Lemon Victoria Sponge

January seems to go on forever doesn't it? Its still cold and dark but without the sparkle of Christmas lights in December and pay day seems ages away, for me personally when I get paid on Wednesday it will have been 40 full days since I was last paid. This sunshine like cake is enough to brighten the dark poor days and reminds us that spring IS on the way.

If you do not need to follow a special diet you can use butter, dairy cream, any lemon curd and wheat flour, simply omit the xantham gum. 

I will enter this cake for alpha bakes as the letter this month is L.

Lemon victoria sponge

3 eggs, weighed with shells, room temperature
Same weight of dairy free spread
Same weight of sugar
Same weight of GF plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp xatham gum
Tsp vanilla paste
zest lemonLemon curd (I made my own, so it was dairy free)
Dairy free cream
Grease and line the base of two 20cm cake tins, if like me you do not have two tins then make the cakes in batches. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN/GAS MARK 4.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then beat in the vanilla, lemon zest and eggs for a further minute. Add the flour, baking powder and xantham gum and beat until just combined. Do not overbeat.

Divide the mixture equally between the tins and bake for. 20-25 mutes until golden and springy.

Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cold sandwich the cakes together with whipped dairy free cream of your choice and plenty of lemon curd.

Cherry and almond loaf (gluten free, dairy free)

This is a good loaf cake for using up any leftover glacé cherries you may have lurking after your Christmas cake/pudding/mincemeat baking. Of course it you have no leftover cherries go by some because this is an amazing cake!

You may notice that the weights are in ounces, except the ground almonds which are in grams, this is because I stole the recipe from my mum.

I took this cake into work to celebrate the fact I passed my viva... 4 years of work but I am now a Dr. Finally I can have a break from reading about science and get baking and blogging.

As always if you do not have an issue with butter or gluten feel free to substitute the DF and GF components with their regular counterparts.

Cherry and almond loaf

6oz dairy free spread (I use pure)
6oz golden caster sugar
3 eggs
tsp almond extract
6oz GF plain flour (I use dove farm)
1/2 tsp xantham gum
4tsp GF baking powder
100g glacé cherries, chopped into 1/2 or 1/4 depending on their size
75g ground almonds

First preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180C and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. Beat the DF spread and sugar until creamy then beat in the eggs one at a time,  followed by the almond extract. Beat in the flour, xantham gum and baking powder until it is just combined. Rinse the cherries and dry on kitchen paper, this prevents them from sinking to the bottom of your cake. Toss the cherries in the ground almonds, this also helps them stop sinking. then fold the cherries and almond into your cake mix until the cherries are evenly distributed.

Transfer the cake mix to your prepared tin and smooth with a spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes (mine took just over 40) until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

I took a little mix out of the big loaf tin to make a baby cake for the two of us to eat as a tester before I took the big one to work! Sorry for the dark photo, it was evening. I really need to work on my camera skills, if anyone has any tips do let me know!

Ginger, lemon and honey biscuits (gluten free, dairy free)

I promised you a post for apple butter victoria sponge, and was all set to do so until I woke up with a cold. I can't complain too much, it is the 2nd November and my first cold this year so I have done pretty well. My head is fuzzy and I know I will miss something out of the relatively simple but multi stage apple butter blog post. Soon I promise you, soon. 

Instead I offer you a simple recipe for ginger, honey and lemon biscuits. I like to think of these as the perfect healing biscuits if you have a cold. After all honey, lemon and ginger all feature heavily in commerical cold remidies.  And if you don't have a cold? They are still delicious little biscuits to nibble whenever you wish. 

The recipe is based on one for ginger and lemon biscuits by Signe Johansen in Scandilicous baking. As they contain honey I am going to enter them into this months alpha bakes.

Ginger lemon and honey biscuits

50g stem ginger

1 medium egg

20g golden syrup

20g honey

10g stem ginger syrup (from the jar the stem ginger comes in)

zest and juice of 1 lemon

125g non dairy spread (I used pure soya)

125g golden caster sugar

200g GF plain four

1/2 tsp xantham gum

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Finely chop the stem ginger, add to a jug and mix in the egg, golden syrup, honey, stem ginger syrup and the zest and juice the lemon. 

