How to make Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cupcakes

GF Pumpkin cup cakes The pumpkins and squashes we have in the UK almost always end up in delicious savoury dishes, like those mentioned in my Favourite Five recipes, but in the USA and Canada they also have a tradition of using pumpkin in sweets and cakes. Famously this is in the form of pumpkin pie, which interestingly actually originates on this side of the Atlantic, with pumpkin pie recipes being found first in English cookbooks’such as Hannah Woolley’s The Gentlewoman’s Companion (1675). Given our transatlantic cousins’ love of the sweet use of the pumpkin, I thought it was about time I embraced it too. Cupcakes are always a big hit in our family; so, with pumpkins ripened on the allotment, and children (and adults) keen on an after-school snack, I made these Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cupcakes.

You will need (makes 24)
Cakes
300g self-raising gluten-free flour
200g light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2tsp mixed spice
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
150g sultanas
A pinch of salt
4 beaten eggs
180g unsalted butter, melted
zest 1/2 an orange
1 tbsp orange juice
300g pumpkin purée. (I roasted the pumpkin in two halves, then puréed the flesh, and used the leftover purée for soup)

Icing
100g icing sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
splash of food colouring

Heat your oven to 160°C and prepare the muffin/cupcake tin with paper cupcake wrappers. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and add puréed pumpkin. Beat the eggs and combine with the melted butter, orange zest and juice. Stir the dry ingredients into the dry mix, ensuring that it is thoroughly mixed. Pour the batter into the muffin tin, leaving a little space for the mixture to rise in the oven. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden and brown, place on a rack, and allow to cool. To make the icing, combine the orange juice and icing sugar to get the desired consistency, then carefully add the colouring, before mixing. Spoon the icing into a piping bag and pipe the cobweb design.

Posted by

spadeforkspoon

Posted on

October 24, 2013

Posted under

recipe

Comments

2 Comments

Cheesy Feet

For quite a while now we have made cheese biscuits based on a River Cottage recipe (adapted below). Biscuits are always popular in our house, and in making cheese ones we hope to reduce our sweet intake a little. The idea of adapting the idea to create ‘cheesy feet’ came from a trip to Bradford on Avon – where (in desperate need of a snack) we bought some cheesy feet from the baker at the weekly Farmers’ Market. For months we’ve looked out for a foot cutter to create our own version, finally finding one the other week.

With Halloween coming up, the children and I decided to make some cheesy feet with added gruesomeness – hence the addition of dodgy looking nails in the form of pistachios. You could use flaked almonds, but the green and brown tinge to pistachios seemed to fit the Halloween theme best.

What you will need (Makes 20-24)
125g unsalted butter, cubed
125g cheddar, grated
4 tbsp grated parmesan
150g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt
2 tsp yogurt
A few grinds of black pepper
Pistachio nuts – halved

This is a really easy recipe, as all you need to do is whizz everything in a food processor until it comes together into a ball, then remove the dough and knead for a minute or so. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and pop it in the fridge for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it’s about 3-4mm thick, then use your foot cutter (or any other shape you want) to cut out the biscuits. Place five of the halved pistachios on each foot to resemble nails, then move the biscuits onto baking sheets lined with baking parchment and bake for 10 minutes, until golden. Cool on a wire rack.