Nut-free & Egg-free Blackforest Gateau

Nut-free & Egg-free Blackforest Cake

I baked this moist, delicious egg-free Blackforest cake today. It's made up of layers of melt in your mouth chocolate cake with kirsch-soaked morello cherries baked right into the cake. Then, each layer is spread with cherry jam and topped with pitted black cherries and gently whipped cream. The whole cake is then slathered with more whipped cream, coated in grated semi-sweet chocolate and crowned with a circle of glace cherries.....don't you just wish you could have a bite? Well, here's the how-to....

Nut-free & Egg-free Blackforest Gateau

Dry ingredients:
135g self raising flour
25 g cocoa
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Wet ingredients:
200ml cold coffee
4 1/2 tablespoons melted butter, cooled
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 kirsch-soaked morello cherries, drained

Cherry jam - 2 tablespoons
Canned Dark cherries - 8, drained and each split in 2
Kirsch - 2 tablespoons * optional
Whipping cream - 2 cups, cold
Semi-sweet chocolate - 100gm, grated
Glace cherries for decor

Method:
Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius. For the cake, sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add all the wet ingredients and whisk till combined. Stir in the morello cherries. Pour cake batter evenly into 2 lined 6" round cake pans. smooth tops and bake in the centre of the oven for 10 - 15 minutes. Test with a toothpick after 10 minutes. When done, take out of oven and cool on a rack till completely cold.

Whip cold cream till soft peaks are formed. Place some in a small piping bag to decorate the top of the cake later.

To assemble cake:

Place one layer of the cake on a cake plate or board. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon kirsch (optional). Spread with cherry jam. Cover over the jam with the split canned cherries. Gently spread 4-5 tablespoons of whipped cream over the cherries and top with the second layer of cake. Sprinkle with kirsch and cover the sides and top of cake with the remaining whipped cream. Smooth the sides with a palate knife as you go along. Chill for 20 minutes. Then cover the sides of cake with the grated chocolate. Pipe swirls along the outer edge of the cake and top each swirl with half a glace cherry. Chill for at least 2 hours. Enjoy!

Nut free & Gluten-free Millet Burgers with Mushrooms

Nut free & Gluten free Millet Burgers with Mushrooms

The kids who are confirmed carnivores, voraciously so, won't eat anything green if they could help it. I have been trying all sorts of vege burger variations, hoping to hit on the magic number. I have tried bean burgers, rice-burgers, mashed potato burgers..nah-uh! No way. They poke, prod and leave a mess of disintegrated vege burger-effort on the plate. Then I tried this easy recipe with millet.

Princess Pumpkinseed gave it a high 5, while the Prince gave it a cautious thumbs up. Cautious because he is pathologically opposed to anything remotely related to a vegetable. He ate it, albeit with suspicion that Mommy was sneaking vegetables into his food again! I served it as patties with a tomato salad on the side and gluten free gravy. Hope you enjoy this humble offering of mine!


Nut free & Gluten-free Millet Burgers with Mushrooms

1 cup millet
2 cups canned tomato or vegetable juice

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms, any combination of types
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup finely diced red peppers
1/4 cup chopped parsely
1/4 cup chopped spring onions or finely diced onion
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil for sautéing

Method: Cook carrot and mushrooms in olive oil till soft. Then add the peppers. After a minute, add the millet followed by the juice. Stir an cover till cooked, about 7 to 10 minutes. All the liquid will be nearly absorbed completely. Then stir in the chopped herbs. Leave to cool slightly then using a 1/4 cup measure, form into burgers. Do this while the millet is still warm as it makes it easier to form into patties. Leave burgers o cool on a piece of baking paper. Put the burgers still on the baking paper onto the baking tray. Spray burgers lightly with cooking spray and grill till done.

Nut free Gluten-free Vegan Gravy
1 tablespoon rice flour
1 tablespoon vegan spread
1 cup vegetable broth or stock of your choice
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt and pepper

Method: Melt vegan spread and add rice flour and stir till its lightly brown. Add the stock stirring all the time, till gravy thickens. Adjust seasoning. Add chopped parsley.

Nut free & Egg free (Dairy free) Yoghurt Cake

Fluffy Nut free & Egg free Yoghurt Cake

Here is a Yoghurt cake that started life with eggs and dairy ingredients in it. But, because of my son's allergies, I came up with an egg & nut free version which can of course be made dairy free as well. Substitute the yoghurt with a non-dairy version like soy or coconut. Personally, I love the coconut one. So here it is, with the pictures and the recipe. Honestly, it was so delicious, light and fluffy with a lemony sugar glaze on top, why would anyone want the version with eggs?? And or dairy?

Nut free & Egg free (Dairy free) Yoghurt Cake

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup castor sugar

Wet ingredients:
170g pot low fat vanilla yoghurt (substitute with non-dairy yoghurt, if you like)
2 tablespoon water
4 1/2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Lemon Glaze
1/4 sifted icing sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Method:  Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together in a bowl. The mixture will be very thick and gloopy. Don't be tempted to add more liquid or cake may become dense and compacted. Pour the cake batter into a rectangular 8"x 5" tin. Smooth top. Bake at 180 degrees celcius for 20 -25 minutes. Check with a toothpick after 18 minutes. Top will be well browned when done. Remove to rack and cool. For glaze, mix just enough lemon juice into icing sugar to form a thick paste. Drizzle onto top of cake and sprinkle with grated lemon rind. It's ready!

