Gluten Free cupcakes

Helping mummy set the timer

I've got a Hen's lunch today, so last week, I thought I'd bake cupcakes. Modern life being what it is, I knew that it would be inevitable that at least one person would be gluten-intolerant or have coeliac disease.

Having flirted with gluten-intolerance myself for a couple of years, I know firsthand how crappy it can be, especially when it comes to cake. We all love a bit of cake, even if you don't have a particularly sweet tooth, so I decided that this batch of cupcakes would not only be gluten free, but delicious!

Impossible, I hear you say. those ideas are not compatible. Gluten free stuff tastes horrible. And yes, sometimes it does. But with modern baking science improving all the time, there are a lot of great packet mixes around. Basco does quite a nice butter cake*, so I decided to use that. And, as a sweetener, they were on sale at Woolworths this week. Hooray! Now, I have a bit of a stash of GF cake mix.

*note, it's not dairy free or egg free as well (although you can find them at the supermarket too.

Whoops! Turn your head to the side for instant rotating!

Anyway, I also had to make the icing gluten free, so decided to go with marshmallow. After my last attempt(s), I was determined to tame the beast! Plus, it's delicious.

In addition to the GF cakes, I thought I'd try out a packet mix that I got from the Reject Shop for $2. They were too cute to resist!

I wanted to get going on these babies ASAP, so I started after breakfast. Destructor was awake and playing around my legs. As soon as he saw me start to get stuff out of the cupboards, the arms went up. He wanted to see what was happening. So, being the modern woman that I am, I proceeded to hold him in one arm while adding an egg to the mix with the other. And to my surprise, the cake mix went pink! Yay!

Finally, a strawberry cake mix that is already pink!

Now, while I'm good at doing things one handed, mixing cake mix properly is still a skill I'm yet to master. So, to keep Destructor occupied, I gave him a little bowl full of rice bubbles and a spoon. That way, he could 'mix' his own cake, and stay occupied for a little while.

Yum! I can play AND eat!

I stirred the mixture and popped it in the patty pans provided. Into the oven they went. Meanwhile, I got started on the GF mix.

Like my last baking adventure, I did half vanilla, then added cocoa to make the other half chocolate. However, this time, I had a secret weapon - chocolate spice! A friend of mine bought it for me for my birthday and it is AMAZING. It actually makes chocolate taste better. So, in it went.

Meanwhile, the pink cakes were ready, so they went on the rack to cool and in went the GF cakes. Destructor (now bored of the rice bubbles) was raiding the cupboards. He seems to love this particular bottle of tomato sauce.

Nom, nom. Great teether!

The two of us went off to play with some trucks, and then, before we knew it, the GF ones were done. And they looked awesome!

No weird shapes!

A snack and a little TV later, Destructor was ready for bed, so in he went. Now, I had time to do the marshmallow frosting. Well, not so much time as focus. It requires constant stirring and a double boiler, so it's NOT something to do while Destructor is hanging off my legs.

You'll be pleased to know that I didn't have a meltdown. In fact, it came out perfectly! Woo!

I cut the tops out of the vanilla cupcakes and popped in some homemade lemon curd (yes, I found time for that last week!). Then, I topped them with marshmallow (and glitter) to make a lemon meringue cupcake.

GF Vanilla cake, lemon curd, marshmallow frosting

Next, the chocolate ones got topped with marshmallow and sprinkled with drinking chocolate to make a 'hot chocolate' cupcake. I changed the piping tip to give a different effect.

GF Chocolate cake, marshmallow frosting

And finally, the strawberry babycakes. They got just a squirt of marshmallow (kinda my take on strawberries and cream), but lots of gold glitter and a love heart. So cute!

Strawberry cake, marshmallow frosting

And that was it! 24 cupcakes in total (I left a few behind for hubby to enjoy!) and a bit over an hour in time.

Gluten free doesn't have to be boring or tasteless - you just have to think outside the box!

Coles Smart Buy cake mix is not as smart as it seems...

So, this is just a little batch of cupcakes. A mummy friend of mine and I haven't seen each other in ages, so we're catching up for afternoon tea today. I said I'd bring cake...so cake it is!

Last week at the shops, I didn't quite make it to Aldi (read: couldn't be bothered as I had Destructor with me), however, I still needed vanilla cake mix. So, I thought I'd give the "Coles Smart Buy" brand a go. It's the same price as Aldi (.79c a pack), so really, I had nothing to lose.

This looks okay...

