My daughter loves home made cakes.  As a coeliac who’s allergic to eggs (and very fussy) she has limited choices when it comes to cake so I’m  constantly trying to create the perfect baked good for her. I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of different types of flour recently in an effort to eliminate the claggy, chalky texture that you sometimes get in gluten free cakes and I’ve really fallen in love with Kinako, made from roasted soya beans and which tastes like caramel peanuts. I’ve used it here, but you can easily omit it (I give you that option) as it’s fairly hard to get hold of. I also often add ground almonds to a gluten free cakes as they also help with the texture. I’ve included them here but if you can’t eat nuts just  omit them and make up the weight in gf flour.

These little cakes, which are sort of a cross between a fairy cake and a cupcake came about because  we have friends coming for lunch on Monday (a bank holiday) and their youngest daughter can’t eat dairy. I still wanted to treat everyone to something indulgent so I decided to try making  vegan gluten free fairy cakes with chocolate frosting. I used the recipe on the back of the Doves Farm flour packet as my starting point and added a few tweaks (the Kinako for one), plus my own icing which is based on the Hummingbird Bakery frosting recipe and is amazing. I think they turned out really well – light but moist with a beautiful caramel undertone. I think my kids liked the frosting best, but then they always do.

Ingredients:

• 100g dairy free spread  [I recommend using ‘Pure’ sunflower spread. It tastes and bakes the best of the most commonly available dairy free spreads. Pure also do a soya and olive version but don’t get those they don’t bake well]
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or extract
• 50g gluten free self raising flour blend (I use and recommend Doves)
• 25g ground almonds
• 35g Kinako flour (or omit this and just use 85g Self Raising Doves flour blend). You can buy Kinako from Souschef.com or from JapanCentre.com
• 25g chickpea (or ‘gram) flour mixed with 4 tablespoons of water (this replaces the egg)
• 3 tablespoons of dairy free milk. I use Koko coconut drink; you could use soya milk or almond milk. I think the Koko cooks best and you can’t taste it in the finished result.

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 fan
2. Cream together the sugar and dairy free spread (I use a free standing mixer)
3. Mix in the chickpea (gram) flour mixed with the water
4. Mix in the dairy free milk and then the vanilla
5. Mix in the flours, baking powder and ground almonds (I should tell you to sieve the flour but tbh I rarely bother)
6. You could add some dairy free chocolate chips at this point if you fancied
7. Half fill 12 cupcake cases with the batter
8. Bang the baking tray down on your work surface a couple of times
9. Cook the cakes for 18 minutes or until golden and an inserted cake tester comes out clean.

For the frosting:

Beat together (I use a free standing electric mixer with a paddle attachment but you can use a hand held electric whisk) 100g of dairy free spread (again I use Pure sunflower), 300g of icing sugar ad 40g of gluten free cocoa powder (I used Green and Blacks). If you’re using a free standing machine set it on medium slow until the mixture comes together then turn it down to slow and add 40ml of dairy free milk one tablespoon at a time. Then turn the speed up to high and beat the icing until it’s light and fluffy.

Pipe the icing onto the cooled cakes with a swirly flourish and serve.