Lockdown Recipes: Lavender & Chocolate Cupcakes

As the lockdown continues, SERC staff and students have kept their cookery and baking skills as sharp as their kitchen knives with weekly food recipes designed to tantalise the taste buds.

This week’s recipe shows you how to make your own Lavender & Chocolate Cupcakes, which are vegan, gluten-free and sugar free. The recipe is as follows:  

Ingredients (Sugar-free lavender buttercream) 

• 1 Tbsp dried lavender buds & extra for decoration 
• 125g good-tasting dairy-free butter 
• 200g xylitol, mixed in a blender on high power for a few minutes until it turns to powder. (You can substitute this for granulated white sugar 1:1 if you wish.) 
• A small amount of natural violet food dye, (optional) 

Ingredients (Chocolate cupcakes) 

• 175g spelt flour or all-purpose gluten-free flour 
• 1 Tsp bicarbonate soda 
• A pinch of salt 
• 50g cocoa powder 
• 225g coconut sugar. (You can substitute this for brown sugar 1:1 if you wish.) 
• 275ml hot water 
• 60ml sunflower oil, or other mild-tasting vegetable oil 
• 1 ½ Tsp apple cider vinegar 

Method (Buttercream) 

• Heat 2 Tbsp of the dairy-free butter in a small saucepan with the lavender buds. Strain and allow the butter to re-solidify in the fridge or freezer. 
• Once the butter has set again, mix it with the rest of the butter in a stand mixer along with the powdered xylitol and a small amount of purple food dye until you have a thick, fluffy buttercream. Keep refrigerated until use. 

Method (Chocolate cupcakes) 

• Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a muffin tray with 12 cases. 
• Mix the first five (dry) ingredients together until well combined. 
• Stir in the remaining wet ingredients until the mixture is smooth and lump-free. 
• Divide the mixture equally between the 12 muffin cases and bake for 15 minutes. Use a cake tester or skewer to test the middle of the cupcakes come out clean. If not, bake for a further 5 minutes. 
• Leave to cool before frosting. 
• Transfer the frosting to an icing bag and pipe on top of the cupcakes. Decorate with dried lavender buds and serve! 

These recipes would not be possible without the hard work of SERC’s catering staff, who strive to create excellent meals as well as maintaining a Microsoft Teams page for these recipes to be shared between staff and students. If you are interested in cooking at a professional level, please click here to view our Hospitality and Catering courses.  

Apply now for courses commencing September 2020. For more information visit www.serc.ac.uk to find out how you could be #BetterOffAtSERC

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