Gluten Free One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes with Rosewater Buttercream

You are going to love my latest homemade gluten free  cupcake creation. These fluffy, moist, deeply chocolate cupcakes use only one bowl in their creation but they taste like they came straight from a fancy bakery. I have topped these deep, dark chocolate cakes with rosewater buttercream for a fairy-floss contrast perfect for any celebration.

Sunday is International Women’s Day and it’s time to celebrate the wonderful, inspiring, intelligent, amazing women in our lives. I made these cupcakes to celebrate some of the women I am grateful to call friends and family. These cupcakes are my new favourite thing. So moist, dark and chocolate filled but so easy to make. We start with a foundation of gluten free flours: hazelnut meal, buckwheat, brown rice, and white rice. Each of these plays its own special part in making sure the final product is moist and fluffy, and not sandy or crumbly. Getting the right balance of gluten free flours is important when you set out to create a classic and these four make for a moist, tightly crumbed cake that resembles your favourite childhood chocolate cupcake, with a darker adult twist. If you are new to gluten free baking, these are the cupcakes I would recommend. They are super easy (literally, dump everything in one bowl and hit mix) and they are guaranteed to turn out perfect, just-as-you-remember-them cupcakes that are friendly to your sensitive tummy.

The rich chocolate taste in these one-bowl chocolate cupcakes is due to two special reasons. One: use the deepest, darkest cocoa you can find. Two: a strong cup of coffee is one of the wet ingredients. When coffee meets chocolate in this way you can hardly taste the coffee, but oh-boy it makes the chocolate shine through. These cupcakes are a dance between a brownie and a cupcake, and we get to enjoy the splendor bite-by-bite.

I topped my cupcakes with the lightest, prettiest rosewater buttercream in the colour of International Women’s Day. When Chris tasted this buttercream he smiled and said ‘it tastes like fairy floss’. Perfection. Rosewater can be too sweet for some people, and sickly in the wrong amounts. Start with the lesser amount listed in the recipe, and adjust to your taste. Another rosewater buttercream secret is to add a pinch of salt. Don’t be afraid of a little salt in your sweet, like the coffee in the cupcakes it enhances the main flavour rather than obscuring it. These one-bowl cupcakes are a new classic: bittersweet meets fairy floss sweet for an upgrade on the usual chocolate and vanilla combination.

These cupcakes are a lot like the women I know. Deep, complicated, and complex with foundations and memories that run the tender edge between bitter and sweet; and, at the same time sweet, pretty of spirit and capable of lifting your spirits in just a moment. Good women. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes with Rosewater Buttercream

Gluten Free | Makes approximately 15 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 50 grams hazelnut meal
• 45 grams buckwheat flour
• 45 grams brown rice flour
• 45 grams white rice flour
• 1/2 cup (60 grams) cocoa powder
• 1 cup (200 grams) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup warm water (not boiling, just warm from the tap)
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup rice bran oil (or other flavourless vegetable oil)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F). Line two 12-hole cupcake tins with papers for 15 cupcakes.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl with a handheld mixer) whisk together the hazelnut meal, buckwheat flour, brown rice flour, white rice flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until very well mixed.
3. Mix together warm water and instant coffee and add to the bowl along with the egg, rice bran oil, milk, and vanilla extract.
4. Mix on medium until just combined, then increase speed to medium high and mix until smooth and glossy, about three minutes.
5. Spoon batter into cupcake papers. Fill only to halfway full to avoid your cupcakes spilling over.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Rotate trays from top to bottom halfway through baking time.
7. Remove cupcakes from oven and cool completely before frosting and decorating as desired.

Rosewater Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 150 grams butter, softened
• 3 cups icing sugar (gluten free)
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon rosewater
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt
• Few drops of food colouring (optional)

Method

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat butter until pale and fluffy.
2. Add remaining ingredients and beat until soft and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Wait until cupcakes are completely cool before frosting and decorating as desired.

Almond Tea Cake with Rosewater Glaze

Stop Press: Once you’ve finished with this post, why not head over and check out my new Recipe page! So happy to have everything in one place for you all now.

Dark gloomy clouds settled over Brisbane early yesterday morning when Mum set off for a tea party for one of her friend’s birthdays. I was unable to attend, but instead I sent along this almond tea cake with rosewater glaze. The lady in question reminds me of an English rose. She has fantastic tales to tell of her childhood and teenage years in England. Tales of holidays in far-off places and the various jobs she and her family have had over the years. Her father is in his nineties and still taking world trips; I believe his last holiday took him on a cruise to Canada and Alaska. Now that’s the kind of ninety year old I want to be!

I love listening to other people’s stories. One of the main reasons I have always wanted to be a writer is that I truly believe that everyone has a story to tell, and unless we write these tales down they will be lost to the mists of time. There is something fascinating about asking someone how they see the world, and trying to understand their view, how they stand in their truth, and how they choose to interact with life.

This cake is light, but moist and scented heavily with almond and vanilla. The perfect cake for a winter morning tea with a strong and sweet cup of English breakfast tea (Twinings of course). Enjoy.

I made this cake with 6 egg yolks that I had leftover from batches of seven minute frosting. You can use 3 whole eggs in their place, but the results may differ slightly and it may require a little extra cooking time. I used an 8-inch ring pan – similar tins are available on Amazon or at your local cooking store. You can use a normal 8-inch cake tin; your cake will just be a little flatter. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 6 egg yolks (or 3 whole eggs), at room temperature
• 2/3 cup milk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon almond essence
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 170C (340F). Thoroughly grease and flour a 8-inch ring tin. Concentrate on the centre piece as you do not want to be fighting to get your cake off after it has baked.
2. Sift together plain flour, almond meal, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a medium-size bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add egg yolks one at a time and beat well after each addition. Mix in vanilla and almond essences.
5. Alternate adding flour and milk in three portions beginning and ending with flour.
6. Pour into prepared pan and smooth the top.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the top springs back when touched.
8. Remove and allow to cool for ten minutes in the pan before gently turning out onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before pouring over glaze and decorating.
9. For the glaze: Whisk together 2 cups of icing sugar, 3-4 tablespoons water, and 1 teaspoon of rosewater until smooth. You can also add a few drops of pink food colouring to complete the English teatime effect.

Tell me dear reader, do you love listening to other people’s stories? Anyone in particular who enchants you?