Upside Down Apple Raisin and Cinnamon Cake

One of my favorite pies is apple pie. Proper Dutch apple pie with raisins and cinnamon. I haven't, however, been able to recreate the real thing gluten free. It is just not the same. Somehow gluten free dough doesn't have that same texture that I love so much. But I've found something else. This upside down cake is tasty, soft, fragrant and delicious. It is easy to make and makes a perfect treat for a lazy Sunday, a birthday or for an ordinary day that you just want to treat yourself. Or bake something, just like me. 

Simple & Delicous! 

Here's the recipe to the upside down cake:

Ingredients:

For the topping: 

• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of butter
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of brown sugar
• a bit of cinnamon sugar
• 25 grams (1 oz) of raisins (soaked in water or if you won't serve it to kids, some liquor)
• 2 apples, peeled and sliced into thin slices

For the cake:

• 125 (4.5 oz) grams of sugar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of soft butter
• 1 egg
• 150 (5.5 oz) grams of rice flour
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of almond flour
• 1.5 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 0.25 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
• 100 ml (3.5 fl oz) of milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grab a round silicone cake pan and butter it. 
3. Put a pan on the stove, put in the butter and brown sugar and melt the butter. take the pan from the heat when the sugar is dissolved. Pour it in the silicon pan. 
4. Scatter the raisins onto the butter & sugar mixture and then put the slices of apple on top. Sprinkle with some cinnamon sugar for extra taste. 
5. Now make the batter:
6. Beat the granulated sugar and butter in a bowl untill it's light and airy. Beat in the egg. Add the rice flour, almond flour, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, salt & cinnamon & mix well. Beat in the milk & pour the batter over the slices of apple. Smooth the top and put it in the oven for about 25-35 minutes. 
7. When the top feels firm, bounces back when you softly touch it and looks all golden & pretty, take it out of the oven and let it cool a bit. Then turn it over using a plate on top. 

Enjoy!

Don't judge me on my label...

No, this isn't a blog about clothes, and it isn't a blog about a recipe either. This is a tale about something that bothers me about today's society: how we treat people who are different. I happen to have two boys who are different so maybe that is why I feel so strongly about this. They are different from what society considers normal. But what is normal actually?

My oldest is, as a celiac, different because he eats different. It shouldn't matter, because it's just food, but it does. To some. Especially grown ups. My sons friends are very laid back when it comes to him. To them, it's just a detail. So he eats differently. Big deal...
The parents, they just think it's scary. So he hardly gets asked to eat at a friends home, they always come to us. Because that is safe. That he feels left out, not wanted, well, that is something for me to solve. It breaks my heart sometimes, that he is excluded from things, just because certain foods make him very, very sick.

My youngest son, he is different too. He shares his brothers diet, but there is something else too. We are still figuring out what makes him different, we have an idea, but we basically need a label as to help him better. We need a bloody label as to explain why he is different and then we have to ask people not judge him on that same label. Am I still making sense?

My youngest is choatic, has the attention span of about 5.3 seconds, he is loud, never sits still, his head is in constant overdrive, and the craziest stuff can make him freak out, act out and throw the biggest almighty tantrum you've ever seen. And the worst thing of it all is that it bothers him. He knows. He feels it.
But most of all he is very funny, very sweet & loving, he is generous, he says please and thank you more than most grown ups, he is smart (he is a smart ass too ;-)) and he is very sociable and the star of every party as long as he can be his loud, cheery self. And all that gets overshadowed sometimes by something he never asked for in the first place.

And the worst is that people (seem to) judge him on it. Heck, I even do that and I'm his mom. I know where he is coming from, but I can't always get what is going on in his head and after a day full of misunderstandings and frustration from the both of us, I often think: Why can't you just be normal? And then I feel very ashamed. Because I know better, but this "normal" thing has been programmed into me too. And then I hug him tight, and I wonder & worry about how he will survive "out there". But I also know it is up to me and my husband to help him survive and very slowly, with some help we are getting there. We are understanding him better and that makes him more at ease.