In a separate bowl cream the DF spread and sugar together until creamy. Add in half the wet ingredients, 1/2 the flour and the xantham gum, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda then mix to combine. Add the remaining wet ingredients and mix, finally add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined. Place clingfilm over the bowl and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Place teaspoons full of the dough onto the sheet, making sure to leave 4-5cm between them. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, until golden round the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

I really like these biscuits, they are light, not heavy and crunchy like regular ginger biscuits (which I also love) and the lemon adds a freshness to the ginger. They will keep in an airtight tin for at least a week. If they start to go soft blast them in the oven for a couple of minutes to crisp them up.  

 

Chocolate and pecan traybake (gluten and dairy free)

This is a simple to make and deliciously chocolatey traybake, that's probably thanks to the 200g of dark chocolate in here! We enjoyed this so much that we finished it within days of it being made, saying that it does keep well. If you can eat dairy and gluten feel free to use butter and regular plain wheat flour.

 Definitely one to add to the collection, I can see this being made again with different flavouring and nuts for variety,

Chocolate and pecan traybake

200g dark chocolate
100g DF spread (I used pure)
85g golden caster sugar
4 eggs, separated, the whites into a greasefree bowl
85g ground almonds
75g GF plain flour (I used Dove farm)
1/8 tsp xantham gum
Pecans for decoration, anything from 50-100g

Preheat the oven to 160C/180C FAN/gas 4 and line a 25cm square cake tin or brownie/traybake tin with baking parchment. 

Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of barely simmering water and heat gently, stirring every now and then until the chocolate and butter has melted. When cool, but still melted, stir in half the sugar and the egg yolks.

Whisk the whites to firm peaks, add the remaining sugar, then whisk again until glossy. Stir a spoonful of the egg whites into the chocolate mix along with the ground almonds, flour and xantham gum then fold through the rest. Transfer to the tin and top with lightly broken pecans. 

Bake for 25 minutes, cool in the tin for 10 mins, then lift onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

Gluten free nutella bread

Thus is me catching up with my bake off posts. This is from last week where the contestants had to make an enriched loaf. I tweaked this challenge slightly as their loafs involved fruit and I did not want fruit, I wanted chocolate.

The recipe for the braided nutella bread comes from the delightful Gluten-Free on a Shoestring blog and the recipe can be found here.

I did have to make my own nutella as shop bought contains dairy and I will share this recipe below.

The finished load does look beautiful and is the nicest gluten free bread that I have made so far. It was perfect warm from the oven with a little extra nutella and a pot of tea for a special weekend breakfast.

Homemade nutella (Dairy and Gluten free)

100g hazelnuts (skinned)
2 tbsp good cocoa powder (I used green and blacks)
4-5 tbsp of hazelnut milk (Or use almond or soy milk if you cannot get hold of hazelnut)
1 1/2 tbs brown sugar or maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla paste

Blitz the hazelnuts in a food processor until they from a smooth-ish paste. Add all the other ingredients and continue to blitz until combined and as smooth as possible. Transfer to a sterile jar and keep in the fridge, eat within a couple of weeks. 

This nutella is a more grown up version, it is a little more intense, darker and not as sweet. I really like this however should you wish to make it sweeter simply add more sugar/maple syrup until it as sweet as you desire. This nutella is quite thick, add a splash more milk if you desire.

As well as the bread this nutella is great on toast topped with a sliced banana! 

Gluten and Dairy Free Choux pastry.

Watching bake off this week I realised that I had completely forgotten to post my creation from pastry week, oops. To be honest I was dreading pastry week as attempting to make gluten and dairy free pastry is a tricky business. I decided that choux was my way forward and attempted some of my own eclairs. I have had previous successes making regular choux so I was hopefully optimistic that I could make this work.

And it turns out you can make gluten and dairy free choux. It is not quite as smooth and glossy as regular choux and whereas I would normally use a wooden spoon I did have to use a hand held electric whisk to get the choux dough as smooth as possible.

See, not totally smooth and glossy

Once baked however my mini eclairs looked and tasted like the regular deal. I tarted up my eclair by making them banoffee eclairs. I filled them with sliced banana, vanilla whipped non dairy cream and topped with non-dairy toffee sauce. They were declared delicious by all. Below is the recipe to make gluten and dairy free choux, feel free to jazz up you eclair with any topping or filling that you desire.

