Allergy-Friendly Chocolate Cake (that Actually Tastes Good)

Last week I hosted a wee last minute birthday surprise for a dear friend, who was right in the middle of a "Daniel Fast" - three weeks of eating nothing but vegan food, but with the added complicated of no gluten, no sugar, no caffeine and no alcohol. Awesome time to have a birthday, right? Not.
To put it plainly my friend had pretty much resigned herself to not celebrating her birthday, because, how?

A birthday with raw nuts, fruit and veg. I mean, not even a birthday cake?

We couldn't have that.

I remembered my clever friend Delissimon's amazingly easy, egg-and-dairy free chocolate fudge cake that I've made on a number of occasions, and decided to try and adapt that, to make it completely Daniel Fast friendly. thereby supplying my fasting friend with a birthday cake that sat within "the rules" of her fast.
Even after messing with the recipe to replace sugar with coconut sugar etc, it still tasted like a chocolate cake should - light, fudgey, rich and a wee bit decadent. The verdict from the birthday girl was a big thumbs up.

After posting photos on Instagram, I had a bunch of requests for the recipe, so I decided to share my version of it with my adaptations to make it everything-free.
This version used decaf coffee instead of plain water which gave it a rich fudgey flavour. As well as tasting great and being allergy friendly, it's ridiculously easy to make.

Here it is:

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Honey Roasted Pear Salad (the best you've ever eaten)

This salad I am about to share with you is hands-down the yummiest salad I've ever eaten. It's better than any I've tried at any restaurant, it's so yummy it makes me want to eat a whole bowlful, all by itself. I am not usually a huge salad fan, to be honest, but this salad? This one has me reaching for seconds.
And I invented it.

It happened one Thursday when I was cooking for my parents' weekly dinner; I'd planned steak with mushrooms, baked potatoes and salad, but when I reached into the fridge the tomatoes had gone soft and squishy. There was, however, a lone pear. And that gave me an idea. I'd heard of pears being used in salads, and I reckoned if I roasted this one, it would taste better.

The rest is salad history, set to the sound-track of much delighted groaning and guests exclaiming, "BEST SALAD WE'VE EVER TASTED".

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Easy Gluten-Free Scones (that aren't like bricks at all)

I am excited to share this recipe with you today - gluten free scones that are soft, fluffy, delicious and completely un-bricklike!

I've attempted a gluten-free version of my regular scone recipe before and they were VERY brick-like. Hard, crumbly, ugh. I had given up on ever being able to serve up scones that were gluten-free AND edible.

So yesterday when I invited my mum and dad over for afternoon-tea scones-with-cream-n-jam (and then remembered that they can't have gluten!) I turned to my friend and ally, Google....

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Mmmmmmmuffins! Feijoa & Cream Cheese (gluten free)

Yesterday I had a hankering for feijoa muffins, which is weird because I'm not usually a fan of feijoas - at least not in their natural state. But something about the sharp tangy-ness of them in a muffin had me dreaming of baking a batch all afternoon, until at 3 o'clock school pickup time I could stand it no more, and googled myself a recipe.

When this one for feijoa and cream cheese muffins popped up, it sounded perfect - nice and simple, plus I had all the ingredients. Most importantly I had a tree full of feijoas wasting away.

After sending out Scrag to gather the necessary fruit from the backyard (in gumboots to avoid feijoas getting squished between his toes) I road tested the recipe. I've made a few simplifications and adjustments and I've used gluten-free baking mix instead of standard flour (if you don't need gluten free, just go ahead and use regular plain flour).

Here's the recipe, perfect for using all those feijoas that are lying around getting squished underfoot, a delicious Kiwi taste of autumn...