But he will always have others judging him because he is happily playing with his cars in a store or a doctors office and is making loud noises while doing so. Or have people tuttutt-ing because he is in his own little safe world sometimes, where even mom & dad can't reach him unless they really, really, really make an effort. Or worse, people shaking their head because he is throwing the biggest hissy fit you've ever seen, because he has trouble explaning to us what he really wants. His head is too full to tell us, so he freaks out. It's the only way he knows how express himself at such a time. 
And then there are the people who think this is funny. Who think his behaviour is cute & the struggle is funny. Well, it's not. Those moments are tough.

We are getting help, to help our son cope with what society thinks is normal, what we think of as normal, even if he can't always help himself that he does not exactly fit into that box. We are helping him adjust to the 'normal box'. But what if we all just allowed ourselves a bit understanding? What if we stretched the normal box somewhat? What if we stopped judging people on things we don't know? I know it starts somewhere, so I'm going to take a good look into the mirror and start with myself. I'm going to stretch my normal box (disclaimer: Crocs will never fit in my normal box though ;-)) so more people fit in. Will you do that with me?

Gluten-Free and Sugar-Free cake crammed with dates, figs, walnuts & pecans

I'm still experimenting with this sugar-free thing for my youngest. Gluten-Free is one thing, but this sugar-free baking is still a bit of a challenge. But this cake has turned out really well. I've found out I like baking with honey best. It gives a great result, so in this cake I've replaced the sugar with honey. Basically, I've changed everything of the original recipe, except the pecans. :-)
I do that a lot. I see a recipe (in this case a cake with cranberries, walnuts and raisins) and just change it all up with stuff that I like. Why I even bother to look up a recipe, I don't know. Maybe I just need some inspiration or a bit of a guideline. 

When baking gluten-free I believe that experimenting & testing is the only way to get better and better, so I would encourage anyone to just go ahead an try stuff when you've got the basics down. That's how I ended up with 70 recipes on this blog. 

Yes, this is my 70th blog and recipe already. Quite an amount, now I've come to think of it. And plenty more to follow, I'm sure. So thank you Jordan Knight for once asking on twitter what everyones new years resolution was and to say you just have to stick with it. This blog was my New Years resolution for 2013 and I guess after that tweet I decided to just start and see where it would take me. I had been talking of blogging my silly recipes for a long time, just never got my butt into gear to actually do it. One day.. you know... 
well, I'm glad I started and I hope my silly little blog is of help to others struggling with this difficult diet. Because no matter the amount of recipes, the challenges of a gluten-free life are difficult sometimes, if not frustrating. 

Healthy and delicious, what more can you ask for?

Anyway...This cake has lots of healthy stuff in it so you don't have to feel guilty when having a slice. 

Ingredients:

• 250 grams (9oz) of gluten-free rice flour
• 90 grams (3.25 oz) of chopped dates
• 90 grams (3.25 oz)  of chopped figs
• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 140 grams (5 oz) of soft butter
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of mixed spice
• 175 grams (6 oz) of honey
• 80 grams (3 oz) of chopped walnuts
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of chopped pecans
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 125 ml (4 fl oz) of milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade (325 degrees fahrenheit).
2. Grease a cake tin.
3. Chop the walnuts and pecans together and then the dates and figs. I chopped them into oblivion with my kitchen aid, so the were really fine and melted into the cake. 
4. Take a large bowl and mix the rice flour with the dates, figs, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, cinnamon and mixed spice. 
5. Add the butter and honey and mix well with an electric mixer.
6. Add the chopped walnuts and pecans with the egg and beat into the mixture. Then add the milk slowly till all is combined and you have a soft fragrant batter.
7. Pour/transfer the batter to the cake tin and smooth the top. Decorate the cake with some sliced dates (or if you have some walnuts or pecans left over, use those). 
8. Put the cake in the oven for about 45 minutes, then lower the heat to 150 degrees centigrade (300 degrees fahrenheit) and bake for another 45 minutes. 
9. Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Then take it out of the tin & let it cool completely on a wire rack. 

Enjoy!