Choux pastry (gluten and dairy free) 

60g gluten free flour (I used dove farm)
2 tsp caster sugar (optional)
150ml cold water
50g dairy free spread (I used pure, sunflower)
2 large eggs

Weigh the flour then fold a sheet of baking paper to make a crease and then open it up again. Sift the flour on to the paper and add the caster sugar if you are making sweet choux.

Next put the cold water in a saucepan together with the butter, then place the saucepan over a medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon. As soon as the butter has melted and the mixture comes up to the boil, turn off the heat immediately, as too much boiling will evaporate some of the water.

Next tip the flour in, all in one go, with one hand, while you beat the mixture vigorously with the other (using the electric whisk).

Beat until you have a smooth ball of paste that has left the sides of the saucepan clean, this will probably take less than a minute

Next beat 2 large eggs then beat them into the mixture, a little at a time, mixing each addition in thoroughly before adding the next. Beat until you have a smooth(ish) glossy(ish) paste. At this stage, lightly grease a baking sheet and place a ovenproof dish with a little water in the base of the oven to create a steamy atmosphere.

To make the éclairs place the mixture in to a piping bag fitted with a wide round tip and pipe mixture onto the baking sheet, leaving 1 inch between them. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes. After that, increase the heat to gas mark 7 220C/200CFAN and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until the buns are crisp, light and a rich golden colour.

Split the éclairs and return to the oven for a couple of minutes to dry out the insides.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool and fill just before eating to enjoy them at their best. 

Blueberry crumble cake

Last week it truly felt like autumn was here, it was colder, dark when I got up, dingy and grey. The only way to combat this was a comforting cake made with cinnamon and fruit, I did not quite veer into the autumn fruit territory (apples, blackberries, pears) but used some Scottish blueberries. a last hopeful cling on to summer. It worked we got a mild reprise to summer this weekend with plenty of sunshine and blue skies!

The cake is from this months good food magazine, I adapted it a little to make it gluten and dairy free and also enough to fit into a brownie tin.

The crumble topping is fantastically crisp and contrasts perfectly with the soft cake and fruit. This cake is best eaten as soon as possible as it contains fresh fruit. Also the sooner it is eaten the crisper the topping will be.

Oh and sorry for the dark photos... that is partly down to me wanting to eat it and partly down to the rubbish autumn weather I mention previously!

Blueberry crumble cake (adapted from bbc good food magazine)

150g dairy free spread (I use pure, sunflower)
225g golden caster sugar
300g GF plain flour (I use Dove farm blend)
1 tsp xantham gum
1 1/2 tsp GF baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 medium eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla paste/extract
180g natural soya yoghurt
1 1/2 tbsp non dairy milk (I used almond milk)

1 tbsp and 1 tsp of ccinnamon
2 tbsp each of golden caster sugar and brown sugar (light or dark). mixed
200g blueberries
6 tbsps GF plain flour
3 tbsps dairy free spread, cut small

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. GAS MARK 4 and grease and line a brownie tin (or traybake tin) with baking paper.

Beat the DF spread and sugar with an electric whisk until fluffy. Add the flour, xantham gum, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda to the bowl followed by the eggs and vanilla, beat until smooth. Add the yoghurt and DF milk and briefly beat until combined.

Spoon just under half of the mix into the prepared tin. Mix 1 tablespoon of the cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the sugar mix and scatter half of this over the cake followed by half of the berries. Layer over the remaining cake mix, take care when smoothing it out the berries will want to come with you. Sprinkle over the remaining sugar/cinnamon mix followed by the remaining berries.

To make the crumb topping place the remaining sugar mix, flour and DF spread into a bowl and rub together until the mixture resembles chunky breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the cake, squeeze some of the crumble together to make bigger chunks as you do. 

Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes, until it is risen all the way till the centre. looks golden and the topping is crisp.

 Cool the cake in the tin for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack, using the baking paper to help you lift the cake, to cool completely.

