Carrot cake with walnuts, raisins and coconut

Now that autumn has arrived I wanted to bake a nice robust cake, a pie in which you can taste the fall. My first instinct was to make pumpkin pie, but my boys were not quite in favor. They think pumpkin is delicious in a risotto, but as a pie ... that's a step too far. So carrot cake it was. Not typically autumn, but mixed spices give it a hint of autumn. And it contains lots of fiber, something thatmy boys with their gluten-free diet can really use. When the batter was finished I had so much that I ended up baking two cakes. One for us at home, and one that I take to work, where they already know that gluten free tastes good. ;-)

I have a basic recipe adapted added lots of extras. 
The end result:

Ingredients:
For the carrot cake

• 300 grams (10.5 oz) of grated carrot
• 180 grams (6.35 oz) of walnuts
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of coconut
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of raisins
• 2 tbsp mixed spice
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of almond flour
• 200 grams (7 oz) of rice flour
• 2 bags of baking soda (or two teaspoons)
• 300 grams (10.5 oz) brown sugar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of butter
• 200 ml (7 fl oz) of coconut oil
• 4 eggs (separated)

For the cream cheese buttercream:

• 400 grams (14 oz) of cream cheese
• 250 grams (8.8 oz) of butter
• 250 grams (8.8 oz) of icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavoring

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius/300 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Melt the butter and coconut oil (if solidified) and whisk in a bowl with the caster sugar until creamy.
3. Mix the carrot, walnuts, coconut, raisins, spice cake, almond flour, rice flour and baking soda in a separate bowl.
4. Beat the egg yolks with the butter and sugar mixture and add the dry ingredients to this. Beat the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl and fold gently into the batter. Do this carefully so that you keep the air inside.
5. Grease a large springform pan (I used two little ones) and line it with parchment paper. Spoon the batter into the springform pan(s) and smooth. Put it in the oven and bake 45 minutes at 150 degrees/300 degrees fahrenheit.
6. After three minutes, turn the temperature to 170 degrees celsius/ 340 degrees fahrenheit and bake the cakes even further (about 30 minutes). Make sure the top is not too dark, otherwise you cover it with aluminum foil.
7. Meanwhile, make the butter cream by putting all the ingredients into the food processor and mix for some time (I let my machine mix for 45 minutes on a low setting). Thus, it becomes a light cream.
8. If the cake(s) are ready, remove them from the oven and let them cool completely on a rack. When they are cool you cut them and fill them with some of the cream and the rest you spread over the top. Decorate the cake with whole walnuts (or as I did with marzipan and chocolate figurines).

Bon appetit!

Blueberry muffins

I'm almost ashamed to say it's been a really, really, really long while since I've actually blogged a recipe. That doesn't mean I've stopped baking, because baking never stops when you have two gluten free boys to take care of. But life has been a tad bit hectic so blogging the recipes I developed never quite 'happened' to make it onto here. 

This week a brand new kitchen gadget arrived: My very own Kenwood Kmix and that was reason enough to bake something. Because, it is no use letting it be pretty on your kitchen countertop right? So... blueberry muffins it was. And they turned out so nice I just couldn't let them go "unblogged'. So hey... I'm back! 

This recipe makes 12 midsize muffins

Ingredients: 

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of rice flour
• 50 grams (1.76 oz) of corn flour
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of almond flour
• 75 grams (2.65 oz) of sugar
• 10 grams (0.35 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons fiber husk
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of soft butter
• 2 dl (3.33 fl oz) of butter milk 
• 2 eggs
• 175 grams (6.17 oz) of blueberries

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade/ 350 fahrenheit. 
2. Put the paper cups into the muffin tray or butter the muffin tray. 
3. Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl. 
4. Beat the sugar into the soft butter until it is a fluffy mixture. Add the eggs and beat them into the butter mixture. 
5. Add the mixed dry ingredients and mix it all in until it is combined. Then add the blueberries and fold them in carefully so they won't break open. I added them to the mixture in my Kmix and let it mix on the slowest/first setting. 
6. Scoop the mixture into the muffin tray with a spoon. 
7. Put in the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown. 
8. Take them out of the oven, let them cool in the tray first for a couple of minutes. Then take them out and let them cool completely on a wire rack. 

Enjoy!!