Vegan gluten free fairy cakes

Posted May 26, 2016

vegan gf fairycakes

My daughter loves home made cakes. As a coeliac who’s allergic to eggs (and very fussy) she has limited choices when it comes to cake so I’m constantly trying to create the perfect baked good for her. I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of different types of flour recently in an effort to eliminate the claggy, chalky texture that you sometimes get in gluten free cakes and I’ve really fallen in love with Kinako, made from roasted soya beans and which tastes like caramel peanuts. I’ve used it here, but you can easily omit it (I give you that option) as it’s fairly hard to get hold of. I also often add ground almonds to a gluten free cakes as they also help with the texture. I’ve included them here but if you can’t eat nuts just omit them and make up the weight in gf flour.

These little cakes, which are sort of a cross between a fairy cake and a cupcake came about because we have friends coming for lunch on Monday (a bank holiday) and their youngest daughter can’t eat dairy. I still wanted to treat everyone to something indulgent so I decided to try making vegan gluten free fairy cakes with chocolate frosting. I used the recipe on the back of the Doves Farm flour packet as my starting point and added a few tweaks (the Kinako for one), plus my own icing which is based on the Hummingbird Bakery frosting recipe and is amazing. I think they turned out really well – light but moist with a beautiful caramel undertone. I think my kids liked the frosting best, but then they always do.

Ingredients:

100g dairy free spread [I recommend using ‘Pure’ sunflower spread. It tastes and bakes the best of the most commonly available dairy free spreads. Pure also do a soya and olive version but don’t get those they don’t bake well]
100g caster sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or extract
50g gluten free self raising flour blend (I use and recommend Doves)
25g ground almonds
35g Kinako flour (or omit this and just use 85g Self Raising Doves flour blend). You can buy Kinako from Souschef.com or from JapanCentre.com
25g chickpea (or ‘gram) flour mixed with 4 tablespoons of water (this replaces the egg)
3 tablespoons of dairy free milk. I use Koko coconut drink; you could use soya milk or almond milk. I think the Koko cooks best and you can’t taste it in the finished result.

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180 fan
Cream together the sugar and dairy free spread (I use a free standing mixer)
Mix in the chickpea (gram) flour mixed with the water
Mix in the dairy free milk and then the vanilla
Mix in the flours, baking powder and ground almonds (I should tell you to sieve the flour but tbh I rarely bother)
You could add some dairy free chocolate chips at this point if you fancied
Half fill 12 cupcake cases with the batter
Bang the baking tray down on your work surface a couple of times
Cook the cakes for 18 minutes or until golden and an inserted cake tester comes out clean.

For the frosting:

Beat together (I use a free standing electric mixer with a paddle attachment but you can use a hand held electric whisk) 100g of dairy free spread (again I use Pure sunflower), 300g of icing sugar ad 40g of gluten free cocoa powder (I used Green and Blacks). If you’re using a free standing machine set it on medium slow until the mixture comes together then turn it down to slow and add 40ml of dairy free milk one tablespoon at a time. Then turn the speed up to high and beat the icing until it’s light and fluffy.

Pipe the icing onto the cooled cakes with a swirly flourish and serve.

vegan gf fairycakes 2

Spiced Maple Cashew Bark

Posted December 22, 2015

Filed under chocolate, Dark chocolate, Easy recipes, Edible Christmas gifts, egg free, Gluten free, Milk chocolate, Sweet things, tea time treats, white chocolate

chocolat bark 2

This is an absolutely knock out edible chocolate gift. I’ve given a few away already this Christmas and everyone says it’s delicious. The recipe came from Olive Magazine; it looks and tastes impressive but it’s a doddle to make and the recipe is very flexible – you can adapt it to suit any tastes or dietary requirements (I include a non nut version below for allergy sufferers..). Utterly yum!

Ingredients:

100g unsalted cashew nuts
25g unsalted butter
a generous pinch of ground allspice
a large pinch of sea salt flakes (actually you’ll need a few large pinches as you go along)
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
200g milk chocolate (I use Green and Blacks; don’t use Cadburys it doesn’t work in baking)
200g dark chocolate (with high cocoa content; again I use G+B
30g white chocolate (I use G+B again but any good supermarket cooking brand will do, just don’t use Nestle)

Method:

Put the cashews and unsalted butter along with the allspice, salt and maple syrup into a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat.
Cook until all the cashews are golden then tip out onto baking parchment, scatter over some more sea salt flakes and cool. (You’ll need to stir them from time to time, or do that cheffy pan flip thing to move them about. I like the pan flip thing).
Melt the milk and dark chocolate separately in bain maries (ie glass bowls over pans of barely simmering water).
Let the chocolates cool a little. Pour them out separately but making one large rectangle altogether, into a small baking tray lined with parchment.
Mix them together carefully with a fork to make a nice swirly pattern. Leave to cool for a bit.
Roughly chop the hardened cashews and scatter over the chocolate. Add some more salt (this may seem like a lot but you need to be able to taste it and it’s not too much of a sodium overload if you use sea salt flakes). Chill until set.
Melt the white chocolate (in a bain marie) and drizzle over the top in very thin squiggly lines using a metal spoon. (Be careful with white chocolate; it has such a low/non existent cocoa content that if you let it get too hot it seizes really easily; keep it cool and keep an eye on it).
Chill again until set then cut into shards. I put it into clear cellophane bags, tie with ribbon and label with a luggage tag to make it look fancy. [Store in the fridge as it softens very quickly].
To make this suitable for nut allergy sufferers: substitute chopped up Crunchie bar or Green and Blacks butterscotch flavour chocolate for the cashews (I made some like this and used a combination of both, which was delicious).

