Little Chocolate Strawberry Cakes: Gluten Free Recipe

Many, many moons ago I used to babysit three adorable children that lived across the road from me in Perth. Many an afternoon was spent talking to their Mum and playing with the kids as she whipped up spaghetti jaffles (I'm still not a fan) or chocolate chip cookies (umm... BIG fan!), I remember the two eldest loved watching their Mum cook. You could see in their eyes that they knew yummy food was coming and, in the case of the chocolate chip cookies,

bowl licking was coming

. Now, my Mum taught me how to properly scrape a bowl of 98% of the batter, but I've still never seen a cleaner un-clean bowl from baking as I did at their place and the chocolate coated smiles were proof enough that the kids thought that this baking hoo-ha was the bomb.

Approximately 16 years later and I still think of those kids licking the bowl every time that I umm... lick the bowl! Ok, so I don't stick my finger into the batter like I used to, as baking for others doesn't really allow this, no, no, no, I've moved up the working through the teaspoons in the cutlery drawer. I try to only get two out for a sweet recipe like this as otherwise my final yield is not as much as it should be! These little cakes that are l

aden with melted chocolate and soft sweet strawberries

are one of those recipes that tastes awesome raw and I'm not talking about the good for you uncooked, vegan, vegetable raw. Oh, no, I'm talking about unadulterated sweet cocoa buttery goodness...

So, get your teaspoon at the ready and whip up these little cakes that are perfect warm from the oven with a dusting of icing sugar, or you could

top with a luxurious chocolate ganache

and a strawberry for something little more 'fancy'. I went for warm from the oven, there was no way they were going to last long  enough to cool down... let alone make more dishes creating a topping, as delightful as it may be...

These chocolate & strawberry cakes are adapted from the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes found in

Vol3 of The Gluten Free Scallywag Magazine

.

Little Chocolate Strawberry Cakes

Makes 12.

125g butter, at room temperature

115g castor sugar

2 eggs

150g plain gluten free flour

25g cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoons vanilla essence

2 tablespoons hot espresso or milk

40g dark or milk chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered

Preheat oven to 180C and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with paper cases.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This will take approximately 3-5minutes on high with a hand held or stand mixer. The butter should change to a pale shade of cream/yellow.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat on low to combine. Add a spoonful of flour if the mixture looks like curdling.

Sift over the flour, cocoa and baking powder and fold in with the vanilla and espresso until smooth.

The batter will have a light dropping consistency. If it seems too thick add another tablespoon of coffee or milk and mix again to combine. Fold in the chopped chocolate and strawberries and mix through.

Spoon into cases, not filling more than 3/4 full and bake for approximately 14-16minutes until a skewer inserted comes out with a few little bits of cake (this way they'll be

slightly

underdone and that extra bit delicious!)

Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Dust with gluten free icing sugar and serve warm. Best eaten within 2days.