Lemon & Lime Dairy Free Cupcakes

Lemon and Lime Lactose Free Cupcakes

These zingy little bad boys are the perfect pick me up (especially on this snowy I repeat SNOWY first day of spring.........).

Made with wholemeal flour, less sugar and no dairy these little rays of sunshine are really quite heavenly. The wholemeal flour is denser than normal flour, but the moistness from the citrus stops then becoming heavy. I based the recipe on a regular sponge recipe with a few additions, please feel free to adapt the recipe to suit you and your kitchen cupboards ;-p

                                                                   

                                                                   Ingredients

400g Dairy Free butter (I used Tesco's Vitalite as it was rated the best on this blog :-)  http://www.icedgembakes.co.uk/special-diet-blog/product-reviews/which-dairy-free-margarine-is-the-best

200g Raw Cane Sugar

5tbs Stevia

(You can also use honey or agave to sweeten)

4 medium free range eggs

395g Wholemeal Self Raising Flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1tsp Xanthum Gum

Zest and juice of 1 Lemon and Lime

Pinch of Salt

                                                                     Mellys Method



First things first I like to get my eggs and butter (or marg) out the fridge and leave at room temp for at least 2 hours - this stops the mixture curdling and creates an even bake.

Pop the oven on- 160C

Then add marg and sugar (and stevia) together in a large bowl (larger the better to really get the air in) I do all my mixing by hand -as I don't have a fancy mixer and I like to fool myself into believing that it's a good workout for my arms, therefore I can eat two cakes :-)

Then add the eggs, I normally try and add a little at a time, but usually fail and whack the whole lot in and beat like mad :-s

Add the zest and juices at this stage. A great tip Mary Berry taught me (not personally, on her tv show) is to pop the lemon in the microwave for 30 secs, then cut and squeeze, you get double the amount of juice and don't end up with half of it in your eye ;-p

                                

Fold in the flour, baking powder, salt and Xanthum gum using a metal spoon rather than a wooden one-the metal cuts through the mixture better. Xanthum gum is usually used in gluten free baking, it holds the cake batter together giving it a better texture- if you haven't got any it's perfectly fine to leave it out!

Place in muffin or cake cases and pop into the oven for around 15-20 minutes.

Once nice and golden remove from oven.

To make a crunchy glaze zest and juice a lemon and a lime and mix with 2 tbs of granulated sugar, pour over the slightly warm cakes.

Enjoy :-)