Introducing: A Moist Vanilla Cupcake

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You know those times when you find yourself sitting in a comfy chair, gazing off into space thinking warm fuzzy thoughts and daydreaming of a moist, tender cupcake that melts in your mouth? No? Oh well, maybe that’s just me...

Sadly though, I was woefully disappointed the first few times I made fructose free cupcakes in honour of such times. I don’t mean to sound melodramatic, but they really were such dense little, dry, crumbly affairs. And to top it all off (literally) the icing was gritty. That's dextrose for you... it doesn't dissolve the way sugar does, and I've learned since those early attempts that you need to pulverize it in a food processor (or similar, a blender will work too), and make it into 'icing dextrose' first. But as I was saying...

...My family was quite polite about these baking efforts, which were more or less edible when consumed immediately after baking. Lincoln was willing to choke one or two down like a man (probably considering it a marital obligation). But there were always plenty of leftovers. Unheard of! Then, left to their own devices for a few hours, they magically transformed themselves into medium density particle board. So. Very. Far. from the moist melty cupcake of my daydream. A.K.A: the full fructose Betty Crocker packet mix of a previous sugar-consuming existence. Yes. A packet mix was once the secret to my cupcake fame... one with a sachet of ready made frosting. (That’s a little embarrassing, to be honest...)

One can’t just resign herself to a cupcake-less existence though. Especially these days when they are enjoying such a moment in the trendy dessert spotlight! I was (and still am!) quite determined not to make our fructose free choice feel like deprivation.

So with much recipe tweaking and many cake tragedies, I finally arrived at a fluffy moist result that is just as good as Betty Crocker. Even better, since a ‘from scratch’ recipe doesn’t feel like cheating. Certainly better for us, with no unpronounceable ingredients.

And even better still, these cupcakes will still be moist and lovely a couple of days after they are baked.

Moist Vanilla Cupcakes

This recipe makes a dozen.

1/4 c (60gr) softened butter
1/4 c (45 gr) dextrose
1/4 c (80 gr) glucose syrup
1/2 c (150 gr) rice malt syrup
2 Tbsp (20ml Tbsp not 15!) macadamia oil (or other mild oil)
1/2 c (100 gr) buttermilk (or sour milk - add 2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar to 1/2 c milk and wait 5 minutes)
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (real vanilla bean is great too - or just use vanilla extract)
2 eggs
1/4 tsp pure non-bitter stevia powder
1 3/4 c plain flour (all purpose flour)
1/4 c corn flour (also called corn starch)
1 Tbsp (20 ml Tbsp not 15!) baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. Cream butter and dextrose until it turns very pale.
2. Add glucose syrup, rice malt syrup, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, eggs, stevia and salt. Blend until well combined and smooth.
3. Sift flour, corn flour and baking powder together. Mix well with a wire whisk or fork.
4. Add 1/2 of the flour to the batter. Stir very gently (not till smooth, just a few stirs) Add the rest of the flour. Stir gently again.
5. Beat for just a few seconds until smooth - the trick for a tender cupcake is not to beat the flour too much (or the gluten develops and makes it tough).
6. Pour batter into a 12 hole cupcake tin lined with papers.
7. Bake at 150C (300F) for 18 - 20 minutes, turning half way through (unless your oven bakes much more evenly than mine)
8. Let cool, then ice and devour.


Vanilla Butter Creamcheese Icing
(I am still perfecting this, but this version is pretty good)

1/3 c (70 gr) softened butter
1/3 c (70 gr) softened cream cheese
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 c (150 gr) icing dextrose (see note below about how to do this)
Pinch of stevia powder (1/16 tsp)

1. Blend butter, cream cheese and vanilla together.
2. Add icing dextrose and blend until very smooth.
3. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes (or just eat it with a spoon if nobody is looking)

Note: To make icing dextrose, add the dextrose to a food processor or blender and pulse/blend till very, very fine (ummm, like icing sugar!). You will need to stir it a few times, but let it settle before taking the lid off or you will have clouds of powdered dextrose floating around your kitchen! I like to blend a whole packet of dextrose at a time, and keep it in a container ready for the next icing episode.

A Gingersnap With Snap

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What is it about Christmas and ginger? They kind of seem to go hand in hand somehow. Almost as cozy as a romance. Well maybe not, but anyway, it’s only a week out from Christmas day... which we are going to be spending with Lincoln’s (my husband’s) family, most of whom still cook with sugar. I can’t quite imagine Christmas without some sort of sweet ginger-y, spice infused confection. A whole line-up of them would be nice, really.

I have always enjoyed supplying plenty of baking when we all get together at Christmas time. But these days even more so, because if I do then we fructose-free weirdos can have some treats too, and not feel deprived. (No, enlightened, not weird!) And so today I find myself contemplating my next flurry of kitchen activity with a ginger theme.

I have got some gingerbread man dough chilling in the fridge which needs rolling out, and cookie-cuttering. But that’s very messy, and we have visitors coming tomorrow morning (I don’t need to go into any more detail than that in my reasoning against the gingerbread man process today, do I?)

All up I kind of feel like a less arduous act of ginger-ish-ness. It’s mid-afternoon, and I’m feeling lazy. Plus I have a friend or two who are interested in my crunchy gingersnaps. And the longer I prattle on about it in a blog post, justifying my rationale, the longer I can sit on the couch with my coffee procrastinating...

Nevermind. They are easy, once you get into the kitchen!

*Aack! I have just corrected a typo in the Glucose syrup amount below. Hope nobody made these before I picked that up... My apologies if you did!

Crunchy Gingersnaps

This recipe makes heaps of gingersnaps!

1 c (200 gr) Butter
1 1/3 c (380 gr) Glucose syrup
1/2 tsp pure 'non-bitter' Stevia powder (NuNaturals brand if possible. Stevia's are not all equal, some are horrible.)
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Bicarb Soda (Baking Soda)
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 Tbsp Ginger powder (I use a 20 ml Aussie tbsp. The North American tbsp is 15 ml so add an extra tsp if your spoon is a 15 ml!)
2 1/2 c Flour
1/4 c Dextrose (for rolling dough balls through to coat before baking)


1. Add butter, glucose syrup, stevia, salt, bicarb soda, cinnamon and ginger to a large mixing bowl. Beat till very pale.
2. Add flour. Beat. This mixture is quite thick, so if your beaters aren't powerful, you might want to mix by hand and save them from the effort...
3. Shape dough into small balls, about 1 1/2 - 2 cm, and roll through dextrose to coat.
4. Place on baking tray leaving plenty of space for spreading! These spread a lot! (One of the photos above shows the size of a dough ball compared with the baked gingersnap to show how much they spread.)
5. Bake at 150C (300F) for 16-18 minutes turning half way through - unless your oven bakes evenly without doing so.

Thermomix method


1. Add butter, glucose syrup, stevia, salt, bicarb soda, cinnamon and ginger to Thermomix bowl.
2. Beat on speed 3 for 20 seconds, scrape sides down with spatula then beat again for another few seconds.
3. Add flour. Beat at speed 3 for 20 seconds or until well combined.
4. Shape dough into small balls, about 1 1/2 - 2 cm, and roll through dextrose to coat.
5. Place on baking tray leaving plenty of space for spreading! These spread a lot! (One of the photos above shows the size of a dough ball compared with the baked gingersnap to show how much they spread.)
6. Bake at 150C (300F) for 16-18 minutes turning half way through - unless your oven bakes evenly without doing so.


This makes a great dunking cookie, if you are into that! Perfect with tea, coffee or a glass of cold milk...