One look at the back of the pack and I have to admit, I'm a bit surprised. All I need to add are two eggs and 3/4 cup of milk. No butter! So, I mix it up and it looks (and tastes) fine. I pop half the mix into patty pans, then add a little cocoa to the remaining mixture to make it chocolate flavoured. No point in taking just one flavour of cupcake! The rest of the mix goes into patty pans and then into the oven.

My chocolate batter

15 minutes later, I pull them out and I'm greeted by some very, very odd shapes and sizes:

They're inconsistent (despite the fact that I filled them all 2/3rds full) and some of the chocolate ones are still a bit raw on the inside. So, the vanilla ones hit the cooling racks, and the chocky ones go back in for another 5 minutes.

There's one rogue cupcake that was so badly mutated that I had to eat it....for scientific purposes of course! It looked lovely on the inside, but to be honest, the flavour was very meh and the texture was doughy and sticky. I can't say that I was impressed.

How the HELL did it end up like that?

Looks nice...

I kinda hoped that the texture was down to the fact that I'd added cocoa, but I'd have to wait til afternoon tea to find out.

Anyway, I found some spare buttercream in the fridge, so the vanilla ones were topped with purple strawberry (left over from the engagement cupcakes) and the choc ones got mint buttercream (cos there was a small bag that was just the right amount).

The result:

Choc mint

Vanilla strawberry

Verdict: All easily completed while Destructor had his daily nap. Baking only took about 20 minutes all up, and then the cooling was about another 20. Frosting took 10 minutes at best.

Post Script: I had one of the vanilla strawberry ones at afternoon tea, and I can't say that I was terribly impressed. The same doughy, sticky texture and lacklustre flavour. I won't buy this packed mix again (unless I'm really, really desperate). On the up side, my mummy friend and her mummy thought they were fabulous, as did Destructor (who got the cake...no frosting!). Clearly, I'm becoming a cake snob!

A wedding cake with dulche de leche

So, I went wedding dress shopping with my sister over the weekend. It was lots of fun…so much so, that I’m thinking I may just blow our house deposit on a divorce and second wedding!

Anyway, wedding dress shopping inevitable leads to other wedding-related discussions like bridesmaid dresses (thankfully my sister has fabulous taste, so no fuchsia nightmares!!!) and yes, cake. Her fiancé wants something super simple (a plain vanilla cake), whereas she wants something a little more gourmet. Our discussion led us to thinking how she could incorporate her fiance’s Argentinian heritage into the cake. She wanted a fancy topper, however, it was going to be a little on the $$$ side. What could she do? Then the answer came: dulche de leche.

For those poor souls who are yet to experience the heaven that is dulche de leche, it is essentially condensed milk, heated until the sugar caramelises. Traditionally, it’s done on the stovetop in the can. Those lucky enough to be living in the US can simply buy it off the shelf. Us poor Aussies have one of three options: make it ourselves (and that’s NOT in the spirit of my baking ethic!!), going to an Argentinian specialty shop and buying a can (expensive and inconvenient) or using Nestle Caramel Top ‘n’ Fill. I’m going to warn you now, it’s so delicious that you’d quite happily descend into a diabetic coma eating the entire tin. And I’m also going to go out on a limb and say that it’s even BETTER (yes, better!) than condensed milk. It’s like if caramel and condensed milk had a baby.

Canned heaven

Canned just-as-good heaven

Anyway, enough about dulche de leche (I’m drooling now). Well, not enough…I have to explain how it comes into the cake. The idea was a rich vanilla cake with dulche de leche in between the layers. Not only simple, but Argentinian. I took it one step further…what if the cake looked like a giant alfajore? Alfajores (pronounced aff-a-HORE-eh) are magical butter biscuits with dulche de leche in the middle, the sides rolled in coconut (or coated in chocolate or icing…depends where in South America you come from). So, you can see how this cake could be an alfajore wannabe. Simple vanilla icing on the top (cos it’s a cake after all!)

Mmmmm....alfajores...

How could I not accept this challenge? So, Saturday afternoon I decided I’d have the cake ready for Sunday night dinner. But you have a child, I hear you exclaim. How will you get it done? Well, here’s how I did it.

Sunday morning, Destructor and I went to the shops at 8.30am. I grabbed two packs of vanilla butter cake, top ‘n’ fill and all the other bits and pieces I needed for the week. By the time I got home, Destructor was pretty tired and grumpy. He was walking like a drunk, but still wanted to play, can you believe it? So, I put him to bed (much to his disgust) and into the kitchen I went.

