Nut Free / Dairy Free / Egg Free Cupcakes

My client requested a special cupcake order this week.

Her client required the cupcakes for the children’s birthday party to be nut, egg and dairy free. They were to be iced with pink “buttercream” icing.

This was a challenge for me as this kind of cooking is not something I have often had to do. However, I knew the principles involved, the ground rules were clear and I was confident we could whip up a pretty, snazzy cupcake for a special someones birthday.

This is the recipe I used:

To make 30 cupcakes

3 cups of self-raising flour

2/3 rd’s of a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder ( not drinking chocolate)

2 cups of caster sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 1/2 cups of water

2/3 rd’s of a cup of  sunflower oil ( any light, neutral oil would work well, obviously not peanut oil for nut-free cakes)

I sifted the cocoa and flour together into the bowl of the mixer.

In went the salt & vanilla.

I set the mixer to low speed and poured in the water, lemon juice and sunflower oil.

When the dry ingredients were incorporated I turned the mixer up to medium speed and let it go for 2 minutes.

I used muffin pans lined with cupcake liners, as usual.

The cupcakes took about 17 minutes in a 350F oven.

They looked great. Not as high as my regular cakes. Next time I might put in an extra teaspoon or so of batter.

I made the icing from dairy free spread, pure icing sugar, vanilla extract and rice milk.

Same method as making regular buttercream. The finished texture was smooth and pipeable.

An easy way to fill a piping bag with icing?

Put the bag in a tall glass, fold the bag over the glass and fill!

Once you have the icing in the bag, lift the bag out and jiggle and squish to disperse.