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.

Carrot and Courgette muffins

** Carrott and courgette muffins ***

Dairy free, soya free, egg free and gluten free

*** Sugar free ***

High in omega 3

Ingredients

5 oz self raising flour (I use Aldi self raising gluten free flour)

1oz milled flaxseed

A pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon mixed spice

50 ml rapeseed oil

1 carrot (finely grated)

1 courgette (finely grated)

2 well ripe bananas

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Put all ingredients except bananas into a bowl and mix well.
Mash bananas into other ingredients and completely combine.
Put in bun cases.
Bake for 15/18 minutes.

Alternatives

If not gluten free, this recipe works well with half wholemeal flour/half white flour
Add a handful of well chopped spinach

Banana bread

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

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

Ingredients

8oz flour (I use gluten free plain flour but any flour mix will work)
A pinch of salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
4oz sugar
80 ml favourless oil (sunflower, vegetable, rapeseed etc)
3 well ripe bananas (well mashed)

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius
Mix all ingredients except bananas together.
Add the bananas into other ingredients and mix well.
I sprinkled some sugar on top
Bake for 50 minutes.

Alternatives

If not gluten free, this recipe works well with half wholemeal flour/half white flour
Add 50g raisins
Add 50g grated apples
Add 50g chopped nuts
Add 50g chocolate chips
Swap 30g of flour with cocoa powder

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 Chocolate Ganache

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

Ingredients

280ml/1 cup canned coconut milk – the coconut milk cream from a 400g of tinned coconut milk

30ml/2 tablespoons Coconut oil

300g/2 cups dairy free chocolate (broke in small pieces)

250g/2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar) (you may need extra if it does not thicken)

Method

Place the coconut milk and coconut oil in a saucepan over a medium heat, do not allow it to boil.
Pour the hot mix over the broken chocolate and mix until all the chocolate as melted. This may take a few minutes
Whisk until full combine.
Slowly add the sugar while the whisk is going. Whisk at a high speed for about an minute.
Place in fridge for about an hour until it complete cools down. It should now have thickened.
Whisk again at a high speed, if it still isn’t thick, then slowly add some more sugar, until you get the required consistency.
Spread on your cake/cupcakes/buns.
It may also be used between two biscuits to make a biscuit sandwich.
Any left over ganache can be rolled and made into sweets.

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.

Shortbread biscuits

*** Dairy free, egg free and gluten free shortbread biscuits ***

100g plain flour (any type of flour)
100g cornflour
150g Dairy free butter
75g icing sugar (powder sugar)

Method
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
• Cream the butter and sugar together
• Sieve in the flours
• Mix well until the ingredients come together
• Roll it out on a floured surface and cut into required shapes.
• Bake for 12 to 15 minutes

Birthday cake – chocolate

Vegan Chocolate cake

*** Dairy free, soya free, egg free and wheat free ***

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

280g self raising flour

70g caster sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

Half teaspoon bicarbonate soda

Pinch of salt

Wet ingredients

375ml dairy free milk

120ml coconut oil melted

180ml apple puree

180ml golden syrup

2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar

Method

Preheat the oven 180 degrees Celsius.
Mix the dry ingredients together
Put the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk.
Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients, mixing constantly.
Immediately put into lined cake tin (or split between 2 tins if you want to make a sandwich cake)
Bake for 28 minutes, less time if you bake in 2 halves (sandwich cake). Be careful not to over bake.