Yesterday, a very good friend of mine had her last day at work so she can embark on a brand new adventure, travelling, in Australia! So I decided to mark the occasion by making her some chocolate cupcakes. These cupcakes happen to be Gluten Free, not only because some people in my office are intolerant to gluten but also because they are a tad healthier for you and to me, they taste absolutely no different. I fully urge you to make these cakes. I have had so many people ask me for the recipe which is a good enough indication to me that they are good cakes. And if I do say so myself, they were good. Maybe even the best ones I have made yet!

 

Don’t they look amazing?! And that buttercream was amazing too.

The recipe I used is one I found online ages ago and printed out so unfortunately I can’t credit who it originally came from as I literally have no idea which is such a shame as they deserve a giant hug for introducing me to these little beauties!

A note to make is that this recipe is American so all the measurements are in cups rather than grams or ounces which really bugs me as I get really confused although I suppose it is a much simpler way of doing things. I was able to get 24 muffins out of this mixture of a decent size so if you want big, american style cupcakes, you could probably still get 18/20 out of this recipe.

You will need:

For the cake-

2 cups of all purpose Gluten Free flour

1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

2 cups caster sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup salted butter (I used Stork instead as I prefer the way my cakes taste with it)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup water

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting-

150g unsalted butter

300g icing sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

Method:

For the cakes-

-Start by lining your muffin tin with cases and set aside, ready to use later. Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees celsius.

-In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour. xanthan gum, sugar, baking soda and salt. When all ingredients are in the bowl, sieve through to make sure everything is combined.

- This recipe states you need buttermilk. However, in the UK, buttermilk isn’t readily available, especially not in any of the mainstream supermarkets that I know of.  So I made my own. Buttermilk is literally milk that has gone sour so this is easily done by hand. All I did was get a cup of milk, chop a lemon in half, squeeze half of the lemon juice into the milk and set aside whilst it sours.

- Whilst the milk is souring, in a medium saucepan, mix butter, cocoa and 1 cup of water. Bring this mixture just to boiling and then add it to the dry ingredients and beat until everything is combined. Whilst this is on the hob, make sure you are whisking it constantly.

- Then add the buttermilk (which by now should have formed some lumps) eggs and vanilla and beat this just until everything is mixed. It is really important not to over mix, especially with gluten free baking.

- Pour equal amounts of the batter into cupcake liners, filling them around half way full just to be sure they don’t rise too much. As you can see from the pictures, I could have gotten away with filling them a little more as there was plenty of room left in the cases.

- Bake at 175 degrees for around 17 minutes. When they are ready to come out of the oven, pierce the middle bun in the tray with a toothpick and if it comes out clean then they are done.

For the frosting-

-This is the easy part. In a mixing bowl, mix soft unsalted butter with icing sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla essence and a tiny bit of milk and beat until your arm is ready to drop off! When the frosting has reached a nice ice cream like consistency (and you’re happy with the taste) then you are ready to pipe it onto your cupcakes.

Let me know if you try this recipe as I would love to see how you get on :)

Thanks for reading!

Bea x