Vegan & Gluten free Banana Cupcake/Muffin with Coconut Lime frosting

As I'm new to vegan baking and relatively new to gluten free, the thought of combining the two elements to create something as delightful as a cupcake seemed rather unachievable.

After only a few GF baking successes and numerous dry, powdery, brittle and weird tasting vegan baking disasters I was starting to lose hope.

Luckily a craving for muffins and a couple of well ripened bananas made my next attempt an obvious one. Inspired by this vegan banana bread muffin recipe and after a few changes and experiments of my own, I can proudly present my first vegan(and gluten free) successful baking creation!

Muffin/cupcake Ingredients: makes 12 

140 caster sugar
2 well ripened bananas (optional: extra slices for decoration)
2 tbsp. ground flax meal
3 tbsp. hot water
180g gluten free self raising flour (I use doves farm)
40g white rice flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
70g coconut oil

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180°c. Line a muffin tray with 12 paper liners or grease with preferred oil/butter/cooking spray. Silicone muffin/bun trays work well too (that's what I used).

• In a small mixing bowl, mash the two bananas until only tiny lumps remain and stir in the sugar until well combined. In another small bowl, combine flax meal and hot water and stir to combine. Leave both the banana mixture and flax mixture to stand whilst you prep other ingredients.

• In a medium mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the gluten free self raising flour, rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

• In a large mixing bowl, cream the coconut oil until light and fluffy,(about 20 seconds) Add the flax meal mixture and mix until smooth, taking care to scrape the sides of the bowl to combine all the mixture.

• Add half the dry ingredients. Blend until smooth. Add the banana-sugar mixture. Blend until well incorporated. Add remaining dry ingredients. Blend batter until all dry mix is incorporated and no powder remains but be careful not to over mix once this is achieved . Batter will be thick and gloopy.

• Fill muffin cups/liners with batter. Bake on the middle rack of the oven until golden brown, about 16/18 minutes. Transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool.

 Now these are delicious on there own with breakfast or as a snack but can be transformed yet again with the help of this simple frosting.

Frosting Ingredients: ices 12 generously
 80g coconut oil
140g icing sugar
20g fine desiccated coconut
the juice of a small lime + grated lime zest
1 tsp. vanilla seed paste/essence

Instructions

• In a bowl, combine coconut oil, vanilla seed paste and lime juice and zest. Cream until light and fluffy.

• Add icing sugar a bit at a time and mix well as you go along until all is incorporated. the mixture should be smooth 

• Finally, stir in desiccated coconut and pipe onto muffins/cupcakes or spread on as you wish and top with sliced banana for decoration.