FEIJOA AND CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS (GLUTEN FREE)

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of feijoa pulp
1/2 cup of caster sugar (fine grained)
75g of melted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup of sour cream OR plain yoghurt
the zest and juice of one lemon
2 cups of all-purpose gluten free baking mix (or plain flour)
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

125g of cream cheese (small pottle)

METHOD:

1. Send a small child out to pick up a bowl full of feijoas. Slice each feijoa in half, scoop out the flesh, repeat until you have a cupful in a mixing bowl. Smoosh the flesh with a wooden spoon (pound on it til it's nice and slushy).
2. Heat the oven to 200°C.
3. Add the sugar and melted butter to the smooshed feijoas. Mix well.
4. Whisk together eggs, sour cream (or yoghurt) and lemon zest+juice. Combine with the feijoa mixture.
5. Sift in GF flour, baking powder and cinnamon until just combined. (Don't overmix or muffins will be rock-like!)
6. Spoon the mixture into greased or lined muffin tins (I use silicone). 
7. Plop a teaspoonful of cream cheese into the top of each muffin. Push it in a little. ***If you have no cream cheese sprinkle the tops of your muffins with brown sugar instead***
8. Bake for 20 minutes, then enjoy them warm from the oven with a cuppa on a cool autumn day. 

Mmmmmmm. Very satisfying and delicious!

This recipe made 18 muffins - enough for all of us to enjoy as a treat for afternoon tea, dessert AND lunchboxes the next day, with more left over. (As I type this I've been munching on one for my morning tea).


(original recipe found here)

• More favourite tried and tested recipes

A Family Tea Party (and a Savoury Muffin recipe)

When family arrives from the other side of the world to visit your country for the very first time (and you want them to LOVE it) you go all out to make every occasion special for them - dontcha?

Your eagerness to impress might see you investing in flash new bedlinen, DIYing your dated bathroom, and even painting your hallway the day before you go camping. Every BBQ is strung with lights, every meet-the-neighbours becomes an event to remember as you introduce them to outdoor kiwi living and the joys of toasting marshmallows. This is the very first time your husbands English rellies have ventured downunder, after all. They will go back to the motherland with glowing reports of their magical holiday, and maybe MORE of them will come visit...?
So when your own Kiwi mum and dad are scheduled to come for afternoon tea to meet Uncle and Aunty for the first time, well, it was never going to be just afternoon tea, was it?

No, of course not. It was going to be a tea party, with THE WORKS.

Bunting, Iced Tea, Daisies and Cake, all presented to the best of our ability in crates and holders with milk bottles and paper straws and the best china...

Iced tea: in a container place 4 green tea bags and add 1 litre of boiling water; add a squirt of liquid honey, the zest and juice of a lemon, half a cup of frozen berries and a couple of sprigs of mint. Chill. Once chilled, strain into a glass jug half filled with ice, add half a litre of apple juice and top with soda water. Garnish with mint. Yum yum! Enjoy!

You know we like to make the ordinary beautiful, and the everyday special, round here...

Almond Cake with Cherries & Cinnamon Streusel topping: strain a can of dark de-stoned cherries and sprinkle on top of the almond cake batter. Then mix together sliced/slivered almonds with a generous amount of brown sugar and cinnamon and a das of melted butter. Sprinkle on the cake for the crunchiest yummiest topping

I made Grandma's favourite dark cherry and almond cake with cinnamon streusel topping and the best savoury cheese muffins EVER (scroll down for the recipe).

Of course they loved it. Of course they did. How could they not?

(Of course the blokes may have needed a beer to offset all that bunting and tea)

Here they are: the long-awaited, much-feted Aunty Irene & Uncle Allan
fresh from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK...

Here's me with my Kiwi mum and dad...

And here's Aunty Irene with Grandma a.k.a. my mother-in-law Winnie who reluctantly left NZ yesterday to face the English winter after seven weeks of summer (can you tell they're sisters???)

Apparently they love New Zealand already, even though they're yet to leave Auckland. I'm preparing myself for the next wave of the British Invasion once they return home to Blighty and tell all the rest of the rellies: "Forget Benidorm - you have to get yourself to New Zealand!"

Now Aunty Irene, here's the recipe you were after for...