Kugelhopf

So continuing along with the bake off you may have noticed I do not have a post for tarts and pies week. Well I did attempt to make a pie, I was terrified, a gluten and dairy free pastry was not an experiment I was looking forward to. The pastry I made was lovely and delicious, but it was meant to be puff pastry, something I never had problems with in the past,  and it turned out like shortcrust. I will reiterate it was lovely but I am not posting the recipe I used as it did not turn out as it should. I get to do pastry again soon though as next week is pastry week on the bake off! I show a picture of my pie to prove that I tried.

This week was the week of European cakes. The contestants had to make a European cake that was raised with yeast, a Swedish princess cake or a Hungarian dobes torte. I have never made a princess cake but I have eaten cakes consisting of sponge, jam, cream and creme pat and so I decided to go with the more interesting cake raised with yeast as I have never made/eaten one before.

I decided, like some of the contestants, to make a Kugelhopf. This is traditionally a cake raised with yeast, filled with fruit and cooked in a bundt tin. Like many of the contestants I changed my flavours, I went for cardamom, orange and almond. I also had the added challenge of making it gluten and dairy free.

I have also just remembered that this months letter for alpha bakes is K and so I will enter my Kugelhopf!

This is an experiment that worked and I am so so pleased with it, it smelt good baking, looked fantastic and also tasted great. It is very interesting, it is definitely a cross between bread and cake and those with palettes used to very sweet cakes will probably take a while to adjust. It is lovely as a plainer cake and dare I say it could even be eaten as breakfast (which I did). It does not keep so long so I have sliced it and individually wrapped slices and frozen them, I will refresh in the oven when I fancy a snack or breakfast.

Orange, cardamom and almond Kugelhopf 

380g GF flour (I used dove farm plain flour blend)
60g ground almonds
2 tsps xantham gum
Seeds of 15 cardamom pods, crushed in a pestle and mortar
120ml warm water
4 1/2 tsp active dried yeast (not instant yeast)
1/2 tsp sugar
120g DF spread (I used pure sunflower)
75g golden caster sugar
2 tsp salt
3 eggs
2 tsp almond extract
Zest and juice of an orange
2 tbsp caster sugar
a little melted butter to grease
slivered almonds to decorate (optional


Place the warm water, yeast, and ¼ teaspoon sugar together in a small bowl. Stir until yeast is dissolved. Set aside for 10-15 minutes until the yeast is foamy

Place 220g of the gluten-free flour in a freestanding large bowl or the large bowl of a large stand mixer. Add the xanthan gum and cardamom and mix to combine

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter, sugar, and salt. Stir until sugar is dissolved, do not let it boil.

In a medium bowl whisk  the eggs together with the almond extract and orange zest. Carefully add the milk mixture in a slow, steady stream to the eggs and whisk well. Be sure to add the milk slowly so it doesn't curdle the eggs. 

Turn the mixer on low, or using a hand held electric whisk add the milk and egg mixture in a slow steady stream to the flour mix. Raise the speed to medium and mix until smooth. Lower the speed and add the remaining flour and ground almonds. The dough should be fairly sticky and smooth, but not too stiff. Turn off mixer and let dough stand for a few minutes.

Grease a bundt pan with melted butter. if desired stick slivered almonds onto the sides of the greased pan.

 Carefully transfer the dough to the pan and smooth it evenly. Brush the top with the melted butter to prevent it drying out. 

Cover with cellophane or place in a bag and let rise for 45-60 minutes in a warm place. The dough won't have doubled, but it will have risen quite a bit.

While the dough is rising preheat the oven to GAS MARK 6 . Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden and baked through.

Let cool in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

To make a glaze put the remaining sugar and orange juice in a pan and heat gently until the sugar had dissolved, turn up the heat and reduce until the mixture is syrupy. Brush this over the cooled cake then enjoy.

Individual baked alaska

Dessert week on the great British bake off this week and the contestants had to tackle puddings with a sauce, either inside or hidden beneath, the technical challenge was a tiramasu and the showstopper a baked alaska. I will not spoil anything for those of you still to catch up but my word... I was on the edge of my seat!

Now I could have made a self saucing pudding, I have made chocolate fondants before so thought this seemed a little too easy. I was not going to make tiramasu as coffee is one of the few things I actually dislike. This left me with baked alaska.

