[Japsnoet]

We made a cupcake caterpillar birthday cake. We used one large cupcake as the head and then used smaller cupcakes to make the body. We decorated the cupcakes with dairy free butter icing and natural food colouring from Hullaballoo food www.hullabaloofood.com and natural colour sprinkles. We also used colourful pipecleaners cut in half for legs and made two antennae with yellow pompoms on the end, we made a mini pipecleaner with a pompom on as a tail. For eyes, we bought some toy eyes at Lincraft. We used the pipecleaners to make a smile as well. The kids loved the cake. Each child got two mini cupcakes. The cake was a great success. I hope this idea could possibly help someone else.



The cake had to be free from dairy, gluten, nuts, soy, preservatives and all commercial food colourants.



The only food colours we could use were from natural plant extracts. The Hullabaloo food colours worked well. The colours weren’t as strong as the usual commercial ones, but after the icing was done the colours developed to be heaps darker.



Pre heat fan-forced oven to 180C (60 mini cupcakes)



In your Magimix, blend 8 cups (about 6 cans) of cooked chickpeas with 16 eggs. Transfer the mixture to your Kitchenaid and add 4 cups of powdered sugar (I just grind castor sugar in my Sumeet till it forms a powder). Add to a glass bowl 800g of dark chocolate (= 8 slabs) that have been chopped up. Place boiling water in a pot, place on a low heat and place the glass bowl with chocolate over the pot. Melt the chocolate. Be careful not to make the temperature too hot as you will make the chocolate separate. When the chocolate has melted let it cool off until you are able to leave your little finger it without it getting burnt. It needs to be about blood temperature, otherwise it will make the eggs curdle. The moment before you add the chocolate, add 2 teaspoon of baking powder to the cake mixture and then add the melted chocolate. Make sure it is well mixed. Use a jug to pour the mixture into the muffin/cupcake paper cases that have been placed in a cupcake pan. Bake for 20 min, but test with a cake tester, as we have a fan-forced oven. They are delicious; the kids are crazy about them. We then decorated them with butter icing made out of Nuttelex and organic food colouring. You can add guar gum if you want. We could not, as one of the kids could not eat it. All the cupcakes had to be nut, gluten, diary, soy, colour and preservative free. We achieved this and all the kids enjoyed the birthday.



Diary free Butter Icing



In your Kitchen Aid mix 1 cup Nuttelex (the kosher one)http://www.nuttelex.com.au/ with 3 1/2 cups icing sugar. Beat till it looks really creamy/fluffy. Add 1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract and ¼ cup of coconut milk. It will look at first as if it has curdled. Don’t worry keep beating till it looks fluffy. Divide the mixture evenly into 3 bowls add your natural food colourants of choice. Put in a few squirts and whisk. Put the mixture in a piping bag and pipe onto your cupcakes



The cupcakes taste like a bittersweet brownie, the dairy free butter icing counteracts the bitterness of the chocolate. If you want a sweeter brownie you can use a sweeter chocolate. Due to the fact that all had to be dairy free we had to use a dark chocolate.





Another really Yummy Brownie Cupcake recipe we made:



Preheat oven 170C



Over a very low heat in a pot melt 200g dark chocolate, 180g of golden syrup, 250g margarine and 300g dark brown sugar, then 320 ml coconut milk. Stir the whole time as it burns very quickly. Pour it into a glass bowl to allow it to cool. Let the mixture cool till you can comfortably leave your finger in the mixture. Pour cooled mixture into your Kitchen Aid and sift 300g of Orgran all purpose flour and 100g Orgran self raising flour over. While mixing, add 2 beaten eggs to the mixture and pour into mini cupcake cases.



Bake for 20-30min. My oven is fan-forced so they tend to bake really fast. Just use a cake tester to check that they are cooked.



Decorate with dairy free butter icing or use royal icing to stick a little icing sugar flower on the cupcake