Simone's Savoury Cheese Muffins*

INGREDIENTS & METHOD
1 cup of diced shaved ham
2 Tablespoons of finely diced sundried tomato
2-3 tablespoons of Basil paste or pesto
1 cup of grated cheese (plus extra for sprinkling)

Combine these ingredients in a bowl then add...
2 cups of all purpose flour (or Gluten Free baking mix)*
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
a couple of pinches of cracked black pepper

Stir these ingredients in then quickly and lightly (without over-mixing) add:
2 eggs, beaten
100g butter, melted
1/2 cup milk

Once all ingredients are *just* combined, spoon muffin mixture into silicone baking cups (or lined muffin tins) and sprinkle the tops with extra grated cheese.

Bake at 200oC for 12-15 minutes (on fanbake) or until golden and firm.

Yum yum yum - ENJOY!

* I made these muffins Gluten Free by using all-purpose GF baking mix and gluten free "Beehive" shaved ham. (Recipe adapted from the NZ Edmonds Cookbook)

................................
OTHER TEA PARTIES & RECIPES

• Green Tea Fruit Punch (refined sugar free) - I added mint and ice for a delicious Iced Tea
• Simple Almond Cake (adapted from Petite Kitchen's recipe)
• Pinwheel Scones Recipes
• An Impromptu Garden Party
• A Fairy Garden Party Just because

Delicious Cakes (Sugar-Free and Good for You!)

It's been roughly six weeks since we took the plunge and went (mostly) sugar-free.
Can I just say two things about that:
1. I have NEVER EVER successfully followed through on changing my diet before I did this
2. It has been easier - and more enjoyable - than I ever imagined

In case you're new round here, you should know that I am the self-confessed Lazy Mother who always looks for the shortcuts, and despite all appearances (i.e. my party posts) I have never thought of myself as a baker. Or a cook. Or anything else which required too much time in the kitchen on a regular basis.
True story.

But all that is changing. And I have never baked so much.
Never have my kids had such interesting, healthy lunchboxes on a consistent basis (which, might I add, they are still making themselves.) They are short on processed crap and filled with stuff like unflavoured milk, strawberries, pistachios, lemon-dipped carrot sticks, chicken salad sandwiches on grainy bread, and plain yoghurt flavoured with (homemade) berry coulis.

John Campbell's lunchbox nazi would find little to complain about here.

But best of all are the cakes. The Cakes. The CAKES.
Mostly from Petite Kitchen, my new favourite cooking-gal. I even bought the recipe book.

I have made these recipes more than once, sending multiple guests reeling in astonishment when I revealed that these drool-worthy delights are not only gluten-free but sugar-free too.

They are SIMPLE to make, and delicious to eat, as well as being so good for you.

First up, my version of Petite Kitchen's Simple Almond Cake.

Orange Almond Cake With Berries Gluten free and Sugar free

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups of ground almonds
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup of runny honey
• 60g butter (melted)*
• the zest of one large orange
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Preheat the oven to 160oC (not fan bake). Beat all ingredients together until smooth then pour batter into a round cake tin lined with baking paper. Sprinkle over the top:

• half a cup of frozen blueberries (or mixed berries)

Bake for 25 minutes or until the top of the cake feels firm when lightly pressed.

Serve with homemade berry coulis and plain yoghurt (with just a dash of added honey)

Soooo good.

This next recipe would have been tricky to execute if I hadn't recieved, that very day, a special delivery from one of the companies my hubby does business for. See, I haven't had a food processor since I melted our old one in the dodgey dishwasher. I've been making do with a hand-held electric beater and a bit of elbow grease. But since hubby's points earned me this new kitchen Whizz, I now have a MACHINE to do all the heavy lifting. (for meeeeee, for freeeeeee).

This cake is to die for, and with my new magical Whizzer, so simple too. Truly.

So without further ado, here's my version of Petite Kitchen's Decadent Raspberry Torte.

