Gluten Free Lemon Cupcakes

This is the one everyone's been waiting for ... Lemon Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing.  This is an all-in-one recipe which means everything goes in together at the same time - it's easy! These cupcakes are fantastic the day you make them but as with most gluten free baking, they get stale quite quickly so I usually ice them and then put them directly into the freezer.  

Take them out as you need them and microwave them for 15-20 seconds and they are beautiful.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups Gluten Free Flour Mix (see recipe)
• 1 1/3 teaspoons Guar Gum
• 1 1/3 teaspoons Baking Powder
• Pinch of Salt
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• Zest and Juice of a Lemon (approx 1/4 cup juice)
• 1/3 cup Soy Milk
• 100gms softened Butter or dairy free spread

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius.  Put the cupcake paper cases into a muffin tin.
2. Put all the ingredients into a large bowl.  Beat with a rotary beater until the batter is smooth.
3. Spoon into the prepared tins, making sure not to overfill them.  With the spoon, slightly smooth the tops (this makes the icing easier).
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.  You may need to turn the tray around half way through the cooking time.
5. Cool on a wire rack.

Icing:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Icing (confectioners) Sugar
• 3 tablespoons good quality Cocoa
• 3 tablespoons softened Butter or dairy free spread
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• Splash of Vanilla Essence

Method:

Combine all the ingredients with a fork until the mixture is smooth (I sometimes use the beater for this, depending on the amount of lumps I get).  Pipe onto the cupcakes in a circular motion beginning at the outside of the case and working your way into the centre.  

Tip:

If you don't have an icing set, you can use a sandwich sized zip lock bag with the corner cut off.

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