I know what you're thinking... Dairy-free cupcakes don't have the yummiest reputation, but these surprised me!
I needed to make a batch of dairy-free (or 'Parev' to all you Jews out there) cupcakes for an American-themed party the other day - Parev desserts have never really inspired or excited me; I much prefer a piece of decadent chocolate cake with pilings of buttercream to a dairy-free cake with a simple sugar icing. Regardless, I gave it a go. Instead of using my traditional vanilla cupcake recipe (and substituting the butter for margarine and the milk for soy), I thought I'd pull out my mum's old Evelyn Rose cookbook which prides itself with a wide range of desserts (both milky and Parev), most notably its fool-proof recipe for 'One Bowl Fairy Cakes'. This cookbook is older than me and the pages are covered with stains and crumbs! I think these fairy cakes were the first thing I ever baked in my mum's kitchen, and they have stood the test of time.
Measurements are in ounces - most scales should be able to weigh in ounces as well as grams. If not, have a look online at a conversion table.
INGREDIENTS
4oz butter or margarine (dairy free spreads such as Tomor and Pure are ideal)
4oz caster sugar
2 eggs
5oz self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
a splash of vanilla extract
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200C (190C if you're using a fan oven)
Beat the 'butter' and sugar together with a mixer or wooden spoon until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla and mix until smooth.
Spoon into cake cases - I made some bigger cakes in muffin cases as well as some small ones in fairy-cake cases; just use whatever you have in the kitchen.
Cook for about 20 minutes (or until they are a light golden colour and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean).
Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the side.
FROSTING
These days I don't really keep to a specific frosting recipe. I typically use a ratio of butter to icing sugar of 1:3, but it's different each time.
In this instance I used around 100g of dairy-free spread (not too sure, I just eyeballed the measurement), about 400g of icing sugar and maybe 2tablespoons of soya milk. Dairy-free spreads usually have a very prevalent margarine-taste which I really don't like. So, I thought I'd mask it with tons of icing sugar and a lovely big splash of vanilla essence.
Just mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl until light and creamy and tweak the ratios of ingredients to cater to your own personal taste.
Either pipe or spread onto the cooled cupcakes.
Decorate any way you like. In spirit of the theme, I stuck a little American flag into each cake..
They didn't taste dairy-free in the slightest!
Keeping in line with the American theme, Alex and I turned up in some American-football shirts (sneakily borrowed from my brother's cupboard!).
I have absolutely no clue which teams we're supporting here, but it was a fun evening.
Also, Zac Efron made a surprising appearance!
Though he's cardboard, he was great company!
That's all for now!
J xx
