Chocolate Cupcakes

By Bailey1_

Ingredients

• Ingredients – for the cupcakes
• 1/4 cup (60g) butter (see possible dairy-free alternatives above)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups xylitol (or, if you’re not bothered by it being sugar-free, 1 cup caster sugar)
• 1 1/4 cup quinoa flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, separated
• seeds from 1 vanilla bean
• 1/4 cup soy yogurt (or sour-cream or regular yogurt)
• Ingredients – for the frosting
• 1/4 cup (60g) softened butter
• 60 g melted dairy-free, sugar-free chocolate (I use Plamil Foods and find it’s the closest thing to the real deal about)
• 3 tablespoons xylitol
• 1-2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• seeds from 1 vanilla bean
• Ingredients – for the frosting
• 1/4 cup (60g) softened butter (see possible dairy-free alternatives above)
• 60 g melted dairy-free, sugar-free chocolate (I use Plamil Foods and find it’s the closest thing to the real deal about)
• 3 tablespoons xylitol
• 1-2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from heikeherrling.com

Preparation

Step 1

Ordinarily, I’m a little put off by recipes which call for you to whip egg whites for addition to batter, because my mixer only has one bowl.  It’s a right pain to have to stop, transfer the mixture into another bowl, then wash up so I have a clean bowl to start whipping my egg whites.  But this recipe doesn’t require a mixer to mix the mixture. You can mix the mixture in the saucepan you start out with meaning the dish dilemma doesn’t present itself.

Preheat your oven to 190°C (170°C fan forced).  Bring water and butter to the boil in a medium sized saucepan.  Once the butter has melted, remove saucepan from the heat and whisk in sifted cocoa powder.  Then sift in xylitol, quinoa flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  This mixture shouldn’t be hot any more.  But do make sure.  Then add the egg yolks, vanilla and soy yogurt and beat by hand until smooth.

Meanwhile, whip egg whites until soft peaks before gently folding this through the cupcake mixture.

Spoon about a 1/4 cup of mixture into each cupcake liner (held in muffin tins is best to keep their shape).  I found there was exactly enough mixture to make 12 cupcakes - awfully convenient.  Bake for 14 minutes.  Leave on a wire rack to cool before frosting.

whip softened butter and xylitol until butter become pale and fluffy.  Add remaining ingredients and continue to whip until all well incorporated and fluffy.  Using a piping bag with a large star nozzle, pipe frosting onto cool cupcakes.  You may find it easier if you pop the piping bag full of mixture in the fridge for just a couple of minutes (no longer) to firm up before piping.