Decadent Raspberry Chocolate Torte Gluten free and Sugar free

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup of frozen raspberries
• 1/4 cup of runny honey
• 60g butter*
• 5 eggs
• 1/4 cup gluten free all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup dessicated coconut
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda

Preheat the oven to 150oC (not fan bake). In your (shiny new) food processor, whizz the frozen raspberries until they are as smooth as you can get them.

Melt the honey and butter together in the microwave and once melted, whisk together lightly before adding to the raspberries; add the rest of the ingredients and whizz together in the magical whizzer. Wahoo!

Pour batter into a lined cake tin and bake for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Then enjoy with a friend, with a little coulis on the side and some honey-tinted yoghurt. 

Don't even bother to feel guilty, because it's ALL GOOD FOR YOU.

*To make dairy free substitute butter with 1/4 cup of coconut oil.

Easy Berry Coulis

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups of frozen berries
1/8 cup of water
1 Tablespoon of lemon juice (about half a lemon's worth)
2 Tablespoons of honey

Put all the ingredients in a pot, simmer on a low heat, stirring occasionally, until everything is soft and squishy. Now you can either serve as is, with berry bits (a simple berry sauce) or you can turn it into a "coulis" by mashing it through a sieve and discarding all the seeds and pulp.

Add it to plain yoghurt in place of those awful sugar-loaded pottles your kids have been guzzling that you used to think were healthy til you knew better. They will love it, trust me.

OTHER POSTS FROM MY SUGAR FREE QUEST

• Going Sugar Free (Thanks Nigel Latta!)
• Going Sugar Free- Mission Progress Update
• Blueberry Honey Muffins (refined sugar free)
• Spiced Carrot Muffins w. cream Cheese topping (sugar free)

An InLinkz Link-up

Sugar-Free Spiced Carrot Muffins (Super-Moist & Delish)

Sorry to overload you with my sugar-free excitement, but I just had to share this delicious recipe for spiced carrot muffins with y'all.
This recipe is a winner on all counts: The muffins are easy to make, they are full of goodness and have no nasties, they are moist and delicious -  even the next day - and were gobbled up and raved about by those fussiest of food critics - my kids.

These muffins are refined sugar free (sweetened with honey) and even have an optional delicious cream cheese topping with no sugar.

I adapted the recipe from one for healthy carrot cake on Sugar and Cinnamon Blog, which was shared with me by a reader. I didn't have a few of the ingredients and I'm trying to make my baking gluten free where possible, so I substituted a few ingredients and these babies are the result.

I promise you will love them. xx

Sugar Free Spiced Carrot Muffins (with cream cheese topping)
adapted from recipe found here

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup of runny honey
3/4 cup yoghurt
2 eggs
the zest of an orange
1/2 cup gluten free all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of oats
1+1/2 cups of grated carrot
half a teaspoon each of: cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon of mixed spice

METHOD

• Beat the eggs until they are pale and fluffy, then mix in the wet ingredients (honey and yoghurt)
• Stir in orange zest, spices, carrot, flour and oats until just combined
• Place spoonfuls of mixture into muffin tins lined with cupcake papers or silicon baking cups
• Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180oC  or until firm and golden.
• Makes approximately 18 muffins

TOPPING (optional)

250g pottle of cream cheese

juice of half an orange

2 teaspoons of runny honey to sweeten

Whizz together the ingredients then spoon onto muffins once they have completely cooled. (This mixture is a little bit runny due to the addition of the orange juice, so you may prefer to use zest instead for a stiffer, thicker topping.)

Store muffins in an airtight container and pop them into lunchboxes for a healthy delicious treat that your fussy kids will not turn their noses up at. (They are still yummy without the topping and are less messy, so you might want to keep a few muffins plain for this purpose).

