Ginger-raspberry cupcake

The challenge when baking gluten free (grain free) and sugar free is the taste. I’m all for “looks” in the sense that the stuff I bake should look delicious, but I also want it to be a taste experience.

Last year I read about the health benefits of eating ginger so I started using the fresh version when cooking and baking and came up with this amazing recipe that combines raspberries and ginger in a delicious cupcake. This is a real treat! A taste explosion if you like.

We’ll start with the muffin base. In a bowl:

• 1 banana, mash it.
• 200 ml (0.8 cup/100g) (frozen) raspberries – quickly mix in a small mixer or grinder to crumbles while still frozen.
• Add 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp honey
• and 1 tbsp vinegar

Then take about

• 100g (3.5 ounce) fresh ginger, peel and grate it – and you’ll end up with something like maybe 40 g (1.4 ounce) juicy grated ginger. Add this to the banana, raspberry and egg mix.

Let’s not forget the oven. Turn on – 180 C (350 F) and place muffin forms on a baking tray. I highly recommend using silicon forms – not only do the muffins slide out of the form easier once baked – you also get to use and reuse the forms for many years.

The dry ingredients we’ll mix in a small bowl or measuring cup.

• 100 ml (0.4 cup) shredded coconut – grind first in a mixer / grinder
• 100 ml (0.4 cup) almond flour – which is ground blanched almonds
• 3 tbsp’s coconut flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon cardamom

Mix with a spoon.

• Melt 50 g (1.8 ounce) butter or coconut oil and add that to the egg mix.

Also add the dry ingredients and once all is mixed (electrical whisk is the easiest) start scooping into your muffin forms. Fill about ¾ up. Then place in the middle of the oven for 18-20 minutes.

Once baked and cooled down – make the cupcake topping. Get some more raspberries, a handful or two. Put in a bowl and let them thaw.

With an electrical whisk, mix your raspberries with

• 250 g (8.8 ounce) mascarpone
• 1 big spoon natural yoghurt
• and 1 tbsp honey

Mix until even.

With the help of an icing bag (or a freezer bag with one cut open corner), spread from out to in, in a slow move, on your muffins.

And now to spoil it totally, I should probably mention that these ginger raspberry cupcakes – as lovely as they are – probably won’t make any difference for your immune system. I think tea brewed on ginger is the way to go there. But hey, it’s totally worth a try!

Text and photos by Lisa Fuchs, October 2013.

Lisa Fuchs normally writes about healthy and creative baking, under the name Liesel on her blog: lieselathome.com

You will never find sugar or gluten in any of her recipes and most of them are also lactose free.