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free-style friday baking ; chocolate and raspberry cake (gluten free)

I often find myself amongst the minority. I find politics interesting, I find watching sport dull. I vote Green. I don’t like cats. I don’t even like kittens. I enjoy free-style baking with the kids.

It’s not like I’d put it up there on my wish list of things to do in an afternoon alongside a few quiet hours browsing a bookshop alone, but when we’re all at home with nothing pressing to do, I’m pretty keen to let them get in amongst the mixing bowls.

To make an easy gluten free cake I’ve found a mix of 3 or 4 eggs with 1/2 cup sugar / 70g butter / 2 cups of ‘flour’ (mix of ground almonds / rice flour / puffed amaranth ) is a good base and then you can freestyle a bit.

This cake is a simple chocolate and raspberry. Get the kids whisking up some eggs (I used 4) with 1/2 cup raw sugar. Melt a couple rows of dark chocolate over some hot water with around 70g butter. Add a cup of ground almonds, cup of brown rice flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 cup cocoa to the eggs. Add a couple of spoons of full fat natural yogurt. Pour in the melted chocolate / butter. Add a cup of frozen raspberries. Bake for about 30 mins.

There are several highlights for the kids in making a cake like this. Whisking ; always a winner. Scooping yogurt. Licking the yogurt spoon. Sneaking frozen raspberries. Scraping the chocolate off the melting plate. Yes they make a mess, but they make a mess regardless,  and with baking  there’s a chocolate cake fresh out of the oven at the end of it all.


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pear, prune and chia butter-less chocolate almond cake

Here’s a revelation… at least for me… cake doesn’t need butter in to taste good. It’s not that I have any particular desire to cut back on butter in my life – it’s just I’d run out and wanted to bake. I’m a buttery person so don’t think I’ve ever baked without butter before and was slightly stunned to see it didn’t make much difference (possibly because my recipes are rather untraditional anyway!). If anything it was lighter and spongier which is always a bonus for a gluten free cake.

Half a cup of pitted prunes and a chopped pear stewed in a little water with a couple of spoons of chia seeds. Over the top about 60 – 70g dark chocolate melted. Meanwhile whisk 3 eggs with 1/2 cup raw sugar. Add 1 cup ground almonds, about 3/4 cup brown rice flour and 1 tsp baking powder.

When the chocolate is melted blend it with the prunes and pears (there should be very little juice because the chia seeds will absorb all the water. Add half a cup of plain (full fat) pouring yogurt. Mix the chocolate paste into the rest and bake. I iced mine with a little melted milk chocolate mixed with a teaspoon of greek yogurt ..it was Thursday afternoon after all, and that’s a reason to be festive around these parts.

 


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dried apricot, blueberry, amaranth, almond chocolate cake

Half a cup of dried apricots and half a cup frozen blueberries, stewed together into purple oblivion. Over the top melt a few rows of dark chocolate with 50g butter.

Get your willing helpers to whisk 4 eggs, adding half a cup of raw sugar then 3/4 cup puffed amaranth, 3/4 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1 tsp baking powder, a couple of spoons of cocoa powder.

Blend the apricots and blueberries with the melted chocolate and butter. Beware – this paste tastes so darn good you could easily get distracted and find you’ve eaten half of it on your way to adding it to the rest of the mix.

Beat it all up, bake it, ice it, eat it…..think about making another one.


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beetroot, prune, chocolate chia cake (gluten free)

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying most kids don’t really like beetroot. Of course, kids are strange and unpredictable creatures, and there are probably some who do. I certainly don’t live with any. So when I pulled a nice fat beet out of the ground,  at the community garden yesterday, I assumed it would be consumed by the adults of the house. Then I bumped into Dave, the school caretaker. We got talking about the blog, and kids, and food. We talked about creating recipes that would get the kids excited about the community garden produce. Now, if you read my kid-food-wisom page, you see I believe inspiring kids to like adult food, rather than creating specific kid recipes. But talking to Dave got me thinking. Specifically thinking about beetroot and chocolate cake. Let’s face it – chocolate cake is about as exciting as it gets. It seemed like a sign. Me holding the beetroot and Dave talking about trying to come up with some recipes that would get the kids into the garden produce.

I started by putting about a half cup of pitted organic prunes in a little water to stew with the beetroot (peeled and cut into chunks so it would soften quickly. Over the top I melted about 70g of dark chocolate, 50g cubed butter and a couple of spoonfuls of chia seeds.

