Eggless & Nutless Chocolate Cupcakes

Trust my youngest daughter to come up with a baking challenge for me. She said she needs 5 cupcakes to take to school for their Christmas party. But one of her classmates is allergic to eggs, nuts, and peas (she spelled it as 'pees' hahaha!). So I have to find a suitable cupcake recipe that is not only eggless but nutless as well (I seem to remember someone like that - hehehe!).

I remembered reading something about the celebrity chef Giorgio Locatelli concocting all sort of non-allergenic recipes for his daughter who is suffering from allergies to a number of food stuff. Thankfully Google yielded his recipe for an eggless and nutless chocolate cake. I just adapted it to cupcake sizes and reduced the baking time.

It came out quite nice actually in a non-rich cake sort of way. I baked it the night before my daughter took it to school. Come morning I took a bite of one and realised that it was not sweet enough and needed a sugar boost. So the next few minutes saw me frantically beating a chocolate icing worthy enough of this recipe. It was really hectic. My daughter was almost out of the door and I was still desperately trying to smear icing on the cupcakes!

Thank goodness the feedback from her classmates were quite positive. In fact, the teachers asked for some as well.


Eggless & Nutless Chocolate Cupcakes

450 g  plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
6 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
350 g  caster sugar
300 ml  [scant 1 1/4 cups] water
2 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
125 ml  [1/2 cup] vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
2. Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl.
3. Sift the dry ingredients into another bowl.
4. Slowly add the wet to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth.
5. Pour into lined cupcake/muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
6. Remove from oven and cool completely in wire racks.
7. Add chocolate icing on top.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

1/2 cup unsalted or slightly salted butter - softened to room temperature
1 1/3 cups icing sugar (confectioner's)
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup double cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder onto the softened butter in a bowl. Beat until smooth.
2. Add the double cream and vanilla. Beat until well mixed.
3. Pipe or swirl on top of cupcakes.