Nayu's Receipes #13 Gluten free and vegan cupcakes!

I hope you're all well as we reach the middle of the week. As promised in an earlier post I'm here to show you both the gluten free and the vegan cupcakes which I baked recently! They turned out really well, even if I did put the vegan chocolate frosting on the gluten free cupcakes - thankfully it was a gluten free frosting. I simply made up a lemon frosting as I had no more vegan chocolate. You don't have to miss out on these classic treats just because you have particular dietry needs. They can also be used to bake a whole cake, the cooking time would be longer but that's all. 

Especially when it's for other people!

I decided to use 2 different cupcakes rather than make a gluten free vegan recipe because gluten free flour would be an extra element that could go a bit wild since I'm used to baking cupcakes with eggs and butter. I can link you to the vegan recipe, which isn't my own but can be found on Minimalist Baker's One Bowl Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes. I simply omitted the funfetti as I didn't have any. 

I made the gluten free cupcakes first using my own unique recipe & the advice about gluten free flour from a friend. 

Gluten free cupcakes

 

Here they are with frosting on! Super yummy

Ingredients

Weigh however many eggs you want to use in their shell. 

Using the same weight for butter (or margerine/vegan equivalent), self-raising flour (can be gluten free), and sugar of your choice. 

I did use plain flour on this occasion, adding 3 teaspoons of baking flour. Don't use that amount!!! I'll try 2 or even 1 next time (if I don't use self-raising flour which is so much simpler). The cupcakes rose and spread like crazy!!! I had to bail out the mix part way through into extra cupcake cases, as they were too big.  

Method

Mix butter and sugar together until they are combined. 

Crack eggs into the mix (pick out any shell that gets in), add the flour and mix until combined.  

Pour in cupcake cases which are on a tray. This doesn't have to be a special cupcake tray, mine wasn't. 

Cook at 180C/356F in an oven. Cook for at least 10 minutes, until a knife goes through the middle and comes away clean. Times vary depending on both ovens and how much you fill the cupcakes. 

Vegan cupcake yumminess!

I'd learned my lesson when the next day I baked the One Bowl Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes (minus the funfetti), read the recipe and at first only filled the cases 1/4 full. When double checking the recipe I saw I'd read the amount wrong, it should be 3/4. I sort of stuck to a frazzle over half as I wasn't sure the science of eggless cupcakes worked. The only 'special' ingredient you need is apple cider vinegar, which can be exchanged for lemon juice. These baked beautifully, although did take a bit longer than expected to bake. Both the mix and the finished cupcakes tasted similar to cupcakes (if you're used to food tasting different to what a 'normal' version is). 

I was very pleased with the outcome and the frostings. My ingredients weren't measured at all. 

Vegan chocolate frosting (can also be used for a dairy version)

Yummy!

Melt a few small packets of vegan chocolate buttons 

Add a bit of non-dairy milk and non-dairy butter  

Mix well before slowly adding icing sugar until you reach the consistency you like. 

Note: Make sure you put them on the correct type of cupcakes! 

Lemon frosting (naturally vegan) 

More yummy frosting!

Squeeze some lemon juice in a bowl (I used 3/4 of a lemon)

Add icing sugar and extra non-dairy milk/normal milk/water until you get the consistancy you like. 

My vegan chocolate frosting was enough for half a batch of cupcakes, and the lemon frosting made enough for a whole batch of cupcakes. Because I was giving them to 2 friends I only used half of each batch, freezing the rest for another day. I froze the leftover lemon frosting too! There was no chocolate frosting left. 

I hope you enjoyed my vegan and gluten free cupcake baking adventure - please let me know if you decide to bake these!  I'm now going to spend the rest of my day reading and gaming! Today was a blogging day (mostly on my other blog) and now I'm resting up in preparation for my trip to Devon on Saturday!