Strawberry Cupcakes (makes 12)

Strawberry Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

The other day my Mum was lucky enough to get a huge tray of strawberries at a massively reduced price and after we’d eaten our fill of them accompanied by the outstanding dairy-free ice cream that is Booja-Booja, she very generously gave me the leftovers to use for my blog. I hummed and hawed for a while about what to do with them before settling on the idea of making summery strawberry cupcakes. (One cupcake serving is low FODMAP.)

Strawberries aren’t usually used in cake mixes because they tend to become a very wet ingredient when added to cake batter, but because of the dry, absorbent nature of gluten-free flour strawberries are exactly the type of fruit ingredient that works well in a gluten-free cake. I thought there might have been a risk that the strawberry flavour wouldn’t come through very strongly, but I was wrong because it created a light, gluten-free sponge that was dotted with sweet little gems of jammy strawberries.

Sometimes I like my sponge cakes to be plain, but other times it’s nice to add a flavouring extract or spice that will complement the key ingredient in a cake and will enhance the overall flavour. Strawberries are well complemented by ginger, so I thought I would add a little bit of ground ginger to the cake batter just to add a subtle kick of heat and background spiciness to the fruity strawberry cupcakes.

This idea worked very well indeed, creating strawberry cupcakes that are comprised of a very soft, airy sponge cake with the delicate background spice of ginger that is generously infused with deliciously fruity jammy chunks of fresh strawberry and topped with creamy buttercream icing. I’d say it’s the perfect cupcake for a summer day.

Strawberry Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

Ingredients:

120g fine polenta meal

75g ground almonds

50g gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tsps xanthan gum

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

150g sugar

120ml vegetable oil

120ml rice milk

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

120g strawberries (chopped into small pieces and reserving 12 small slices for the top of the cakes)

To make buttercream icing:

70g dairy-free butter

180g icing sugar

1 tbsp rice milk

1/2 tsp red food colouring

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas mark 6.

Lay your cupcake cases into a couple of muffin trays.

Cut the strawberries into small pieces.

Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and give it a good stir so that they’re all fully mixed.

Measure the wet ingredients into a jug or bowl.

Toss the strawberries in the dry ingredients and then add the wet mixture and stir really well.

Pour into your cake tin and bake for 35 to 40 mins or until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool and in the meantime make the buttercream icing by simply whisking all of the icing ingredients together.

Serve the strawberry cupcakes either as they are or with the buttercream icing spread on top.

Strawberry Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

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