Dairy-free Oreo Cupcakes

[Becky]

I had a few issues with a birthday cake I made for my husband recently (Violet Cake), so to make it up to him I made some Oreo cupcakes.

He is mildly allergic to dairy - he can eat it, but it makes him tired and too much makes him sick. He still has the odd bit every now and then (eg if a cake has butter in it he doesn't mind too much because it's not like he eats cakes every day) but I try and avoid putting it into things when I can.

So when I decided to make these cupcakes I wanted to adapt the recipe so that he wouldn't have any issues.

This is the recipe I based my cupcakes on (Cupcake Jemma on YouTube):

In my version I replaced the malt powder with flour and the butter with a mix of coconut oil and spreadable margerine. I also made a smaller amount of buttercream but added more oreos to it.

For the cupcakes -

110g self raising flour
15g cocoa powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
125g caster sugar
110g coconut oil
25g margerine
2 large free-range eggs
1 & 1/2 tbsp rice milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
12 Oreos (one for base of each cupcake case)

For the Oreo Buttercream -

110g coconut oil
40g margerine
340g icing sugar, sifted
5 tbsp rice milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 packet of Oreos, pulverised in a food processor

...and here's how they turned out!

You can taste the coconut in the frosting, but it's actually quite a nice combination. The cake was a little drier than I'd ideally like, so I need to work on that part of the recipe - I think it's partly because I did a straight replacement of the malt powder with flour. Overall I was pleased with how they turned out though!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Those cupcakes look yummy. I’m going to try to adapt this for gluten free as well. Celiac‘s disease runs in my family. And one of my nieces is celiac and ultra sensitive to dairy to boot. So I like to collect gluten free dairy free recipes for her.

BTW, I was really happy to see you used margarine instead of shortening!

 

[Becky]

Shortening isn't very popular here in the UK - margarine is much more commonly used. When I was looking at alternatives in the chilled aisle of the supermarket there was something called 'baking fat' which was pretty much just palm oil, so I guess that's what you'd call shortening?

The reason I opted to use a mix of coconut oil and margarine to replace butter is that I was trying to roughly recreate the fat content. Butter is ~80% fat, and coconut oil is 100% (and a much higher proportion of it is saturated fat, it's very unhealthy!), whereas the margarine in my fridge is ~60% fat.

The cupcakes were still a little dry so I might play around with this mix - maybe I'll try half coconut oil next time.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Shortening isn't very popular here in the UK - margarine is much more commonly used. When I was looking at alternatives in the chilled aisle of the supermarket there was something called 'baking fat' which was pretty much just palm oil, so I guess that's what you'd call shortening?

The reason I opted to use a mix of coconut oil and margarine to replace butter is that I was trying to roughly recreate the fat content. Butter is ~80% fat, and coconut oil is 100% (and a much higher proportion of it is saturated fat, it's very unhealthy!), whereas the margarine in my fridge is ~60% fat.

The cupcakes were still a little dry so I might play around with this mix - maybe I'll try half coconut oil next time.

That was very smart thinking to look at the fat percentages of each fat.

I think when I give this recipe a try I’ll try half margarine and half coconut oil since you thought it a bit dry.

Initially I was hesitant to use much coconut oil for fear it would impart that coconut taste to everything. But I’m finding it is not as pronounced as I expected. And in many cases it actually enhances the flavor of whatever it is I am baking.

Yes the palm oil is a type of shortening. It is actually better than the standard shortenings used in the US. A lot of the margarines in the US are made with palm oil.

But most shortening in the US is pure Partially Hydrogenated Oil (PHO). The government has issued a full ban on it beginning June of this year. So a lot of manufacturers are already starting to change their formula to comply with the ban.

Surprisingly, shortening is very popular in the baking industry here. Surprising because so many people are concerned about GMOs, preservatives, and food coloring. Yet they don’t think twice about using shortening.

 

[Becky]

Ah yes I remember reading all the stuff about Crisco. You're right how it's weird that people are willing to ignore things that are so bad for their health - especially when they are also concerned about other things where it's not as clear cut. I'd rather eat natural foods than processed chemicals! Mind you, even when using 'natural' ingredients, cakes etc are full of fat and sugar and there is a massive amount of evidence about the health risks of those. However my outlook is 'everything in moderation' - I like to eat things that are high in fat and sugar, but I know how bad they are for my health, so they are an occasional treat.

If you give the recipe a try let me know how you get on with the 50% split

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Oh I agree everything in moderation… Exception: chocolate chip cookies.
I’ll keep you posted when intake the recipe for a test drive. I’m not baking right now because we have a water issue on the property. So we can’t drink the water. So I’m trying to avoid water use in the kitchen overall.

 

[Becky]

Oh I agree everything in moderation… Exception: chocolate chip cookies.

Haha, Ian shares this theory too!

Sorry to hear about your water problems, I hope that's fixed soon.

 

[denisa]

Wow so pretty!

 

[Becky]

Thanks @denisa! Welcome to the forum