Festive Spiced Chocolate Orange Cupcakes!

One of the groups my sons go to were having a belated solstice celebration and we were asked to bring along a warming seasonal dish so I opted for some spicy festive flavours in some cupcakes. The flavours I used tasted divine but, baking both vegan AND gluten free, is fairly new to me and I don't generally do cupcakes so I was a bit disappointed to find that, not only do my my icing swirls leave a lot to be desired, but the texture of the cupcakes was not brilliant once cooled (cupcakes rarely reach that stage in my house). I need to put in some practice working with gluten free flour on bitesize pieces, larger cakes I have down but my biscuits and cupcakes need work.

If anyone has any tips or advice they'd like to share, please feel free to leave a comment!

Recipe

For the cupcakes. Makes 12
280g Doves Farm plain flour
225g caster Sugar
40g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking Powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of Soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
280ml nut, rice or soya milk
125ml sunflower oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

For the frosting
100g vegetable shortening (I use Trex)
75g dairy free spread (I use Vitalite)
the juice of 3 oranges and the zest of two oranges
750g Tate and Lyle icing sugar

Method
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix the wet ingredients in a jug. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry whilst using a mixer until combined. Spoon into twelve cupcake cases in a cupcake tin and bake for 15 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when tested. Remove from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack

To make the frosting, beat together the vegetable shortening, non dairy spread and orange juice until they are as combined as possible. Add in the the icing sugar one spoonful at a time beating slowly. If the buttercream is too loose, add more icing sugar one spoon at a time. Add in the orange zest and beat on high until light and fluffy.

When the cupcakes are completely cooled, pipe on the buttercream frosting.