Everyone needs a cupcake from time to time. It’s a great way to share bakes and of course really quick and easy. Not just cupcakes, but other small cakes too in this section.
I have started experimenting with lactose free, gluten free and lots of different alternative flours and milks. So there is something for everyone, to help meet your dietary requirements!!
Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache
Deliciously moist chocolate cupcakes, with a chocolate ganache for that extra chocolate, gooey flavour.
- 40 g Cocoa
- 120G SR Flour
- 75g caster Sugar
- 75g light brown sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 175g lactose free margarine or unsalted vegan butter
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 30ml coffee
- 50g Dark chocolate drops (optional)
- FOR THE GANACHE
- 30G cocoa or Dark chocolate melted
- 50g Lactose free margarine
- Dollop vegan cream
1. Lay out a muffin tray with 12 cake cases. Pre heat oven to 200c/180c fan
2. Sift cocoa into a bowl and add a tsp of coffee, with a couple of spoonful’s of boiling water, to mix.
3. Add the rest of the cake ingredients and sift the flour in and mix together with a balloon whisk, adding a little air.
4. Cook for 12-15 minutes
5. Whilst cooling, make the ganache. Put all the ganache ingredients into a saucepan and melt together. As long as you add butter to chocolate when melting, then you will not burn it.
6. Let the ganache cool a little, then spoon onto the cupcakes and enjoy!
Coconut & Jam Cupcakes
I absolutely love these. Beautiful moist coconut sponge. Topped with a raspberry jam and then a vanilla buttercream.
- 150g Plain Flour
- 150g Caster Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 125g lactose free margarine
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- Tsp vanilla extract
- Tsp salt
- 90g desiccated coconut
- 120ml milk
- 3 or 4 dessert spoons of jam
- FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
- 300g icing sugar
- 150g Vegan butter
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
1. Lay out a muffin tray with 12 cake cases. Pre heat oven to 200c/180c fan
2. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla Essence together. Add the eggs, one at a time and whisk in between.
3. Sift the flour into a separate bowl and add the rest of the dry cake ingredients. Mix together.
4. Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time, with the milk, to the wet ingredients, whisking in between each addition. Note: this is quite a wet mixture, a bit like porridge, but if the eggs are large, then just add a little more flour (no more than 50g).
5. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
6. Whilst the cakes are baking you can make the buttercream.
7. Add buttercream ingredients together, blend on a low whisk. Speed up for 30 seconds at the end to completely bind together. You can add food colouring if you like and use a piping bag to decorate.
8. Once cooled, cut a small circle out of the top of the cake and add some jam. Put the top back on. Decorate with buttercream.
Chocolate Brownies
You have to have a brownie from time to time, it is a must. This is a delicious brownie that I made with vegan butter. I did use eggs, although I did not have the right quantity, so added a little oil, as a replacement. It actually worked, they were a little oily, but that made them moist. They are also quite rich, but that is what I love about a brownie. Full of pecan nuts and dark chocolate. You will see that I also served them as a dessert in the picture below. If you do want to make them fully vegan, you can swap the eggs for flax seed.
- 200g Dark chocolate
- 250g Unsalted vegan butter
- 50g Pecan nuts
- 80G cocoa powder
- 65g Plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 300g Caster sugar
- 4 Eggs
- Preheat Oven 180C/160C Fan
- Use a bowl over a saucepan of water and break the chocolate into the bowl, add the butter and melt together. Chop and add the nuts.
- Sift the flour into a separate bowl and add the baking powder, cocoa powder and sugar. Whisk the eggs in a separate jug and set aside.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet (chocolate) and stir together, add the eggs and stir through.
- Pour mixture into a greased and lined baking tin (24cm square). Cook for about 25 minutes. Once cooked, allow to cool, otherwise the mixture will be too runny. Once cooled you can cut into squares.
As an alternative, you can turn the brownie into the sundae! Check out these below, which have pieces of brownie, with a chocolate custard, topped with an Oat cream and some raspberries.
Chocolate Cupcakes Easter
Really quick Easter bake, the decoration could have been a little better, but I cooked them at about 10pm, so yes had forgotten to bake for the next day! I had also run out of icing sugar, so had minimal icing topping and was trying to make it look like mud and egg nests… Still tasted good and there is always next time to perfect the decoration.
- 40 g Cocoa
- 120G SR Flour
- 150g caster Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 175g lactose free margarine
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 50g Dark chocolate drops (optional)
- FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
- 30G cocoa or Dark chocolate melted
- 250g Icing sugar
- 60g Lactose free margarine
- Mini creme eggs or fondant shapes for decoration, eyes for chicks
- yellow, orange and green food colourants
1. Lay out a muffin tray with 12 cake cases. Pre heat oven to 200c/180c fan
2. Sift cocoa into a bowl and add a couple of spoonful’s of boiling water, to mix.
3. Add the rest of the cake ingredients and sift the flour in and mix together with a balloon whisk, adding a little air.
4. Cook for 12-15 minutes
5. To make the carrots and the Chicks, I used fondant icing, dyed half yellow and the other half orange. Made balls for the chicks and carrot shapes, then added the beaks, eyes and made a little green for the carrot stalks. Not my best work, but good fun.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel
A nice alternative to the chocolate cupcake, is a hidden caramel topping.
- 40 g Cocoa
- 120G SR Flour
- 75g caster Sugar
- 75g light brown sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 175g lactose free margarine
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 30ml coffee
- 50g Dark chocolate drops (optional)
- FOR THE CARAMEL
- 100g sugar
- 30g butter (or vegan alternative)
- 60g single cream
- FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
- 300g icing sugar
- 150g Vegan butter
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
1. Lay out a muffin tray with 12 cake cases. Pre heat oven to 200c/180c fan
2. Sift cocoa into a bowl and add a tsp of coffee, with a couple of spoonful’s of boiling water, to mix.
3. Add the rest of the cake ingredients and sift the flour in and mix together with a balloon whisk, adding a little air.
4. Cook for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool.
5. Cook caramel: heat sugar and cook for a few minutes until golden. Add the butter, and whisk in. Take off the heat and then add the cream and whisk in. Allow to cool.
6. Add buttercream ingredients together, blend on a low whisk. Speed up for 30 seconds at the end to completely bind together. You can add food colouring if you like and use a piping bag to decorate.
7. Once cakes have cooled, cut a small circle out of the top of the cake and add some caramel. Put the top back on. Decorate with buttercream.
Apple Honey upside down cakes
Light, moist honey cakes, made with bramley apples. I didn’t add any extra sugar to the apples, so the the cakes were not too sweet. Made with lactose free margarine and milk.
- 2 bramley apples
- 50g margarine
- 110g brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 75ml milk
- 100g plain flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- Tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp honey
- OVEN 170c/150c fan
1. Peel and slice apples and cook off for 5 minutes in a knob of margarine, add tsp cinnamon.
2. Grease 7 of the 12 holes in a muffin baking tin.
3. Cream margarine and sugar together in a bowl. Add the wet ingredients, so egg, milk and vanilla and whisk.
5. Sift flour, baking powder and remaining cinnamon into the bowl and combine.
6. Lay a few pieces apple into each hole. Add the cake mixture on top.
7. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.
8. Turn out upside down. You can cut the bases off if you want, but I found that they sink down after a while, so didn’t need to.
9. Heat the honey and drizzle over the top of each cake. Serve hot or cold!
Button Bakes & Creates 