Gluten free carrot cake

In the last few months my friend was told she had coeliac which means that she has a reaction to foods that contain gluten. As she was having a gathering while visiting home during Easter I didn't want her to miss out on some cake.
These days the supermarkets have a number of gluten free items and in some cases even a whole aisle. This is where I got some gluten free flour and gluten free self-raising flour (I got both as I haven't chosen a recipe yet).
I was keen not to try a gluten free recipe but instead find a recipe which had a low flour content and I came across this Carrot and Apple Cake recipe.

I used my trusty Russian doll cups as this was a cup rather than grams recipe. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar (I used caster)
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs (I used free range)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used gluten free)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup chopped apples
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup chopped pecans (I left out the pecans)

Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 (3 oz) pkgs cream cheese, softened1 tablespoon milk2 teaspoons vanilladash salt1 box (1 lb) icing sugar, sifted1/2 cup chopped pecans (I left out the pecans)

To top it off as it was Easter I also used mini eggs! (I wasn't sure if these were gluten free so you would have to check. My friend was fine with them)

Method

Pre-heat your oven to about 180.
Combine the sugar, vegetable oil, 3 eggs, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla in a large bowl and mix until all incorporated.

Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of salt; mix well. 

Then shred your carrots and put them in a bowl with your raisins. Peal your apples and shred and add them to your carrot and raisin bowl.

Mix the first two bowls together before adding your carrots, apple and raisins. Mix well!

Pour into your chosen cake pan (prepared with parchment paper) and bake for 35 - 45 minutes until the cake passes the skewer test. Once ready remove from the pan and let it cool.

While your cake is cooling you can make the cream cheese frosting. Mix all the ingredients together but leave the icing sugar until last and add a bit at a time. Once combine give it a whiz with an electric mixer.

Once your cake is cool add the cream cheese frosting any way you like. I spread it on with a spatula and then added the mini eggs.

My friend was very happy that I made a cake for her gathering and even happier when she found out it was gluten free. She said shop brought gluten free cakes didn't taste half as good. So maybe homemade is the way forward.

Why not give it a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx 

How to make a football cake

This weekend was my nephew's 2nd birthday and I had a couple of ideas for what cake I would make but decided in the end to bake a football cake. He's football mad at the moment and has impressive skills for a two year old! Not that I'm bias in anyway...

  I wanted to wrap a cute little scarf around the football when I realised that this would be a problem with my sister being a Liverpool supporter and my brother-in-law being a Manchester United supporter. Luckily both team colours are red. Plus with live in Wrexham, Wales so it worked well for this too! 

Now for the baking. I used a two pint pyrex bowl to give the correct shape and used a basic sponge recipe. However, any heat proof bowl will work. Before you make the cake batter prepared the bowl and turned the oven on to pre-heat to 180. Used parchment paper to line a heat proof bowl by cutting it into strips and use butter to 'glue' it down trying to not overlap the paper too much.

Make cake better in a separate bowl. You can use a box mix or the recipe below.

Ingredients 

250g self raising flour

250g soft butter

250g sugar

4 medium eggs (I use free range)

Teaspoon of baking powder

Icing sugar

Jam

White icing

Black icing

Red icing

Green food die 

First mix the butter and sugar together until pale then bit by bit add the flour and baking powder by sifting it into the bowl. Crack the eggs in a mug and beat with a fork and add in a bit at a time alternating between the flour. Once combined pour into your lined heatproof bowl  

Place in the oven for 40 minuets, test the cake putting a skewer in the middle and if it comes out clean the cake is ready, if not leave it for another five minuets and try again. Leave to cool and turn out on your severing place (or cake stand). Cut in half and add your chosen filling. I chose strawberry jam. 

 Next, role out your white icing (tip: put icing sugar on your work station to save stickiness) You can buy icing from most supermarkets however, I got mine from Sugar & Spice as Mike is really helpful and I like to support local businesses. Before you place your icing on top use butter icing, icing sugar or jam  on your sponge so the cake has something to stick to. I used icing sugar for the first time (I normally use jam) and it worked well. Once your icing is on the cake carefully pat it down and cut off the excess (it's always better to have too much and cut off than have too little.)

Role out your black icing and cut in to a pentagon. I started off with a house shape then my partner helped by thinning down the sides for the correct shape.

Place the black shapes on by dabbing your finger (clean of course!) into a bit of water so it can stick to the white icing. Space them out until it looks right.

Next prepare your green butter icing. It's very easy to make just place a few tablespoons of soft butter in a bowl and bit by bit add icing sugar until you can't taste the butter any more. Add in the green food die (I use gel as it is gives a strong colour for little gel). Pipe the butter icing around the cake so it looked like grass. To do this you can use a disposable icing bag with a star nozzle. 

Role out the red icing long enough to wrap around 3/4 of the cake. Role out the white icing and cut rectangles and place along the scarf so there is one red and one white rectangle along the scarf. Use a fork to press the ends of the scarf and wrap around the cake.

I'm happy to say they loved the cake and it went down a treat! 

If you know some one (big or small) who would like a football cake why not give this a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

Chocolate and beetroot cake

*WARNING*

 This cake is easier to make if you own an electric hand mixer and food processor! 

