Wheat-free chocolate cupcakes

Here’s a surprisingly delicious wheat-free chocolate cupcake recipe (despite being egg- and dairy-free).  

I’m not much of a cook (I don't enjoy it), but I go through phases of baking. There was a year - I think it was 2014 - that I refer to as 'the year of baking.' I was baking bread, biscuits and making up cake recipes. It was lovely. I had no gluten issues back then. 

Living with gluten intolerance is a blessing and curse -  I can't eat cake at kids' parties, but I also can't eat cake at kids' birthday parties. But this mama has a sweet tooth. So, I’ve been tweaking some of wheat-free recipes and, before I forget, I thought I'd save them here. I still feel a little sad about the apple cinnamon oat cake I made once and can’t remember how I did it.

This is a quick and easy oat chocolate muffin recipe I tweaked from Power Hungry. 

It's wheat-, egg- and dairy-free, but the addition of coconut oil or olive oil and a little more sugar make the muffins a little less healthy but mouthwateringly good. 

Wheat-free chocolate cupcakes/muffins 

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats
• 3/4 cups water*
• 1 heaped tablespoon coconut oil (if the oil is melted, I would use two level tablespoons)
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I ran out of this and it was just fine without it)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Method

Mix all the ingredients together in a food processor, spoon mixture into muffin pan and bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 180C. Icing and sprinkles are optional. 

Recipe adapted from Power Hungry 

*update (13/5/2021): I don't add the water because I use the wet oat pulp leftover after making oat milk. Yes, I drink oat milk in my coffee. It's a long story. I use a hand blender to mix a cup of oats with about five cups of water and then strain to separate the oat pulp from the milk. 

Lockdown low

I hit a lockdown low last week. The lockdown level outdoor exercise restrictions have messed with my head. Our neighbourhood is so busy that it looks like the bloody Big Walk around here and there are so many people hot wearing masks correctly or at all. We've decided that it's not worth risking. I miss nature. I miss walks in Kirstenbosch and the beach. 

We're walking in our complex. It's not a very long walk, but it's better than nothing. My little boy is really enjoying it - he wants to look at and smell all the flowers. It's very cute. Isn't it amazing how kids find joy and wonder in the simplest of things? He reminds me to look for the best in situations - but it's still hard. 

Thankfully, there's baking and I discovered that Netflix has listed Modern Family. I'm laughing until the tears are rolling. Laughing is the best therapy and sometimes, when things are thing freaking crazy, all you can do is laugh.