I’m new to the (blogger) neighborhood– sort of. I’ve been around, eating gluten-free for about 6 years, reading gluten-free blogs for about four years, and writing recipes for several years too. But, I never had my own blog … until now. So I’m new. I am introducing myself to my neighbors; joining in the blog hops and online events.

For this post I am participating in Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger. I chose to adopt Shirley from Gluten-Free Easily (her blog is older than mine, but youngsters can adopt in blog-land). I have long admired her blog banner (the alphabet backwards highlighting the gfe- clever right?)  I was also recently inspired by her Coconut Blueberry Pound Cupcakes. So I made them, and followed the recipe exactly …

… then I made it cute. If you type “Cookie Monster Cupcakes” into a search engine you will get about 500 images of similar cupcakes. This is not an originally idea, but it sure is fun! I put my healthy spin on it and used blueberries to color the frosting, apples for the eyes, and raisins for the pupils. I used the batter from the cupcakes to make tiny cookies with cacao nibs (they are a bit fragile). If you have a child with food restrictions, it is really nice to have a recipe like this to turn to.

As for Shirley’s recipe:

1) She says the flavor gets better as the cupcakes sit. She is right. Please don’t even bother tasting these for 2 hours. I took a nibble after 20 minutes and was disappointed, then I tried one after a few hours and ended up eating 3. So delicious!

2) They don’t taste like coconut to me. It tastes like pound cake with blueberries, and it is quite sweet.

3) When I make these again I will be adding orange zest and I could see lemon zest being nice another day.

The frosting: sorry no recipe for that; I just pureed coconut butter, coconut shreds, honey, and blueberries (wild frozen berries give the most color) in a food processor. The quantities? I just kept adding stuff until it tasted good. Then I chilled it in the refrigerator to thicken a bit.