Recipe of the Week - Gluten free & Dairy free Carrot Cake

 

 

When I first set about making a free from carrot cake it seemed like a straightforward cake to adapt, and it was. After all, most carrot cake recipes use oil rather than butter and all that extra moisture could only be good for a gluten free cake.

 

I've added some orange to my cake as well and spent longer than was probably necessary debating with myself whether I should call it Carrot Cake or Carrot & Orange Cake! In the end I decided to stick with just Carrot Cake as it's more like a Carrot Cake with a hint of orange.

 

Anyway, onto the cake. I bake ours in a square brownie tin and it bakes in about 30 minutes. You could also bake it in a deeper round tin at a slightly lower temperature and for slightly longer if you wanted a deeper cake, or even in a loaf tin. It depends what you are after really. I find the depth of the squares from our brownie tin deep enough.

 

As this cake is dairy free, the topping is not the traditional cream cheese topping you often get on Carrot Cakes. There is a dairy free cream substitute available but none of us like the taste of it and so I top our cake with an orange flavoured butter icing.

 

Finally, if you want to make this with non free from ingredients it will work just fine. No need to adjust any of the quantities.

 

For the cake you will need:

2 eggs

140ml vegetable oil

Grated zest of one orange

200g brown sugar

300g grated carrot (about 4 medium carrots)

180g Doves Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsps ground cinnamon

1tsp mixed spice

 

For the icing you will need:

50g dairy free margarine

200g icing sugar

4 tsps orange juice

 

- Preheat oven to 180C (160C if you are baking in a deeper tin) and grease & line your tin.

- Beat the eggs in a bowl and then add the oil and orange zest.

- Add the sugar and carrots.

- In another bowl mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and the spices.

- Add to the carrot mix and mix together well, just with a wooden spoon is fine.

- Bake for around 30 minutes (or longer if you are using a deeper tin)

- While the cake cools make your icing.

- Add all the icing ingredients to a bowl and beat together with a mixer until smooth.

- Spread over the cooled cake.

 

 

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Recipe of the week - Easy Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

 

 

For our Valentines Day breakfast this year I wanted to try something a bit different. I really, really fancied some Cinnamon Rolls and so searched around for a good straightforward recipe. There are quite a few available online and this is one that I have adapted from some of those that I found.

 

I wanted the dough to be made in the breadmaker. Paul Hollywood would not approve, I'm sure, but then he doesn't have five children to fit in around his bread making! Besides, the lovely Mary Berry is often heard recommending time saving gadgets so I know she wouldn't mind.

 

I also wanted to make up the rolls up to the point of cooking them the night before, so that all I had to do in the morning was pop the uncooked rolls into the oven for 15 minutes and then we could enjoy them fresh and warm from the oven.

 

I'm pleased to say that my technique worked and on Valentine's morning we did indeed have fresh warm Cinnamon Rolls. Those boys who couldn't eat them had our usual weekend breakfast of pancakes so there were no complaints from them.

 

The cinnamon rolls were so good that I may or may not have eaten one (perhaps two) for my lunch on Valentine's Day too. Let's just say that I'm glad that I'm still nursing a little 16 month old so as to justify those extra calories!

 

I really can't recommend these enough.

 

For the dough you will need:

1 cup warm milk

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted

4 1/2 cups strong white flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup white sugar

2 1/2 tsps dried yeast

 

For the cinnamon filling you will need:

A little more butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

 

For the glaze you will need:

2oz icing sugar

enough water to make up into a drizzable icing

 

- Put the milk, eggs, melted butter, flour, salt, white sugar & yeast into the bread machine, select the 'dough' setting and start it working.

 

- When the cycle is finished, turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll out into a rectangle about 1-2cm thick. Spread the extra butter over the dough, as thick as you would if you were having some bread and butter.

- Mix the cinnamon and brown sugar and then spread it evenly all over your buttered dough.

- Roll the dough up like a Swiss roll, starting with the longer side.

- Cut the rolled up dough into about 12 even slices and place them in a greased, rectangular baking dish. Leave a little space between each roll as they will end up touching when they have their second rise.

- Cover with cling film and leave overnight. (Alternatively you could leave them to rise for about 30 minutes and then bake.)

- In the morning, preheat the oven to 180C, remove the cling film and bake the rolls for around 15 minutes until lovely and brown.

- While the rolls are cooking, make up a thickish icing .

