Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

On the 2nd of September I finally graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelors Degree in Human Nutrition - *Insert Happy Dance*. 

With this in mind, I was asked to make the class a graduation cake. My first choice was 'my' sweet and salty chocolate cake. You can follow the recipe here. If you read that post, you will know that I froze half of the icing for future use. Big fail, it split and turned to goo. So I replaced that icing with the chocolate ganache below and it worked! 

Anyway, on to this post... gluten free cupcakes! Unfortunately the entire cake is not gluten free but I did recreate the cake into a cupcake for a couple of the girls in my class. They worked out way better than I expected and I'm excited to try out more gluten free recipes!

For the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 12 hole bun tin with paper cases.

Graduation Cake 

Waiting for Salted Caramel..

 Chocolate Cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients

50g butter

115g soft light brown sugar

2 eggs

115g gluten free flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

25g cocoa powder

125ml soured cream 

• add the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, bicarb and cocoa powder to a large bowl and whisk until smooth.
• fold in the soured cream and spoon the mixture into the cases. 
• bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes.
• leave them to completely on a wire rack before icing them. 

Chocolate Icing

225g butter 

285g plain chocolate

2 tbsp golden syrup

240ml double cream 

• melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a glass bowl over a pot of shimmering water.
• once melted, add the cream and mix to combine. 
• remove from the heat and allow to cool. it takes about 20-30 minutes for the icing to set and thicken.

Decorate

• to decorate the cake - follow the steps as per the sweet and salty chocolate cake!
• for the cupcakes - remove a small middle from each cupcake (I use an apple corer) and spoon in some salted caramel.
• finally, top with the chocolate icing and enjoy :) 

♥ ♥

Wendy

XO

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Sweet & Salty Chocolate Cake

The Hummingbird Bakery sweet and salty chocolate cake - the perfect 'celebration' chocolate cake! I have only made it once and it felt like there was a gazillion steps... however, it was worth it! I may attempt to make this again in September for my graduation. Hopefully it will be cooler then too, the icing kept melting as I iced the cake haha. :)

10 Minutes Later....

Salty Caramel (make me first)

200g caster sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

60ml water

120ml double cream

60ml soured cream 

1 tsp sea salt

• Bring the sugar, golden syrup and water to the boil - boil for 10 minutes until its a golden colour. 
• In a separate pan, bring the double cream, soured cream and salt - remove from the heat.
• When the caramel is ready, pour the cream mixture into the caramel and stir away while it bubbles. Set it aside in a clean bowl. 

Chocolate Frosting (make me second) 

200g caster sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

60ml water 

360ml double cream

450g dark chocolate

450g butter 

• Bring the sugar, golden syrup and water to the boil - boil for 10 minutes until its a golden colour. 
• In a separate pan, bring the double cream, soured cream and salt to the boil -  remove from the heat.
• When the caramel is ready, pour the cream mixture into the caramel and stir away while it bubbles. Set aside to cool.
• Once cooled, add the chocolate and stir to melt. Using a mixer, whisk the frosting for 10 minutes  and then add the butter and whisk until it looks nice and whipped.
• Set aside while you heat the oven and make the actual cake.

Sponge (last but not least..)

300g butter

300g caster sugar

140g soft light brown sugar

3 eggs

100g cocoa powder

160ml buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla essence

60ml water

330g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt 

• Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, and then add the eggs one at a time.
• In a jug stir the cocoa powder, buttermilk, water and vanilla essence into a thick paste. 
• Sift together the remaining ingredients and add this in batches to the butter and sugar, alternating with the cocoa paste until everything is fully incorporated.
• Divide the mixture between the three tins and bake for 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
• Once the cakes are baked and cooled - decorate!
• Top each layer with the salted caramel, follow with the chocolate frosting and add a thin layer of frosting before doing the final layer.

Oven temperature - 170 ^°C

PS - I used lots of frosting on the cake and I still had half left over, so I put it in the freezer for future use. 

PPS - The leftover salted caramel is delicious over ice-cream!