu that you will be using for the chocolate mousse, and the kumquats for the puree. With the mousse, it is literally just chocolate, tofu, and salt. The chocolate is melted down, the tofu is blended and mixed into that, and the salt is added on top of that to season it all. If you are concerned with graininess in the mousse, you can always pass the tofu through a sieve to remove any lumps before mixing that all together with the melted chocolate to finish. The mousse itself sets up rather quickly, about 15 minutes in the freezer, and it is your frosting for the cakes! For the kumquat mousse, you need to start by searing, then charring them, just to get them dark – the more charred they are, the more acidic the kumquats become, which means a more balanced dessert! Pureeing them afterwards may require adding more water to the blender to get the mixture blending, and the only concern here is making sure that the puree is cooled down before you add it to the cakes – otherwise you will have chocolate cake with kumquat-chocolate soup on top of it. All in all, I loved making these cakes, and it was a fun way to honor the kumquats that Celina had gifted me!

Makes 12 cupcakes:
For the chocolate cake:
1 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 cup kinako
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup black cacao powder
1 cup hot water
2 tablespoons black vinegar

In a bowl, sift together your baking powder, salt, tapioca, kinako, white sugar, and xanthan gum first. Then whisk into that your olive oil. In another bowl, mix together your vanilla, hot water, cacao and black vinegar. Pour that into your dry ingredients and whisk to form your batter. Fill 12 cupcake liners 2/3 the way full with the batter, and bake at 350 degrees F for 22 minutes. Cool down the cake completely.

For the chocolate-tofu mousse:
4oz dark chocolate
4oz silken tofu
A pinch of salt

Heat up dark chocolate on a double boiler until fully melted. Pour the melted chocolate into a blender with silken tofu and salt and puree until fully smooth. Pass through a sieve to remove any lumps of chocolate or tofu that were not blended down enough. Transfer the mousse to a piping bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the charred kumquat puree:
1/4 cup sliced kumquats (depending on the season, you can also use kumquats too!)
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp granulated sugar
¼ tsp xanthan gum
2 tbsp olive oil
Water

Char the kumquats in a cast iron pan until well-seared – it’s okay if they get burnt, as that will add a smoky flavor to them while also generating more acidity for the dish! Transfer the kumquats into a blender and puree with salt, sugar, and xanthan gum, streaming in just a little water, until completely pureed and soft. Strain the puree and transfer into a piping bag for plating.

For the tempered chocolate pieces:
6oz dark chocolate
A pinch of salt
¼ tsp grated cocoa butter

Melt down the dark chocolate and salt over a double boiler. Take off heat and stir in the cocoa butter. Once the chocolate registers about 85-degrees F, spread the chocolate onto some acetate and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Break the chocolate into smaller pieces.

For the macerated kumquats:
4 kumquats, cut into 1/16-inch thick slices
1 tsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tsp olive oil

Toss the kumquat slices with the other ingredients.

To assemble:
Start by piping half of the kumquat puree into the centers of each cupcake. Pipe the mousse on top of the cupcakes, and using a spoon or offset spatula, spread the mousse so that there are grooves in the mousse. Pipe more kumquat puree into the grooves. Garnish the tops with the macerated kumquat slices and pieces of tempered chocolate to finish.