Cakes for the School Fair

We have had a great weekend, with the highlight being yesterday's long awaited school fair. Little Miss 5 and her school buddies were positively bursting with excitement at all the fun fair activities on offer. With both of us busy helping out, our little blossom got to spend some quality time with Nana; then later some close friends of ours took over, so she had twice the fun of the fair! 

I made some cakes to go with the Devonshire Tea tent's bill of fair. This Chocolate Mud cake is always a favourite! For this one I made a chocolate butter cream, instead of the Toffee icing. The Passion fruit and fresh cream sponge roll sold out. With so much to do prior to the fair, the tutorial for this one will be coming later! 

I actually sold the Gluten Free Spiced Apple Cake in the first picture as a whole cake. The lady that brought it was so impressed with the piece of GF Chocolate Mud Cake she had, that she got the other cake as well. I left the walnuts out of the one for the fair: always worried about the nut allergy thing.

 My food class at school helped out by making these Chocolate truffles. 

This is the Gluten Free Chocolate Mud Cake. This cake received high praise from the people who tried it. I was so pleased they liked it. It's always a pleasure to make great cakes for the gluten free among us. No one should miss out on good cake. I used the GF Chocolate Mud Cup Cake recipe, but baked in a round tin at 170deg. C for 1 1/2 hours. Worth the wait, as the texture is amazing. I frosted it with the Toffee Frosting boiled to only 135deg so it stayed white. The Carrot Cake in the back ground is a good old classic standby recipe that I make all the time for so many occasions. It works just as well as cupcakes. 

Needless to say today has been a quiet day in our house! Thanks so much to all the amazing people that worked so hard to make the fair happen, and all the people who helped me out on the day. You were all stars! xx 

Gluten Free Chocolate Mud Cupcakes for our Buddy's Birthday

It has been a lovely day for a party. We have had the very great pleasure to attend the birthday party of one of Little Miss 4's swimming buddies. As per my previous post, I made a couple of batches of gluten free cup cakes for the party. These are the chocolate mud cupcakes. Without wanting to gloat, they are actually fabulous. The gluten free flour made the texture of the cake even more soft, moist and gooey. The party had a fairy, mermaid and pirate theme, so I coloured and cut out some Pettinice white icing into 'gold debloons', fish and fairy stars. 

The children were completely transfixed by Buttercup the Enchanted Fairy.

These cupcakes are so easy to make. There is no beating required, just mix 'em up and bake.

Gluten Free Chocolate Mud Cupcakes

1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs - beaten
2 cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups bakels gluten free flour

Preheat the oven to 170deg C and assemble 30 cupcake cases. I used the solid sided ones as they are smaller and more sturdy.

Sift the flour and cocoa together and set aside.

Blend the liquid ingredients together using a whisk, then blend in the baking soda.









Using the whisk, blend the GF flour and cocoa into the liquids until no lumps remain. 











Using a jug, pour the mixture into cupcake cases. Taking care not to fill them any more than half way. 













Bake for approximately 18 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. 

The cupcakes will look a little peaked, but will level out once they start to cool.

Once cold, frost with Chocolate butter cream rosettes.




Chocolate Butter Cream

125g butter
1 1/4 cups icing sugar
250g Whittakers 72% Dark Ghana Chocolate

Cream the butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy.
Melt the chocolate and add it to the creamed mixture. Beat for a few minutes to thoroughly combine. 
Using a piping bag and star nozzle, pipe rosettes onto each cup cake. 

Little Miss 4 had a great time playing with all the other children at the party. She was completely taken with Buttercup the fairy. She really loved the face paint, but with a school visit tomorrow it had to be washed off!