Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Happy New Year! I hope you and your loved ones had an amazing festive period and aren't feeling too sad about pulling down your decorations and archiving the Christmas carols until next year :) We were very ready to welcome in the New Year and I am super excited about all the new adventures we'll enjoy! One year into blogging and here are my top photos from Instagram over the last year - I'm very proud of them and have lots of exciting goals for this year ;-)

Christmas always comes with lots of baking and I decided to take a break from blogging for the festive period as I always find it much trickier with my terrible twosome in tow! We're three weeks into our school holidays with only a couple of days left to go now. It was great to have some time to reflect and feed the soul - and also to think about some dietary changes to our family.

We already have psoriasis in the family which means staple foods like tomatoes and potatoes are struck off our shopping list as well as red meat and shellfish amongst other foods - and we also have to be mindful about how we combine food groups. We don't stick to it rigidly but there are definitely some foods we always have to avoid. A month or so ago, one of my sons was diagnosed as intolerant to dairy (cow and goat milk), egg white and nuts (almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts). The dietician and I laughed that at least he wasn’t gluten intolerant too and I promise you, I was thankful for small mercies!

We’re lucky that these foods don’t affect his gut and it’s (just?) eczema that we’re dealing with. Still in testing mode right now and we’re hopeful this is just a phase that will pass, especially since his favourite foods are milk, cheese, eggs and macarons! We’re not going to cut dairy and eggs out completely but obviously reduce and manage them and look for other options. We’ve immediately switched to soya milk and there’s no egg on toast in any form, but we’re allowing a little of these in baked goods. We’re also teaching him about making choices about how he eats. Time will tell.

So I wanted my first blog post of the year to be dedicated to him as he's been such a trooper. He's never grumbled or groaned and has embraced this new phase with gusto. I spent some time last year investigating vegan baking and looking at how I could replace ingredients that I traditionally used in baking, although at that time it was more out of interest than any kind of necessity. One of my favourite recipes was this Chocolate Cupcake with Coconut Frosting. This is a lovely frosting but its limitations are that I just can't get it to look as pretty as I’d like and if I use sprinkles or cocoa nibs as a topping, they discolour the icing after a little time. Just before Christmas I experimented with vegan butter and cream cheese in a frosting, but my son declared this was not a success taste-wise and the frosting was too soft and the peaks drooped after piping :(

I turned to a book that a friend gave me during my baking odyssey last year - Babycakes. I baked these Raspberry Scones from it which were delicious but I couldn’t easily find ingredients in other recipes and it was relegated to the bookshelf for a later date. Great to have this handy right now! One of the common ingredients they use in their cakes is apple sauce so I decided to replace the sugar that I had in my original recipe with some of this sauce and see if I could make a squidgier cake. And I also wanted to try some of their chocolate frosting.

The apple sauce can be bought (sugar free) but was very simple to make. I used two Granny Smith and two Pink Lady apples, peeled and cored and chopped into 1cm pieces. These were mixed with lemon juice, cinnamon and agave nectar (check out the free from section of supermarkets) and then roasted on a tray for 35 minutes. Once they have been roasted and cooled, they need to be blitzed to a smooth puree with hot water and more agave nectar and immediately refrigerated for up to one week in an airtight container. This made double the amount I used in the cupcakes. Very simple and amazingly sweet with the agave nectar.

I then made the frosting as it needs to be refrigerated for at least six hours (it can be kept for up to a month in an airtight container). This is also simple to make but does require dry soy milk powder which I couldn’t find locally in any health food stores and ordered from Ebay (I haven’t experimented with leaving this out). All the ingredients bar the coconut oil and lemon juice are blitzed in the food processor and then the oil and lemon juice are added slowly with the motor running. I think my lemon juice might have been too cold as the frosting did start to solidify as I added the final ingredients and became very lumpy and not very attractive! So I microwaved it in short bursts until the lumps had melted and then stirred it until it was smooth. Then covered it with clingfilm and popped it in the fridge.

I have spent the last few days working on this frosting as it still turned out lumpier than I expected so the final product looked smooth but when you dipped into it, it looked very granular. I did re-melt it and then refrigerate it again which worked. The recipe also says that if it's too soft when removed from the fridge, you can add liquid coconut oil into it - the oil will start to solidify when it hits the chilled frosting and go stiffer. BUT - given my experience, you would need to take care that the coconut oil doesn't solidify into little lumps again.

