Some of you will be familiar with my recipe for allergen-free/vegan chocolate cupcakes. You can find the recipe HERE. Well, my client requested vanilla allergen-free cupcakes topped with blue ‘buttercream” this week, so I set to work perfecting the recipe.
This is the result:
Some things that I did that I believe helped achieve this great result:
- using a little baking powder AS WELL as self-raising powder. Just to give the SR flour a little extra boost
- using vinegar instead of lemon juice
- using rice milk. Just me, but I think soy milk can be a little assertive in cakes. Flavoured rice/soy milk can be used if you like. I believe you can get vanilla and chocolate flavour
- I used a top-quality vanilla paste for flavouring. Vanilla extract would be a good alternative. Vanilla essence is very cheap, but it is a synthetic product and the flavour cannot compare with real vanilla pod products. I did a search and got this stock photo HERE, so I could show you the beautiful insides of a vanilla pod. You just split the pod with a sharp knife. Scrape out the seeds and away you go. The pod itself is full of flavour and can be used, even when the seeds are gone. People put them in their chai tea, when they are heating milk for desserts ( just throw in the pod along with the milk) and they are also just delightful when used to scent and flavour sugar for baking. All you do is pop your new or used vanilla pod in the sugar canister and voila!the most beautiful vanilla sugar for all your desserts, cookies, cakes and shortbreads.
I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE vanilla!
The flavour of the little cakies is very acceptable, especially if you are used to consuming allergen-free, modified cakes etc. I could taste the rice milk, which was quite pleasant. .
Here is the vanilla cupcakes recipe I used. I welcome your comments and suggestions
DAIRY FREE/ NUT FREE/ EGG FREE VANILLA CUPCAKES
- 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar. I used rice vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups rice or soy milk. I used rice milk
- 2 cups of caster sugar
- 2 1/4 cups of self-raising flour – gluten free can be used. Try Orgrans
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda ( bicarb soda)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 a cup of neutral seed or vegetable oil. I used sunflower
- either 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or the scraped seeds from 1 vanilla pod
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
Line your cupcake pans with paper liners.
Add the vinegar & oil to the rice milk.
Put everything else into the mixer bowl.
Pour over the oil/milk/vinegar liquid.
Set the mixer to low and beat just long enough to combine everything.
Set the mixer to medium speed and whisk for 1 minutes, stopping halfway through to scrape down the bowl.
Fill the liners 2/3rd’s full of cake mixture and put into the oven for 15-20 minutes.
It’s a tough call – everyone’s oven is different
Leave them in the pans for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool.
Ice as you desire. My dairy-free frosting recipe for the cupcakes can be found HERE
36 Comments
April 20, 2008 at 4:25 am
OK Rosie, c’mon. just one more step. Make them gluten free and I will bow down to you as my queen! These look soooo incredible! I have to admit that even back when we could still have wheat, I never made egg free and dairy free cupcakes that looked as good as these. I really want to just grab a few of these right now and start shoveling them into my mouth…maybe I shouldn’t have skipped breakfast this morning.
April 20, 2008 at 4:27 am
PS I am going to put a link to this post on my blogroll if that’s OK.
April 20, 2008 at 11:16 am
hi allergymom! Thank you for your lovely comment
I feel very honoured, coming from you, the real queen of allergen-free cooking!
I’ll do a gluten-free trial for you real soon
I’m thrilled you’re linking to the post. I hope that it helps a lot of people cooking for those with allergies & intolerances.
If I could I’d sent some to you
April 20, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I love vanilla too! And your frosting is perfect as usual..
April 21, 2008 at 11:57 am
Beautiful cupcakes, Angela! And ditto what Farhan said; absolutely perfect frosting.
April 22, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Thank you ladies! That make me very happy; you are both such beautiful cooks
April 27, 2008 at 10:08 am
[...] Yes she does… my lovely Mum has pointed out a mistake I made in this post [...]
May 19, 2008 at 9:28 am
I just want to thank you for coming up with these recipes. My daughter has an egg allergy and it’s challenging to get things for her to eat. And I feel bad when there are things that she really wants but can’t have. This helps a lot. Thanks again.
May 20, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Thank you for your kind words AirForceMommy – it is my pleasure. It must be very challenging indeed when your little ones have severe allergies.
I hope you visit again soon
June 28, 2008 at 6:31 pm
[...] & nut-free cake for her 40th birthday. I think her son has the allergies and had one of the allergen-free cupcakes at a party. I don’t do much private catering any more but am always happy to do it if I can, [...]
July 11, 2008 at 9:30 am
hi
Have just found this and looking forward to trying it as we have recently found out that our son is allergic to eggs and nuts and desperate to find suitable treats for him!!
Just wondering is it possible to use cows milk ??purely selfish reasons – I dont like the sound of rice or soy milk ?!?!?!
