It's been a while since I've done a baking post as I have been on a bit of a health kick, and baked goods like this are just too much of a temptation to have lying around the kitchen, and also because I just haven't really been feeling up to it.  If you follow my blog though you'll know how much I love to bake and over the last few weeks I have really been missing it, so I decided it's time to put my mixer to good use again and get my baking mojo back.  This past weekend it was a special little girl's birthday and as she is lactose intolerant I was set with the task of making her some dairy free cupcakes.  I'm always a bit wary when making "free from" or "healthy" cakes as all the ones I've attempted have never really been up to scratch but these ones actually turned out pretty good.  So I thought I'd share the recipe as I know how hard it can be to find a good dairy free cake recipe and even if you can have dairy these are lower in fat and taste just as good as the real thing.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

250g caster sugar

250g Vitalite dairy free (or an alternative diary free spread)

3 eggs

290g self raising flour

1tsp vanilla essence

145ml sweetened soy milk

For the buttercream:

250g Vitalite dairy free (or an alternative diary free spread)

500g-800g icing sugar

1-2tsp vanilla essence

Makes approx. 20 cupcakes

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°c and line tins with cupcake cases.

2. Beat together the caster sugar and dairy free spread until light and fluffy.

3. Add the eggs one at a time and beat together with the mixture after you have added each one.

4. Add the vanilla essence and beat again until well combined.

5. Sift the flour into the mixture and beat again until it is fully combined.

6. Add the soy milk and mix well.

7. Spoon the mixture into the cases until they are about 2/3 full and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until they are golden on top and bounce back when gently pressed. Then leave on a cooling rack to cool completely.

8. When the cakes are almost cool you can make your buttercream.  Start by beating the spread until pale (about 5-8mins).

9. Sift in 500g of the icing sugar a little at a time and beat after each addition until it is well combined.  This will make a nice buttercream but as we are using dairy free spread rather than butter for me it is a little too soft, especially for piping.  So add the rest of the icing sugar a little at a time until it reaches the consistency that you prefer, this can vary depending on the type of dairy free spread you are using.

10. Add the vanilla essence and mix well.  Again the amount you will use depends on the type of dairy free spread you're using.  To me the dairy free spread has a strong margarine like taste so I tend to use about 1 and a half teaspoons of vanilla essence but you can use a little more or a little less to suit your tastes.

11.  Pipe or spread onto cupcakes and decorate however you'd like.

Let me know if you give these cupcakes a try or if you have any other great dairy free recipes.

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