What better to way is there to celebrate Canada’s birthday, than by getting together with the family and putting together some of these, super adorable, beaver cupcakes. The recipe we’ve used is a gluten free pecan recipe, but feel try to use any of our other cake recipes too. You’ll need some good chocolate to melt down and decorate, as well as some Smarties, another Canadian favourite.
For the Cupcakes
Ingredients
-
112 g / 1/2 cup Mirage Margarine
200 g / 1 cup Golden brown sugar, plus extra for topping
2 eggs
g / 1 cup Ground Pecans
g / 1 cup Corn Flour (Masa, found in the flour aisle)
60 g / ½ cup Quinoa Flour
1/2 cup Cornstarch
4 g / 1/2 tsp Baking soda
4 g / 1/2 tsp Salt
160 g / 2/3 cup Sour cream
250 ml / 1 cup Milk
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F(175°C).
- In a large bowl, cream the Mirage margarine and sugar until light and fluffy with a handheld electric mixer, which takes approximately 4 minutes.
- Beat in the eggs, milk and sour cream and continue creaming for another 1 minute.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the ground pecans, corn flour, quinoa flour, baking soda, salt and cornstarch. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix just until combined.
- Line a muffin tray with liners and begin filling the liners ⅔ of the way full with the batter, place in the oven and bake for about 20 to 25, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow them to cool completely to room temperature.
To Decorate
Ingredients
-
24 Brown Smarties
12 Red Smarties
24 Whole pecan pieces
4oz White chocolate
4oz Dark chocolate
1 batch of Your Grandmother’s Classic Chocolate Frosting
12 chocolate dipped shortbreads (found in the cookie aisle)
1 piping bag with a round tip fitted
Directions
- Begin by filling your piping bag with chocolate icing. Using the round tip completely ice the top of your cupcake, trying to keep the surface flat. Starting from the center of the cupcake pipe two half circle shapes to create the cheeks. Place in two pecans above the cheeks, as ears. Place a red Smartie in as a nose.
- Melt the white chocolate and place it in a paper or disposable piping bag. Use the piping bag to carefully draw on two teeth coming out from under the cheeks. Place on two brown Smarties as the eyes, and use the white chocolate to draw the whites of the eyes.
- Take one of the shortbread cookies, and place it chocolate side up, into the “back side” of the beaver to make a tail. Melt the dark chocolate and use a toothpick to draw on the irises of the beaver.
- Serve these guys up to your friends and family this Canada day, but start prepping them the day before. These gluten free cakes store well in the fridge, for up to 2 days.
Chef Notes
- Ground pecans are readily available at any bulk food store. But if for some reason they don’t carry them near you, you can always put whole pecans in the blender and grind them until they are fine, but not paste consistency.
- If you’re not a fan of pecans, try replacing them with ground and whole almonds.