Gluten Free Cup (of Honey Nut Loops) Cakes

Method

Make time: overall including cake batter, icing and nuts, around 30 mins
Bake time: 20-25 mins

Makes: half a dozen big muffin sized cakes, 12 fairy cakes or as many bath as will go through your cupcake maker (we had 3!!)

 

Instructions- The Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a cupcake or muffin tray with the relevant amount of paper or silicone cases

1. Cream together the margarine, caster sugar and vanilla essence in one bowl. (Tip- you should always cream essences and extracts into the margarine/butter and sugar as this pushes the flavouring into the mixture and infuses it better than if you added it with the flour).

2. In another bowl whisk the eggs until they are light and fluffy, do not bang the bowl around as this will knock the air out!

3. Gradually sift the flour, xanthan gum and baking powder over the creamed sugar and margarine, adding a little egg with each amount of flour you sift in. Stir slowly in a figure of eight to make sure you combine everything, again, be really careful not to knock the bowl around too much!

4. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cupcake cases or into the cupcake maker.

5. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and check on your cakes (don't be tempted to open the door part way through or you will allow cool air into the cake and it will deflate) if they're not quite there then give them 5 minutes and check again, test using a cool knife or a skewer/toothpick!

If using a cupcake maker, bake according to the instructions and don't worry too much about the cakes going golden as they would in an oven as it's a different way of cooking!

6. Once golden on top/ you're sure the cakes are baked, remove from the oven and leave in the tray for 5 mins. Then transfer to a wire cooling rack while you prepare your icing and nuts.

Instructions - The Golden Syrup Icing

1. Make up butter cream icing by adding one cup of icing sugar to one tbsp of dairy free margarine. Add one tsp. of vanilla essence into this mixture and combine everything together until a smooth creamy icing is created. Feel free to add in more sugar or margarine as you feel is right, I find buttercream is down to personal preference (I've found this through the various people I've baked with).

2. Add in 1tbsp of golden syrup and mix it all up again. Add more syrup of the taste isn't quite there for you, but don't go overboard as it will quickly go from being a delicate hint to being sugar-overload!

3. Once the cupcakes have cooled, place a tsp on icing on top of each cake. Leave to rest while you prepare the nut topping.

Instructions - The Crunchy Nut Topping

1. Preheat your grill to the top temperature.

2. Place some foil onto a baking sheet.

3. In a bowl, coat the nuts in the spices and sprinkle the whole lot onto the foil covered baking sheet.

4. Place under the grill for one minute!!!! (this is so important otherwise you will have these vile tasting bitter lumps of coal and no one likes that... well... maybe someone does?! But I don't and I really don't recommend this if you are planning on showing off your gluten free cooking skills - which by the way I cannot say without saying it like SKILLZ... cause for some god unknown reason I've taken in something that is on a football programme the boyfriend watches and sadly it has entered my poor, un-football-ised female brain) So yes... UNO MINUTE and then give your tray a little shuffle/shake/shimmy (entirely up to you and highly dependent on your mood and what music you have on, but by this time, if you've tasted the syrupy icing as much as you should have, then you'll be sugared up and dancing on the ceiling - yay...)

5. Remove the nuts from under the grill, and while still warm, sprinkle a 1/2 tsp of them onto the top of each cake.

6. EAT!!! Go enjoy! These need nothing more than a good cup of tea to be enjoyed... or just munch while the tea is being made and then have another with the tea... whatever, we can't all have self-control...

Enjoy!

Rubelle's Moon  http://www.rubellesandmoon.wordpress.com