Cinnamon hot chocolate cupcakes!

With the weather as foul as it is, what could be better than curling up with a cinnamon hot chocolate? Answer- cinnamon hot chocolate cupcakes! And the best bit? still vegan, wheat free and gluten free.

I developed this recipe because most of the vegan cupcake recipes I found either weren't gluten free or were just lacking any kind of discernible flavour. The idea behind these cupcakes was something a bit seasonal to really warm me and my housemates up after days dragging ourselves to lectures. (especially now half of them have awful colds - poor things!)

As I'm baking on student budget, you won't find any kind of unattainable or unrecognizable ingredients in my recipes, its all stuff you can get from your local corner shop. The strangest item is probably soy milk! So here goes;

Ingredients

200 ml Soya milk
20ml Cider vinegar
170g Gluten free Self raising flour
30g Cocoa powder
200g Caster sugar
1tsp Cinnamon
1/4tsp salt
1/4tsp xanthan gum
1/4tsp Bicarb. soda
1/4tsp Baking powder
80ml Oil
1tbsp Vanilla essence

For the icing:

150g vegan marg ( I use Pure but Olive spread from most supermarkets works well)
650g Icing sugar
100g Cocoa powder
1tsp soya milk (optional- I like mine extra creamy!)

For the cakes :

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and prepare a 12 hole cupcake tray with cupcake cases (speed is essential n vegan baking!)

mix together the soya milk and vinegar in a jug and set aside for 10 minutes.

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and add the milk mixture (after the time had passed) at the same time as the vanilla extract and oil.

Mix quickly and thoroughly (you don't want the raising agent to start working before they're in the oven) before placing in the oven for around 15 minutes.

For the icing;

Cream the icing sugar and marg together before sifting in the cocoa powder and adding the soya milk, if youre using it, right at the end.

After the cakes are cool, pipe or spoon on your icing, add a few vegan marshmallows or chocolate buttons, and TADA! Cinnamony chocolatey creamy vegan goodness! Let me know how your attempts go :)

Keturah

Hi, I'm Keturah and I like to bake.

2 weeks into my first year of University I discovered that I had a gluten intolerance, which was pretty awful when you consider that bread and cake are just about my favourite things in the world. So, slowly, I set about making my own baked creations (with pretty disastrous consequences at first) and it became a love that continues to consume many of my spare hours (and bags of gluten-free self raising  flour) , as I go into the third year of my degree.

My latest challenge has been finding recipes that are both gluten free and vegan, to fit the requirements of me and my housemates and friends that don't usually get to enjoy elaborate or decadent cakes. Most recipes only cater for one kind of dietary requirements so I've been having to create my own - that's where the blog comes in! 

Baking a Difference will follow my attempts (both successful and completely catastrophic) to create new recipes and universally-edible bakes, interspersed with my many many opinions on just about everything. 

So here goes! Here's a couple of pictures of this week's bakes to give you an idea whats to come...

Vegan and Gluten free Golden Syrup Cupcakes! (recipe from Ms. Cupcake)

Vegan and gluten free mint chocolate chip cupcakes! (recipe from Ms. Cupcake)