Valentines Bake

Aah Valentines Day. Dating back to the 14th Century, the day evolved into one of showing others your love by giving flowers and confectionary, and from the 19th century onwards, writing valentines cards. In Europe, history states that keys are given as a request to unlock the givers heart. How soppy. PDA over, lets talk cake….

Now, don’t get me wrong; flowers are lovely, but what about cake?!

And …. As a coeliac, what’s more impressive than someone making you some home baked gluten free cakes? Serious brownie (excuse the pun) points from me anytime!

Inspired by Cupcake Jemma; founder of Crumbs and Doilies, I thought I’d attempt a gluten free version of her amazig heart cupcakes and spreads some cake based love to you all!

For the hearts, we’re going to make a 2 egg sponge mix, and for the cupcakes, a  3 egg mixture, so….

For the hearts

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 120g gluten free flour
• 120g caster sugar
• 120g butter
• 1tsp baking powder
• red food colouring paste or liquid

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Grease and line two 7inch cake tins
3. In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until it lightens in colour
4. Whisk in the eggs
5. Spoon in the pre-sieved flour and baking powder and fold in gently to combine. Be careful here not to beat out the air that you have just whisked into the mixture. If the mixture seems dry, add in a teaspoon of milk
6. To make the sponge red, add in your red food colouring until you reach a bright red shade – ensure to add the food colouring very slowly as you only need a tiny amount to make the mixture change colours! Add in a drop at a time and mix between each addition  until you reach the colour you want.
7. Divide between the two cake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown
8. Leave to cool on a wire rack
9. Once fully cooled, using your heart cutter, cut out one heart for each of your cupcakes and save them for later. (As I couldn’t reduce the mixture any smaller than a 2 egg recipe, you may have some cake leftover to enjoy!)

For the cupcakes;

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 175g gluten free flour
• 175g caster sugar
• 175g butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• vanilla extract/paste

Method (as above):

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Prepare your muffin tin and cake cases
3. In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until it lightens in colour
4. Whisk in the eggs
5. Spoon in the pre-sieved flour and baking powder and fold in gently to combine. Be careful here not to beat out the air that you have just whisked into the mixture. If the mixture seems dry, add in a teaspoon of milk. Lastly, add in the vanilla flavouring.
6. Spoon the mixture into your cupcake cases, and then place your hearts in the centre of the mix (as below). The cakes will then bake and rise around the hearts. (How do you know which way to cut the cakes I hear you ask? There’s a little trick in the decoration stage later, but also don’t forget when you’re baking and decorating to line up the hearts so that they are always facing in the same direction
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown
8. Leave to cool whilst you prepare the decorations

For the buttercream;

Ingredients:

• 150g softened butter
• 320g icing sugar
• 2tbls milk

Method:

1. Prior to making the butter cream, its a good idea to get your butter out a few hours before so that it can soften slightly
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the butter for five minutes until its lightened in colour and seems ‘fluffy’
3. Next, add in half of the icing sugar, and whisk for a further 5 minutes
4. Lastly, add in the remaining icing sugar and the milk and whisk for 5 minutes where you should end up with light and fluffy butter cream, that’s light in colour and a spreadable consistency. If your buttercream seems wet enough prior to the last whisk, don’t add the milk.

Decorating

The little heart decorations are made from some red fondant icing and a mini heart cutter. I was originally trying to find hearts in a “sprinkles” form, but I think these mini ones look just as good, and they provide a nifty trick later on to know which direction to cut through the cakes to see the inner heart …

Fill your piping bag with the buttercream and line up your cakes in the same direction as they were in the muffin tin. Moving from the outside in, pipe the buttercream in circles around the cakes until you reach the middle – if you slightly raise the piping bag on each circle rotation, you’ll get some nice height to the decoration.

Next, using two of the mini hearts, place them directly on top of the cakes so that the point of the hearts meet in the middle of the cupcake. If you then cut the cakes directly where the two hearts meet, you’ll get the perfect effect of the inner heart!

 

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, LOTS OF LOVE XXX