I am going to my daughter's school today to celebrate all the January birthdays, so being the responsible (mean) mother that I am, I decided to make some sugar-free cupcakes. While these are void of refined white sugar, I have instead used a new (to me) sugar alternative called SugaVida, which is organic, unrefined with a low GI. It is also rich in B vitamins, with 1 teaspoon providing your entire daily requirement of B12. The sugar is harvested from the blossom of the Palmyra tree and has a deep, rich flavour with hints of treacle. SugaVida is available from Berrytime in Hong Kong.
For the frosting, I sweeetened cream cheese with a little maple syrup and sprinkled cinnamon on top.
What you need:
1 and 1/2 cups self raising flour
150g unsalted butter
1/4 cup SugaVida
1 cup raisins
120g apple puree
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Frosting
2 tbls maple syrup
110g cream cheese
50g unsalted butter at room temperature
Cinnamon to sprinkle
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180c and line a muffin tray with 12 silicone or paper cases.
Sift the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
Melt you butter with the sugavida on a low heat in a saucepan. Once melted, take off the heat and add your raisins and apple puree. Combine this all with the flour then add the eggs. Fold it all in but don't over mix.
Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 15-2o minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
While the cupcakes cool, make your frosting. If you happen to taste a cupcake now and think it's not sweet enough, do not worry as the maple syrup in the frosting will sort this out!
Place the cream cheese, butter and maple syrup in a mixing bowl and mix with an electric whisk till light and fluffy.
Once the cupcakes are cool, use a pallete knife to smear the icing onto them then sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Place into an airtight box to store, but do not refrigerate else they will become quite dense.
Makes 12.