After about 10 minutes I caught the prunes  / beetroot just as they were beginning to boil dry – the ‘boil dry’ is never a good idea, I only mention it to illustrate the point that there wasn’t a lot of juice in the mix. I put everything in the little blender and buzzed it into a very think, absolutely gorgeous deep red chocolate-y paste.

Putting the paste to one side I whisked 3 eggs together with half a cup of granulated sugar, 1 and 1/2 cups of ground almonds, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp gf baking powder and 1/4 cup of brown rice flour. Then whisked in the chocolate paste and poured into a cake tin. Once again I failed to register the baking time,  but probably around 25 minutes.

Finished with icing. Made with a few squares of milk chocolate and a spoonful of greek yogurt. Can happily report the community garden beetroot was shared by the entire family – including the youngest who reached out and swiped some of  my slice while I wasn’t looking.


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fresh peach and raspberry coconut and almond upside-down cake (gluten free)

I am pretty excited to be writing some posts inspired by Hill Street Farmer’s Market, of which this is the first. Not only is the produce fantastic, but in order to get to the market and back, before Saturday football, I have to duck out of the chaos that is family breakfast time. Shortly after 8am, with just the littlest member of the family under one arm, I was able to close the door behind me and breath in the still morning air. Anyone with kids will relate to what a luxury that is.

There was no traffic, a few students with remnants of last night’s fancy dress to smile at, evoking memories of footloose and fancy free days …and the promise of good coffee. No one asked me the same question 15 times in steadily higher pitch, from the back seat, or tried to draw me into refereeing side by side seat kicking match. Within moments of leaving the house I had decided this was a little outing I really needed to take every Saturday. So I figured I had better get something good. Something I couldn’t get from the local supermarket.. something I really needed to visit the farmers market for. I got a basket full.

First up, it’s the turn of the perfectly ripe peaches and sweet end of season raspberries. Some of which were just eaten fresh, but some formed the base of this gorgeous peach and raspberry upside -down cake. You start by lining the base of a cake tin and greasing it – sprinkling it with a little granulated sugar and covering it with peach slices. They don’t need to be beautifully chopped because it looks completely stunning anyway and having the peaches a bit randomly cut just adds to the charm. Between the peach slices, dot a few raspberries.

For the cake bit I used bigger quantities than usual as hoping it might actually last through the weekend, rather than be demolished in one sitting. 100g of melted butter , just less than a cup of soft brown sugar, 4 – 5 spoons of yogurt – beat it all together then in with 4 eggs, just under a cup of coconut flour, 1 cup ground almonds and a couple of spoons of brown rice flour, 1 tsp gf baking powder. It looks like quite a dryish cake mix so you kind of need to spoon it fairly carefully over the fruit – smooth it over and bake it. Once again I forgot to check the timings but it was probably close on 40 mins. It goes quite brown on the bottom and springs up.

More market treats coming later.


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Rather excellent chocolate orange cakes (gluten free)

Modesty is a virtue …. but if you create a really excellent recipe then it’s only fair to shout about it. Especially if it has chocolate in. Even more so, if it’s really easy to make, and kind of healthy, if you are like me, and class anything with a ground almond base as healthy regardless of what the other component parts are…the chocolate is dark chocolate anyway, and everyone knows that’s the healthy kind.

Start by melting about 70g (or 3 rows of a bar of dark ghana if, you want to get really specific about measurements)  and about 40g of butter over hot water – grate in the zest of an orange. While it melts, whisk 4 eggs. Now usually I’m a bit lazy with my whisking – a quick whirl around, and I’m in with the sugar. Today I just had a bit more time – everyone was either out,or occupied, so I found myself in a bit of a trance with the whisk in hand and next thing the eggs were all properly fluffy. Add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar to the eggs and whisk it in – then 1 and 1/2 cups of ground almonds and 1/2 cup of brown rice flour. Add the juice of half an orange and a teaspoon of gf baking powder (if you like – these cakes rise fine without because of the eggs so if you want to keep the ingredients pure and simple you could skip it – but it will be a bit fluffier and puffier if you put it in).

Whisk in the chocolate mix, pop in muffin cases and they are ready in about 12 – 15 minutes – same with all cakes. they are ready when they ‘spring back’ to the touch or a knife comes out clean.

Now all that’s left to be decided is what to eat them with – I’m thinking a large scoop of greek yogurt will do very nicely. (If you’re wondering how I know these are  good when I’m yet to eat them then that would be the ‘fresh from the oven taste test’ I conducted earlier.. baker’s perk. So, little chocolate orange cakes, you have inspired me to create a ‘top picks’ tag … so in the future I can search my hundreds of recipes and find you and others like you.


