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

Colourful Farewell Cakes

With a great big collective sigh, the school year has come to a close and we have said our fond goodbyes and Christmas good wishes to students and colleagues alike. On Friday we celebrated with Secret Santa gifts, lovely nibbles and Christmas cheer. We said farewells to our colleagues and friends who are moving on promotion to other schools and promoting themselves to well earned retirement.
As is our custom, everyone chipped in to deliver a lovely festive lunch. To help celebrate the promotion of two of our staff I made cakes in colours that celebrate their individual personalities. Orange for Megan: her favourite colour and a match for her radiant presence in the school. Pink for Tony: famous as his least favourite colour and thus the one we have always honoured him with. On his last day as Acting Principal, the entire staff dressed in pink in his honour. Two lovely people for whom their respective schools should count their blessings to receive.

I based my cakes on an old favourite chocolate sponge and topped it off with simple butter cream frosting. 


Chocolate Sponge Cake

6 eggs - separated
300g caster sugar
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons butter
4 heaped teaspoons cocoa
6 tablespoons warm water

Turn the oven on to 180deg. C and line a 20 x 30cm baking tin with baking paper.



Beat the egg whites until they form peaks. Add half the measure of sugar, a little at a time, and beat until the mixture holds firm peaks.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale, thick and creamy. Don't add the sugar to the yolks until your ready to beat of the sugar will form lumps with the yolks.






Heat the butter, cocoa and water in a small saucepan. Stir until smooth.

In a large bowl, fold the egg white and yolk mixtures together. Follow with the cocoa mix, and finally the twice sifted flour and baking powder. Try not to knock the air out of the mixture and don't over mix.
Gently transfer the mixture into the baking dish and smooth over the top.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when pressed in the middle.
Leave to cool in the tin. Once cold fill with jam and butter cream and top with either butter cream or normal icing.
If your eating it straight away it is lovely filled with fresh cream and seasonal fruit.





Butter Cream Frosting

200g soft butter
1 cup icing sugar
6 tablespoons warm milk
juice of 1 lemon

Put all the ingredients into the mixer and beat until light and fluffy. The mixture should not be curdled, but smooth, pale and creamy. 

I left the frosting in the centre white and spread the top layer of the sponge with raspberry jam. As you can see I halved the original large cake to form two smaller ones.


For the finished cakes, I added natural red food colouring for the pink frosting and blended red and yellow for the orange frosting. 


This cake eats equally well simply topped with sifted icing sugar.

Now with all the celebrations of the closing of school over for the year, its time to move on to all the many possibilities of Christmas foods!