Pretty Banana Cupcakes (Gluten & Dairy Free)

I love this photo. And I didn't even take it! I was busily preparing to host an afternoon tea and Jess went to work with the camera.

I got the recipe for these out of a book, but I wouldn't say it was particularly good. I had already started when I realised it needed dairy free milk... but I didn't have any on hand so just used water instead. They were still quite edible, but a bit denser than I would've liked. I used cinnamon icing which helped them along.

Anyway, it was worth it if only for the pretty photos. Afternoon tea is a lovely thing indeed.

Chocolate and Strawberry Cupcakes

Don’t make these unless you want to eat the most awesome thing ever. I’m warning you now.

Apart from the fact that they’re utterly fantastic, these can quite easily be made gluten and/or dairy free. Also egg free, so they’re vegan-friendly. Also, no electric mixer required. Like I said – fantastic (with or without gluten - I've tried both versions and they're equally delectable).

I got the cake recipe from Group Recipes (ßsee post here). I’ve added my tweaks below (doesn’t necessarily improve it, that’s just the way I did it!).

Ingredients (makes a neat 12)

1.5 cup plain flour OR gluten-free plain flour

1 cup brown sugar

Generous 1/4 cup cocoa powder (usually gluten free but check if making GF)

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup canola oil OR olive oil (either works)

teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon vinegar (I just used white vinegar because that’s what I had!)

1 cup water

1.     Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line 12 cup muffin/cupcake pan.

2.     Sift together the dry ingredients.

3.     Add the oil, vanilla, vinegar, and water. Mix together till smooth.

4.     Pour into lined muffin cups. Bake about 25 minutes (test to see if a skewer comes out clean).

5.       When the cupcakes are cool, I suggest scooping a chunk out of the centre of each one and spooning in some strawberry jam (about a teaspoon-ish), then replacing the cake chunk. The jam will kind of soak in, and it doesn’t matter if the surface looks messy if you’re icing over the top anyway.

6.       Use whatever kind of chocolate icing that suits you. But if it needs to be dairy free, try mixing together the following…

• 65 grams of Nuttelex
• 1.5-2 cups of icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• A little hot or boiling water as needed to achieve good texture (the heat makes it easier to incorporate the Nuttelex)

7.       Pipe or spread the icing onto the cupcakes. Then decorate with slivers or chunks of fresh strawberry.

  

 Try not to eat them all by yourself… unless that was your plan all along.

Carrot cake - the smaller, gluten-free and dairy-free version

One thing I really like about baking is that you can start off with elements that look rather horrible (take, for instance, this bowl of oil, vanilla essence and eggs - slimy) and end up with something wonderfully un-horrible.

An aside: If you want to know the most effective way to crack an egg, check out this post over at Cupcake Project. Nerdy yet practical.

I made carrot cake back in February and rather enjoyed it. This time I used the same recipe but with gluten-free flour and dairy-free honey icing. I also decided that I didn't need a giant cake, so I halved the recipe and just made a single layer cake in a smaller tin (I guess about 8 inches, but estimating was never really my thing!).

The icing had a lovely, almost pearlescent sheen to it at first... but before long it got tricky on me and separated out rather badly. I think it was the combination of the honey with the Nuttelex. It still tasted fine, but if I was making the same cake again I would ice it JUST before serving so it didn't have a chance for mischief!

LSA Banana Bread Muffins (gluten & dairy free)

I've made LSA banana bread before from a delightful Australian Women's Weekly recipe - see my previous post here. But you know I love mini cakes, so I had to try these as muffins.

The magic of LSA.


These do work as muffins. Don't think cupcakes though - they're heavy and less sweet.


But still great. Coconutty, banana-y single-serve goodness. With a tinge of golden.

Gluten and dairy-free apricot and spice cupcakes

We got a new camera! I know absolutely nothing about it yet, but thankfully it takes pretty good photos even on auto-settings.

This is a gluten and dairy-free version of the apricot and spice (sometimes apple and spice) cake that I usually make. The apricot version amuses me because they look kinda like eggs with big fat yolks.

These sank a bit. I think I should have baked them a little longer and/or used a little extra baking powder.

Apricot & Cinnamon Cupcakes

the gluten and dairy-free version

Makes 12-15 regular sized cupcakes

150g Nuttelex, melted

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups gluten-free plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon ground ginger

6 teaspoons baking powder

Tinned apricots (400g tin is probably enough, an 800g tin is way too much!)

