Posted by glutenfr | Posted in Recipes, treats | Posted on 15-02-2010
Tags: parties, Recipes, treats
My babycakes cupcakes
They don’t look anywhere near as glam as the picture on the front of the Babycakes recipe book, but I would like to introduce to you my new gluten, casein and egg-free cupcakes.
Are they moist, springy and delicious I hear you ask? As a matter of fact yes they are – and they rose beautifully as they cooked.
I know I shouldn’t get quite so excited over the texture of a cupcake, but let me put this into perspective for you. I have never once baked a gluten free cake without dairy or egg that didn’t go straight into the bin.
Packet mixes are fine in their place, but the absence of dairy and egg ingredients tends to rob them of the luscious texture one would usually associate with cake. And most can’t survive beyond a few hours unless they are frozen.
So what is the secret of the Babycakes cupcake recipe? I think it is the ingredients.
Just to recap for anyone who didn’t read my previous post about this, Babycakes started out as a gluten-free, vegan cake shop that has won a loyal following in the US (first in New York and now LA) for its yummy muffins and cakes. The recipe book was launched so we at home could emulate some of their success.
Only problem is that many of the ingredients are either hard to get hold of over here, or are just plain expensive!!
My biggest problem was that the flour recommended for the recipe was a blend of fava bean and garbanzo (chickpea) – something I gather is fairly easy to get hold of in the US. I substituted this for a blend of chickpea (besan) and rice flour (1:3 ratio).
The Agave syrup that replaces sugar in the recipe is less easy to substitute because it adds essential moisture to the mix. Although you can get this in health-food section of the supermarket, it costs around $8 per bottle and you will need an entire one of these for a batch of 12 cupcakes. My plan is to substiture it with slightly watered down golden syrup next time around to see if this will work as well.
Another ingredient I decided to ignore (at my peril) was coconut oil – mosty on the basis of expense. Apparently it is okay to substitute it for a number of other expensive oils – or plain old canola if you want to save some pennies.
For this reason I skipped the recommended cake frosting (which is quite a fiddle and cannot be substituted) and instead I just went with the recipe on the icing sugar packet, substituting butter for margarine, and milk for rice milk, (and of course a dash of sprinkles at the end).
And what of the finished product? It got the big thumbs up from all the cake eaters in my house.
LH
How cool is Babycakes! I was really excited to find Babycakes online but when it arrived I was disappointed see some really unusual and hard to find ingrediants. In the end my local health food store was able to bulk buy a lot of the ingrediants and that way it works out much cheaper ie. Agave Nectar, Coconut Oil but not Garbanzo-Fava Bean so thanks for the tip on that one.
Are those sprinkles natural or made from artificial colours? I worry that a lot of people who are gluten free are not aware that artificial colours and flavourings can cause terrible stomach problems and negative reactions too, especially in gluten sensitive people.
Fantastic site, keep up the good work!
Thanks for the feedback. The H&Ts we used in the pic were artificial but I have since found some from cupcake mountain that say they don’t contain anything artificial (though they do have cochineal for those that don’t like that ingredient).
Yes the babycakes are a bit of a revelation – such a gorgeous texture which is pretty impressive without the use of eggs …