OTHER POSTS FROM MY SUGAR FREE QUEST

• Going Sugar Free (Thanks Nigel Latta)
• Our Sugar Free Mission Progress

An InLinkz Link-up

Unbelievable Sugar-Free BlueBerry Muffins (for brunch)

So today I took my own advice, inviting a friend for brunch (and madly doing a cleaning spree in honour of her arrival).

Some of you are blessed to know my friend Sammy; we go back a long way - pre-blogs, pre-kids - so even though we live a fair distance apart and our paths no longer cross naturally, we are making a conscious effort to stay connected and book in regular hang-out time.

[Sammy and "Grace" - my Friday morning brunch date]

It's important to do that, when you have a friendship that spans the years, heartbreaks, triumphs and shared history. It would be easy to let a valuable friendship drift into obscurity, but Sammy and I have determined to MAKE TIME and space for each other, which is so so awesome.

At our last coffee date I promised to make her brunch (she'd seen how I made brunch for Deb, and was keen to have her turn; it might become "my thing").

[The juice is a new flavour from Just juice: Kiwifruit and strawberry = YUMMO]

Day before yesterday I get a text, "Oh and I better let you know that I'm gluten free and sugar free! Haha!"
Oops, so no waffles then. Omelettes are go, but what about something desserty? To nibble on while sipping coffee?

Google Search to the rescue. After a few false starts, I landed on a blog, "Gluten Free with LB", and found a nice simple recipe that seemed to fit the bill.

With just a few substitutions I was able to whip up a batch of THE MOST DELICIOUS honey-and-blueberry muffins. Sooooooo good, healthy AND delicious, I just had to share the recipe with you all, so you can make them for your guests (the ones you invite over to motivate yourself to get tidying, remember?)

The muffins were a hit, as was the (oops slightly burnt) omelette and we thoroughly enjoyed our catchup (even venturing into politics, as you do). Next time I'm going to Sammy's house.

Blueberry Honey Muffins (SUGAR & GLUTEN FREE)
Original Recipe found here

3/4 Cup of gluten free all-purpose flour
1/3 Cup of Rolled Oats*
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Yoghurt
1/3 Cup melted Honey
30grams(2 Tablespoons) melted Butter
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup frozen berries

[OPTIONAL CRUMBLE TOPPING]
1 tablespoon melted honey
1/4 cup oats*
Pinch of salt


METHOD:

• Preheat your oven to 180oC.
• Combine all the ingredients until just combined; add the blueberries last.
• Spoon mixture into lined muffin tins and sprinkle over crumble topping.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and set.
• Makes six largish muffins (perfect to serve for morning tea with a friend or two)

*OATS: Most Oats are not truly gluten-free as traces remain from the processing/harvesting methods, therefore if you are coeliac and cannot tolerate traces of gluten, you should substitute dessicated coconut for the rolled oats and use chopped walnuts (or similar) in the crumble topping.

So.... who's next for brunch???!

• My Favourite Recipes Page 

Kids Cook: Best Brownie Ever

It's been a while since I posted a recipe. For that matter it's been a while since I BAKED. And even today the chef is not me, it's my eight-year-old junior chef, Miss Fab.

Miss Fab got it in her head that she wanted to have brownie. A friend's (awesome baker) mummy had turned up at a BBQ with a box of brownie for her family's dessert. My poor deprived children felt rather sad that I hadn't brought dessert (i.e. brownie) for THEM and so Miss Fab decided SHE would become the baker of brownie, since I was so remiss.

"I need a recipe, mum!" she commanded/demanded/pleaded, the other day after school.
Google to the rescue...

Bingo. The first one that popped up in my search under "best brownie recipe" was so incredibly simple, and used such stock-standard ingredients that even in this baking-deprived household we had all the necessary  goods in the cupboard.

Guess what? It's also completely dairy free. No butter, no milk, no actual chocolate.
This is a perfect recipe to bake for friends who are allergic to dairy.
AND by swapping out the half a cup of flour for my trusty gluten free baking all-purpose mix, it becomes gluten free too.

Prep time: 5 minutes.
Baking time: 20 minutes.