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little stewed prune, apricot and blueberry chocolate almond cakes with drizzly raspberry icing (gluten free)

These little beauties are seriously good. They may sound a bit busy but they are a triumphant collision of ingredients that will put a smile on your face after a long day (or indeed in the middle of it). They are good fun to make too – especially the drizzly icing which is quite literally child’s play. So OK they require a bit more ‘stuff’ than some other recipes and OK there is a bit more clearing up.. but what’s a little extra washing up when we’re talking pink icing?

You start by putting half a cup of organic dried apricots with half a cup of pitted prunes and half a cup of blueberries (straight from the freezer is fine) in a pan with a little water. Now I’m not much of an organic fanatic because I’m not quite ready to re-mortgage the house over the issue, and buying everything organic is seriously wild price-wise – but I am yet to find any non organic dried apricots / prunes that don’t have nasty stuff in – you can kind of tell by the colour differential that there’s something odd going on with non-organic dried apricots right? Anyway.. over the pan with the fruit stewing you melt some dark chocolate (about 50g at a guess) with 50g of butter. When the butter chocolate is melted the fruit will be stewed and you can blend it all together. Sounds a bit of a faff but it’s not really. If the blending sounds like a step too far in terms of effort then you could chop the apricots and prunes before you stew them and they’d be fine just mixed into the chocolate I would think.

Meanwhile whisk 3 eggs with half a cup of soft brown sugar, add and whisk in a cup of ground almonds, 1/2 cup of brown rice flour and 1/2 cup of cocoa and a teaspoon of gf baking powder – it’s quite thick at this point but then you add the fruit / chocolate mix and it goes into a rather pleasing consistency that is easy to spoon into muffin cases. These took about 15 mins to bake.

For the (entirely optional) pink icing I defrosted some frozen raspberries (you don’t need many – maybe 1/4 cup) when defrosted raspberries turn into a juicy slush which can easily be munched through a sieve to extract just the juice. This is a great job for a little person. If you add a bit of icing sugar and a teaspoon of yogurt you get a nice drizzly icing that is also a beautiful pink colour (without any need for food colouring) – the more sugar in ratio to the raspberry juice then the thicker the icing will be. I like it nice and thin so it’s more of a glaze – scooping it on and smearing it over the top of the cakes is also an excellent job for a little helper…OK so I did say these were slightly messier than some other cakes didn’t I –  but it was a rainy day and we were at a loose end after lunch so why not?


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Jake’s pineapple and blueberry upside down cake

Grease a big round cake dish and cover the bottom with pineapple slices, blueberries and a little brown sugar (this is the short-cut version that was necessary due to a few small people milling around – apparently the top dollar version involves caramelizing the pineapple slices first).

For the sponge you beat everything together at once; 250g butter, 250g flour, 250g sugar and 3 – 4 eggs (depending on their size) 1 tsp baking powder. The butter needs to be pretty soft. Tip the sponge mix onto the fruit and bake.

I’ve never really done the upside-down cake so watching J and L put this together and has definitely inspired me to create a gluten free version – I’m also thinking this would work well with stone-fruit , have to see what’s at the market this weekend give it a go.


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summer plum, nectarine, honey and almond cake (gluten free)

Mixed a paste of butter (100g) soft brown sugar (1/2 cup) 3 spoons of yogurt and a large spoon of honey then cracked in 3 eggs, added 1 cup ground almonds and 1 cup brown rice flour , 1 teaspoon gf baking powder. Mixed quickly together and then added 3 chopped plums, some roughly chopped chocolate chips and 1 chopped nectarine.

Great result for afternoon tea, with early grey tea on the deck… will have another slice later warm with yogurt when the kids have gone to bed.


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really good gluten-free chocolate cake

Wanted a really good moist chocolate cake for morning tea so was going to use regular flour but then had a last minute moment of guilt that G wouldn’t be able to eat it so switched at the last moment with great results – perhaps good karma for being nice!

around 80g of butter (never measure just chop a piece of the block that looks about the right size) melted till soft , 1/2 cup soft brown sugar, 2 large spoons live full fat organic yogurt – mix up to a light paste, crack in 3 eggs then add 1 cup grounds almonds, 1/2 cup good cocoa powder and 1/2 cup brown rice flour. Beat the whole lot up and tip in a cake dish (with bottom lined with baking paper)

I made icing today as it’s Saturday and was feeling festive. Used 6 squares of dark chocolate melted over boiling water, 1 scoop of sour cream and a couple of spoons of icing sugar. Extremely good – boys had 3 slices each with berry smoothies.

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