Category Archives: special occasions

IT’s CHRISTTTTTMAAAAASSSS! :) A rich tasting christmas cake that’s gluten and fat free!

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Well I had a special request to see if I could come up with a gluten free christmas cake. The big challenge was not only making it gluten free but also dairy free without turning to processed soya margarine… so I had little play around this week and I think I’ve got a winner here.  At first I wasn’t too sure about it, I was worried it was more of a bread pudding or tea loaf than a christmas cake. It’s now been tested by a good friend and christmas cake connoisseur and she gave it the thumbs up so I think it’s ready to be posted here!

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Gluten free flour blend:
65g Gram flour and 105g Rice flour
3/4 tsp Xantham gum
1 tsp Baking powder

or 170g White spelt flour for a low gluten option

For the rest of the cake:

85g Raw coconut sugar (or dark muscovado)
85g Currants
85g Sultanas
70g Raisins
25g Dried cherries– chopped
25g Dried cranberries
140ml Soya milk (or oat milk, rice milk, or coconut milk)
85g Ground linseed (just pop whole linseeds in a coffee grinder and whizz until powdery)
enough water to cover well.
Grated rind of 1/2 – 1 lemon
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate soda
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
1/8 tsp Ground cloves
1/2 tsp Mixed spice
pinch Himalayan rock salt
45ml Brandy (optional)

Sieve the gluten free flour blend (gram and rice flour, xantham gum and baking powder) (or spelt flour) together with the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and mixed spice in to a large mixing bowl. Put the ground linseed into a small bowl and cover with water. Allow the linseed to soak up the water, then add a bit more, you want a gelatinous consistency. Stir it in to the flour mix. It will be quite hard to mix, add a little water if necessary, but not too much.

Stir in the sugar and dried fruit. Add the lemon rind and give it a good but gentle stir. Then add all but 2 tbsp of the soya milk and mix gently again. Gently warm the 2 tbsp of soya milk in a microwave or on the hob – don’t let it boil, just warm it (you should be able to put your finger in it without it burning!). Add the bicarbonate of soda to the warm milk and then add to the cake mixture amd stir gently until combined.

Pour the mixture into a lined 7 inch cake tin.  Smooth the top and make a small hollow in the centre. Bake at 180 C for one hour, then turn the oven down to 160 C and bake for a further 30 – 45 mins (or until a skewer insered in the middle comes out clean). Keep an eye on it while it’s baking.

Before you bake it you can add blanched almonds to the top. If you do this then make sure you check the cake regularly and when they start to brown cover the cake with foil for the rest of the baking time.

Once the cake is cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the cake tin. Allow to cool.

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If you are going to use the brandy then once the cake is cool prick it with a cocktail stick or a small skewer  and feed with a third of the brandy. Then wrap the cake in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight container. You can pour the rest of the brandy over the cake at weekly intervals. With the Brandy in it it will keep for up to a year (apparently!), without it will last 4 weeks if stored properly.

Obviously you can then add marzipan and royal icing to this. I am going to have a go at creating some dairy and gluten free marzipan and royal icing so watch this space!

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Salt and Spice and all things nice! The smallest pumpkin in the world and a yummy pumpkin seed snack!

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Well, when I asked for a small pumpkin I wasn’t expecting something quite as small as this….

But anyone who knows me knows I love a challenge so not to be thwarted I decided I’d do my best with this little munchkin of a pumpkin and lo and behold look what I managed to create! Scary eh?

So there wasn’t much meat in this little pumpkin so rather than create the pumpkin-based hallowe’en cake I had planned I decided instead to do something funky with the seeds. It’s a sweet salty treat which sounds odd but combines some wonderful autumn flavours. I adapted it from the SNOG healthy treats book.

Salty and Spicey Sweet potato, raisin, pumpkin seed yumminess!

So I started off by creating some salted roasted seeds. Take your pumpkin seeds, remove all the stringy bits of pumpkin flesh and put in a pan. For every half cup of pumpkin seeds add 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of salt. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and allow to cool slightly.