First of all I was never going to make a whole baked alaska, there are only two of us and this pudding certainly does not keep. So I did my research and yes, individual baked alaskas are definitely a thing. Individual ones are either quickly put under a grill to brown or a blowtorch is used. An excuse to use my blowtorch? I was sold.

A baked alaska has a sponge base, topped with a scoop of ice cream and the whole thing is encased by browned meringue.

Those of you who read this blog will know that I cannot tolerate lactose at all, and even dairy without lactose can be a dodgy. This means ice cream is quite often out, though there are a few dairy free tubs out there. I decided this was the push I needed to dust of my poor neglected ice cream maker and get experimenting. First things first I had to chose a flavour, this was dictated to a degree by my sponge base.

My sponge base was already sorted as I had a little of the lemon semolina cake left over from Sunday, so I cut two slices then used a cookie cutter to get two circles.

So my ice cream had to be flavour that went well with lemon. Many dairy free ice cream recipes make use of coconut milk, and I had plenty of raspberries in the fridge and so I thought a coconut and raspberry ice cream atop a lemon sponge would be rather good and that is what I went ahead with. The ice cream in made half and half with coconut milk and almond milk and so it is not super super coconuty, but the coconut flavour is definitely there.

Coconut raspberry ripple ice cream (dairy free)

300ml almond milk
300ml coconut milk (full fat, shake the can really well before opening. 
75g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
2  heaped tsp cornflour
60g raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Put the almond milk, coconut milk, caster sugar and vanilla into a saucepan and heat gently, with stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Mix the cornflour with a plash of water or almond milk then add to the pan, increase the heat a little and cook until thickened slightly. The mixture will coat the back of the spoon but will not be super thick like custard, this is how it should be. Transfer the mixture to a jug and refrigerate.

Once the mixture is cool add to an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturers instructions.

While the ice cream is churning mash the recipes to a runny pulp, taste and add a little sugar if you think that it is necessary. When the ice cream forms a soft-medium scoop then transfer it to a tupperware and quickly swirl through the raspberries. Place in the freezer for a few hours to allow the ice cream to firm up, at this point I left the ice cream overnight ready for the next step. 

This ice cream tasted lovely and was perfect for the baked alaska but if eating it as just an ice cream I would need it to be creamier.. I reckon using coconut cream would work, I will continue my ice cream experimentation at a later date!

I must confess that when making my alaska I did not follow a recipe and nor did I weigh out anything. However what I did is as follows...

Individual baked alaska

I formed two scoops of ice cream and put them on a plate in the freezer to make sure they were set solid.

A couple of hours later I cut two circles with a cutter from two slices of cake that I had made 
previously. 

I then made my meringue, I whipped up two eggs whites in a metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water until soft peaks formed then added sugar (by eye, sorry) and whipped until stiff glossy peaks were formed. Many of the contestants used Italian meringue, or you could use swiss, google will tell you the amounts to use!

I then assembled! I placed the hardened scoop of ice cream onto the round of sponge. Then I topped the whole thing with meringue making sure that all the ice cream and most of the sponge was covered. I used a teaspoon to make rustic peaks but you could use a piping bag. I then toasted the whole thing with my cook blow torch. If you had no blow torch you could put the whole thing under a hot grill for a minute or two... watch it like a hawk!

I did enjoy my very first baked alaska, they look amazing and unusual flavor combinations could turn this into a very stunning dessert to impress others with.

Lemon semonlina cake

I had lemons in the fruit bowl and a massive bag of semolina in my cupboard, so when deciding what to bake this weekend it seemed like fate that I found this recipe for lemon semolina cake in the first book I was flicking through.

This is a recipe from Peyton and Byrne, British Baking.

Lemon Semolina Cake (Peyton and Bryne)

125g dairy free spread (I use pure)
125g caster sugar
125g ground almonds
3 medium eggs
3 tbsp dairy free milk (I used almond milk)
Zest and juice of two lemons
1/2 tsp vanilla paste/extract
125g semolina flour
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 170/150C FAN/ GAS MARK 3. Grease a 900g loaf tin and line the base with a stip of parchment paper.

