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!

Carrot Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

I always bake gluten free, even for my own birthday. Why? Because I do not want to risk any cross contamination in my kitchen and in my baking products. The only gluten products that come into my kitchen are my breakfast crackers & our bread that we religiously keep away from the gluten free stuff. Our dinner is always gluten free, I do not want to cook two seperate meals.

So that also means that the birthday cakes for my husband and my birthday are always gluten free too. No fuss, and basically (if I do it right) people don't even taste the difference. This year I wanted to make a carrot cake. I had never made one gluten free, so now was as good as a time as any. When I googled carrot cake I stumbled on this Dutch recipe and it sounded so delicious that I just needed to make a gluten free version of it. And that is more than just substituting the flour, because gluten free flour react differently than normal flour, so i needed to make some changes in the recipe. Here's how it turned out:

There's tons & tons of cream cheese frosting on top to give the cake some extra zing!

Ingredients:
Cake:

• 450 grams (1 lb) of grated carrots
• 300 grams (10.5 oz) of gluten free cake flour (I used Schar's mix C) 
• 200 grams (7 oz) of raw cane sugar
• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of grated coconut
• 2,5 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• the zest of 1 orange
• half a teaspoon of iodized salt
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon of grated nutmeg
• 0.5 teaspoon of powdered ginger 
• 0.5 teaspoon of powdered cloves
• 15 grams (0.5 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 225 ml (8 fl oz) of olive oil
• 125 ml (4 fl oz) of buttermilk
• 4 eggs
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of chopped walnuts 
• 100 gram (3.5 oz)  of chopped raisins (sultanas)

Orange & cream cheese frosting

• 300 grams (10.5 oz)(3 of cream cheese 
• 3 tablespoons of fresh cheese (quark)
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of powdered sugar 
• zest of one orange
• 2-3 tablespoons of orange juice.
• about 50 grams (1.75 oz) of chopped walnuts to decorate.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade/350 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Take a big bowl (you need a big one, because this amount makes a whole lot of batter!!!) and mix the flour, cane sugar, grated coconut, grated carrot, vanilla sugar, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, cinnamon, nutmeg, powdered ginger, powdered cloves and the orange zest. 
3. Take another bowl and mix the eggs with the buttermilk & olive oil.
4. Mix the egg, oil & buttermilk mixture in with the huge amount of flour, spices, carrots & coconut mixture. Make sure it is mixed well. If your mixture remains a bit dry, add a bit of extra buttermilk.
5. Now fold in the chopped walnuts and raisins.
6. Butter a round spring tin and line it with parchment paper. Pour in the batter and softly even it out with a spoon.
7. Put it in the oven for about 50-60 minutes until it is nice & golden.
8. Let the cake cool completely before you decorate it with the cream cheese frosting. To make the frosting mix the cream cheese, fresh cheese, orange juice & powdered sugar till all is combined. Spread it on top of the cake.  Sprinkle the cream cheese frosting with orange zest & chopped walnuts.

Enjoy!

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

Mini Custard Pies with an almond, coconut & oatmeal base & a fresh strawberry

I was making rumpledoodles (see recipe on my blog here) a few weeks back and as I was making the dough for these cookies full of fibers and lots of flavour I realized it would make a great base for pies too. I figured I had to alter the recipe somewhat to make for a pie crust, so that needed some thinking. I let that idea slip from the back of my mind for a while, until last week when it hit me. It would make a wonderful combination with custard. Home made, gluten free custard. And that's when the baking itch always hits me. When the idea has come to me, I just have to bake. 

The little black specks in the custard are the vanille seeds as I used a proper vanilla pod in the custard.

So I made these cute little pies as a Sunday treat & the amount of dough also allowed me to make a stack of cookies too. This recipe will make about 12 mini custard pies and about 10 oatmeal, coconut, almond cookies. When I wanted to photograph the cookies, I found out i only had three left. So that goes to show how lovely those were. 

They're gone before you know it!

And the mini custard pies? They didn't last very long either! 

Ingredients:
Pie base & cookies

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of rolled oat
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of gluten free almond flour
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of grated coconut
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of raisins, 50 grams (1.75 oz) of dates, 50 grams (1.75 oz) of dried apricots
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons molasses (maple syrup works really well too!)
• 150 grams (5.5 oz) of soft unsalted butter (if you are lactose intolerant as well, you can substitute it for soy butter or something similar)
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 1 egg
• a tiny bit of basic gluten free flour to dust the work top with and to help roll out the dough.

Custard

• 250 ml (9 fl oz) of milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 16 grams (0.5 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 20 grams (0.75 oz) of corn starch
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of granulated sugar

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade or 350 degrees fahrenheit.
• Line a muffin or cupcake tray with paper cupcake cups.

First you make the custard as follows:

1. Mix all the sugar with the cornstarch & whisk it with a bit of cold mix till all the cornstarch and sugar are combined and you have no lumps.
2. Scrape the vanilla pod seeds from the vanilla pod and put them in a pan with the pod. Pour in the remainder of the milk & heat the milk in the pan on the stove. 
3. Beat the egg yolks with the cornstarch & sugar mixture till it is is frothy.
4. Pour a bit of the hot milk on the frothy egg, cornstarch, sugar mixture while whisking and then pour this back into the pan with the milk. 
5. Bring this to a boil and keep whisking, as soon as the custard starts bubbling, turn down the heat, leave it to boil for about a minute & don't stop stirring.
6. Then pour the custard on a cold plate or in a cold bowl, remove the vanilla pod and cover it with cling film. Leave it to cool for half an hour and then let it cool further in the fridge.

