Perfectly Rounded Cupcakes (Wheat Free with Dairy Free Option)

I was starting to worry about my cupcake fixation: I thought I'd need some kind of psychological intervention at some point. But, as it turns out, engaging in a compulsive and obsessive trial and error process until you get the results you want works!

Sure, my house may have been littered with cupcakes for a solid fortnight, and that was after palming them off continually on my fiancé's coworkers, but it meant that I finally cracked the code to perfectly rounded cupcakes like these:

Aren't they a thing of beauty? When this batch came out of my mother's oven I was dancing with glee, and when I was able to replicate the results in my own problematic home oven I was even more excited. I learned a few things along the way about what was causing my cupcake problems.

I learned:

• From my tests, using a egg-foam (sabayon) based cake mixture gets the most consistent and roundest results. Whenever I used a butter-based creamed mixture, like Madeira, the tops peaked and cracked open, producing a mostly flat cupcake with a nose.
• However, using an egg-foam technique where the egg whites were whipped separately and added to the mxiture later made cupcakes that shrank after cooking. It also made very dry cupcakes.
• I found that using baking powder sometimes made the cupcakes rise too fast and then collapse immediately after baking. The combat the issue, I used baking soda instead, and the results were massively improved. Baking soda is a slower acting raising agent, which in this scenario I think helped a lot.
• Melted butter made a deliciously rich cake, but they went hard once they were cold and staled quickly. Using all sunflower oil made for a lovely moist cake that stayed moist for days on end, and had a nice soft springy texture.

So, the main takeaway is use baking soda instead of powder, whip the eggs and sugar together as a base, and don't overwhip the eggs.

I am so pleased that I found the way to make lovely round cakes. Now, I have to experiment with storage, freezing, and defrosting: I'll be a monkey's uncle before I make and ice 120 cakes the day before my wedding.

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DIFFICULTY
Requires whipping eggs and gently folding

TIME

About an hour

RECIPE RATING

Intermediate

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INGREDIMENTS

For 12 cupcakes

2 medium (US Large) eggs, room temperature

4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar

2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil

2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) milk, or milk alternative, room temperature

1 or 2 teaspoons (5 or 10 millilitres) vanilla essence

4 ounces (115 grammes) plain white spelt flour

¼ teaspoon (2 grammes) bicarbonate of soda

Two pinches of salt

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METHOD

• Line a 12 hole muffin tin with regular cake cases, measuring about 2 inches (5 centimetres) across the base. Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F, Gas Mk.3).
• Set a sieve over a bowl, or a piece of baking paper, and add in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and a pinch of salt. Sieve thoroughly and set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, a pinch of salt, and the sugar with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes, or until the mixture has turned a pale yellow colour and has doubled in volume.
• With the mixer still running, pour in the oil gradually, followed by the milk. Mix only enough to combine. 
• Sieve over the flour mixture, and fold through quickly with a balloon whisk. Stir until the flour is completely absorbed, and the mixture has a ribbon consistency: if you lift the whisk, the mixture will run off the end like a ribbon.
• Divide the mixture between the cases and bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for 14 to 16 minutes, until the tops are perfectly rounded the the centre of the cake springs back when gently pressed with your little finger.
• Take the cakes out of the tin and transfer to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely before decorating, about 45 minutes to an hour.

VARIATIONS

• For chocolate cakes, replace an eighth of the flour with cocoa powder.
• For lemon or orange flavoured cakes, add in a teaspoon of lemon or orange zest.
• For toffee flavoured cakes, use soft brown sugar instead of caster sugar. If you like, you can replace half of the oil with cooled melted butter.
• For coconut cakes, add in an ounce (30 grammes) of desiccated coconut and use coconut milk.
• For coffee flavoured cakes, you could add in a teaspoon (5 millilitres) of ground instant coffee with the flour, or you could use espresso in place of the milk.
• If you'd like a red velvet style cake, you can double the vanilla, replace a teaspoon of flour with a teaspoon of cocoa and add some red food colouring. For extra points, you could use buttermilk instead of milk.
• You could also add any kind of ground mixed spices you like: add in 1 to 2 teaspoons (5 to 10 millilitres) of ground spice per dozen cakes.
• You could also add in mix-ins for a bit of texture interest: chopped nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips. For a dozen cakes, add 2 ounces (55 grammes) of mix-ins, but make sure they are tossed in a little flour before adding to the cake mixture.
• Of course, any of the above ideas can be combined: for example you can add mixed spice to a brown sugar cake to make a gingerbread cake, you could add orange zest to a chocolate cake.

STORAGE

These keep well in a completely airtight container, stored at room temperature, for up to 5 days. After 5 days, they start to go dry. These can be frozen, based on previous experience of using this style of cake, for up to 3 months. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have frozen these for 6 months and they've been completely fine on defrosting, but were only edible for about 2 days before going completely stale.

THIS DAY IN 2014: Anniversary Gift: Chocolate Dipped Gingerbread Teddies (Wheat Free)
There were no blogs on this day in 2013, 2015, 2016, nor 2017