meg-made: Duck-egg, Courgette and Saffron cupcakes

18 April 2013

Duck-egg, Courgette and Saffron cupcakes

When I got my new cookbook I think the recipe I was most excited to try out was these cupcakes with courgettes. I love hiding veggies in my food, and as a mum to a 10 month old, something tells me I'm about to get a lot of practice of doing just this over the coming years!

The thing about gluten free cakes is that it takes a lot more work to get them light and fluffy, but when you do, they are spectacular! The saffron adds a funky colour to the batch, which, coupled with the courgettes, made me feel like I was baking an homage to Adam Scott, what with the green and gold and everything! Oh so HERE is my homage..... 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

I used duck eggs for this recipe. Fancy right?! Apparently duck eggs have a higher amount of yolk in them which makes them better for baking then regular eggs, and so I thought that this would be the perfect recipe to try them out in. They were certainly more fluffy and thicker than regular eggs after beating, so I think I would bake with duck eggs again. And perhaps blow my nose with gold leaf...no?

Ingredients

1 pinch saffron threads

2 tablespoons boiling water
2 medium eggs (at room temperature)
180g caster sugar
200g Gluten Free Flour mix A (see link)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon xanthun gum
1 teaspoon glycerine
2 medium courgettes, grated and thoroughly squeezed out
225g unsalted butter
70g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

2. Place saffron threads in a mug and add the boiling water and leave to infuse.

3. Place the eggs and sugar into a food mixer and whisk at a high speed for 5 minutes, or until thick and creamy. This step is instrumental to getting the cupcakes light and fluffy, because you can’t rely on the fluffiness that glutenous flour provides.

4. Place the flour, baking powder and xanthin gum together in another bowl and mix well.

5. Once the egg and sugar are very thick, add the saffron water, glycerine, the flour mix and the courgettes. Fold together well, then spoon into muffin cases.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until slightly brown and well risen.

7. Once cakes are cold, make into butterflies with a dollop of buttercream icing, or freshly whipped cream, and sprinkle with a dusting of icing sugar.