Finally I decided to remove the sugar from my previous Chocolate Cupcakes and in their place add agave syrup and the roasted apples. You can play around with the sweetness of these two so you can make it perfect for you, but this definitely made a softer crumb and squidgier cupcake. The cupcakes are simple to make - mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately and then add them together, mixing thoroughly. I ran out of rice flour when I was making them so used a mixture of rice flour and gluten-free plain flour. When baked, the cupcakes need to be completely cool before adding the frosting as it could melt the coconut oil within - and once they've been frosted I found they held up well as long as kept cool but they stayed okay in the kitchen and did not need to be refrigerated. The frosting piped very easily but when holding the piping bag, I needed to hold it near the top as the warmth from my hand started to slightly melt the frosting so the first ones piped had better definition than the last ones.

These turned out brilliantly. The pro's of this frosting are that you can get a peak and look of traditional buttercream which is the one ambition I've had with making vegan frosting. The cupcakes with the apple sauce made a much lighter cake crumb and I definitely think this addition is worthwhile. However you really need to like the coconut flavour as it's predominant in the frosting (fortunately we do!) Also, I noticed that after some time, the sprinkles started to melt slightly into the frosting so if you do want to use them, I'd suggest sprinkling just before serving.

I am absolutely thrilled to start the new year off with such a bake that works for my entire family. Free from baking was definitely not my comfort zone a year ago but a girl's gotta move with the times.

Next stop - vegan vanilla frosting :)

Home-Made Apple Sauce Ingredients (can be refrigerated for up to a week, from Babycakes)

• 2 GRANNY SMITH APPLES
• 2 PINK LADY APPLES
• 30ML LEMON JUICE
• 2TSP CINNAMON
• 80G AGAVE NECTAR (for pre-roasting)
• 40G AGAVE NECTAR (for blitzing in the food processor)
• 80ML HOT WATER

Home-Made Apple Sauce Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees (fan)
2. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
3. Peel, core and chop the apples into 1cm pieces
4. Mix the apples with the lemon juice, cinnamon and 80G agave nectar in a bowl
5. Spread them out over the lined baking tray
6. Bake for 35 mins, rotating the tray 180 degrees after 20 mins
7. Allow to cool
8. Blitz in the food processor with 40G agave nectar and the hot water
9. Place in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to a week

Chocolate Frosting Ingredients (enough for 24 cupcakes, from Babycakes)

• 360ML SOY MILK
• 70G SOY MILK POWDER
• 30G COCOA POWDER
• 60ML AGAVE NECTAR
• 1TBSP VANILLA EXTRACT 
• 240ML COCONUT OIL
• 2TBSP LEMON JUICE

Chocolate Frosting Method

1. In a food processor, blend the soy milk, milk powder, cocoa powder, agave nectar and vanilla extract for 2 mins
2. Add slowly the coconut oil and lemon juice, alternating them
3. Extra step: if you mixture goes lumpy, then microwave it for short bursts until the lumps melt (it’s just the coconut oil solidifying)
4. Mix until smooth and then pop it into an airtight container
5. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours and keep for up to a month

Chocolate Cupcakes Ingredients (makes 24 cupcakes)

• 250G RICE FLOUR
• 1 TSP XANTHUM GUM
• 1½  TSP BAKING SODA
• 1 TSP SALT
• 270G SUGAR
• 60G COCOA POWDER
• 320G SOYA MILK AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 150G MELTED COCONUT OIL AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 2½ TBSP APPLE CIDER VINEGAR
• 2½  TSP VANILLA EXTRACT
• 290G AGAVE SYRUP
• 125G HOME-MADE APPLE SAUCE (see above for recipe)

Chocolate Cupcakes Method

1. Heat the oven to 170 degrees and line 2 cupcake trays with cupcake papers.  Melt the coconut oil and put to one side to cool down. Ensure that the soya milk is out of the fridge and at room temperature.
2. In one bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: the rice flour, xanthum gum, baking soda, salt, sugar and cocoa powder and mix well.  Then in another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: the soya milk, coconut oil, vinegar, vanilla, agave syrup and apple sauce.  If you put the milk and coconut in first and the milk is not at room temperature, the coconut oil will start to solidify.  This can be rescued by warming gently in the microwave with short 15 second bursts until the coconut oil re-melts.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix by hand with a wooden spoon.
4. Fill each of the 24 cupcake papers with around 1/3 cup of batter and then bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
5. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and leave to cool.  It's important that they're completely cool before you frost them otherwise the frosting will start to melt.
6. Keep the frosting in the fridge until you're ready to use it - I filled up my baking bag in advance and kept it in the fridge as the warmth from your hands will start to melt the frosting
7. Hold the piping bag near the opening at the top as you pipe, keeping your hand as far away from the nozzle as possible to keep it from melting
8. Once piped, you don't need to refrigerate the cupcakes but the frosting will start to melt and take on a sheen if the room is too warm
9. Add sprinkles just before serving :)

S'mores Cupcakes

We're back to school! Great to have the boys back with their friends but our house has felt awfully empty these last few days. So plenty of time to reminisce about our wonderful holidays and favourite moments. The boys absolutely loved our time in Canada back in July and if you ask them their favourite part, it would be when daddy insisted we make an impromptu camping expedition into the Algonquin National Park.

Cue an overnight stay in the wild (with bears, loons, chipmunks and rutting moose!) It took us around three hours to paddle to our lake and we pitched our tent on a little deserted island, a little different to camping in the UK where you're in a field surrounded by tons of other people - you definitely feel out in the wilds. We'd been warned that a wild bear had been into one of the camps the previous night and stolen all the food and guess which was the only campsite left on the lake? You guessed right! I spent the whole night listening for the padding of bears' paws outside our tent and hubby and I had a rather comical time balancing me on his shoulders whilst I tried to suspend all of our food and cooking equipment in a giant plastic barrel six feet in between two trees out of the bears' reach. We collected our own firewood, started a fire for warmth and cooked dinner over the open flame. I rustled up a mean chicken and rice stew and then had my first attempt at making S'mores. I don't think I got it quite right, but I swear they were the best dessert - although I think that was a lot to do with being in the wild and cooking them over an open fire! Yum :)

I wanted to recreate a taste of the summer to reward the boys for their return to school. I returned from Canada with Graham's crackers and found some Hershey's chocolate to go with them. When I was looking for a S'mores creation, I found this lovely recipe for S'mores Cupcakes from Pastry Affair. I decided to make just 8 cupcakes rather than the 24 in the original recipe so the quantities below are for just 8 and can be factored up to make as many as you like. What I love about these cupcakes is the Graham's cracker crust at the base of the chocolate cake which added not only a really delicious flavour, but also a little crunch. These are baked for 5 mins in the oven before adding the cupcake batter and they really crisp up in this time. Kristen suggests using whichever chocolate cupcake recipe we like at this point so I used my regular recipe here.

Then she adds a chocolate glaze which is where my Hershey bars came in handy and I like to think added an authentic S'mores touch to the little cupcakes! Finally a topping of marshmallow which is then browned under a blowtorch. The marshmallow didn't whip up quite as much as I'd like so I'd probably play around with the quantities next time but although it might look a little flatter than I'd like, it definitely tasted delicious astride these little cupcakes.

These cupcakes aren't difficult to make, they just have a couple of added stages to regular buttercream cupcakes with the crumb base and chocolate glaze. And they are delicious! The boys both loved them and scoffed them within minutes. The added chocolate glaze and marshmallow topping make a slightly more decadent treat but one well worth indulging :)

The only thing that would have make these better would have been eating them back on our little island. I mean, who could resist a view like this and something so delicious to eat?

S'mores Cupcakes Makes 8 cupcakes (recipe idea from Pastry Affair) 

Graham Cracker Crust Ingredients

• 3 GRAHAM CRACKER (makes around 1 cup and the crumbs are crushed in a plastic bag with a rolling pin)
• 2 TBSP CASTER SUGAR
• 30G BUTTER, MELTED

Chocolate Cupcakes Ingredients

• 75G DARK CHOCOLATE - MIN 70% COCOA SOLIDS (broken down into pieces) 
• 45G BUTTER, SOFTENED
• 90G SOFT BROWN SUGAR
• 1 LARGE EGG, SEPARATED
• 95G SIFTED PLAIN FLOUR
• 1/3 TSP BAKING POWDER
• 1/3 TSP BICARBONATE OF SODA
• PINCH OF SALT
• 125ML SEMI-SKIMMED MILK AT ROOM TEMP
• 1/2 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT

Chocolate Glaze Ingredients

• 55G DARK CHOCOLATE (I used Hershey's here for an authentic S'mores taste!)
• 30G BUTTER
• 1/2 TSP GLUCOSE

Marshmallow Topping

• 80G LIQUID EGG WHITES
• 115G CASTER SUGAR

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan) and line a cupcake tin with 8 cupcake cases
2. Mix together the Graham Cracker Crust ingredients and then put a tablespoon into the bottom of each cupcake case
3. Using a glass, squash the crumbs gently until they form a solid base
4. Bake for 5 mins
5. Allow to cool for 10 mins before adding the cupcake batter
6. Turn down the oven to 170 degrees (fan)
7. To make the Chocolate Cupcake batter, firstly melt the chocolate in the microwave taking care not to burn your chocolate - I remove mine from the microwave when there are still a few smaller lumps and then stir it until it's all fully melted
8. Put the chocolate to one side to cool a little
9. Cream together the butter and sugar for around 5 minutes until light and smooth
10. Beat the egg yolks in a separate bowl and then add them slowly to the butter mixture with the mixer on a medium speed
11. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and ensure the mixture is fully mixed
12. Add the melted chocolate and ensure this is fully mixed in, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl
13. Combine the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in a separate bowl
14. Add the milk to a jug (must be at room temperature else if it's really cold, when it's added to the melted chocolate it tends to solidify some of the chocolate) and mix in the vanilla extract
15. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the mixer and ensure it's fully incorporated and then add 1/3 milk mixture and ensure that is fully incorporated
16. Do this twice more until all the flour and milk are mixed in
17. Again, scrape down the sides to ensure that the mixture is all fully incorporated
18. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until they're whipped to soft peak
19. Fold in the egg whites to the cake batter with a metal spoon ensuring that you don't knock the air out of the mixture
20. Spoon the batter into the cupcakes cases until they're 2/3 full
21. Bake for around 20 mins and ensure that a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
22. Leave the cupcakes in the tin for 10 mins before removing them and cooling them on a rack
23. To make the Chocolate Glaze, mix all the ingredients for this in a saucepan over a medium heat until they're combined
24. Leave to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes stirring from time to time
25. When this is a spreadable consistency, coat the top of each cupcake with the glaze
26. To make the Marshmallow Topping, mix the egg whites and sugar and warm in the microwave until they're at body temperature (around 37 degrees celcius)
27. Transfer to a mixer and mix for around 5 to 10 minutes until they're glossy and whisked to stiff peaks
28. Using a piping bag, add a swirl of meringue topping to each cupcake
29. Using a kitchen torch, lightly brown the marshmallow topping (or you can put this under the grill - in either case, watch them very carefully as they brown VERY quickly!)
30. Enjoy :)

Chocolate Cupcakes With Coconut Cream Frosting (Gluten & Dairy Free)

I've always loved eating cakes and sweet things. I don't eat a lot of them but I need my regular fix. The thing about baking is that when you make things yourself, you get to see what actually goes into them. I have my favourite bakeries across London and then when I bought their recipe books, I realised that there's an awful lot of sugar and chocolate and other things that you probably should eat in moderation in one tiny slice. I remember once using a kilo of sugar in one 8 inch celebration cake. It definitely makes you think!

I was flicking through Bloglovin' the other day and stumbled across a few recipes that were really exciting.  They were really exciting because there's a little boy in my son's class who's both gluten and dairy intolerant.  I took in a batch of cupcakes for Hallowe'en (completely over-the-top full of dairy and gluten) and I still remember the disappointment on his face when he asked me if they were dairy free.  And then there's another mum who's highly allergic to eggs (can you imagine a life without eggs?) So I've been wanting to find a cake that tastes and looks as good as normal cupcakes that will pass my test of yumminess and that they can enjoy too.  And I found a few recipes to try.

This one is a hybrid of a couple of recipes.  The chocolate cake is very simple to make and I've deliberately used ingredients that are easy to find in the supermarket but any items like cocoa nibs (if you want to use them) can be picked up in a health food shop.  

Now on to the coconut cream frosting. Hmmm...this was a little trickier!  Coconut cream frosting has been around for years and promises fluffy delight but this is the first time I've made it. Any recipes ask you to chill the cans of coconut milk in the fridge for at least 5 hours, but preferably overnight. This is because you only want the solid part (the cream) and you then drain the water away before using.  What they don't tell you is that this process of refrigerating doesn't always work! So I went through 4 cans of failure; then I tried freezing it; adding pure coconut cream; and whipping it for 20 mins in the hope that it would magically set.  It didn't.  I then reverted to google looking for any tips for success.  I read a lot of blogs and conversations and recommendations.  This is the sum of my findings: ideally use cans that only contain coconut and water; avoid guar gum; brands change their recipes all the time so you may find one that works and then the next time it doesn't; it's often down to the contents of an individual can itself; and then I finally found a recommendation from someone to use Waitrose Full Fat Coconut Milk.  Now this does contain guar gum and there's also no guarantee that it will work every time, but it was great to have some sort of recommendation - and it actually worked for me!

