Williams-Sonoma Gluten-Free Red Velvet Cupcake Mix

I have made gluten free red velvet cupcakes from scratch, and they were good, but not great.  I have also eaten them at Sweet! By Golly Miss Holly in Orlando, and at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills.  They were both very good, but not great.  The first gluten free red velvet cupcake that I ate that had that "wow" factor was given to me by one of my students.  His sister, another former student, has celiac, and they knew that I did also.  When their mom made a batch of Williams-Sonoma Gluten-Free Red Velvet Cupcakes, she sent in several cupcakes with her son for me to try.  They were so good, I'm not sure I even shared one with my family.  

I buy the mix at my local Williams-Sonoma in Winter Park, or online at williams-sonoma.com. 

This was my first time baking them in my new USA Pan cupcake/muffin pan.  They cooked better than they ever have.  I am a huge fan of USA Pan products, especially their baking sheets. The container says to cook them for 22 to 24 minutes, but mine were done in 20.  

To the dry mix, I added 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, 2 large eggs, and 1 cup of lowfat milk. 

The mix contains Chef Thomas Keller's Cup4Cup gluten free flour, one of the best gluten free all-purpose flours on the market. 

Where these cupcakes blow others away, especially the store-bought ones, is with the cream cheese frosting.  The recipe on the container is incredibly delicious, but way more frosting than needed.  My mom told me that she usually just makes 1/2 recipe.  

Last year, after Christmas, I purchased a Christmas cupcake kit from Williams-Sonoma, so the decorating was pretty easy.  I attempted to pipe on my frosting using a sandwich bag, but I cut too big of a hole, so they were not as pretty as I would have liked.  

We usually sprinkle our cupcakes with a little bit of Rodelle Gourmet Baking Cocoa, my favorite Dutch-processed cocoa, but I skipped that step today because of my fancy Christmas cupcake toppers. 

Williams-Sonoma also makes vanilla and chocolate gluten free cupcake mixes.  We liked, but did not love the chocolate, but one of my friends raves about the vanilla and highly recommends it.  The next time I stop in at Williams-Sonoma, I will have to pick up a vanilla cupcake mix and give it a try. 

July 7, 2014 Update -- I finally tried the gluten free vanilla cupcakes at my parents' house and was really impressed.  My mom served them with chocolate ganache.  Sadly, Williams-Sonoma has discontinued the gluten free cupcake mixes.  Hopefully, they will bring them back at some point in the near future.