Giving it a go.

Whilst I sit on my proverbial laurels watching the world go by, I’ve been keeping up to date with all the blogs I follow in my reader. One special blog I follow is called tassybakes.com and this lovely recipe was posted about six days ago. It’s a gluten free chocolate and almond cake and is one I’ve wanted to make and eat for a long, long time! Can I just say that it is so moist and delicious and fudgy that I’ll never go past it again for a show stopper chocolate cake. I followed her recipe to the letter but changed out the olive oil for rice bran oil and my cooking time varied quite a bit but that’s what giving things a go is all about isn’t it?

Ingredients.

175 ml boiling water

2 tspn instant coffee granules

80 gm cocoa powder ( I used Plaistowes premium Dutch processed by Nestle)

225 gm ground almonds

1 tspn bicarbonate of soda

1 tspn salt

300gm golden caster sugar

5 eggs

225 ml olive oil

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease and line the base of a 20 cm cake tin. Grease the base paper again.

Sift the almonds, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl.

Mix together the cocoa, coffee and boiling water in a jug and set aside to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and sugar until pale and thick.

Add the cocoa mix and continue whisking until you have a fairly liquid cake batter with no streaks.

Add the almond mixture down the side of the bowl and fold in gently.

( Confession here, I accidentally dumped it in the middle and gave it a brisk whisk before I realised what I’d done and stopped. Didn’t make an ounce of a difference to the end result thankfully! 😂😂😂)

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes OR until a skewer comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached.

Now my cake took roughly 85 minutes in the fan forced oven at 170 degrees and I covered it with a loose sheet of aluminium foil halfway through as I tested it at 50 minutes and no way was it anywhere near cooked. Always go by the skewer method or if the cake springs back when pressed gently in centre.

When the cake is cooked, leave in the tin for 5 minutes then remove and cool on a wire rack.

This cake is the easiest fudge like chocolate cake I’ve ever made and I have tassybakes.com to thank. It was originally served with a chocolate ganache topping which would be divine for a special occasion but I didn’t go down that path this time. Go visit her blog. It’s a beauty!

Here’s a couple of pictures of how I served it but it was also just dandy sans any additions with my cuppa 😋

With a light dusting of icing sugar.

With a healthy serve of coffee gelato 😋😋😋😋😋

Bon appetit!

Coconut Lemon Slice – Gluten Free and extra Coconutty .

Today the wonderful father daughter painting duo of Bob and Bonnie came and oiled and sanded and patched more of our renovations. Tomorrow they refresh all the paintwork in the kitchen and laundry . I was in the mood to bake so I adulterated a favorite slice recipe to make it gluten free for Jason and tried it out on Bob and Bonnie as well. They’re still alive and kicking so it must be alright 😄
First do your prep work and organise all your ingredients.

Ingredients.
125gm butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar (I used raw)
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup Gluten Free self raising flour
3/4 cup of coconut flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup coconut milk

Preheat the oven to moderate 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm shallow tin with non stick baking paper , overhanging two opposite sides.

Beat the butter, sugar and lemon rind with electric beaters until light and creamy.

As you can see in the second picture, I softened the butter a bit too much in the microwave as it was still to hard to cream with the sugar. It cooled down as I beat it though and resumed a more normal creaminess which you can see in the following picture.

Add the egg, a little at a time, beating in well.

Mix in the shredded coconut.

Sift the flours and baking powder and fold into the mixture alternately with the lemon juice and coconut milk.

Spread the mixture evenly into the pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until firm.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

When cold, ice with lemon icing. This was made with about 1 1/2 cups icing sugar, a small nob of butter and lemon juice and a dash of boiling water till a spreadable consistency.

The texture is really lovely and the use of coconut flour just added to the flavour big time.
This is how far away from my kitchen side door our lemon tree is. We had to give it a rather severe crown lift during the renovations but I wasn’t about to lose it.

Bon apetit!

Upside Down Caremalised Pear and Almond Cake (Gluten Free)

Yay! Its coming into winter over here in Albany Western Australia and pears are appearing in the supermarkets and various farmers markets around the place.  I love pears. They lend themselves to so many different recipes both sweet and savoury.  I bought some gorgeous russet and gold coloured Beurre Bosc pears yesterday and then I went searching for a recipe for them. Something pudding like but that my husband Jason , who has severe gluten intolerance, could also enjoy.

I found this lovely recipe written by a lady by the name of Shaina Olmanson from her blog Food For My Family. Here is how I interpreted it and I stayed faithful to her recipe. It looked a lot taller in her blog photos but it really is more like a flan in depth. Very yummy!

First assemble your ingredients and grease and line the base of a  20cm(8 inch) cake tin with baking paper

 

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1-2 Beurre Bosc pears

2 eggs, separated

1/4 cup granulated sugar (I used raw caster sugar)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3/4 cup of almond meal/flour

2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (I used cornflour)

1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

In  a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and pinch of salt and stir, cooking till the edges bubble and the sugar is dissolved.

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. I forgot to do this (adding the vanilla) and the end result worked just fine 😀  Immediately pour the caramel over the baking paper and spreading it out until it coats the base entirely.

Slice the pear in half, de-core it and slice into 1/8-1/4 inch pieces. Arrange the slices over the caramel, fanning them out from the centre.

Beat/whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. You should be able to hold them upside down like I have in my picture and not have them fall out 😀

In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks till thick and pale yellow then add sugar, almond extract, almond meal, arrowroot or cornflour, and the cardamom. The mixture will be quite thick and lumpy.

 

Gently mix in half the egg whites until they’re incorporated, then fold in the remainder of the egg whites. Don’t worry if the batter is streaked with white, its all good :). Do not over mix.

Pour the cake mix over the pears, spreading into an even layer fully covering the pears.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden brown and center of cake is set.

Remove from oven and invert onto a plate while still warm. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

I have to say it tasted divine! I ate it standing at the kitchen bench whilst it was still hot 😀

It would also lend itself to the addition of some unsweetened clotted cream as it really is sweet.

Bon appetit!