Beat together the DF spread and sugar until pale and creamy, add the almonds and mix well. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next. Stir in the milk, then add in the lemon zest and juice and vanilla extract. Sift in the semolina and baking powder and mix into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and smooth into the corners. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

This cake will keep well for 3 or so days in an airtight tin

The recipe suggests dusting with icing sugar and serving with fresh berries

Swiss Roll

The bake of is back! I know for a fact that I am not the only one thrilled by this, the cakes, the drama, Paul and Mary’s scrutiny and the soggy bottoms make for tasty TV!

Last year I wanted to bake along with the bake off but fell along the wayside thanks to illness and diagnosis with dairy intolerance. Well this year I can no longer eat gluten or dairy. Which poses some challenges for a baker but I am finding I am managing quite well. This year I am going to attempt again to bake along with the bakes off AND adapt their bakes for anyone suffering with any dairy or gluten intolerance/allergy.

The first week saw the 12 new hopefuls make signature swiss roles, tackle Marys cherry cake and produce 36 identical mini bakes… some of the contestants could have done with a dictionary to look up ‘mini’ but everything looked delicious.

I made a swiss roll, I have never made one before and was a little nervous. A swiss roll sponge is naturally a fatless sponge so that solved the dairy conundrum right off! I used gluten free flour and it worked like a charm. I filled it with a strawberry jam, classic and simple.

I was really proud of my first swiss roll, I was a little hesitant when rolling and feel that the swirl could have been tighter but saying that I think Paul and Mary would have not been too unkind… it did taste scrummy!

Jam swiss roll

3 eggs

75g caster sugar, plus extra

½ tsp vanilla paste

75g plain GF flour

1 tsp GF baking powder

½ tsp xantham gum

Strawberry jam to fill

Preheat the oven to 180C/160 FAN/GAS MARK 6. Grease and line a brownie tin, If you happen to have an actual swiss role tin all the better, simply increase the eggs to four and the flour and sugar to 100g each.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until very pale and thick, when thick enough a ribbon of mix will sit on the top of the mix. This took me about ten minutes with a powerful handheld mixer so be patient! Next very gently fold in the remaining ingredients (except the jam), do not over mix but do make sure all the flour is thoroughly combined. Gently pour the mix into your prepared tin and tilt the tin so that the mixture spreads to the corners. Bake in the preheated oven for ten minutes.

While in the oven sprinkle a piece of parchment, a little bigger than your tin, with caster sugar. When the swiss roll is ready remove from the oven and invert onto the parchment paper.  Trim the edges with a sharp knife, and score a grove an inch from one of the short edges, be careful not to cut all the way through. Spread with jam (its easier to do this if you soften your jam by beating it with a spoon) and then starting with the side with the grove tightly roll up the swiss roll.

A crack is nothing to worry about, it looks lovely and homemade, lots of cracks suggest that your sponge is a little on the dry side.

This is best eaten relatively soon, ours was finished 28 hours after baking. 

Raspberry frangipane traybake

Another gluten free and dairy free bake, this time a simple tray bake to satisfy a cake craving that did not want to wait around forever to be satisfied.

The cake is icing free but does not need any, the sponge is moist with almonds and the sharpness of raspberry is an amazing flavour pairing.

This is a good cake to have in the tin ready for partnering with a cup of tea and a book!

Raspberry frangipane traybake

200g DF spread (I use pure)

200g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla paste or extract

Tsp almond extract

3 eggs

250g plain GF flour

1/2 tsp xantham gum

2 tsp GF baking powder

50g ground almonds

200g rasperries, halved

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN/GAS MARK 4 and grease and line a traybake tin.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy, add one egg at a time  along with a tablespoon of the flour, add in the almond extract and beat until combined. Add the remaining flour, xantham gum, baking powder and ground almonds and fold in. 

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level the top. Line the raspberries, cut side down, on top of the frangipane, no need to press in. Bake in a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes until golden and beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin.

Allow to cool in the tin for 30 minutes -1 hour then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate orange cake (Dairy and gluten free)

I have braved making a cake in my new oven (well not NEW new, I just moved flat)! A different oven is a mystery of a thing, is it a 'hot' oven, a 'cold' oven, is there hot spots? As well as this I had to get used to a gas main oven as opposed to electric.

