This is one of those recipes that came from a friend, who got it from a friend, who got it off a food blog (www.groovyfoody.wordpress.com) who had tweaked it from a recipe found in the cook book Quinoa 365 – The Everyday Superfood. 

Once this recipe was in my hands, it didn’t take long for it to become one of my favourites when baking for family and friends who can’t have dairy or gluten.

I played with the original recipe too, halving the sugar and making it completely dairy free. Taking out some of the sugar did leave it needing some extra sweetness, my answer to that was a simple raspberry in the middle of each cake. It adds just enough natural sweetness to make this a gorgeous cake to eat.

These moist, fluffy and rich cakes will silence any critics who think you can’t make a beautiful cake without gluten or dairy.

And even though my boys know these are made on Quinoa (which they don’t like!) they love these cakes.

Ingredients

Makes 24 cupcakes.

2/3 cup uncooked quinoa (follow instructions below to cook, which will give you 2 cups of cooked quinoa)

1/3 cup soy milk, almond milk or coconut milk

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup rice bran oil

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 punnet of fresh raspberries (frozen can be used too)

Method

To prepare the quinoa, rinse under cold water and then place in a saucepan with 1 1/3 cups water (basically the ratio when cooking is 2:1, water to quinoa)

Cover the saucepan and place on medium heat. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until most of the water is absorbed and it’s cooked. Turn heat off and leave for another 10 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid, fluff the quinoa with a fork and leave to cool.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

Line 2 x 12 cupcake trays with cupcakes cases.

Place milk, eggs and vanilla in a food processor and blend until smooth and thickened. Add cooled quinoa and blend again till smooth. Add the oil and blend until smooth and thick.

In a separate large bowl, using a hand whisk, whisk together sugar, cocoa, baking powder and soda.

Add the contents of the food processor and stir until all combined.

Fill cupcakes cases 3/4 of the way up and press a raspberry lightly into the top of each one.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops bounce back when you press lightly.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

These will last for a couple of days in an airtight container and they freeze really well too.