Then you make the pie crust & cookie dough:

1. Put the rolled oats, the apricots, dates & raisins in a blender and blitz till everything is in small chunks and the oats look like flour.
2. Put it in a bowl and add all the other ingredients. 
3. Mix it all well until you have a firm but slightly sticky dough. 
4. Dust a spotlessly clean worktop with a bit of basic gluten free flour (I always use a bit of baking parchment to place on the work top and dust that with the flour to make sure no stray gluten can bite my gluten free dough in the butt, just to be sure) & put the dough on there. Dust it with gluten free flour again & roll out the dough till desired thickness & punch out circles for the cookies & the pie crust. Place the circles (roll them out a bit if necessary) in the lined muffin or cupcake tray and form the pie crusts. Put the cookies on baking parchment & on a tray. 
5. Bake them both in the oven for about 20-25 minutes till golden.
6. Take them out of the oven & let them cool on a wire rack before you fill a piping bag with the cooled down custard and pipe the custard onto the pie crust. Decorate with a fresh strawberry. 

Enjoy!!

An easy glutenfree treat: coconut cookies with chocolate pirate coins

Even though my sons birthday is months away, I'm already testing recipes for treats for his schoolmates. Not because I have to see if the recipe works, but to see how much work is involved. Because no matter how often I promise myself to make it easy, I never keep to my word. The result is that I end up in the kitchen for hours and when my husband comes home he shakes his head and then... does nothing except say: "If i was in charge of birthday treats, I'd buy them all a little bag of crisps". Well, how much I hate the time it takes me to make these birthday treats, I would never ever even consider that. Why? Because it's boring, it's an easy way out and it's not exactly healthy now is it? 

Not that my treats are usually very healthy, but they are small, i know what is in them and they are creative. Basically, a bag of crisps is just beneath me. Oh good lord, I am a treat snob! 

But since I am determined to make these treats easier this time, I'm testing a couple of ideas way ahead. This recipe is one of them. 

They are coconut cookies that are very easy to make. The most work is in the chocolate coins as you have to pour those. And I have a mould for them, but it only makes 4 coins at a time. But other than that, this recipe is a breeze. Now let's hope my little pirate loves them too. 

Argh, argh, argh!

This recipe makes 12 coconut macaroons.

Ingredients:

• 125 grams  (4,5 oz) of grated coconut
• 7 grams (0.25 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 1 tablespoon of glutenfree rice flour
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 3 egg whites
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of (powdered) icing sugar
• About 175 grams (6 oz) of dark chocolate (for the coins) 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees centigrade (300 degrees fahrenheit).
2. Mix the coconut, vanilla sugar, rice flour, xanthan gum and icing sugar in a bowl. 
3. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl to firm peakes.
4. Fold the coconut mixture into the firm eggwhites.
5. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and make 12 heaps of dough (it is quite sticky dough by the way) on the parchment paper.
6. Put them in the oven for 30 minutes until they are lightly golden. 
7. leave them to cool on a wire rack when done
8. While the cookies are in the oven, make the chocolate coins. melt the chocolate in a bowl that you place on a pan with softly boiling water. Pour some chocolate into the mould and place it in the freezer to make the chocolate solid again. Slowly take them out of the mould, be careful not to bake them and place them on some baking parchment in the freezer until you have enough coins. 
9. Then pour a little bit of chocolate onto the fully cooled coconut macaroons, put a coin on them and quickly put them in the freezer again. Otherwise the warm chocolate will melt the coins again. 
10. Voila, your pirate treasure treat is finished! 

Coconut, nut & rice crispy squares full of fiber

I was cleaning out my baking stash yesterday when I realised I had opened packets of raisins, grated coconut, sugar, honey and nuts left. Since its a waste to throw out good food I searched the supermarket for some additional stuff to bake something with those left overs. I bought glutenfree rice crispies with chocolate and a tin of condensed milk and conjured up this glutenfree squares full of fibers for my kids.

This recipe makes about 16-20 rice crispy treats.

Ingredients:

• 120 grams (4.25 oz) of grated coconut
• 150 grams (5.5 oz) of crushed assorted nuts, I had pecan and walnut left over.
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of light caster sugar
• 25 grams (1 oz) of honey with lemon
• 150 grams (5.5 oz) of rice crispies, I used Consenza's Multigrain Choco Muesli
• 40 grams (1.5 oz) of millet flakes
• 65 grams (2.33 oz) of raisins
• 1 tin of condensed milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Centigrade, 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Put all ingredients in a big bowl and mix well till all condensed milk has been soaked up.
3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper/ baking paper. 
4. Transfer contents of the bowl into the baking tray, press firmly to create a cakelike form.
5. Put in the oven for 15 minutes, when golden on top turn over the cake using another tray on top of the cake and turn it upside down. Remove baking paper and bake bottom up for another 15 minutes till that is golden too.
6. Transfer to a wire rack, let it cool before you cut it into pieces. You can keep them in a plastic container for a couple of days.