Then spread them out in one layer on a baking tray and place in an oven at 200 degrees C for anything from 5 – 15 minutes. Just keep checking them as it will depend how big the seeds are. Mine took around 8 minutes 🙂

These are yummy as they are or you can hull (de-husk) them if you really want to (I couldn’t be bothered!). Eat them just like this or use them in the next bit of the recipe.

Take 1 sweet potato and cut it into 1cm cubes. Spread on a baking tray with 2 – 3 tablespoons of the salted roasted pumpkin seeds. Add a handful of raisins and then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of coconut palm sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Finally drizzle over some coconut oil (approx 2 tablespoons) and place in the oven at 190 degrees C for about 20 – 25 minutes until the sweet potato is cooked through and the sugar is caramelised. Stir occasionally.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then enjoy on it’s own or spoon it over some natural yoghurt (or ice cream!). It sounds odd but trust me – the sweetness of the sweet potato and raisins go really well with the salty roasted seeds and the cinnamon adds a lovely autumnal twist! Divine and healthy too! 🙂

Happy Hallowe’en!

Dad’s Ginger Cake (dairy-free, low-gluten)

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Nine years ago today my dad passed away. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about him, miss him and wish he was still here.  It may seem a little odd but I like to do something “nice” to remember him on this day and since baking is something I love (and the results are something he loved!) I baked a ginger cake this weekend in his honour! Ginger cake was one of his favourites, though being a bit odd 😉  whenever he was offered a slice  he would usually tell us he couldn’t possibly have it then and that he’d save it and have it for breakfast.. and he did! 🙂 We always used to take the mickey out of him for it and it still makes me chuckle to think about it. This cake is sticky and gooey and just gets better the longer you leave it in the tin (IF you can leave it alone that is!)

So, Dad, this cake’s for you! I’m sure you’d love it 🙂

1/2 cup Almond oil
1 cup Coconut sugar / unrefined raw sugar
1/2 cup Molasses
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
2 cups Spelt flour or gluten free flour mix
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp ground Ginger
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
2/3 cup boiling Water
6 tbsp pureed Apple
1/4 – 1/2 cup Crystallised ginger

Preheat the oven to 170 C and line a small cake tin with greaseproof paper (I used a square brownie tray approx 8 inch square).

Mix the sugar and oil together in a large bowl. Add the molasses, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in to the mix and stir well. Sieve the flour with the baking powder and ginger into a large bowl and leave to one side. Put the bicarbonate of soda into a wet measuring cup and add the boiling water then immediately pour the mixture into the sugar/oil/molasses mix and stir to combine. Add the flour gradually and stir well until there are no lumps.
Add the apple and mix well. Finally stir in the crystallised ginger. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 40 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack to cool. Then enjoy!

Raw gluten free, dairy free chili chocolates

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The Easter bunny was a bit late getting to my house this weekend but thankfully he did finally make it .. and look what he brought!

These are super easy and quick.

50g cacao butter

40g cacao  powder

1 – 2 tbsp sweet freedom/ Agave (to taste)

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

Melt the cacao butter and then stir in the rest of the ingredients. Pour into a silicone chocolate mould and leave in the fridge to set. For the eggs you need to do each half separately then use a bit of melted mixture to glue the set halves together. These chocs don’t do well at warm temperatures so store them in the fridge until ready to eat!

Fun Fairy No-dairy Cakes – for you and the kids (or just you..!)

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Everyone loves a fairy cake don’t they? And I bet you all remember the first time you made them with mum, or dad, or gran or the cat! 😉 I certainly do and whenever I see them now they take me right back to those days – the excitement of watching them rise in the oven, getting to lick the bowl, and the best bit – icing and decorating them! So I thought, as spring is in the air, Easter is coming up, and school holidays are on the horizon that it was about time to post a fun recipe for fairy cakes that’s dairy free and low gluten for you to make with the kids. It’s not just for kids though – I don’t have kids and I still loved making them (not sure what that says about me though 😉 ) and better yet they’re only about 125 kcals each!

