Category: Dessert

My go to Birthday Cake

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*** Dairy free, soya free, egg free, nut free and gluten free ***

Chocolate cake

Ingredients

200g/2 cups gluten free self raising flour
50g/half a cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
100g/half a cup sugar
60ml/4 tblsp flavourless oil (sunflower/vegetable/rapeseed oil)
200ml/1 cup milk (any alternative milk)
20ml/1 tblsp/30g golden syrup or maple syrup or honey

Method

  • Preheat fan oven to 180C/355F.
  • Sieve flour, cocoa powder and baking soda together. Add the sugar.
  • In another bowl whisk the milk, oil and syrup together.
  • Add the liquid to dry ingredients and mix well.
  • Pour into lined or greases tin – 8 inch circular
  • Bake for 30 minutes.

If you double the quantities, you can make a sandwich cake. Put buttercream in the middle. Dairy free Butter cream

Or use a ganache to decorate Vegan Ganache

Alternatives

  • If you are using Plain gluten free flour, add 2 additional teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of bicarbonated soda and half of teaspoon of xanthan gum
  • Half teaspoon of xanthan gum can be replaced with a teaspoon of cornflour/cornstarch or potato starch.
  • Rice milk is best milk for vegan baking as it holds air better than other milks.
  • Recipe can be used for muffins. Bake for 18 minutes.

Dairy free Butter cream

***Dairy free, soya free, egg free, wheat/gluten free ***

Ingredients
250g df butter (soft stork margarine in gold foil).
500g icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons warm water

1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Method

  • Beat the margarine.
  • Sieve half the icing sugar in to the margarine and add water.
  • Beat well.
  • Add remaining sieved icing sugar and beat well.
  • Add a little more water if it’s too stiff.
  • Add vanilla essence or food colouring as required.
  • For chocolate buttercream, add a tablespoon of cocoa powder when sieving the icing sugar.

Raspberry muffins

****Dairy free, soya free, egg free and gluten free ***

Really moist buns

** Ingredients **

50g raspberries

125ml golden syrup

80ml milk (any alternative milk)

60ml oil

125ml yogurt (I use koko yogurt)

180g self raising gluten free flour

1 tsp baking powder

** Method **

  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
  • Whisk the golden syrup, milk, oil and yogurt together.
  • Add to the flour and baking powder.
  • Mix well.
  • Fold in the fruit.
  • Put in bun cases and bake for 12/15 minutes.

Alternatives
– Add 50g strawberries

– Add 50g blueberries

– Add 50g dairy free chocolate

– Add 50g grated carrot

– Add 50g grated apple

– Replace 50g of the flour with cocoa powder

Golden syrup
A question regularly asked is what is golden syrup? The following information is taken directly from Wikipedia.
Golden syrup or light treacle is a thick amber-coloured form of inverted sugar syrup made in the process of refining sugar cane or sugar beet juice into sugar, or by treatment of a sugar solution with acid. It is used in a variety of baking recipes and desserts. It has an appearance similar to honey and is often used as a substitute where honey is unavailable or prohibitively expensive.
It is not to be confused with amber corn syrup or amber refined sugar. Regular molasses, or dark treacle, has both a richer colour and a strong, distinctive flavour.
A common brand used is Lyle Golden Syrup.

Simple moist muffins

*** Dairy free, soya free, egg free and gluten free ***

Really moist buns

*** Ingredients ***

100ml golden syrup/maple syrup/corn syrup.
80ml milk (any alternative milk)
60ml oil
125ml yogurt (I use koko yogurt)
180g self raising flour (I use gluten free self raising flour)
1 tsp baking powder

** Method **

  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
  • Whisk the syrup, milk, oil and yogurt together.
  • Add to the flour and baking powder.
  • Mix well.
  • Put in bun cases and bake for 18/20 minutes. The recipe makes 10 muffins.

For a cake, put in cake tin and bake for 30 minutes, test with skewer to ensure its cooked through.

For a sandwich cake, double the amount and fill with vegan butter cream. Dairy free Butter cream

Golden syrup
A question regularly asked is what is golden syrup? The following information is taken directly from Wikipedia.
Golden syrup or light treacle is a thick amber-coloured form of inverted sugar syrup made in the process of refining sugar cane or sugar beet juice into sugar, or by treatment of a sugar solution with acid. It is used in a variety of baking recipes and desserts. It has an appearance similar to honey and is often used as a substitute where honey is unavailable or prohibitively expensive.
It is not to be confused with amber corn syrup or amber refined sugar. Regular molasses, or dark treacle, has both a richer colour and a strong, distinctive flavour.
A common brand used is Lyle Golden Syrup.

Vegan Meringues

*** Vegan meringues ***

Ingredients

Aquafaba from one can of chickpeas (200ml)
150g/1&half cups of icing sugar (powdered sugar) – sieved
1 tsp of cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

  • Whisk the aquafaba, sugar, vanilla and apple cider vinegar at a high speed for at least 10 minutes. It requires an electric mixer.
  • The bowl must have no grease, wipe with some cider vinegar. Wipe the baking tray apple cider vinegar. Any grease will cause them to collapse.
  • Bake in over at 120C/245F for 1 hour 15 minutes (if you prefer them browned leave for longer). Leave in oven for at least another 30 minutes once you turn of the oven, better still leave until oven is fully cooled down.

They taste and look like egg meringues.

Apple layered cake

apple cake

Apple layered cake
*** Dairy free, soya free, egg free and gluten free ***
Sponge layer
170g self raising gluten free flour
1&half tsp baking powder
100g caster sugar
40ml flavourless oil (I used sunflower oil)
70ml apple puree
200ml milk (I use rice milk)
Apple layer
2 medium cooking apples
3 tablespoon caster sugar (may need to vary depending on sweetness of apples)
*** Method ***
Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius
– Sponge layer –
Mix all dry ingredients
Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
– Apple layer –
Line cake tray with parchment paper.
Slice apples thinly and layer on tray.
Sprinkle sugar over the apples.
Pour sponge mix over the apple mix and bake for 20/22 minutes.

Vegan gluten free brownies

*

** Vegan gluten free brownies ***
Dairy free, soya free, egg free and gluten free
Too tasty.

1 tbsp milled flaxseed
50ml lukewarm water
250g any plain flour (I use gluten free)
60g cocoa powder
200g caster sugar
150g brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
100ml milk (I use rice milk)
120ml water
280ml flavourless oil (sunflower oil, vegetable oil, rapeseed oil)

*** Method ***
• Mix the flaxseed and water and whisk, leave a side for at least 10 minutes
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
• Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, sugars, baking powder and salt (dry mix)
• In a separate bowl, put all the other ingredients along with the extra water and whisk well. (Liquid ingredients)
• Slowly add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Ensure it is mixed well.
• Pour into a greased baking dish.
• Baked for 30 minutes. Do not over bake, should still be soft in the middle.