1. Prepare your tin/s and preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

2. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients (except apricots!).

3. Lightly press batter into each cupcake case.

4. Press an apricot half into each case of batter.

6. Bake for 20-30 minutes (depending on your oven). Test with a skewer.

These were a bit grainy (I blame GF flour) and a little bitter for my taste (I blame the Nuttelex). But they were edible AND free of both gluten and dairy. So, that works OK.

The Cupcake Party - social decorating

So it begins. I had my inaugural cupcake decorating gathering with a bunch of friends recently. It was a good excuse to make a whole lot of cupcakes.

I ended up with: a dozen gluten and dairy free cupcakes - half chocolate, half spice and apricot...

... a dozen turkish delight...

...a dozen chocolate with Maltesers (Sarah's idea)...


... plus a half dozen plain vanilla, half a dozen plain chocolate, half a dozen chocolate with Oreos and, finally, one and a half dozen snickerdoodle cupcakes (by special request from Jess). That's... a lot of cupcakes!

By that stage my brain must have been a bit fried, because I accidentally quadrupled my butter cream recipe rather than doubling it as intended. Oops. I opted for somewhat buttery icing rather than making it up to the prescribed total volume, but there was still so much!


Herein follows some of the fantastic decorating that the ladies did :)

Some classic snickerdoodle cupcakes. (I see someone stuck a random Smartie under one of the cookies though!)

One of the girlier dozen cupcakes.

Everyone chose a few to take home and the rest were happily polished off at church the following night. Amanda couldn't make it to decorating so we kept her a couple of pretty cakes. I bought a bunch of cupcake boxes off ebay and it makes gifting a bit neater :)

My decorators hard at work. Good fun.

Banana Bread (gluten & dairy free)

When I decide to make banana cake I don't go to the fruit shop in search of bananas that look like this.

I go in search of bananas that look like THIS. These were only $4.99 a kilo and perfect for baking with so I got nearly a whole kilo and froze some for next time!

This was part of my foray into gluten and dairy-free baking - a banana bread recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly "Gluten-free & Allergy-free Eating." You can find a link to the recipe >>here<<. This one also happens to be wheat, yeast and egg-free!

What DOES it contain? A whole lot of mashed banana and some brown sugar make a lovely start.

I very nearly forgot to add baking powder, but a final moment of thoughtfulness saved me from a very flat cake. The dark colour of the batter comes from the linseed, sunflower and almond meal (LSA). I didn't even know this stuff existed before, but it's pretty amazing, and I get the impression it might even be good for you.


Here's the baked product. It cracked a little when I turned it out, but I was just glad I got that baking powder in at the last minute!


This tasted really good. Very moist from all the banana (yum) and vegetable oil, and the LSA gives it a lot of substance. I would happily serve this up again, even if my guests didn't particularly need to avoid dairy, gluten, wheat, yeast or eggs :)

Chocolate Orange Mousse Cake (gluten & dairy free)

I hosted a gluten and dairy-free afternoon tea on the weekend and had fun trying a couple of new new recipes, which both came out really well. This is the first one - a really rich chocolate orange mousse cake from The gluten, wheat & dairy free cookbook by Nicola Graimes.

I used Nuttelex as my dairy-free butter substitute. It's lighter in colour than butter, but it actually tastes pretty good.

This is the cake base, all ready to bake, and already looking pretty appetising.


I used 70% dark Lindt chocolate to make the mousse. It felt a little wrong melting down such nice quality chocolate, but it's the most reliably dairy free chocolate I could source (that isn't just a gross chocolate substitute).


As I was separating my four eggs I was lamenting the fact that I would probably end up throwing the unused portion away. Then I read the recipe properly and found that I would actually be using both parts. Yay! Also, look how orange those yolks are.


Yet another orange ingredient - the rind of two oranges in fact.


Crazy things happen to eggs when you beat them for long enough. It's like magic. Here's before.


And after. Crazy.


After I'd mixed up the mousse and spread it across the cake base I put it in the fridge to set overnight. It probably didn't need that long, but that's how long it got. Here's the finished product, decorated with a sprinkling of extra orange rind.


The verdict from my husband was that this cake tasted like Jaffas. You wouldn't know it didn't have dairy or gluten in it if nobody told you. Unless you were very, very perceptive. What I mean to say is that it was really good.