It's been another of those busy weeks. I had a few things I was going to post this week and I just haven't had the time. Most evenings I was busy crocheting the little gifts for the boys to give their teachers as end of term presents. Tomorrow is the last day of term for them - hurray! I'll show the gifts off tomorrow though.
Tonight, though, there are these little experiments.
I had been wanting to try using coconut oil instead of dairy free margarine in a recipe for a while now. I'm a great believer that butter is much better for you than margarine, as it's so much more natural, but for those on a dairy free diet then there isn't that option. I've read all about the health benefits of coconut oil but the main reason I haven't tried using it in baking before is that Calum (11), who is one of my allergy boys, just doesn't like the taste of coconut! I don't actually understand that though, as one of his favourite dinners is a chicken curry I make with coconut milk in it! Still, I suppose the taste of it in a curry and in a cake is different.
Nevertheless, I wanted to try it out in a cake.
I was a bit concerned that the coconut might dry out the texture a bit, and with gluten free flour you need all the moisture you can get, so that's when I struck on the idea of adding lemon. Besides, with all this lovely warm weather we've been having, Lemon is a perfect summery flavour, don't you think?
One more thing that has put me off is the price of coconut oil. It certainly isn't as cheap as margarine! But if you have a Holland and Barrett store near you they have one of their Buy One Get Anything Else Free offers just now. That's a pretty good offer when you consider that coconut oil is £15 a jar!
For the cupcakes you will need:
4oz coconut oil
5oz sugar
6oz Doves Farm wheat free self raising flour
2 eggs
2tpsp rice milk
Grated rind of 1 lemon
For the icing you will need:
Juice of half a lemon
Enough icing sugar to make up a thickish icing.
All you need to do is put all of the cupcake ingredients into a bowl or freestanding mixer and beat well until everything is combined and smooth.
Spoon into cupcake cases and bake at 180c for about 15-20 minutes until golden.
Make up a spreadable icing while they cool down. Add enough icing sugar to the juice of half a lemon to make a spreadable but not too runny icing.
When the cakes have cooled then cover with icing.
And if you're wondering, these little cakes did indeed pass the Calum test!
They look delicious… and beautiful. I too love coconut oil, because of its benefits. You can use expeller pressed coconut oil, which has a process that removes the coconut oil flavor, and is nice to use if you don't want the flavor. I was glad when I found that out, because sometimes I don't want the flavor, but want the benefits.
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