These went down well with my tasters Colette (from Pure Form Fitness Kitchen) and her hubby Rod, “better than normal cupcakes” apparently :). My Gran (who is 97 and an amazing baker) told me it was the best cake she’d tried so I take that as a good thing 🙂 See what you all think 🙂

1 cup of non-dairy milk (I used Soya milk but you could use almond milk or coconut milk if you prefer)
1 tsp Cider apple vinegar
1 1/4 cups Spelt flour
2 Tbsp Cornflour
3/4 cup Raw unrefined sugar/ coconut palm sugar
3/4 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt
1/3 cup Olive oil
2 1/4 tsp Vanilla extract
Raw golden icing sugar/normal icing sugar – enough to ice them!
Juice of half a lemon (if you want lemony icing)
Decorations – mini eggs, flake, smarties, your choice of non-dairy chocolate, sugar balls etc
Kids (optional 😉 )

Preheat oven to 350 F. Put the soya milk and vinegar together in bowl and whisk together, then leave to curdle for a few minutes. Add the soya milk mixture, oil, sugar and vanilla extract to a large bowl and mix together. Sieve the flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the liquid mixture and stir well until no large lumps remain. Pour into cupcake liners in a muffin pan – this should make approximately 15 cakes. Place in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once done place on a wire rack to cool.

Easter fairy cakes 🙂

Wait until they’re really cool to ice them. Mix up some icing using the icing sugar and a few drops of fresh lemon juice (if desired) and water until you get a paste-like consistency. Ice the cakes and then let the fun begin – decorating! The world is your oyster – you can do whatever you like. For Easter why not try making some little chocolate birds nests or flowers, or you can have a go at a little bunny. To make the ears slice the top off one of the cakes (inevitably you will have one that has risen too high so you can use that) and carve into ear shapes. Ice lightly and then stick on with more icing. They tend to flop a bit but I kinda like that! 🙂 Then eat!

PANCAKES!!!

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Ah pancake day is here again! I was going to try to resist jumping on the pancake posting bandwagon but I just can’t help myself!

There are loads of awesome recipes out there but this year I’m going for this gluten-free  recipe from Pure Form Fitness. I’ve used homemade puree’d apple as the egg subsitute and they’re light, fluffy and frankly delicious! I’m having my first batch (of many!) with fruit and maple syrup! Then I’m cracking out the lemon and sugar I think…..

Another fab recipe for vegan pancakes is from the Toxic Vegan. I tried these yesterday and they’re yummy!

And this popped in to my inbox this morning  from Paperbagblog which is FULL of lovely sounding recipes so give them a go!

Hope you all have a lovely pancake day! I’m off to troff some more .. nom nom nom 🙂

Raw chocolate truffles! :)

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As it’s valentine’s day I just had to give this recipe for raw chocolate truffles a try. I modified the recipe a bit – I subsituted the honey in the original recipe with Agave and because they tasted a bit sweet to me I added in a tablespoon of carob powder too. They’re not half bad for a healthy truffle and very easy to make!

a perfect post dinner treat

This will make loads! I cut the ingredients down by a third and it made 10 decent sized truffles, but I’ve put the original amounts here so you can decide for yourselves how many to make! 🙂

3/4 cup Raw Cacao Powder

2 cups of Ground Almonds

1/2 cup Agave Syrup

3 tbsp Carob Powder

1 tbsp Coconut oil

Dessicated coconut for rolling

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. If the coconut oil is too solid you may need to soften it first in the microwave. Once combined roll into truffles and roll in dessicated coconut. They can be eaten immediately but are best if chilled first – either in the freezer or fridge for as long as you can wait! 🙂

Love is in the air! and in my cake tin…

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I am not a big valentine’s day person to be honest, at least not in it’s commercial form but as an excuse to make cute little heart shaped yummy things then I think it’s great! 😉

Sooo I’ve been playing again and have come up with a few simple, tasty, low gluten, dairy free valentine’s treats! These are available in limited numbers to order, just drop me a line if you’d like some.

Ginger love hearts

spice up your valentine's day

1/3 cup Olive oil

3/4 cup unrefined raw sugar (golden raw caster sugar, coconut palm sugar, or dark raw cane sugar)

1/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup soya milk

1 cup amaranth flour / quinoa flour

1 cup gluten free flour mix (make your own or you can use an organic pre-mixed one. If you want low gluten not gluten free then go for spelt flour instead of the amaranth and gluten free flours)

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 and 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt salt

This recipe will make about 50 small heart biscuits (2 – 3 cm) so you may want to halve it or even quarter it depending how many you want and how big your cutters are.