I have worked out that it is cool oven, I actually prefer this to my old 'hot' oven that used to really brown the edges of my cakes!It has a little hot spot but not as bad as my last oven, so now my cakes rise ever so slightly unevenly as opposed to completely uneven So all in all a bonus.

This cake tastes like a terry's chocolate orange in cake form, really it does. The frosting is amazing I could literally eat it straight from the bowl forgoing the cake BUT if I did that I would miss out on cake so I managed to restrain myself.

I have made this cake completely dairy and gluten free, obviously if you do not have these requirements you could use butter and regular flour and leave out the xantham gum.

Chocolate orange cake

3 eggs, weighed with shells, room temperature
Same weight of dairy free spread (I use Pure)
Same weight of sugar

Tsp vanilla paste

zest and juice of one orangeSame weight of gluten free plain flour minus 30g

30g cocoa powder2 Tsp gluten free baking powder baking powder

1/2 tsp xantham gum

100g dairy free spread

zest of one orange

30g cocoa powder

200g icing sugar

1 tbsp Boiling water

Grease and line the base of two  20cm cake tins, if like me you do not have two make the cakes in batches. Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN or Gas mark 3.


Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy then beat in the vanilla, orange zest and eggs for a further minute. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and xantham gum and beat until just combined. Do not overbeat


Divide the mixture equally between the tins and bake for. 25-30 mutes until springy.
Leave to cool in the tins for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cakes are cool sandwich them together with the frosting, method below.

To make the frosting melt the butter in pan over a gentle heat then add in the orange zest, add the cocoa powder and cook for 1 minute whilst stirring. remove from the heat and beat in the icing sugar, it will look terrible, like it has split, never fear, add in a tablespoon of boiling water and beat well,  the frosting should now be thick  and smooth, with no sign of splitting, add a tiny touch more water if you feel it necessary. 

Rose lemonade marshmallows

I am a bad blogger. First I chose to do a PhD and had to write a thesis, when you spend all day writing you DO NOT want to write a blog post. Then I had to organise moving house. Then I got told by the doctor no dairy OR gluten. Then I moved house, and still have no internet.

Well I am now just doing corrections on my thesis so I am happy to write blog posts again. I am all moved (hurrah), still no internet but starbucks has come to the rescue with free wifi. The dairy and gluten thing can be tricky when out and about but actually with a few tweaks baking is absolutely fine, and I actually quite like the challenge of making delicious cakes that do not make me sick and that nobody else can tell are free from dairy and gluten.

As an aside my mum is amazing, she loves baking, I think I get that gene from Her, and when I was down last weekend she made an amazing lime and coconut cake, dairy and gluten free, Thanks mum!

I present today some rose lemonade marshmallows. The letter for alpha bakes this month was R and I realised yesterday this was due... oops.

I decided to use rose as I do like it but find some things made with rose are a tad overpowering. I have previously made champagne marshmallows and decided to adapt the recipe. My idea was to mix rose cordial with lemonade and use in place of the champagne. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across the is rose lemonade by Fetimans in Waitrose. My mixing was already done for me! By the way, I drank the extra, its delicious.

This recipe makes oodles and oodles but they will keep well in an airtight container. I love packaging them up in cute bags and tying with pretty ribbon to give away as gifts!

Rose lemonade marshmallows

3 sachets gelatine
250ml rose lemonade
340g caster sugar
325g golden syrup
Pink gel colouring
30g icing sugar
30g corn flour

Combine the icing sugar and corn flour in a bowl. Lightly oil a 13 by 9 inch pan (I used my brownie tin) and thoroughly coat in ~ 1/2 the icing sugar mix, reserving the rest.

Put the gelatine into the bowl of a free standing mixer. Add 125ml of the rose lemonade and allow to soften.

Meanwhile put the sugar, golden syrup and remaining rose lemonade into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Warm over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to medium/high and cook until the syrup reaches 240F on a sugar thermometer.

Remove from the heat and immediately start the mixer on slow. Carefully pour the hot syrup down the side of the bowl onto the gelatine.

Increase the speed of the mixer and beat for 12 minutes. Add a little colouring (a little goes a long way!) and beat for a further couple of minutes.

Scoop the sticky mass into the prepared pan, smooth over and sprinkle with the remaining icing sugar mix.  Leave for a least 4 hours or overnight then cut into squares.