I used a Green’s Butter Cake mix for this adventure. I know I rave about Aldi, but I really didn’t have the energy to battle Aldi with a toddler! So, I got the best Woollies had to offer. To be honest, I was pretty disappointed with their range, but that’s another story for another day. I decided to bake two separate cakes, so I mixed the batches separately.

Double the price, but it'll have to do!

Both cakes came out nice and golden brown, so I went about levelling out one of them (to be the bottom cake). I then popped a whole can of Top ‘n’ Fill in the microwave (in a bowl…not in the tin!!) for a little bit just to smooth out the consistency. Then, I used the vast majority to fill the cake. I may have eaten a little bit as well (I told you it was good!!). I used the extra to go around the sides of the two cakes.

One thing that I found amazing was that my two cakes didn’t match up exactly when I put them together. Baked in the same tin, they weren’t the same size! I think it had something to do with cutting the top off the bottom cake. Not sure. Will figure it out.

I then rolled the cakes in some shredded coconut, pressing some on afterwards for good measure. To decorate the top, I thought I’d try a technique I’ve seen all over Pinterest – covering it in piped roses. I already know how to do roses, so how hard could it be?

For the icing, I used the packets that came with the cakes. I had to add a bit more icing mixture and milk to get enough icing, but no dramas there. And off I went. The roses looked super sweet! I had to pipe some stars to cover the bits of naked cake peeking through, but that was fine. I sprinkled some love hearts left over from the engagement cupcakes, plus some glitter (cos who doesn’t like glitter) and voila – a cute cake full of magic!

The verdict: needed more Top ’n’ Fill. Pretty much everybody said so. Mum (my baking hero) suggested cutting the top cake in half and filling that as well. And maybe the bottom cake too. Love it! The butter cake itself was a hit – beautifully light and fluffy, delicate flavour.

Come the end of the night, nobody wanted to take any home! I had to laugh. None of us really need any calories, to be honest. Plus, we all lack any kind of self-control when it comes to cake. Mum tried to convince me that my husband could eat the remainder over three days…the look on his face was priceless! So, it came home with me and I divided it up into four pieces – one for hubby and one each for the IT guys at my work. IT guys always deserve cake – they work hard!

Baking in purple and gold

MISSION: vanilla cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, gluten/dairy free cupcakes. Buttercream frosting and marshmallow frosting. 84 in total.

Holy moley. That's all I'm going to say about these cupcakes. I'm not going to lie - I had a mini breakdown towards the end AND I had to enlist a bit of help from my husband, but I got there in the end.

Tuesday night I made a LOT of buttercream. Half mint, half strawberry. And just for fun, I coloured the strawberry purple. My sister had said that she wanted everything purple and gold!!! Note: boring old food colour did NOT cut it in the colour stakes. It looked foul. Lucky for me, I had some Wilton purple in my decorating bag of tricks, so I used that - you'll see how awesome it came out later...

Yay artificial colour!!

I was going to keep the mint white, but it stubbornly remained yellow (even after a lot of whipping), so I gave up and made it a pale green. Personally, I find it hard to 'taste' the minty-ness of the buttercream unless it's green...you really do eat with your eyes!

I popped it in the fridge to save for Friday (when I had planned to decorate).

So, come Thursday night I started baking. And what a LOT of baking it was!

A late addition to this story would be the fact that at the last minute, I was asked to bake gluten free AND dairy free cupcakes as well as everything else. So, I bought a packet mix earlier in the week. These would be the cupcakes that I would start with. So, off I went! Luckily, the mix was super easy and while the cupcakes were baking, I was able to get started on the vanilla cupcakes.

I had a moment of brilliance/stupidity and decided that I was going to colour the batter purple. Yay purple! Did I mention that I made 4 packs of cake mix at once?

MEGA BATTER!

I must show you the patty pans, because they are awesome. And, to make it even better, I got them at 25% off from Spotlight. Woo!

Flash forward and I finish baking all the vanilla cupcakes. There were a crapload! But they looked so sweet...all purple and golden brown :)

So, now it's on to the chocolate mud cakes, right? I had planned on using two packet mixes and each packet required three eggs. So, I go to the fridge and this is what I saw:

Bup bow!

Yes, that's five eggs. And by now, I'm sure you've done the maths and have worked out that I'm an egg short. I've talked about having a plan B, so this is where the internet comes in handy. 

