Birthday - Lime and Coconut Cupcakes

I have been revising pretty constantly for my up-coming exams (hence the absence of posts recently) but it was my birthday on Thursday, so my parents, brother, my boyfriend and I went out in the evening for tapas at El Coto in Newcastle. The restaurant is amazing and has separate gluten-free and dairy-free menus with lots of choice, so that was great... unfortunately, like almost every eatery I've visited, the desert menu had nothing to offer me and my dietary issues - sob!

So, about 45 minutes before I was due to leave my revision notes for the restaurant, I decided to bake something sweet that everyone could enjoy after the meal - these moist, delicately-flavoured cakes were made in my speediest ever baking session! 

And I still had time to change into my party outfit... for a girl that normally takes at least an hour faffing about getting ready, I was proud to say the least!

Ingredients

60g gluten free plain flour 

25g ground almonds

20g cornflour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp xantham gum

1/2 tsp ground ginger

2 eggs, separated

100g Pure (or other dairy free 'butter')

100g caster sugar

grated rind and juice of 1 lime

60g tinned coconut milk

Method (makes ~12)

1. Combine flours, ground almonds, baking powder, xantham gum and ginger in a large bowl.
2. Beat together the 'butter' and about 2/3 of the sugar. Add the egg yolks, then the coconut milk, lime juice and rind.
3. Whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer in a clean bowl, then whisk in the remaining sugar until the egg whites form foamy peaks
4. Mix together the dry ingredients with the egg yolk and butter mixture, until just combined, then carefully fold in the egg whites.
5. Spoon into paper cases in a muffin tin and bake at 170°C for about 15 minutes, or until golden on top  (My oven doesn't heat evenly in all places, so a few in the middle of the batch took almost 20 minutes!)
6. Serve - I was short on time (also full of tapas and wine!) when we all descended on my flat after the meal, so I just sprinkled them with icing sugar and served a couple of strawberries on the side - but a zesty lime icing would be delicious!