More blog posts are on the way.. I am going to bake my first cake in the new oven this afternoon... wish me luck!

Fudgey chocolate squares (dairy, gluten free)

Thank you to anyone who has looked at my blog over the past month it has been a busy time due to writing my PhD thesis and organising a house move.

To add to the business I have not been well, and to cut a long story short I can currently eat no gluten or dairy. This does not make baking impossible but it does mean a little more planning.

I have made a simple Victoria sponge and that turned out beautifully and so I advanced a little more with fudgey chocolate squares. 

I hope to get back into my blog, a week volunteering and the move may slow me down a bit but i am back and ready to bake!

These fudgey chocolate squares are truly amazing. You honestly would not know that they lack either gluten or dairy. They are fudgey, chocolatey, rich, decadent and delicious. The frosting is amazing. 

I am going to enter these into this months alpha bakes, the letter is D, and these contain dark chocolate, dark cocoa powder and are dairy free!

Fudgey chocolate squares

Makes 18

200g dairy free spread, I use 'pure' sunflower

200g dark chocolate, check some dark chocolate contain dairy, even 70% ones

300g golden caster sugar

50g gluten free plain flour

1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder

1 tsp xantham gum

50g cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

4 medium eggs

For the frosting

100g dairy free spread

30g cocoa powder

200g icing sugar

Boiling water

Walnuts

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and grease and line a brownie tin with baking paper.

Gently melt the butter and dark chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Add in the sugar  and mix to combine. Add in the flour, baking powder, xantham gum and cocoa powder and mix well.  Finally mix in the vanilla and the eggs until you have a smooth batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface, I found this easiest with a metal spoon dipped in hot water. 

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin, when cold use the baking paper to lift from the tin and place on a baking rack.

To make the icing melt the butter in pan over a gentle heat, add the cocoa powder and cook for 1 minute whilst stirring. remove from the heat and beat in the icing sugar, it will look terrible, like it has split, never fear, add in a tablespoon of boiling water and beat well, add in a second tablespoon and beat well. The frosting should be thick  and smooth, with no sign of splitting, add tiny touch more water if you feel it neccessry. 

Smooth the frosting over the top of the cooled traybake and press in the walnuts. The walnuts are optional but add a nice textural contrast.

Try to leave for an hour our two before slicing otherwise frosting will go everywhere! These keep well for at least 5 days in an airtight tin.

Pumpkin, sage and cheese muffins

I am not a fan of the traditional sweet muffin, I will also chose cake, brownies, cookies, cupcakes and biscuits over them. I tend to find them a bit dry or at the other end of the spectrum claggy, I also find them a bit bland the majority of the time. The savoury muffin however is something a enjoy. I like them with soups. It seems much easier to pack savoury muffins with flavour and they are lovely with cheese all oozy and warm from the oven.

This particular recipe is from Scandilicious baking by Signe Johansen, with a few tiny tweaks 

Pumpkin, sage and cheese muffins

Makes 6

125g plain flour

20g spelt flakes (you can use oats)

2 tsp sugar (golden caster or brown)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

3 large sage leaves, finely chopped

140g pumpkin puree

50g plain yoghurt (soya in my case)

25g butter, melted

1 egg

1 heaped tsp English mustard

50g cheese (jarlsberg, Gouda, cheddar, Parmesan, Gruyere, mozzarella, or in my case vegan cheese), grated.

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C FAN and line a muffin pan with liners. Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl, including the sage and stir to combine.

Mix the pumpkin puree, yoghurt, and butter in a separate bowl, add the egg and the mustard, stir to combine then add in the cheese.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir, in a figure of 8 motion until all the ingredients are combined but not over mixed.

Divide the mix between the muffin cases and sprinkle with a few more spelt flakes (or oats). Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and devour warm.

Once cold wrap any leftover muffins in foil and freeze. To reheat the muffins heat the oven to 150C/130C FAN and bake them, in for foil for 10 minutes. Remove the foil, turn up the oven to 190C/ 170C FAN and bake the muffins for a further 5 minutes.

We had these muffins with a roasted squash and pumpkin seeds salad. The sage, cayenne and mustard really work to lift the pumpkin and cheese flavours. I cannot wait to eat the leftovers soon!