I've heard and read about egg-less cooking, but haven't tried it. I've seen a lot of pinterest tips fail, though, so I'm quite a skeptic. Anyway, it's about 9.30pm at this point in time, so I'm willing to give anything a try. I consulted about 3 websites and they all suggested banana as a substitute for egg. Luckily, I have pureed banana (thanks, Destructor!), so I pop in a quarter of a cup to make up for the lack of egg, say a few Hail Marys and give it a good whizz.

Baby food - not just for babies anymore!

The cupcakes come out of the oven looking just like they normally do, so I'm feeling a little less worried about the whole banana-instead-of-egg experiment. I would totally eat one at this point, but I need all of them. Looks like the general public will once again be my guinea pigs!

Meanwhile, all my vanilla cupcakes are cool, so I have a really crazy idea - since I'm up and on a roll, why not frost all the strawberry ones?

So, my bowl of buttercream comes out of the fridge and goes into the microwave. I take it out, give it a stir and watch it split. As Ren would say, "You eeeeeeeediot, Stimpy!" Plan B (which I've had to carry out a few times) is to pop it into the fridge. A little while later, it comes out of the fridge all cooled down and I give it a quick whizz - BAM! It's back to normal. Phew! 

So, off I go, frosting like a crazy lady. The heart sprinkles go on next, accompanied by little bit of gold glitter. They are perfect! Hooray! I send a pic to my sister and she too is happy.

Next, I hurry up my chocolate cupcakes (by chucking them in the fridge to cool) and very carefully (because I've learned my lesson!) microwave the mint buttercream. 

10 minutes later, they're done. I did a rose on the top and added gold sprinkles. Yum!

I'm wrecked at this point, so decide that I'll to go bed (after doing the dishes of course!) I also realise that I'm going to have to hit the shops the following morning as I am going to need some eggs for the marshmallow frosting. But that's okay - I'll get to the shops early (while my husband is home to feed Destructor breakfast) and then I'll be ready to frost at 10.30am (during nap time).

So, Friday dawns. I race to the shops and buy 15 eggs and get back in time for my husband to go to work. Destructor and I go to the park, have a play (read: sit on the swing for half an hour) and then it's nap time.

First thing I do is inject 20 or so cupcakes with lemon curd (from a jar at the supermarket). I bought this nifty little doo-dad for $2 on Wednesday - I'm hoping it'll save me even more time. The alternative method is cutting a bit out of each cupcake, spooning in lemon curd, putting the top back on. It takes AGES.

Time saver!

So, I fill up the syringe with lemon curd and off I go. I can't see exactly what's happening with each cupcake, but I assume I'm putting in enough. The syringe is soon empty, so I go to refill. However, what I don't count on is that the plunger in the syringe allows lemon curd so sneak back into the main chamber, so when I pull it out, lemon curd (about 3 tablespoons of the stuff) comes out with it. Mess made, lesson learned. However, I am filling these cupcakes a LOT quicker. Since I don't have x-ray vision, I plan on asking for feedback when people eat them to gauge whether or not there's enough curd.

Cupcakes filled, I start the marshmallow frosting. I'm going to use it on the gluten/dairy free cupcakes as well, so I need to make more than initially anticipated. But that's okay. 

Frosting finished, I go to put it in the piping bag. It's not like it usually is, so I'm a little suspicious. I pipe it out and it looks HORRIBLE. And I'm not just saying that, it looked like white poop. Being the perfectionist that I am, I simply can't let it go. So, I scrape it off and start again.

Round two also looks like a mess. I'm starting to get stressed at this point, as I know my time is very limited. So, off I go to make round three. Guess what? It's also crap. My husband comes home from work at this point in time, only to see his wife both crazy with rage and on the verge of tears. At this point, I've started ranting. I've also thrown the piping bag onto the ground, meringue flying in all directions. Did I mention that I'm also out of eggs?!?! I can't substitute banana this time! I also have no idea what I'm doing wrong, which is what is the most frustrating part of all this. I've made it before, so I know I can do it! Argh!

It is at this point that my husband reminds me why I married him by racing down the street to buy me another dozen eggs. What a gem! Meanwhile, I clean up the mess from my tantrum and hop online to see what I'm doing wrong. From what I can gather, I'm over beating the eggs. Der!

