Vanilla Birthday Cupcakes (or birthday cake!)

Ingredients: 

3 cups blanched almond meal

4 eggs, separated 

1/4 cup collagen

3/4 cup maple syrup (room temperature)

1/2 cup melted coconut oil

1 cup room temperature coconut cream or coconut yogurt

2-3 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Whisk the egg whites with the apple cider vinegar until they are firm and fluffy! You can use a beater or in the Thermomix, this is done with the butterfly whisk, speed 4 for 1 and a half minutes.
3. Scoop the egg whites out into a large bowl.
4. Without needing to clean what you whisked the eggs in, just add in the egg yolks, maple syrup, coconut oil, almond meal, coconut cream, vanilla, baking soda and collagen and blend on low-medium speed until just combined and not over mixed/over blended.
5. Spoon the mixture out into the same bowl to next to the egg whites, and fold in the egg whites until combined. 
6. Scoop into lined muffin moulds or a lined cake tin and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. 
7. Allow to cool, and then add your favourite topping.

Topping options of choice:

Easy chocolate ganache

1/2 cup thick cream or coconut cream with 40g melted chocolate of choice (we use carob sugar free chocolate). Stir together until well combined, allow to cool slightly in the fridge, and top onto COOLED cupcakes.

Cream and Jam

Plain thickened cream and strawberry or blueberry chia jam. We infuse ours with The Mothers and Children's Blend! 

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

• 350g unsalted butter, softened slightly and chopped into cubes
• 1/2-3/4 cup granulated sweetener of choice
• 2 tsps vanilla essence
• If needed, 1-2 tbsp water if you'd like the result slightly softer as the butter hardens in the fridge.
• Optional: 2-3 tsps Mothers or Children's Blend for a pink colour, 1-2 tsps blue spirulina for blue, turmeric for yellow, or 1/4-1/2 cup cacao powder for brown/chocolate. The world’s your oyster! 

Method:

1. Blend down the granulated sweetener until it is as fine as you can make it. 
2. In whatever cooking appliance you have to whip butter, use that!
3. Add into the appliance your cubed butter, sweetener, vanilla, optional water and optional colour of choice (or keep it plain!).
4. It takes around 3 minutes using a medium speed whipping appliance. We opt for a Thermomix, in which we place the butterfly mixer into the bowl and whip for 3 minutes on speed 3-4 or until it is your desired consistency. 
5. If your cake has not cooled completely yet, place the buttercream into the fridge until the cakes have cooled and you're ready to spoon it over your cakes. 
6. Once your cakes have cooled, if your butter needs to soften slightly to smooth over the cakes, carefully whip one last time and then spoon it over first layer of cake.
7. Top with the jam onto your first layer of buttercream, so the jam is in the middle of the two cakes.
8. Finish spreading the buttercream icing over the cake. Place back in the fridge until you're ready to enjoy it!