Tomato Chilli Jam

Posted December 22, 2015

Filed under chilli jam, Edible Christmas gifts, egg free, Gluten free, Starters, Tomato Chilli Jam, vegan, vegetarian, Winter warmers

tomato chilli jam trio

Mr Arabella Cooks and I travelled round New Zealand eight years ago. We knew we’d be experiencing phenomenal wines there but hadn’t expected to be so blown away by the food. The portions were enormous but it was all so delicious I put on a stone and a half in three weeks. In Wellington we stayed with some old friends of Mr AC who made this amazing tomato chilli jam for us (along with some gorgeous barbequed salmon – match made in heaven) and I still salivate when thinking about it to this day. It’s tangy, sweet, punchy and a little bit tingly (though really not too much) and I recently got in touch with Melissa and Dave to ask for the recipe as I wanted to make a batch to give as Christmas gifts this year. It’s an adapted Peter Gordon recipe; it’s the perfect Christmas or hostess gift but do keep a few jars back for yourself as it’s unbelievably good with cheese (I love it with soft goats cheese), ham, salmon (it’s the perfect accompaniment to salmon en croute), toasted sandwiches, in bolognaise, on pizzas – as Melissa herself says “it gives everything some zhush!”. Peter Gordon suggests glazing fish or chicken with it before grilling, smearing onto lamb or pork legs before roasting or spreading to a slice of toast and topping with a fried egg. Its uses are endless. Try it. You’ll love it!

Recipe (makes roughly 10 – 15 small Killner Jars worth)

2.5 kg ripe tomatoes
6 red chillis, 5 of them de-seeded; for a mild but punchy jam leave in the seeds of ONE of the chills; if you want it hotter, leave in more of the seeds; for a milder jam, leave out all the seeds.
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
three thumbs of ginger, peeled
100ml fish sauce
1kg golden caster sugar (or plain white if you don’t have golden)
500ml red wine vinegar

Method:

Blend half the tomatoes, all the chillis, garlic and ginger with the fish sauce in a blender (don’t de-seed the tomatoes, they contain the pectin which thickens and sets the jam).
Put the puree into two large pots and add the vinegar and sugar to both (divide equally).
Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then add the remaining tomatoes (chopped finely) and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Skim off any scum that forms and stir every 5 minutes. Scrape the bottom and sides of the pan every now and again to ensure an even cook and release the solids that collect at the bottom.
When the jam is done (if you put a dollop onto a warmed side plate and push the edge of the dollop with a spoon it should stay where it is and not slide back to where it was), spoon the mixture into sterilised Kilner jars (to sterilise just run through the dishwasher and take out just before you need to use them so they are still warm), top with a small circle of baking parchment, then once the jam has cooled, close the lid and store in the fridge until needed. I used an old school Dynamo to make the label for the jars which looks lovely (a Dynamo label maker doesn’t cost much and you can get Kilner jars fairly cheaply on Amazon). This makes a super gift along with the spiced maple cashew bark in the photo below. Yum!

tomato chilli jam single edible gifts

Gluten free white chocolate blondies with dark chocolate chunks

Posted October 20, 2015

Filed under Baking, chocolate, desserts, egg free, Egg free desserts, Gluten free, tea time treats, white chocolate

It’s late, I’m tired, I’ve been to Manchester and back to today and have only just finished working, but I promised someone I’d blog this very tasty blondie by tomorrow and at ten o’clock tomorrow morning I’m going to deepest, darkest Devon with no wifi or phone signal (the reality of this is just sinking in..) so it’s now or never. As you know the daughter has coeliac disease; she’s a very fussy eater; she likes chocolate (no fussiness with that foodstuff – what a shocker) and she’s also allergic to eggs. I’ve developed a blondie recipe that she can eat and actually doesn’t taste like it’s gluten AND egg free (it’s not crumbly and it has a decent rise) so here it is. (I made it with my new miracle egg replacer discovery – whipped chick pea brine, but I’ll give you directions for using the real thing too). It’s yum. When I left this morning the whole cake was intact as per the photo above; on my return this evening there were a few crumbs left. Mr Arabella Cooks and three lively children had demolished almost all of it (and I’ve just polished the rest off).