July 11, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Hi Reeces Mum and thank you for your comment
Yep, it is absolutely fine to use cow’s milk in this recipe. The rice and soy milks can be a little assertive in the cake, so if you don’t have dairy allergies this would be a fine substitute.
Good luck with everything – I know it can be a challenging time for parents and I wish you all the best
July 17, 2008 at 4:30 am
I can’t thank you enough for recipe’s like this one! My children have a lot of allergies & finding recipes is very difficult. My daughter alone is allergic to dairy & soy.. not to mention the long list of others. School won’t even feed her. I have to send her with food for any meal there. With her birthday coming up, I was getting very nervous about finding some kind of desert that she could have along with her brother (who is allergic to chocolate & nuts)…. needlessly to say, it’s been very challenging. Thank you so much for trying new things & publishing the recipes!
Sincerely,
Joyous Momma
July 17, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Aboslutely my pleasure! Thank you for your kind words. I can only imagine what a challenge it is to adapt food to suit multiple allergies – it must be very lonely sometimes.
I know you’ve said your son has a chocolate allergy but I am doing a (chocolate) egg-free, nut-free decorated cake for a lady’s 40th birthday this week and will be doing a post on it over the weekend. You might get some more ideas:)
July 19, 2008 at 11:22 am
[...] I make some allergen-free cupcakes for the children’s party company I bake for. The posts are here and [...]
July 22, 2008 at 12:18 pm
OK Rosie I have a question for the expert. I have a decent gluten free, egg free, dairy free cake recipe but to make up for all of the missing ingredients it has a tablespoon of baking powder which you can definitely taste. Are there any other levening agents that don’t have such a strong flavor?
July 22, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Hi Charmaine! Lovely to “see”you, hope you and the family is all well
I am no expert Charmaine dear but 1 tablespoon of baking powder seems like an awful lot. I would usually use about 2 teaspoons max and with that amount the taste isn’t noticable. Sometimes too much bicarb (I think you might call it baking soda) leaves a strong taste too, but again, most recipes would only need a teaspoon in a recipe.
As for other leavening agents – sorry dear, but it’s yeast or that old favourite baking powder as far as I know. Do try the recipe with less next time though, see if it makes any difference:)
July 23, 2008 at 2:34 am
Thank you so much for your time and patience with me Rosie, I keep waiting for the day when you get totally fed up with all my questions. My recipe does not work with less baking powder, I’ve tried it. So, let me ask you this…you said in your other post that you have made a gluten free version…would you mind sharing the recipe? If you don’t want to post it I can give you my email. Thank you again. I just love “talking” with you, your writing style and your demeanor just brighten my day!
July 26, 2008 at 8:52 am
do my eyes deceive me? is there really no sugar in this recipe? do you find the frosting alone is sweet enough?
July 26, 2008 at 10:07 am
Thank you, thank you, thank you sweettooth! I have fixed up the recipe. The 2 cups of sugar in the recipe can be slightly reduced if you think this might be too sweet for you.
August 4, 2008 at 5:58 am
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I’m going to use it for my son’s 1st birthday. He is allergic to milk & eggs. I just tried it and they taste great, but I’m having one problem. They are sinking in the middle. I’m using the self-rising flour. Do you know what I might be doing wrong? I substituted where you did. Did I mix too long?
Thanks.
August 4, 2008 at 8:37 am
Hi Brenda and thank you for your kind words, I hope that your son has a lovely birthday.
With the sinking problem – it could be one of a couple of things:
*too much cake batter in the cupcake liner. I go for about 2/3rd’s full
*mixture too wet. Try adding a little more flour next time. Eggs vary in size, flour varies A LOT, often it’s a case of adjustment as you go along. Use the recipe as a road-map and adjust things as you think they need it.
*You could also try leaving them in the pan for a couple of minutes when they are removed from the ove. This can sometimes stabilise everything.
*pre-heat the oven and try the next lot at a smidge of a higher temp. Try not to open the door while they’re cooking
I hope that this helps a bit Brenda
I’d love to hear how your next lot turn out.
October 11, 2008 at 12:30 am
Brenda:
I had the same problem. I got up at 5:00 AM this morning to bake the cupcakes for a playdate (It’s National Cake Decorating Day in the US).
I added a 1/2 cup of self-rising flour (making 3 cups total for the recipe) and it worked.
What a relief!
October 26, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Hi,
I am curious as to what type of vanilla you use and how you made sure it was nut free. I have only found one that is labeled allergen free on the internet. So many companies make such a wide range of flavorings, how can be sure?
Thank you!