I know what you are thinking...beetroot?! Really?! Well, yes. For a while now I have wanted to attempt baking a chocolate and beetroot cake and the other strange thing about this cake is that it is not made with flour. I do like beetroot but for those of you that don't I have to say that you can't taste the beetroot, the chocolate over powers the beetroot and the texture is similar to a carrot cake.

I scanned the internet and found a few recipes however, I noticed the majority included espresso but as I'm not a fan of espresso. I found one that missed out this ingredient, it was a Jamie Oliver recipe. A staff meeting was coming up so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try it out.

Ingredients:

Olive oil - try find a J.O recipe without this ingredient :) 

Plain flour for dusting

300g good- quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) I found some on offer

250g raw beetroot

4 large eggs (free-range if you can)

150g golden caster sugar

120g ground almonds 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1 tablespoon of good-quality cocoa powder (not hot chocolate!)

Natural yogurt, to serve - (I didn't include this part)

Method:

I tried to measure out my ingredients however I came in to some difficulty with the beetroot and the fact that I had different size bowls for different ingredients. I would suggest having 2 large mixing bowls and a medium bowl ready, and if you don't have a food processor (like I didn't) I would suggest grating the beetroot first before doing anything else.

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 /350 F / gas 4

• Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 20cm springfrom tin with olive oil (I normally do this with butter but thought I'd give oil a go. It works just the same so I guess it depends what you have and what you prefer to do.)

• Cut out a circle of grease-proof paper. I used the base of the tin to cut round.

• Dust the sides of the tin with flour, then tap the tin to get rid of any excess. I have never done this before as my tins are non-stick.

• Break up 200g of the chocolate (save the rest for later) and add to a heat proof bowl.

Now I have talked about melting chocolate in the microwave in my previous post. In this post the chocolate is melted over a pan.

• Place your heat proof bowl on top of a small pan of simmering water on a medium heat. (Only put a small amount of water to cover the bottom of the pan twice over). Make sure the bottom of bowl isn't touching the water. Stir now and again.

When your chocolate is melted take the bowl off the pan, tune the heat off first and take the bowl off with a tea towel or over gloves.

As I said before if you don't own a food processor I would do this step before any other. 

• I used a Y-shaped peeler to peel the beetroot but I'm sure you can use any. I kept the tops on while peeling so I could hold on to something while doing this and I also wore rubber gloves as I didn't want red hands for weeks! 

• The recipe then says to quarter them and push through the coarse grater attachment on the food processor, then tip into a large mixing bowl.

If you are like me and don't own a food processor then use the coarse side of your cheese grater. (This part is the most labor intensive).  

• Separate the eggs, placing the whites into a large mixing bowl. I separate my eggs like this, passing it to one half of the shell to the other.

• Add the yolks tot he beetroot, look at those colours! 

• Stir the sugar, almonds, baking powder, cocoa powder and melted chocolate into the beetroot and mix together well. This is where I realised I planned my bowls wrong.

• Use an electric mixer to whisk the egg whites until you have stiff peaks.

• Take your spatula and fold a quarter of the egg whites into the beetroot mixture to loosen, once combined, fold int he rest but try not to over mix!!

Looks disgusting smells divine

• Place your mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for around 50 minuets. Mine took about 45 as I have a fan oven. You can check if your cake is ready by waiting until it has risen and piercing it with a skewer or tooth pick, if it comes out clean it's ready!

Once your cake is cool melt the remaining chocolate as above and drizzle over. I ended up pouring it all over then adding edible glitter :)

It states in the recipe to serve with nature yogurt. I didn't as the cake was for a staff meeting but I would recommend following this step. The cake tastes nice, it didn't turn out dry as I expected it too. I love dark chocolate but if you are not a fan the yogurt will take the slight bitter edge off. 

I had a positive response from the staff and I even got to bring some back home! It states that it serves 16 which I think is about right as you don't need a big slice. 

This recipe was fun to do as it had an unusual ingredient and no flour. One thing it has taught me is that I need to start saving for a food processor!

Why not give it a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

  

How I lost my baking virginity

I have fond memories of when I was a child baking with my Mum, sister and Nanna, my sister and I fighting over the whisk, the horrible feel we both felt when my Mum scraped the bowl to get every last drop of mix in to the cases and us praying that there would be something left so we could lick the bowl. But that's another story. 
Back in 2009 one of my good friends Ceri turned 21. I had bought her something little but I wanted to do something special and this is when I lost my baking virginity...
Only having experiences with packet mixes when growing up I knew this would be the best place to start. Easy as pie...I mean...a piece of cake! I bought a simple packet mix which included cases and icing sugar, I also brought myself some colourful icing pens so I could write the Happy Birthday message.
This was the result:

Now, I know what you are thinking. The writing is wobbly, the icing is too runny and a child may have done a better job. Despite all this, I was very pleased, it was a triumph that I didn't burn them. The best thing about this whole process was the look on my friends face when I presented them to her.

From this day on I decided I would carry on baking. Not only did I love the process but that joy on my friends face made it all worth while :)

If anyone is going to start baking I would recommend starting with a packet mix. Minimal measuring needed (just water and a few eggs!) and it's the perfect opportunity to get to know your oven. (Believe me, every one is different.)

I hope you have enjoyed my first post, I guess I have now lost my blogging virginity! There will be more to come.

Happy baking! 

Ms B

xx