Gluten-free Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream

This is an extremely belated entry of cupcakes I made for Christmas day. My only excuse is that I found myself in paradise over the holidays, Fiji to be more specific, and am only just getting back into regular routine.

So that Mum could enjoy the tasty desserts like everyone else on Christmas day, I decided to make gluten-free cupcakes. They were very yummy and very simple. In saying that, the raspberry cream which looked and tasted fantastic, definitely made these cupcakes a winner. The cream complimented the chocolate so well, with its soft texture and bursting raspberry gems.


Ingredients for Gluten-free Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 12)
1 3/4 cups gluten-free self-raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1tsp baking soda
1 cup caster sugar
125g melted unsalted butted 
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs


Preheat oven to 180'C and line a 12-hole cupcake tin with paper cases. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together in a large bowl. Stir in caster sugar. In a separate bowl, hand whisk the buttermilk, butter and eggs. Fold this mixture into the dry ingredients.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and fill to about 2/3 full. In the photos you will notice that the cupcakes rose well above the lip of the cases and gave a lovely rustic look. Bake the cupcakes for 45-50mins; keep in mind that as these are gluten-free they will take much longer than normal cupcakes. When a skewer comes out clean and the tops of the cupcakes spring back quickly when touched, they are ready (the cupcake should feel stable when touched). After 5mins out of the oven, allow them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Ingredients for Raspberry Cream
300ml double thick cream (I used Pura Double Thick Cream)
3tbs caster sugar
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries


Lightly beat the cream and caster sugar until it is light and fluffy. Taste the cream to make sure it is sweet enough. You don't want it to be overly sweet as the cupcakes are sweet enough, however if need be slowly add some more sugar and beat again. Fold in the raspberries (keep a few for decoration later).

Refrigerate the mixture until the raspberries separate and the fantastic colour has bleed into the cream (this is definitely necessary if you use frozen raspberries). Using a small spatula place the cream on top of the cupcakes. Add a raspberry to the top of each cupcake.

There were many other fantastic treats set out for Christmas lunch including Mum's Christmas Cake. This is an old family recipe, which I hope to divulge for Christmas 2011. I helped Mum decorate the cake with a fondant tree and presents. The humidity definitely made this hard, but it survived in time for everyone to enjoy it.

And in true Aussie fashion was a light and fluffy, cream and fruit covered Pavlova. Can Christmas eating get any better?