Tracy
November 26, 2008 at 3:22 am
I am trying to make these cakies for my daughter’s birthday, but I cannot get them to rise. I think they are delicious, so I’d really like to get it right. They fall approximately five minutes before they’re due to come out of the oven. I set the timer and leave the kitchen so that I’m not tempted to peek in on them or stomping and banging around. Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong or what I might change so that my cupcakes will rise (and stay that way)? Thanks! And, again, L-O-V-E the taste!
November 27, 2008 at 7:32 am
Oh Nikki I am so sorry to hear that you have been having trouble getting the cakes to rise… Here’s a few things off the top of my head that may help:
might sound stoopid-obvious but are you absolutely sure you are using self-raising flour? SR flour can loose its potency so maybe a fresh batch could help. This recipe does need the self-raising flour/baking powder/bi-carb combo to work.
If you are in Oz I think Ograns make the best range of allergen free products but I guess that’s subjective
If you’re overseas I’m not sure what brand to suggest.
You could boost the magic of the SR flour by adding another half teaspoon of baking powder too, not too much, you can taste it if there’s too much in the mix, just enough for a bit of extra lift
Try filling the cuppie cake liners a bit fuller than normal too, I remember having to do that, this mixture doesn’t rise as much as regular mix.
Now Nikki, I haven’t had mine fall so I’m flying blind here, maybe, possibly, try upping your oven temp 10C or so, see if that helps?
Let me know how you get on Nikki and if there’s anything else I can do to help. Feedback like yours is so useful and I really appreciate your kind words.
Lotsa luck Nikki – have fun
December 6, 2008 at 4:56 am
Thank you so much for the tips. I’ll let you know what we end up with. And thank you again for sharing your recipe.
December 6, 2008 at 8:11 am
I’m making these cupcakes for my daughter’s first birthday as most of her baby friends are younger and not yet eating eggs or dairy- don’t want to trigger any undiscovered allergies!!
I did a trial run yesterday, but I more than halved the sugar content and they still came out beautifully sweet and lovely with that gorgeous vanilla flavour. Just thought I’d let all those sugar-conscious bakers out there know that these are fantastic even without all the sugar- and that’s without frosting as well!
Thank you so much for the recipe!
December 6, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Excellent news! I know that quite a lot of people like to cut down the sugar content in a recipe if they can – especially if it’s for children
It was so good to hear that you had success with the recipe. I feel very gratified and very touched that you took the tie to write your kind words.
Have a lovely weekend
December 15, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Ugh. I am having a problem. I made this last night and then again this morning. I think last night they were too full and they were all over the place. They ran over the cups and then fell. So I tried again this morning. With less in the cups and the same thing happened. Just not as messy. The batter seems a bit runny. I noticed one poster used a total of 3 cups of flour. It sounds like she used 2 1/2 all purpose flour and 1/2 cup SR flour. I am just at a loss. I shared this same recipe with a friend and they were great. So I will ask here if she did anything differently. I would really like these to work out, because my daughter just loved the ones my friend made.
December 16, 2008 at 6:04 am
I talked with my friend this morning and she told me that she used All-purpose flour instead of SR and reg. milk instead of the rice or soy. So i am going to try that and see how it goes. My little girl really wants her own cupcakes.
January 13, 2009 at 10:22 am
I’ve been looking for a good recipe for dairy- and egg-free cake mix and your has such great reviews I’ve bookmarked both the vanilla and chocolate recipes! I’ve been working as a nanny for many years, and made countless birthday cakes over that time, in various forms, shapes and sizes. My current “charge” has her first birthday coming up, but is intolerant to both dairy and eggs and I really want to be able to throw her a party the same as I would for any other child, and for everyone to enjoy the cake! I’m really looking forward to trying out your recipes- maybe with some cupcakes and one larger cake. Thanks so much!
January 13, 2009 at 10:45 am
Dear Charlotte – thank you for taking the time to comment and for your kind words.
I think you will find the recipes easy and delicious. I must admit, I havn’t used the recipe for a large birthday cake, maybe have a trial run for baking times etc?
You’re right – it’s great to be able to replicate “normal” food for children with intolerances and/or allergies. I wish you and your little charge all the fun in the world on her first birthday
January 14, 2009 at 2:55 am
Just an update. I used All purpose flour and regular milk, instead of the SR flour and rice or soy milk. They turned out wonderful and really tasty. My daughter loved them and so did my husband and I. Thank you for figuring out this recipe.
January 15, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I am SO pleased to hear you had success with the recipe
Brilliant news and thank you for sharing that very useful information.
Happy cooking, I hope you visit again soon!
March 6, 2009 at 1:45 am
I just wanted to tell you that I made the cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday. What a hit! I do have one confession – I had to add some mashed banana. My oven wasn’t working properly; the temperature was fluctuating nearly 100 degrees during the baking process! So, I had to add something to help keep the cupcakes from falling. My daughter loved them just the same (she has tried both versions). Now I have a new oven and am very excited to try the original recipe again. Thank you.