- Remove the rolls from the oven and then drizzle with the icing.

- Enjoy as a lazy weekend breakfast.

 

 

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Recipe of the week - Strawberry Cake {Gluten Free & Dairy Free}

It is a well known fact in our house that there is one boy who just does not enjoy eating fruits. At a push he will eat an apple but that's about it. While we all enjoy lovely fresh berries in the summer he refuses to eat any. He won't eat dried fruit either.

 

However, he will eat this cake. Even if he does pick the strawberry decoration off the top of his slice!

 

It's such a lovely summery looking cake to make and the strawberries give the sponge a nice natural pink colour.

 

It is a great cake for in the summer when berries are in such abundance, but equally good just now when berries are no longer as sweet for eating on their own. And for when the clocks have gone back and you want just one more wee reminder of summer.

To make this with 'normal' non-allergy-free ingredients you don't need to adjust any of the quantities.

You will need:

for the cakes:

about 125g fresh strawberries

225g sugar

210g Doves Farm Wheat-Free Self Raising Flour

1 tsp baking powder

25g cornflour

225g dairy free margarine

4 eggs

for the butter-icing:

100g dairy free margarine

300g icing sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

~Put the strawberries in a food processor and blitz until you have quite small chunks. Not quite a smooth purée.

~Now simply add all of the other cake ingredients into a food mixer and beat well until everything is combined and it looks nice and light.

~Spoon into 3 greased and base lined 8 inch sandwich tins and bake at 180C for about 20-25 minutes.

~ To make the icing just add the icing ingredients to your mixer and beat well until you have a smooth icing. You might need to add a splash or two of your dairy free milk of choice to help it come together.

~When the cakes are cool, spread or pipe on some vanilla butter icing then decorate as you wish.

Speaking of summer memories.......

 

I'm a big fan of autumn and winter but this summer will be hard to beat!

 

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Recipe of the Week - Lemon & Coconut Cupcakes {gluten & dairy free}

 

 

 

It's been another of those busy weeks. I had a few things I was going to post this week and I just haven't had the time. Most evenings I was busy crocheting the little gifts for the boys to give their teachers as end of term presents. Tomorrow is the last day of term for them - hurray! I'll show the gifts off tomorrow though.

 

Tonight, though, there are these little experiments.

 

 

I had been wanting to try using coconut oil instead of dairy free margarine in a recipe for a while now. I'm a great believer that butter is much better for you than margarine, as it's so much more natural, but for those on a dairy free diet then there isn't that option. I've read all about the health benefits of coconut oil but the main reason I haven't tried using it in baking before is that Calum (11), who is one of my allergy boys, just doesn't like the taste of coconut! I don't actually understand that though, as one of his favourite dinners is a chicken curry I make with coconut milk in it! Still, I suppose the taste of it in a curry and in a cake is different.

 

Nevertheless, I wanted to try it out in a cake.

 

I was a bit concerned that the coconut might dry out the texture a bit, and with gluten free flour you need all the moisture you can get, so that's when I struck on the idea of adding lemon. Besides, with all this lovely warm weather we've been having, Lemon is a perfect summery flavour, don't you think?

 

One more thing that has put me off is the price of coconut oil. It certainly isn't as cheap as margarine! But if you have a Holland and Barrett store near you they have one of their Buy One Get Anything Else Free offers just now. That's a pretty good offer when you consider that coconut oil is £15 a jar!

 

For the cupcakes you will need:

 

4oz coconut oil

5oz sugar

6oz Doves Farm wheat free self raising flour

2 eggs

2tpsp rice milk

Grated rind of 1 lemon

 

For the icing you will need:

Juice of half a lemon

Enough icing sugar to make up a thickish icing.

 

 

All you need to do is put all of the cupcake ingredients into a bowl or freestanding mixer and beat well until everything is combined and smooth.

Spoon into cupcake cases and bake at 180c for about 15-20 minutes until golden.

Make up a spreadable icing while they cool down. Add enough icing sugar to the juice of half a lemon to make a spreadable but not too runny icing.

When the cakes have cooled then cover with icing.

 

And if you're wondering, these little cakes did indeed pass the Calum test!

