Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey….

I follow a most sublime blog called “GF and me” which was created by a wonderful lady with her husband when he became a coeliac sufferer. I  eagerly await each of her posts as she has created wonderful recipes and gluten free pastries that have bought me back from the brink of despair at ever making decent gluten free pastries ever again for my partner who is also a coeliac sufferer. Here is a link to her blog and her delightful recipes 🙂

http://gfandme.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/pumpkin-pie-cheesecake/

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake

For the base.

1 1/2 cups of Gluten Free biscuit crumbs

( I used a packet of Butterfingers Gluten Free Macadamia Shortbread and a half packet of Freelicious brand Frollini Italian milk cookies)

1/4 cup Butter (or non dairy equivalent if you need)

1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Mix the biscuit crumbs and spices together and add the melted butter and mix till combined. Press into a 9 inch (I used a 22cm) spring form pan. Refrigerate base whilst making filling.

 For the filling.

750gm Cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup of sugar (I used Raw caster sugar)

3 Eggs

1 cup of Pureed Pumpkin

1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit ( Equals 170-176 degrees Celsius)

Blend cream cheese and sugar till lump free. Blend in eggs, one at a time, then spices and pureed pumpkin.

I took the step at this point of fitting my whisk attachment to my Kenwood Chef and gave the mix a good whipping to eliminate any white lumps and then poured the filling over the top of my crumb base. The cheesecake rose up like a souffle on cooking and was extremely light and fluffy on eating 😀

Bake your delicious cheesecake for 50 minutes or until just set.

Yes, it will crack on cooling but only a little and it certainly didn’t affect the taste in any way.

Leave it to cool completely before refrigerating. Tastes great left till next day but we couldn’t wait that long 😀

This is even better served with Pecan nuts either toffee or just roasted and a dollop of cream but we like it just as is.

Bon appetit!

Gluten Free Carrot Cake.

This recipe was found whilst looking for gluten free recipes for my fiance who has coeliac disease amongst other auto-immune diseases. It is a really good carrot cake and he loved it. I found it in Donna Hays latest magazine at the back. Very nice.

Assemble your ingredients

5 Eggs, at room temperature

1 and a half cups brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Half a cup of Oil, I used Rice Bran

3 and a half cups of Almond Meal (440gm)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

Half a teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon GF baking powder

400gm finely grated carrots

1 cup of shredded coconut

Half a cup slivered almonds (recipe says roasted but I didn’t, no point unless you like the taste of roasted)

Half a cup of currants

Add eggs, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer (or hand held electric beaters) and beat for 15 minutes or until thick and tripled in volume. It should look like this,

Place all the other ingredients in another bowl and mix thoroughly to combine while your egg mixture is whisking away.

I wasn’t sure if the recipe was telling me to fold this through the egg mixture or fold the egg mixture through the other ingredients so I tipped the mixture into a bigger bowl and poured the egg mixture over the top and folded in gently till it was all combined.

Spoon this mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 1 hour,20mins to 1 hour, 25 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out with a few crumbs attached. In my oven, fan forced, it seemed to be cooked by an hour so I just popped some cooking paper on top for the last few minutes, just in case.

Looks too full doesn’t it! If you have a higher sided cake tin, use it but it didn’t overflow the tin that I used. I did put it on another tray just in case 😉

When cooked, allow to cool completely in the tin then refrigerate still in the tin for 2-3 hours or until firm. I left it in the fridge overnight.

To ice this cake, run a knife around the edge of the cake and remove from the tin, spread with the following cream cheese icing recipe.

Cream Cheese Icing

250gm cream cheese, chopped and at room temperature

Half a cup of icing sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Beat the above ingredients all together for 5 minutes then spread over the top of the carrot cake.

When cut by me, it looks like this 😉

Obviously, a profressional would not have left cream cheese icing down the side of the slice but I ate this for breakfast! Hahahaha!

Give this recipe a try. It is one of the nicest gluten free cakes I’ve made.

Bon appetite.