Birthday Cupcakes!

My challenge today was to make my Mom a birthday cake, with no or little fat in it. This is harder than you think! The reason for this is because my Auntie Jen has come to stay, and at the moment she can’t have any fat in her diet. She has gall stones and eating food with a high fat content causes her to have a really bad tummy ache. From what I understand (and this is extremely limited) the gall bladder absorbs the fat in the body, and when it’s not working properly you can get gall stones i.e. balls of fat. It doesn’t always cause pain, but in my Auntie’s case, she actually has a ‘leaking’ gall bladder, so is on a strict diet until surgery.

So…. Trying to bake a yummy cake for my Mom with little fat in has been quite a challenge!

I decided to make two different types of cakes, chocolate and vanilla, one with a little butter in it, the other with none. Cupcakes became the ideal solution: a small amount of pleasure, they kinda look pretty, and are so fun to decorate!

I found two recipes and here’s what I came up with:

Chocolate Cupcakes

175g plain flour

100g caster sugar

30g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

80ml water

125ml orange juice

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla essence

60g chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
3. Make a well in the centre
4. Combine the water, orange juice, oil, vinegar and vanilla essence. Add to the dry ingredients and stir just until moist
5. Fold in the chocolate chips
6. Spoon mixture into cupcake case and bake for 15 minutes
7. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely before icing

For the Icing:

250g icing sugar

60g unsalted butter

25g cocoa powder

25ml milk

Few squares of chocolate

1. Beat the icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder together
2. Add the milk and then add the melted few squares of chocolate

Vanilla Yogurt Cupcakes

125g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

100g caster sugar

1 egg

3 tbsp unsalted butter

120ml yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Mix the dry ingredients together
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine
5. Add in half the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated
6. Add in all the yogurt, mix to combine, and mix in the rest of the flour mixture
7. Spoon mixture into cupcake cases and bake for 15 minutes
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before icing

For the icing:

250g icing sugar

60g unsalted butter

25ml milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together
2. Add the milk and vanilla essence and mix

And here are the pictures: they went down a treat with a nice cup of yorkshire tea!