 

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Recipe of the Week - Chinese Style Lemon Chicken {Gluten free & Dairy free}

 

I've been meaning to share this recipe for weeks now as I was so excited when I discovered how to make this fabulous gluten free batter. In fact, since first making this dish I have been on the lookout for other things to cover in batter and deep fry. Yes, I know that sounds very like I'm falling into the stereotyped Scot deep frying Mars bars. Don't worry, I haven't gone that far! I have, however, made some rather lovely onion rings using the following batter recipe. But more of that in another post, as I fear I am digressing too much and still not getting round to this recipe!

 

I first tried out this dish the weekend of Chinese New Year, when I thought it would be fun to have our own wee Chinese style banquet. Chinese takeaways aren't much of an option with all the allergies in our house, and this homemade version also has the benefit of being much, much cheaper!

 

Oh, it was so delicious!

 

There are three bits to this - the marinade, the batter and the sauce - but don't let that put you off as they are all really straightforward.

Firstly the marinade:

Mix

1tbsp sherry

1tbsp wheat free soy sauce

Juice of 1 lemon

And then add about

2lbs chicken breast, chopped,

Leave to marinate for about 20 minutes. You can just leave it to marinade while you get on with mixing everything else together.

 

Now for the batter:

 

Whisk together

2 eggs

6 tablespoons of cornflour

 

And finally the sauce:

 

Mix together

5 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp cornflour

Juice of half a lemon

One lemon, sliced

100ml hot water

 

Now to put all the bits together.

- In a pan with a lid (I use our wok for this) heat up enough vegetable oil to deep fry your chicken pieces. Or you could use a deep drier if you have one.

- Lift your chicken pieces out of the marinade and cost in the batter then deep fry them in very hot oil until they are a golden colour. You will need to turn them to get the colour on both sides. It's also best to cook them in batches rather than trying to tip the whole lot in at once!

- Tip the cooked chicken pieces into a dish lined with kitchen towel to soak up some of the excess fat!

- While you are batch frying the chicken, in another pan pour in your sauce ingredients and gently heat up.

- Once all of your chicken is cooked, pour the sauce over the top. You could serve it up straight away but if you pop it in a moderate oven for about 10-15 minutes the sauce kind of soaks into the chicken and gives it even more flavour.

- Serve with fried rice and prawn crackers.

 

To make our fried rice I cooked our usual amount of rice. While it was draining I fried a chopped onion, added a few handfuls of frozen peas ( if you have no egg allergies you could also crack in an egg or two at this point) then tipped in the cooked rice. Add a few shakes of your gluten free soy sauce and mix it all together well.

 

Et voila! or whatever the Manderin equivalent is.

 

 

 

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Recipe of the Week - Maggie Mary's Oatcakes

Maggie Mary is an older lady who lives quite near my parents' house on Lewis. She is one of those ladies who is so lovely on the inside that it shines through on the outside. She has a quiet, gentle nature and is highly thought of by all who know her. Each time we go home we always enjoy a visit with her and she will always have a fresh batch of these wonderful oatcakes or some of her equally delicious scones to share.

Last time we were home she shared her recipe with me, although she didn't really have many measurements, more of 'some of this and some of that'!

They really are the best oatcakes you will try!

If you don't need to make these allergy free, then please use real butter rather than margarine. You can't beat the flavour of real butter in them.

If you do need to make them allergy free then substitute dairy free and wheat free ingredients and they will work perfectly without having to alter any of the quantities.

You will need:

7oz medium oatmeal (not rolled oats and not pinhead)

3oz self raising flour

2oz sugar

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

3oz butter, melted

enough milk to mix together to a dough.

~Mix the oatmeal, flour, sugar, soda and salt together in a bowl.

~Add the melted butter and mix in.

~Add enough milk to get a stiff, roll-able dough.

~Cover your work-surface with a mix of flour and oatmeal and gently roll out the dough.

~Cut out using cutters or alternatively use a knife to cut into traditional triangle shapes.

~Place on a well greased baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20-30 minutes. They should be lightly golden on the top.

~Allow to cool enough to handle and then cool properly on a wire cooling rack.

~Try serving them when still a little warm with some butter and smoked cheese. Or to accompany a nice warm bowl of soup. Or with some butter and jam...... 

You can just see at the top of this photo that we even ate some straight off the tray with nothing on them!

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Recipe of the Week - Spiced Salmon

In total contrast to all the chocolate indulgence that has been going on over on the Housefulofboys Facebook page, I thought I would share a nice healthy recipe to get Recipe of the Week back up and running after the holidays.