Ingredients:

1 x 150g bar of gluten free white cooking chocolate (I use Green and Blacks) broken up.
200g unsalted butter, cut up into small chunks
150g of caster sugar
1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 of a teaspoon of salt
150g of gluten free plain flour (I use Doves)
50g of gluten free BREAD flour (it has xanthan gum added to it which helps to bind your bake)
Half a bar of dark gluten free cooking chocolate (I use Green and Blacks)
200 ml of milk (full fat)
9 tablespoons of aquafaba (the liquid left when you drain a can of chickpeas), whipped to stiff peaks OR 3 large eggs

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 180 (160 fan) degrees
Grease and line a square 18cm/7 inch cake tin with baking parchment
Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a large bowl over a small saucepan with a small amount of water in it, on a low heat. White chocolate (which isn’t really chocolate) does not react well to being heated too quickly or too much so watch it.
Whisk your aquafaba to stiff peaks with a hand held or free standing mixer; if using eggs, whisk them to soft peaks then add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat until it looks like mousse.
(With aquafaba): Mix the flours, sugar, salt and baking powder together in another bowl.
Make a well in the centre and add the melted chocolate and butter mixture. Stir to combine.
Fold in the whipped aquafaba using a metal spoon (you want to try and retain as much air as you can; it’s difficult as the aquafaba collapses more easily than real eggs).
You want a nice ‘dropping consistency’ batter, so now add as much of the milk as you need to achieve this.
Add the dark chocolate chips to the batter and stir. Add the batter to the prepared tin.
Bake. In my oven it took 45-50 minutes to cook. All ovens vary so test it with a cake skewer at 25 minutes in and then every 5 minutes until it’s done. It’s OK for this to be a bit gooey in the middle – the best brownie/blondies are; it’s better for them to be under than over baked, but you don’t want too much floury taste left (esp as it’s gluten free flour) so make sure it’s got a good colour on the top and is done sufficiently.
Remove from the oven; allow to cool in the tin then remove very gently and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
If you’re using real eggs to make this:
1. You’ve melted the butter and white choc; you’ve whisked the eggs and added the sugar.
2. Add the butter and choc to the eggs and keep whisking.
3. Add the flours and baking powder directly to the egg and chocolate mixture and fold it in.
4. You shouldn’t need to use the milk if you’re using eggs, but if your batter is too thick, add a little to loosen it
5. Stir in the chopped up dark chocolate
6. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake in the oven. I didn’t use eggs so couldn’t say for sure how long to cook it for but I’d say between 25 and 35 minutes; check it after 25 minutes as above..

Enjoy x

Bank holiday gluten and egg free pancakes

Posted May 25, 2015

Filed under Breakfast, egg free, Gluten free, Sweet things

We travelled back from Wiltshire today and ended up having a very late lunch, so all I could be bothered to do for the kids’ tea was pancakes. These pancakes are great. They contain no gluten or egg so my daughter can eat them, but the whole family love them. They’re light and fluffy, simple to make and really tasty. And you don’t need to leave the batter to rest so if you want to make them on the spur of the moment, you can.

The main ingredient is buckwheat flour (I use a brand that is labelled gluten free, just to be on the safe side), but the secret, I think, is to add a bit of gluten free bread flour, because it has xanthan gum in it. Xanthan gum is often used as a binder and thickener in gluten free recipes (gluten is what makes the stuff it’s in sticky) and having it already mixed into your flour saves a lot of faff. I also use a branded egg replacer called, originally, ‘no egg’, to really ensure a nice thick consistency. And just for good measure, a tablespoon of Flaxseed because I read somewhere that it can be used as a binder to replace eggs. You could probably leave it out, but at the very least it replaces some of the Omega 3 that real eggs would bring to the dish, plus it contains calcium and iron, so I like to put it in.

Ingredients:

130g gluten free buckwheat flour. I use Doves.
70g gluten free bread flour. Again, Doves is good. If you can’t find bread flour just use gluten free plain flour.
1 teaspoon of baking powder.
2 tablespoons of golden caster sugar.
1 tablespoon of Flaxseed mixed with a tablespoon of water. I sieve the Flaxseed so there are no husks in the batter and Delilah (that’s the daughter) can’t detect its presence (she is monumentally fussy).
2 teaspoons of Organ ‘No Egg’ mixed with 1 tablespoon of water.
1/2 a teaspoon of regular table salt.
200ml milk (any kind; I use full fat) and 150ml natural yoghurt (I usually use a nice thick Greek one) mixed together.

Method:

Sieve the flours and baking powder together into a bowl.
Add the sugar and salt and make a well in the centre.

3. Mix the milk and yoghurt with the egg replacer and Flaxseed, and stir into the flour.

4. If the mixture is too thick, thin it with more milk. You need it to be fairly thick though; it should look roughly like this:

5. Heat some sunflower or groundnut oil in a frying pan over a medium high heat. Add a spoonful of batter. Because it’s a thick and sticky mixture, you’ll need to shape and form it a bit in the pan. I find this sort of ladle really helpful:

6. When you can see little air bubbles in the top of the mixture in the pan, flip the pancake over and cook the other side:

7. Put the cooked pancakes onto kitchen paper to absorb excess oil then serve with your choice of topping. Diggy likes maple syrup, Delilah prefers Nutella: