Trialling Gluten Free Passion fruit Cupcakes

It is my very great pleasure to be asked to make a couple of batches of gluten free cup cakes for the birthday party of one of Little Miss 4s little buddies. It has been my observation that it is quite a challenge to feed a gluten free 4 year old, especially when there a so many delicious but unavailable temptations on offer, and so I am more than happy to oblige. Having not made this flavour cup cake gluten free before, I thought I had better give them a trial prior to the party. 

Gluten Free Passion fruit Cupcakes

125g butter
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 1/4 cups bakels gluten free flour
1 1/4 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons gluten free passion fruit syrup - I used the Tasti brand. Be careful as many of the fruit pulp products contain unknown thickeners. 
an extra 5 tablespoons of passion fruit syrup for spooning over the baked cakes
16 medium sized cup cake cases 

Preheat the oven to 180deg. C.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.Add the eggs a bit at a time and thoroughly beat in between each addition. 

Fold in the sifted gluten free flour and baking in thirds alternating with the milk. Lastly fold in the passion fruit syrup. The mixture should be light and airy. Carefully and evenly spoon the mixture into the cup cake cases. 

                                                                                        Smooth over the tops and bake the cupcakes for approximately 12 minutes. Make sure they are well baked as the gluten free flour's soft texture needs to be baked well to avoid having a stodgy texture. 

Take the cakes from the oven and spoon a teaspoon of passion fruit over each one. Leave to cool completely before frosting with Passion fruit butter cream.

Passion Fruit Butter Cream

200g butter

1 cup gluten free icing sugar

2 tablespoons passion fruit syrup

the juice of 1 lemon

Cream the butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy. Warm the passion fruit in the microwave. Add it to the butter and beat until fully incorporated. Add the lemon juice and beat again. 

Use a piping bag to pipe rosettes onto each cupcake. This recipe makes enough butter cream to easily cover the 16 cup cakes.

Our buddies loved the trial cakes, but wanted less butter cream, so I'm going to reduce the size of the rosettes. The cakes also rose more than I anticipated, so I will be reducing the size slightly to cater for the 5 year old appetite. I was really pleased with the texture of the cakes which was light and fluffy. 

Happy Baking xx