My new eggs arrive and I start separating. Of course, I manage to get the tiniest bit of yolk into my whites, don't I? But I'm determined now, so, I grab a spoon and fish it out (swallowing my tears at the same time). Once my hot whites hit the mixmaster, I grab a teaspoon of Cream of Tartar and add it to the mix (I read online that this can save your meringue from certain doom). And do you know what? It works! I do a mini dance around the kitchen and start frosting. Much to my relief, it's perfect. Smooth, shiny and delicious. 

I decorate the vanilla/lemon curd cupcakes with a LOT of glitter and a love heart on the top. The gluten/dairy free ones get cocoa lightly sprinkled on top (well, that was the plan, except I mucked it up and they ended up COATED in cocoa) and a bit of glitter for good measure.

I stand back, and have to say, I'm pretty pleased.

Chocolate mint

Vanilla strawberry

vanilla, lemon, marshmallow

So, there you have it. One massive order of cupcakes, one minor meltdown and one hell of a ride!

Post script: The chocolate cupcakes tasted fine. No banana flavour at all. The texture was also spot on. Would do the banana thing again if in the same situation.

There was just the right amount of lemon injected into the cupcakes, so my syringe was a success. 

Planning for my sister's engagement party

So, I've taken on a rather huge task - making 75 cupcakes for my sister's engagement party this weekend. Not that I don't want to do it - I love baking! She asked me a month ago, so I've had time to think about it and plan it out.

Any mammoth baking job requires careful planning and preparation - especially when Destructor is only getting cheekier by the day! So, this post is going to focus on all the prep needed for when you want to do a big-arse batch of cupcakes.

Firstly, you need to work out exactly what you're making. How many, the flavours (cake and frosting) and decoration. For my sister's cakes, she wants a purple and gold theme, so I sat down and did some sketches and plans:

I started off with the cake flavours and frostings

Then, I worked out how many batches of each that I'd need to bake (based on how many cupcakes a packet of cake mix would make):

After that, it was the quantities of frosting:

And finally, how I'm going to decorate them:

Be kind - I'm really not great at drawing...

You'll see that I've gone into detail with each cupcake, right down to the glitter! I managed to get purple and gold patty pans on sale, so I'll be using those :)

Next, I worked out a timeline - when would I get stuff done and in what order. My list looked like this:
1. Decorations
2. Ingredients
3. Make buttercream
4. Bake cakes
5. Make marshmallow frosting/decorate

I went with getting the decorations first as I needed something very specific (edible purple hearts) and knew that I'd need to buy them online if I couldn't get them in-store. And of course, ordering anything takes time, as does the delivery. So, I didn't want to leave that til the last minute!

Luckily, the cake decorating shop that I go to (CW Cakes in Malvern) had a little pack of coloured hearts that included purple, so I was off the hook. They also had gold sprinkles (although technically they're gold mini sugar balls) and gold glitter (the non holographic kind).

Yay! No running around for me!!

It's really important to have your ingredients nice and early as well -it means that if you happen to find yourself with a spare hour, you can get stuff started....like the buttercream!

Tonight, I'll be tackling buttercream. It keeps beautifully in the fridge for aaaaages. Love it! This way, all I need to do is pop it out on the bench on the morning I'll be decorating, and it's ready to go by Destructor's nap time.

Baking can't really be done until a couple of days beforehand, as you don't want to be decorating stale cakes. For me, this means I'll be baking on Thursday night, in preparation for decorating on Friday. Once the cakes are decorated, they'll be fine for a couple of days (though in this case I'll be serving them Saturday night). The buttercream keeps the cake nice and moist, provided you cover the whole top of the cupcake in buttercream.

The marshmallow frosting is also something that I'll be doing last. While it still tastes great after being refrigerated, it doesn't pipe so well. It comes out all gross without a lovely shine, which is fine if you're serving people who don't eat with their eyes (or your family/friends who love you enough to overlook it)!

While doing all this planning, I made sure I looked at my calendar. Some days I have enough time to make buttercream/bake during the day, but others, I just don't. And even then, some nights I know I'll be buggered, so doing anything then will be out of the question.

It's so important to look at the week before your cakes are 'due'. If you can't 'borrow' enough time during the days/nights, you may have to cheat even further (like using pre-made frosting from the supermarket) or simply admit defeat (and buy a cake).

Personally, I can get about 4 batches of cupcakes baked in an hour and a half. Decorating that many cakes (provided I've made the frosting) would only take about half an hour....an hour if I wanted to really take my time. So, it's totally possible to do over three days, or one day and two evenings.

Wish me luck! I'll keep you posted with how everything goes...

Who doesn't love licking the beaters?