Have your cake and eat it too

I've had a pretty busy past couple of weeks. Between midsemesters, 21st birthdays and work I haven't had a hell of a lot of spare time to cook. I also had the veterinary science ball last fortnight, and whilst it was a pretty awesome night, there was one little thing that bugged me. The vegan food. 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a vegan. I love cheese and chocolate and yoghurt and ice cream and poached eggs and so on way too much. However, I think being a vegan is a pretty selfless thing to do, and it annoys me how some restaurants don't put any effort or thought into their vegan dishes. At the ball, the vegans got fruit for dessert. Fruit is pretty tasty, but when I go out for a nice meal I expect something that takes a little more preparation than simply cutting and serving.

Anyway, last week also happened to be a friend's (who also happens to be vegan & gluten intolerant) birthday. So of course I had to make something.

Chocolate cakes with vanilla glaze. Gluten free and vegan. And pretty darn easy to make.

Now, I'm not going to lie - these were neither the tastiest, nor the prettiest thing I've ever baked. But they were certainly a bit nicer than plain old fruit. They actually kind of reminded me of the devil's food cake doughnuts you can get from Krispy Kreme.

Here's all the ingredients you need (+ balsamic vinegar)

Place the cocoa powder and coffee in a bowl (don't exclude the coffee, even if you don't like it. You can barely taste it, and it helps keep the cakes moist)

Dissolve in a cup of boiling water. Let it cool while you get the dry ingredients.

Mix together your gluten free flour, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Make a well in the middle.

And mix in the cocoa & coffee. Once the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps, add in the vinegar and mix together. 

Fill each of the patty pans with the mixture, so that they're about 3/4 full - about 2 tbsps mixture in each. Then just let them sit for about 1/2 an hour. You should probably clean up after yourself. Or you could make some pretty things to top your cakes like I did.

I used these nifty silicone moulds and a bit of tinted fondant.

Just dust with a bit of gluten free flour, and pop a little bit of your tinted fondant in. You can make the flowers as big or small as you like (I usually use corn flour, but in this instance I thought I better keep everything as gluten free as possible).

Then just bend the mould to pop the flower out.

You should probs cook your cakes at some point too. They came out a little flat, might have to experiment a bit more...

Once you top them with a little glaze and a pretty flower you can barely notice.

Gluten-free, vegan friendly chocolate cupcakes

Makes 12

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp instant coffee grinds

1 cup boiling water

1 3/4 cups gluten free flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

For the glaze

2 cups pure icing sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

water

1. In a bowl stir together the cocoa powder, coffee and boiling water. Allow to sit for a few minutes
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Make a well in the middle and pour in the cocoa & coffee mixture. Mix till well combined. Mix in the balsamic vinegar
3. Divide mixture into a lined 12-hole patty pan, filling each to about 3/4 full. Allow to sit for about 1/2 an hour
4. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celsius (fan-forced). Bake for about 20 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
5. To prepare your glaze, combine the icing sugar (make sure it's icing SUGAR not icing MIXTURE. Icing mixture usually contains other ingredients which aren't necessarily gluten free) and vanilla extract with enough water to make a thick icing. Spoon/drizzle onto the top of each cake. Top with a decorative flower.