Coconut & Pumpkin Cake with lots of dark chocolate on top!

Damn that last bit of the big ole pumpkin that was still taking up refridgerator space. It had to go, so I just had to make sonmething with the last itty bit of it (you don't throw away perfectly good & nutricious food even if you don't know what to make with it, now do you?). And since I couldn't bear to eat pumkin soup again and my kids would kill me if we ate pumpkin risotto for the millionth time, it had to be a cake of some kind. This recipe is my own invention, no 'inspirational stealing' from anywhere so it's a Wendy-original... and it turned out soooo good!

Yes, it tastes as good as it looks

Ingredients:

• 550 grams  (1 lb 4 oz) of cooked and mashed pumpkin (cooled)
• 220 grams (8 oz) of basic gluten free cake flour (iIused Schar's cake & cookie flour - Mix C)
• 200 grams (7 oz) of sugar
• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of soft butter
• 4 eggs
• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of grated coconut and some extra for decoration
• 10 grams (0.25 oz) of cream of tartar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of dark chocolate

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade or 350 degrees fahrenheit
• Cream the butter and the sugar in a big bowl until it's light and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs and then add the flour, cream of tartar, gluten free flour & the coconut. When that's all combined add the pumpkin. Fold it in carfully so your batter won't lose the air you've beaten into it.
• Butter a cake tray and pour in the batter.
• Place it in the middle of the oven & let it bake for about 40-45 minutes, until your house smells heavenly and the cake is risen and golden.
• Take it out of the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes before you gently take it out of the tray. Place it on a wire rack and let it cool completely.
• Melt the chocolate (chunks) in a bowl that you place on a pan with softly boiling water. Make sure the water does not touch the bowl. When it's completely melted pour it over your cake & sprinkle it with coconut. Leave it till it's completely cooled & serve with tea!

Enjoy!

My other gluten free pumpkin recipes:

• Pumpkin & buttermilk bread
• Pumpkin & walnut cupcakes
• Pumpkin pie with cream cheese frosting

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!