What more could you ask for from an allergy friendly recipe on such short notice?

Well, deliciousness of course...

And yes this recipe delivers there too. Yum yum yum. Gooey, sticky, slightly chewy round the edges. Just the way brownie should be, even when cooked by a child.



So here's the recipe. I've set it up as a printable recipe card. Just right click and save to your computer and then print it out and take it for a test drive with your kids...

[click to enlarge; right-click to save]

This is such a great recipe that Miss Fab has baked it two days in a row. All on her own.
Both times, a perfect result.
Today we were all out of cocoa powder (it's been a while since I've baked, remember? Stocks are low.)
So my little pastry-chef-in-training tried her hand at chop chip cookies.
Oh dear. Not such a good result (I think she only put in half the flour and we ended up with a toffee-like substance spread across the baking tray).

Which just goes to show what a perfect recipe this brownie is for kids to bake. Easy. Delicious. Fail-safe. Allergy friendly. And ingredients that (most) mummies would have in their cupboards. Ahem.

Just one word of warning. EAT IT QUICK, cos it won't last til dinner time once the kids get hold of it. You might want to double the recipe. (And then hide some away, just for you).

Kids Cook: Rainbow Marble Cake (with Printable Recipe card)

What do you do to brighten up a winter's day when all your friends are busy? Why, you bake a bright cake of course!

Scrag loves to bake, so when we couldn't find a friend to play with on a rainy Friday morning, the suggestion of baking and decorating a cake turned his frown upside down.

I decided to use Meredy's Rainbow Cake recipe - because it's so simple - but instead of baking separate layers, we would turn our rainbow into a marble cake instead.

Here's the recipe [so simple any Kid can Cook it]...

Meredy's Basic Butter Cake

1 1/2 cups of flour*
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
125g butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla

[* We used Gluten Free Baking Mix instead of flour; Meredy's recipe calls for self-raising flour. After googling, I discovered that 1 teaspoon of baking powder per 1/2 cup of flour will give you the same result as self-raising flour] 

Plonk all the ingredients into the bowl and then beat together for around five minutes on medium speed (I have a simple electric hand beater and it does the job just fine).

Don't forget to lick the beater!

Separate the mixture into three bowls. Let your little helper choose his favourite colours - Scrag chose  Red, Orange and Green: "Traffic light colours, mum!"

Add a smidge of gel food colouring to each bowl and mix well. Use gel food colourings to get bright colours  or you will likely be disappointed with the result. They are worth investing in, as they last for ages. Only a tiny bit is needed for lovely bright colours.

In a well-greased cake tin, tip the first of the coloured mixtures, smooth carefully, then 
add the next colour.

Repeat the process until all the mixture is in the baking tin. 


We used a ring-cake tin, so it wasn't necessary to do anything else. If you are using a regular round cake tin, perhaps stir the mixture with a skewer in a few places for a swirly marble look once baked.

Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for 20-30 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

In the meantime, look what we found... 

a friend to help with the decorating!

Scrag decided on peanut buttercream icing, and as it was my first attempt at that flavour, I may have overdone it slightly on the peanut butter. 
Originally he asked for yellow icing, but well, er, when added we yellow to the brownish buttercream... it sadly resembled something rather.... pooey. So we made it orange instead. Slightly garish, but since orange is Scrag's favourite colour, he was not complaining.

Our young cake decorators had a lovely time making the very bright cake beautiful.
They went to town with the Smarties, sliced marshmallows, white chocolate squeeze tubes and sanding sugar....

They were mighty pleased with the result.
And look how cool the cake turned out when we cut it? It has a swirl of green... completely unplanned and totally random. O Happy Accident!


Ah yes, baking a bright cake is a fab way to brighten up a winter's day.
We are planning another cake-bake this Friday, and are inviting some friends to come join us to celebrate the end of the School Term. Who says Winter has to be dull and dreary?
♥

Printable Recipe Card
[right click to save to your computer]