Autumn Maple Cake

From Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess. This recipe requires two cake pans, preferably lined with wax paper.

Ingredients – cake:

• 170g (6oz) butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups maple syrup
• 3 1/3 cups self-raising flour
• ¾ cup hot water

Ingredients – maple meringue icing:

• 2 large egg whites
• ½ cup maple syrup
• 7 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• ¼ teaspoon maple extract (optional)
• ½ cup (4 oz) pecans or walnuts, roughly chopped

Method – cake:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
• Beat together the butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time, beating in well after each addition, and gradually add the maple syrup to make a smooth mixture.
• Finally, spoon the flour alternately with the hot water, beating gently after each addition until smooth again.
• Divide the batter between two greased pans, and bake for 40 minutes.
• When done, let the cakes cool in their pans for ten minutes before transferring to a cake rack. Leave them to cool completely before icing.

Method – maple meringue icing:

• Place everything except the extracts and nuts in a glass or metal boil that fits over a saucepan to form a double boiler. Fill the saucepan with enough water to come just below (but not touching) the bowl when it sits on top.
• Bring the water to the boil, set the bowl on top, and beat the mixture vigorously with an electric whisk for 5-7 minutes. The mixture should stand up in stiff peaks.
• Take the bowl off the saucepan, add the extracts, and beat for another minute.

• Ice the middle of one of the cakes, place the other on top, and ice the whole surface. Give the icing a swirly effect rather than smoothing it out (you can get good peaks using the back of a spoon).
• Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the top of the cake, and throw at the sides.

Chocolate Chip Carrot Cupcakes (GF with DF option)

Another “Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache” winner. This is now my go-to cupcake recipe; I actually prefer it to all the other chocolate cupcake recipes I’ve tried in the past. The icing is deliciously thick, more like frosting than icing.

the cupcakes themselves are both gluten-free and dairy-free; check the note at the bottom on how to make the frosting dairy-free too.

Ingredients – cupcakes:

• 3 eggs
• 180g sugar
• 250g peeled and finely grated carrot
• 2 tablespoons strong coffee (or boiling water if you don’t like coffee)
• 120g rice flour
• 50g almond flour
• 40g cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 100g chocolate chips

Ingredients – icing:

• 100g butter
• 100g icing sugar, sieved
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 50g cocoa powder, sieved

Method – cupcakes:

• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar for five minutes until the mixture is quadrupled in volume and extremely fluffy.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
• Whisk the carrot and coffee into the mixture.
• When they are fully incorporated, add the flour, ground almonds, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Beat with an electric whisk or fold with a wooden spoon until well combined.
• Fold in the chocolate chips.
• Spoon into prepared muffin trays lined with paper cases, so the mixture reaches four fifths of the way up the sides.
• Bake for 25 minutes.
• Leave to cool in the tin for ten minutes, then at room temperature for at least half an hour before icing. Make the icing while you wait.

Method – icing:

• Using an electric beater, whisk the butter until pale and softened.
• Add the icing sugar and water and whisk until it forms a smooth pastes and doubles in volume.
• Add the cocoa powder a few tablespoons at a time, ensuring you stop the beaters while you add it or it will fly everywhere.
• Beat thoroughly for a final minute.
• Ice the cupcakes, making sure they’re completely cooled before doing so.

• Embellish with a few shavings of chocolate if desired.

> Optional alternative: Add an extra 50g chocolate chips if you don’t want the icing or don’t have time to ice them.

Dairy-free Buttercream:

• 3 3/4 cups (about a pound) icing sugar
• 1/2 C vegetable shortening, softened
• 3-4 tablespoons dairy-free milk (e.g. almond, rice or soy milk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon cocoa

Snow Meringue Icing

Recipe from Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache. Makes enough for 12 cupcakes or 1 whole cake. Make sure that the cake/cupcakes are completely cool before icing.

Ingredients:

• 170g icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons water (or equivalent amount of liquid flavouring, depending on the accompanying cake recipe)
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 egg white
• small pinch of salt

Method:

• Place all the ingredients in a big mixing bowl over a pan of boiling water. Stir with a clean metal spoon for two minutes to dissolve the sugar.
• When the mixture is warm, remove the bowl from the heat and beat with an electric whisk for nine minutes until cool.

• Ice immediately, either with a piping bag or using a knife or spatula.

Designer Buttercream

From 500 Cupcakes, this buttercream is ideal if you want to make fancy designer cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 225g butter (or margarine if DF)
• 115g vegetable shortening
• 4 egg whites
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 100g sugar
• 60ml (4 T) water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• Food colouring, if necessary

Method:

• Beat the butter and shortening together in a food processor until smooth; set aside in a cool area.
• Using a stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the lemon juice and cream of tartar until soft peaks form; set aside.
• Stir the sugar and water together in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Cook over medium-high heat until a sugar thermometer inserted in the syrup registers 120°C (250°F) (about 10 minutes).
• Pour the hot syrup in a thin stream into the beaten egg whites, beating constantly at low speed until you have a thick, glossy icing. Beat in the vanilla and food colouring (if using).
• Continue beating on medium speed until the bottom of the bowl is as warm as your hands, about 36°C (98°F). Set aside to cool for five minutes.
• Switch to paddle attachment or a wooden spoon. Add the butter mixture, two tablespoons at a time, beating/mixing well after each addition until smooth and creamy.
• Cool for about an hour before using.