I'm pretty sure I have confessed before to not being a huge fish fan. I know, I know, shame on me with my island heritage. I do make homemade fish fingers for the boys from time to time (recipe can be found under the allergy free tab) and I do eat them too, as long as I have a good dollop of mayonnaise with them!

The one fish that I do like is salmon. Not the cheapest fish, I know.

However, I was quite pleased recently to discover a 'value brand' salmon in our supermarket which meant that buying enough for 6 wasn't nearly as expensive as it usually is! Which also means that we can have this yummy dish more often.

It's ideal as a super fast, super easy midweek dinner.

If you can get a whole side of salmon it's also quite impressive as a dinner for friends.

You will need:

One side of salmon or about 4 pieces

2 tsps honey

2 tsps mustard

1.5 tsps ground ginger

1.5 tsps paprika

~ In a bowl, mix together the honey, mustard, ginger and paprika.

~ Line a baking sheet with tin foil and sit your salmon on top.

~ Spread the spice mixture across the top of your salmon.

~ Roast, uncovered, in your oven at 180c for around 20 minutes.

I served ours up with some fresh veggies and lightly spiced rice. It's also yummy with some nice new potatoes but this is the wrong time of year for the really tasty ones so I'm sticking to the rice until the summer!

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Recipe of the week - Chequerboard Cake (Gluten & Dairy Free)

Well, after far too long an absence it's time to return to the Recipe of the Week again. And what a fancy looking recipe to return with, although not at all tricky to make!

My brother got a new job last week and it seemed the perfect excuse to try out this cake. It's very much a congratulations-on-your-new-job type of cake. Or any other sort of reason to celebrate sort of cake. 

The fun part of the cake is that it looks like an ordinary chocolate cake until you slice it open and reveal...

..a real 'ta-da' moment inside. 

Doesn't that look fancy? Like it took you hours to make? Not at all though.

The idea came from one of my new birthday cookbooks, the new Great British Bake-off book (How to turn your everyday bakes into a showstopper, or something similar) Anyone else loving the new series? It's not just me though, the boys are big fans too!

Anyway, I saw this cake in there but of course wanted to make it gluten and dairy free so I used my trusty old Victoria Sponge recipe. But doubled.

Here's how you do it.....

You will need;

12oz sugar

12oz dairy free margarine

12oz Doves Farm (or own choice) Gluten Free Self Raising Flour

6 eggs

about 4 tbsp soya milk

2oz cocoa powder

3, 8 inch round sandwich cake tins, greased and base lined

chocolate buttercream icing 

~ Put the sugar, margarine, flour and eggs into a free standing mixer and beat well until it is light and fluffy. Add the milk and then mix again until it is all mixed together.

~Once you have mixed up your basic sponge, put half of the mix into a different bowl. To this bowl you add the cocoa powder.

~Now put the chocolate mix into one piping bag and the plain mix into another. I use disposable piping bags and just snipped the end off them both but didn't add a piping nozzle. I didn't have two nozzles the same size you see!

~Pipe a circle of chocolate mix around the outside of one of the tins. Now pipe a circle of the plain mix just inside this. Follow this with another chocolate one and finish with a blob of plain in the middle. I don't have a photo of the uncooked version, but here is what you are aiming for. The circles don't have to be perfectly neat, as you can see!

~In the other two tins do the opposite pattern, so start with the plain mix in them.

~Bake at about 180C for around 20 minutes, then leave to cool.

~Once the cakes are cool it's time to layer them together. I had planned to make up a batch of chocolate buttercream (which you can find here in my very first ever post!) but we were due for dinner at my brother's house about 10 minutes before and so I just used a tub and a half of good old Betty Crocker icing that I keep in the cupboard for just such an emergency. (Betty Crocker is gluten and dairy free)

~Make sure that the cake you put on the bottom is one of the ones that you have two of. In my case, the one with the plain mix on the outside. Cover with a thinish layer of chocolate icing, add the middle layer (the one with the chocolate on the outside) and cover with another layer of icing and then add the top layer.

~Cover the whole of your cake, sides and all, with chocolate icing so as not to give away the surprise. My sister in law was under the belief that it was a plain old chocolate cake (no bad thing) until the boys all came through to the kitchen after dinner saying 'we want to see the cake being sliced!'

~To add a wee celebratory touch, we finished off the decor with some gold coloured sugar sprinkles.

In case you are wondering how many slices it gives? We got 13 that night. Four adult sized ones and 7 boy sized ones. Not a crumb left over.

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