Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

These cupcakes are moist, dark and deeply delicious. If for some reason you don’t like peanut butter, then just don’t spread it on top. I imagine a white chocolate icing, a sprinkling of icing sugar or anything else you care to imagine would pair up well with dark chocolate!

Ingredients

• 200g unsalted butter, straight from the fridge is fine
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 100ml hot water
• 200g dark chocolate (I used Sainsbury’s Basics)
• 300g muscovado sugar, light or dark (I actually ended up using a mix because I didn’t have enough of one type)
• 4 eggs
• 175g gluten-free self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp Xanthan Gum
• Peanut butter
• White chocolate buttons

You will also need some paper cupcake cases!

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4 and lay out your cupcake cases in patty pans. I found this mixture made 15 cupcakes.
2. Put the cocoa in a small bowl or mug with 100ml hot water. Mix together until smooth, then set aside to cool slightly.
3. Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water and melt gently together, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
4. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together using an electric whisk until thick and pale. I use my Kenwood mixer with the whisk attachment. You need to beat it as you would for a swiss roll, until when the whisk is raised, it leaves a trail on the surface for a few seconds. If you have used dark Muscovado sugar then the colour change will not be a guiding factor.
5. With the mixer still running, pour in the chocolate mixture carefully (use the lowest speed!), mixing until smooth and fully combined.
6.  Sieve the dry ingredients over the chocolate mixture and fold together until no lumps remain. It’s best to do this with a spatula, work from the edges of the bowl into the centre, using a figure of eight motion. Lifting your spatula will help to keep the air in the mixture.
7. Add the cocoa mixture and mix to combine. This will loosen the batter slightly.
8. Divide the batter between your prepared tins. I’m sure there are various potential methods – I made a terrible mess using a spoon and spatula. Sometimes an ice-cream scoop helps, or perhaps you could pour it from a jug?
9. Bake for 15-20 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for about 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Ice with peanut butter straight from the jar and pop a white chocolate button on top for decoration and sweetness!

Gluten-Free Lemon Butterfly Cakes

Lemon Curd Butterfly Cupcakes

I made Nadya’s GBBO final showstopper- the lemon wedding cake last week. I will be blogging it, but the recipe needs a little tweaking to be as successful as possible, gluten-free.

Meanwhile, here are some little lemon cakes for you to try! They look so pretty and I came up with this recipe to use up my left over lemons & lemon curd.

Ingredients

2 lemons, zested & juiced

4 eggs

Caster sugar

Dove’s Farm Gluten-free Self-Raising Flour

Xanthan Gum- 1 tsp

Unsalted butter or baking margarine, like Stork- softened. 1 250g block should do it.

Cupcake cases, I like paper ones but some people use silicone

Lemon Extract

1/2 jar of lemon curd

Icing sugar- 8 oz

Lemon Extract (not strictly necessary, so only use if you have it to hand)

Yellow sugar for decoration (Or sprinkle with icing sugar)

Method

You’re probably wondering why there aren’t any measures, to get the best result you need to weigh your eggs. Then use the same amount of flour, sugar and butter in the cake batter. Mine came to 8 ounces, as a guide. If you want less mixture, then use 3 eggs- your recipe will naturally adjust! I got around 22 cupcakes from my 4-egg mixture.

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C and line a patty pan or 2 with cupcake cases
2. Cream the butter and the sugar with a stand or hand-mixer, until it is pale & fluffy. (Margarine will not go as pale as butter).
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time- following each with a spoonful of flour so the mixture doesn’t curdle
4. Sift in the flour & Xanthan Gum and fold in
5. Add the zest of 2 lemons & juice of 1 lemon and mix to combine
6. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases, about 2/3 full. You need to leave some room at the top for them to rise.
7. Bake for around 15 minutes, test them with a skewer & make sure it comes out clean
8. Cool on a wire rack
9. When cool, cut the tops off with a sharp knife & slice into halves. Drizzle the cupcakes with the juice of 1/2 a lemon
10. Meanwhile, make the butter cream- I used 4 oz unsalted butter & 8oz icing sugar. Beat the butter with a spoon until soft, then sift in the icing sugar and mash it into the butter (using the back of the spoon), until it is all combined
11. Then add the juice of 1/2 lemon & work it in until combined. You can add a little lemon extract here if you feel it needs it. Add no more than 1 tsp!
12. Put a dollop of icing on top of each cake, followed by a dollop of lemon curd. Then push the wings into it & finish with a sprinkling of yellow sugar or a dusting of icing sugar!

These are great for afternoon tea or a Birthday party!