Whisk the oil and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the soya milk and the molasses and whisk all together. Sieve the flours, spices and baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda in to the wet ingredients and mix until it forms a dough. The dough may seem quite moist. You want it to be workable but not so sticky that you can’t lift it. Add a bit more flour if it is too wet. Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge to chill for an hour (the dough can be left in the fridge for several days so you don’t have to use it all at once. It can also be frozen).

Preheat the oven to 175 C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Roll the dough out on a floured surface. It’s worth trying small amounts of dough at a time and be generous with the flour. It will stick a bit but don’t worry. You want it to be rolled out fairly thin but not too thin – maybe 5mm thick or so. Use a small heart shaped cutter (I use a 2 – 3cm cutter) to cut out the biscuits and transfer to the baking tray. Bake for 8 minutes. Then remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. They will seem soft when they come out the oven but as they cool they harden. If you want super crispy biscuits just pop them back in the oven for another few minutes.

Give them to the one you love.. or just eat them all yourself!

(these are available in bags of 20 for £2.50 – contact me for more details)

Brownie love bites

chocolately loveliness!

165g Silken tofu

100g white spelt flour

65g Whole-wheat spelt flour

70g Cocoa powder

6 tbsp Water

8 tbsp Agave syrup  AND 2 tbsp Date syrup

200g unrefined raw sugar/ coconut palm sugar

A handful of chopped pecans and dried cherries

2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp Ground brown linseed

1.5 tbsp Hot water

1/4 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Salt

Mix the ground linseeds with the 1 1/2 tablespoons of hot water and set aside to thicken.  Preheat the oven to 180 C  and then line an 8-inch x 8-inch x 2-inch baking tin with greaseproof paper and lightly oil.

Blend the tofu, water, agave syrup, date syrup, cocoa powder, linseed mixture, and vanilla extract until completely smooth. Place the remaining ingredients, except the pecans and cherries, in a mixing bowl and stir until they are well combined. Then pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir well. Finally, gently fold in the pecans and cherries.  Pour the mix into the tin and place in the oven for 30 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins, then cool on a wire rack. Whilst still warm use a small heart cutter (2 – 3 cm) to cut out heart shaped brownie bites. You should get 12 – 15 out of one tray of brownie (and you get to eat all the little off cuts!) 🙂

Available in bags of 5 for £4

Chocolate orange cupcakes – full of gluten free dairy free chocolately love!

perfect to share

1 cup rice flour

3/4 cup raw unrefined sugar (coconut palm sugar, raw cane sugar etc)

1 cup soya milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp natural valencia orange extract (omit this if you don’t like orange flavour – could be replaced with 1/2 tsp almond extract, chocolate extract or more vanilla extract)

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp himalayan rock salt

For the icing:

1/4  cup cocoa powder

1/4  Agave syrup

1 – 2 tbsps Unrefined golden icing sugar

Sugar hearts to decorate

Preheat oven to 175 C and line a muffin pan with muffin cases (this should make about 12).

Whisk together the soya milk and vinegar and leave to one side to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and any other extracts you’re using. Beat until foamy using a hand whisk (or you could use an electronic one if you’re feeling lazy!). Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the wet mixture a little at a time, stirring in between. Mix until smoothish (some lumps are ok). Taste it at this point and if necessary add more extract if needed. Pour into the muffin cases and place in the oven for 18 – 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. When done, remove and allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

In the meantime you can make the icing. Put the cocoa and agave into a small saucepan and heat very very gently (this is important – do not over heat it!). Stir continuously until it is well combined. Add the icing sugar and stir well. Have a taste to check it’s sweet enough for you, if not add a bit more agave or icing sugar. The mix will be quite runny when warm but will harden when cool – it will never be completely hard (unless you add a lot of icing sugar!) so it will be a bit sticky – which I personally love! 🙂

Once the cakes are cool you can apply the icing and then add some decorations – then enjoy!

These are available in boxes of 4 for £5.50