Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Frosting

These are some chocolate cupcakes with mint frosting that I took to our ladies lunch.  One of the ladies was very happy that there were a couple left over (or rather her husband was :) 

Cricket Cupcakes for my Cricket playing friend Peter

I made some Cricket Cupcakes for my friend Peter for his birthday as he is an avid cricket follower and player.  They turned out quite awesome I think, considering I did them with a massive migraine which I could only see stars while making them.

The picture did not turn out color wise - the cricket balls in the center of the pic were actually very nice red frosting.  The green are meant to be grass with a cricket bat on each one.   

Again, I used my standard Gluten and Milk Free Chocolate Cupcake and Butter Cream frosting recipes.

Happy Birthday Peter!!!

Here  is a close up of the "grass" before I put piped on the bats.

Gluten & Milk Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting

I wanted to try something new and something that had a different frosting other than the "American" Butter Cream - as is just too sweet for most Europeans.  I tried several others, but none of them really work well with margarine.  So, I searched and found a nice fluffy white not so sweet frosting- plain old meringue style :)

I did my usual chocolate cupcake recipe and then put a swirl of the marshmallow like frosting on each one and then toasted them individually with a small kitchen torch and this is how they turned out!

They looked and tasted wonderful!!!!

Baking with Soy Milk - Do you have the right one?

Soy milk is a good alternative for baking for those of us who can not have cow's milk.  But when baking, not all soy milk is equal.

I have had a few people ask me specifically about soy milk, so thought I would do a quick post on what I use. 

When buying soy milk for baking, it is important to buy the unsweetened one.  This does not have any sugar in it, unlike most soy milks, which are extremely loaded with sugar (yes, even the ones marked "natrual" or "light".  If you are using a normal soy milk, the sugar content will effect your baking.

You REALLY have to read the labels when buying soy milk, not just the name!

Here is what I use (am posting from the .co.uk site so it is in English, will post German site below that)

 

Alpro Soya Ungesuesst 

Gluten & Milk Free Homemade Donuts

Well, I tried to replicate what MaMa with Flavor did with The Pioneer Woman's Homemade Donut recipe, turning it into Gluten and Milk Free.  It did not quite work as I had hoped :(

They turned out more like heavy cake donuts rather than fluffy yeast donuts.

I would recommend trying these if you want to using your own substitutes.  The flavor was EXCELLENT, I think the flours I used were just too heavy for this - and perhaps more yeast is needed as well.

I followed The Pioneer Woman's recipe exactly as she lays it out (she has a very good pictorial as well ;) but made the following changes

First, I cut the whole recipe in half, there are only 2 of us - 1 is a diabetic and we both need to watch what we eat,so was MORE than enough for 2 people!

Substitutes
Milk - Soy Milk (the one that is only soybeans/water - nothing else added)
Butter - Milk Free Margarine
All Purpose Flour - Mix of Amaranth, Millet, Quinoa, Rice, Tapioca


I hope someone else does try this and is successful!!!

Gluten & Milk Free Golden Vanilla Cupcakes

I have been wanting to try something different for vanilla cupcakes as had just not yet perfected them.  A fellow tweeter (@Cake_Crumbs) had suggested to me the cookbook  Vegan Cupcakes Take Over World to me the last time I tweeted about having a difficult time with the "no egg" recipe.  So, I adapted the vanilla recipe in the book to be Gluten Free, but I actually added and egg (as these did not need to be egg free) - they turned out pretty darn good for a first try!  The flavor is EXCELLENT!!!!  The only problem is that they were a bit "crumbly" when you bite into them - but that will be fixed next time around.

So, here is the recipe

 

Makes 18 cupcakes
Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over World "Golden Vanilla Cupcakes" pg 33

with many many changes!!

Preheat oven to 180°C

Mix together dry ingredients and sift thouroughly

30g Amaranth Flour

60g Millet Flour

30g Rice Flour

20g Tapioca Flour

20g Quinoa  Flour

2 Tablespoons Corn Starch

1/2 Teaspoons Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon GF Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

3/4 Cup White Sugar

Mix the following wet ingredients together and blend until well mixed

1/2 Cup Soy Milk

1/2 Cup Goat's Plain Yogurt

1/3 Cup Canola Oil

2 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 egg

Then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until well blended and smooth.

Put into lined cupcake tin and bake at 180°C for 18 min.

Remove from oven, let stand 10 min in cupcake tin and then put on wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Twin Cupcakes

 

Chocolate Cupcakes (I have altered my choco recipe again :)

Makes 18

Ingredients:
20 g Quinoa Flour
40 g Millet or Sorghum Flour
40 g Amaranth Flour
20 g Rice Flour
15 g Tapioca Flour
2 tsp GF Baking Powder
80 g Dutch Cocoa Powder
1/4 tsp salt
40 g softened
100 g Muscovado Sugar
2 eggs
3/4 tsp GF Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Goat’s Buttermilk
1/2 cup Soy Milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 180°C

Line cupcake pan with liners

Mix all dry ingredients and sift together several times.

Mix all wet ingredients and bananas until smooth.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until smooth and thoroughly mixed.

Bake at 180°C for 20min.  Allow to cool 10 min in pan and then remove and place on wire rack to completely cool before frosting.