Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and it's one of my favorite holidays. It didn't used to be, but after my husband and I were reunited I started to feel differently about the holiday. It just feels right to celebrate our romance. 🙂

This recipe is pink and cute. Mini cupcakes, slightly sweetened. If your palate has been GAPS for awhile you will find these plenty sweet. You could get by with doubling the honey [affiliate link] in the cupcake batter, but my non-GAPS son confirmed these were sweet enough.

• 30 cranberries
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup blanched Almond flour [affiliate link]
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda [affiliate link]
• 1/8 cup honey
• 1 whole egg

Place 1/2 cup water in a pan with the thirty cranberries. Bring to a boil and simmer, mashing the cranberries once they get soft enough. Reduce until the mixture begins to thicken  and become like jam, this will take about 15-20 minutes. Mix in 1/8 cup of honey, bring to a simmer and allow to reduce again. You're looking for about 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon of “jam”.

Mix the almond flour, salt and baking soda together in one bowl. Scramble one whole egg, add the 1/4 cup of cranberry jam. If you have less than 1/4 cup, hold back 1 tablespoon (this goes in the topping).

Mix the dry mixture and wet mixture together. It should create a thick batter.

Grease and flour (using almond flour) your 12-Cup Mini Muffin Pan or place muffin papers into each cup. Measure heaping teaspoons into each cup.

Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes, or until you can see browned tips on the top of the cupcakes, or a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Pink Fluff Icing

• 2 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon cranberry jam
• 1 teaspoon beet juice, optional
• 1/4 cup honey

Place the cranberry jam and honey into a small pan on the stove and begin to heat. Once it is boiling, stir continuously for 8-10 minutes. Take off heat. Place egg whites into a chilled bowl. Beat until fluffy. Now go back to the honey and cranberry jam. It will probably be pale red, at this time add in the 1 teaspoon beet juice, this is optional but you need at least this much beet juice to make the pretty pink fluffy icing. Bring to a boil and stir continuously for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Now this takes some juggling, or maybe you have a second set of hands in the kitchen to help you. Begin whipping the egg whites again, and drizzle in the hot honey/jam mixture while you are running the mixer (I used my hand held one as it is such a small amount I didn't want to pull out the Kitchen-aid). Continue whipping the icing until thoroughly mixed and fluffy.

I used my cookie press Cookie Press to pipe on the icing. The icing would more than cover two dozen cupcakes but I didn't think I could get 1/8 cup honey and 1 egg white to fluff up properly.

By the way, the cranberries were previously fresh, but have been frozen since Thanksgiving.

Comments from my non-GAPS son:

“You're getting better at this, Mom.”

“I couldn't tell there were cranberries, except for one skin that I got.”

“I could tell that there was honey in them, and that was a bit unnerving because I hate honey. ”

“I definitely did not guess there was beet juice in the icing.”

You might also like to check out these Lemon Blossom Cupcakes. The batter is similar, except these use twice as much honey so they are moister, and they taste just like Twinkies to me. 🙂

This post was included at Fat Tuesday and Monday Mania.