Coconut cream frosting is very different from the buttercream that I'd normally use.  It's much lighter in texture and fluffier, but it does have a very distinct taste of coconut (obviously!) although you can flavour it with vanilla or honey.  It won't replace regular buttercream for me as it doesn't hold its shape for celebration cakes and cupcakes, but it's very refreshing and much lighter - and has the added benefit of being much healthier!

Chocolate Cupcakes With Coconut Cream Frosting (Gluten & Dairy Free) (recipe adapted from Local Milk and How Sweet It Is) Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 250G RICE FLOUR
• 1 TSP XANTHUM GUM
• 1½  TSP BAKING SODA
• 1 TSP SALT
• 270G SUGAR
• 60G COCOA POWDER
• 320G ALMOND MILK AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 150G MELTED COCONUT OIL AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 2½ TBSP APPLE CIDER VINEGAR
• 2½  TSP VANILLA EXTRACT
• 2 TINS FULL FAT COCONUT MILK
• 2TBSP ICING SUGAR
• COCOA NIBS TO DECORATE

Method

1. At least 5 hours before baking or preferably overnight, put the cans of coconut milk in the fridge.
2. Heat the oven to 175 degrees and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake papers.  Melt the coconut oil and put to one side to cool down. Ensure that the almond milk is out of the fridge and at room temperature.
3. In one bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: the rice flour, xanthum gum, baking soda, salt, sugar and cocoa powder and mix well.  Then in another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: the almond milk, coconut oil, vinegar and vanilla.  If you put the milk and coconut in first and the milk is not at room temperature, the coconut oil will start to solidify.  This can be rescued by warming gently in the microwave with short 15 second bursts until the coconut oil re-melts.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix by hand with a wooden spoon.
5. Fill each of the 12 cupcake papers with around 1/3 cup of batter and then bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
6. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and leave to cool.  It's important that they're completely cool before you frost them otherwise the frosting will start to melt.
7. Turn your chilled coconut cans upside down, open and pour out the liquid.  Scoop out the remaining cream and whisk until the frosting is light and fluffy.  This should take around 3 minutes. Then add any favouring that you choose: I added 2 tbsp icing sugar but you could use vanilla, honey or something of your own choosing. Mix through and then your frosting is ready to use.  Refrigerate if you don't use immediately.
8. Frost the cupcakes and add some garnish.  I used cocoa nibs.  Then enjoy!

Harry Potter Cupcakes

This weekend we've enjoyed an early birthday party for one of my sons that he shared with a few of his friends from school.  Thirty of the most energetic six year olds (and younger) gathered for madness and mayhem.  I've kind of (unwittingly) introduced a tradition in our household for three celebration cakes for every birthday (one for the party, one to take into school and one for tea on the big day itself).  It's quite a challenge!  Especially coming up with three cake designs that have male street cred!  As there were going to be four (!) party cakes, we decided that I'd make cupcakes as they're so much easier to hand out whilst the big cakes were being cut up.

This year, it's all about Harry Potter.  We're reading each of the books before he's allowed to watch the film and he LOVES it.  So he challenged me with designing a set of cupcakes that reflected the most memorable things and for us they were: Harry, Ron, Hermione, snitch, firebolt, book of spells, sorting hat, Harry's glasses and wand and his scarf.  It was great fun creating them.  And the hardest bit?  Crazily it was creating the base board which was covered with sugarpaste, impressed with woodgrain and then painted with (edible) brown airbrush paint.  But I really wanted something to set off  the cupcakes so it was completely worth it.

The cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate buttercream (my most favourite recipe is the Primrose Bakery chocolate cupcakes) and the toppers were completely edible, made from sugarpaste.  Any painted features were added with Sugarflair Edible Tints mixed with a little vodka.  Although they did take a little time to create, the toppers were made earlier in the week and then added to cupcakes made fresh on the day so it felt relatively easy!

And the biggest reward for all the hard work is just looking at their little faces as the cakes are presented to the room with candles and the pride on my little boy's face that they were his birthday cupcakes, designed just for him.

I was just glad that I didn't have to do any of the tidying up :)