With the weather being a little on the crazy side yesterday [yes, talking about the random snow after a red hot week!] I decided to be all productive and whip up some gluten free cupcakes. Now I was going to make some standard, plain vanilla fairy cakes, when I suddenly had an idea - I’ll make some ‘cherry bakewell cupcakes!’

I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers Mr Kipling’s Cherry Bakewells! Although I wasn’t a huge fan, I still enjoyed nicking the cherry off my mums and taking off the icing… pretty much leaving her with a soggy top and the shortcrust base! [Oh, how she put it with me, I’ll never know].

So trawling the internet for an idea on how to make it, I came across a recipe by the lovely Holly Bell, who was a contestant on The Great British Bake Off. I took a note of all the ingredients I’d need and demanded Michael to take me to Asda at once! However, we searched high and low for some ground almonds with Mike asking ‘Can’t you just use chopped almonds?”. I was just about to throw the towel ~~at Mike~~ in, when I had a little brain wave - I could use Almond Extract. The good thing is with almond extract is that it’s easily available from most supermarkets, unlike the ground almonds!

Ingredients:

110g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour [I used Doves]
100g Caster Sugar
100g Dairy Free Margarine [I used Vitalite]
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon Almond Extract
12 teaspoons of Jam [Strawberry, Raspberry or Cherry]
6 glacier Cherries [cut in 1/2]
100g Icing Sugar
2 tablespoons of Boiling Water

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
In a bowl, cream the Butter and Sugar together until creamy
Stir in the Eggs and Almond Extract [the mixture may look a little on the ‘curdled’ side]
Now add the Gluten Free Self Raising Flour and fold together
Carefully pour into your cupcake cases and pop in the oven for 15-20s minutes
Once baked, carefully pop the cupcakes on a cooling rack to cool down
Once cooled, using a knife, gently take a little from the middle of the cupcake
Using a teaspoon, add a spoonful of Jam into the hole and place the ‘cut out cupcake part’ back on top [if that even makes any sense!]
Now it’s time to ice the cupcakes! I used Asda’s White Piping Icing to ice the Cherry Bakewell but you can always make your own by carefully mixing 100g Icing Sugar with 2 tablespoons of Boiling water
Pop 1/2 a cherry on top and admire your Gluten Free Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes