Gluten-Free Mocha Cupcakes

Yesterday was Liz's birthday celebration in Sheffield and I decided I wanted to make her some nice coeliac-friendly gluten-free cupcakes.

I remembered how the Wheat-free Feta and Pea muffins I adapted from my Hummingbird Bakery book had worked so well, so thought I would use another recipe from there for Liz's pressie. I eventually decided on a batch of Mocha Cupcakes as I remembered how much coffee Liz and I used to drink when we were about 15 and thought we were really grown up.

I found this recipe really easy to follow, and mixing the ingredients together required a lot less elbow-grease than the usual cupcake recipes I use. Although I've made gluten-free recipes before, there were a few nervous moments before baking, as the mixture seemed super runny but once they were in the oven they rose like an absolute dream!

The cupcakes tasted really lovely - a lovely crispy top with a soft cakey centre and a nice smooth icing. The flavours were great - not sickly at all and the perfect combination of subtle coffee and chocolate. I could have eaten multiple cakes in one go, that is for sure.

Liz seemed really happy with her cakes and her sister Rosie was pleased too because she said she had wanted to bake something for Liz but didn't have a cake tin!

I definitely think that Hummingbird Bakery recipes are the way forward for all my future gluten-free baking adventures and am looking forward to doing some more baking for whichever one of my allergic friends' birthday comes up next!!

Recipe (makes 14 large cupcakes):

For the cupcakes:

240ml of milk

1 tablespoon hot-chocolate powder

1 teaspoon coffee granules

80g unsalted butter

280g caster sugar

240g gluten-free plain flour

1 tbsp gluten-free baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 eggs

For the icing:

25ml milk

1 tablespoon hot chocolate powder

250g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C and prepare a muffin tin with muffin cases. Place the milk in a measuring jug and place in the microwave for around 30 seconds - 1 minute until warmed. Mix in the hot-chocolate powder and the coffee granules and mix.

Mix the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt together until you have a breadcrumb-like texture.

Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl and add to the mocha milk mixture. Pour half of the milk into the dry ingredients and mix in.

Stir well, before adding the rest of the milk mixture and making sure there are no lumps. Don't panic if the mixture seems a little runny, mine did and it turned out fine!

Place the cupcakes into the hot oven and bake for around 20 minutes or until the mixture is firm and the cakes are golden.

Meanwhile, make the icing. Warm the milk in the microwave for around 20 seconds, keeping an eye on it and making sure it doesn't boil over. Add the hot chocolate powder to the warmed milk and stir. Add the butter and icing sugar to a bowl and cream them together.

Pour in the chocolate milk and stir well until light, fluffy and lump free.

When the cakes are cooled, ice them using a good palette knife, put the kettle on for a cuppa and voila, mocha-tastic cupcakes that won't make your coeliac friends poorly. Yummy!