For a Non-Dairy-free version, substitute soy yoghurt or coconut yoghurt in place of the regular one in this recipe.

Casein allergy

A glass of milk

Baking this weekend for a gluten and casein allergy sufferer. I have been baking gluten free cupcakes for a while now but this will be my first attempt at a layer cake. What's the big deal right? Well, the deal is, I'm afraid that the cake will crumble while assembling or after. So I'm trying to work out the best way to go about it. While I'm processing that in some corner of my mind, I'm checking out this casein thing. With a lot of help from the internet, this is what I gathered in a nutshell.......I think I'm beginning to sound archaic. Must be the early hour. It's just after 5am here, so a little hard to sound hip at this hour. Again an age thing.
Casein is a milk protein and it's found in a whole lot of stuff including some supposedly non-dairy spreads - how scary is that? Whey is the other culprit for dairy allergy suffers. So we have to read the list of ingredients very carefully to make sure that there is nothing toxic hidden under fancy words on the list. Stuff like lactalbumin, which is albumin found in whey, is a no-no! See, this is really hard work. In fact, it scares me so much, that I make sure I recognize everything I read on the back of a package. And fewer the number of ingredients, the better as its less processed and closer to the real deal.

Gluten free Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

Here is the egg free, dairy (casein) free, gluten free chocolate fudge layer cake I baked this weekend. I will follow up with the recipe really soon. Cheers!

A slice from the above cake

Flax seed in Gluten free baking

Whole flax seeds

Previously, I only knew flax seed as a powerhouse of nutrients, great for a gazillion things, from fighting heart disease to cancer to diabetes, naming just a few - flagship of natural foods, so to speak. It was when I started exploring gluten free baking that I came across it as an essential player in replacing eggs and acting as a binder to keep cakes from crumbling. In fact, dare I go so far as to claim that it is a blessing to gluten free bakers? It certainly is for me!

Ground flax - Flaxmeal

Flax seed is a plant-based source of omega-3. Ground flax seed (aka flax meal) acts a binder in baking and is a natural egg substitute. It is commonly referred to as flax egg and gives a slightly nutty flavor to baked goods. Mixing 1 tablespoon flax meal in 3 tablespoons hot water will give the equivalent of 1 egg.

Flax egg

There are 2 common types - golden and brown flax seed. There does not appear to be much difference between the 2, nutrition wise. It's more in the appearance. Both work the same way but it may be better to use the golden flax seed in light cakes like a gluten free vegan vanilla sponge. Then when the cake is cut, it won't have a speckled appearance.....hopefully. I buy whole flax seed and grind it in the spice-ginder attachment of my food processor. Works out more economical than buying pre-ground flax meal and as has the added advantage of being fresher as I grind only what I need, when I need it.    

Chocolate frogs anyone?

Chocolate Frogs?

My children's friends bought them some chocolate frogs at extortionist prices from the Harry Potter exhibition, here in Singapore. Well, here is my take on chocolate frogs as a 'thank you' for the gift and for being such great friends as well! Egg-free and dairy-free chocolate cupcakes with dairy-free chocolate icing, topped with a cute fondant frog. Sorry, mine don't come with cards! This ones' for you two - Priya and Prakash Nair!

More trials.....half a loaf is better?

Yet another Gluten-free Bread attempt 

Here's the next episode in my on going gluten-free bread-making saga...lots of hyphens there and more to come! I'm trying to make a (here it comes!) gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, yeast-free, corn-free  (no xantham gum), soy-free and gelatine-free bread using a gluten-free sour dough starter. Till now, my sour dough starters have been non-starters (sorry,couldn't resist). At last, in my latest attempt, the starter turned out the way I perceived it should. I was so excited! Then I got into the actual mixing and baking. For this loaf, I used a store bought gluten-free bread mix. It was a premix of rice, tapioca and potato flour with xantham gum added. I know I keep going on about xantham gum having corn in it but I figured I'll give the premix a go to see if I could actually make a reasonable tasting gluten-free bread. The bread flour with the sour dough starter mixed up fine. I kept it in my oven with just the light on to let the bread dough rise. Then when I carefully transferred the beautifully risen loaf to a heated pan, poof! My bubble burst......literally. The dough started sinking and I ended up where I started.......with a bookend! Back to the drawing board..........sigh. 

Is it really gluten-free?

Hi there! Be warned before you proceed any further with your reading. I'm about to embark on one of my pet peeves - the lack of allergy and content information in foods. The latest incident to trigger of my spiel on this happened yesterday. I was at local food fair, held at one of the malls close to home standing in a long and winding line to buy rice flour cakes, when I overheard a man asking the lady behind the counter if the tapioca pancakes she was cooking on the hotplate were wheat free. Despite the crowds, his question caught my attention as this is an area very close to my heart. We of the label/disclaimer-reading lot would totally understand this guy's query, right?  Not so the lady behind the counter. Her answer was a vague, "Just sugar, water and tapioca flour. Would you like to try one?" Well, the gentleman decided to bite the bullet and bought one. But this brings me to my pet peeve. The tapioca flour used to make the pancakes was probably not certified as being wheat-free. It probably IS wheat-free but without the guarantee of certification. See where I'm going with this? There is a huge grey area here which is a real nightmare zone for those of us dealing with with allergies and food intolerance on a daily basis though a minute by minute basis would be more accurate. We are living it.

Store-bought tapioca pancakes - are they gluten-free?

Much of the local food products in Singapore, while having the ingredients listed, do not carry allergy information.  The ingredients lists can be vague as well. A packet of tapioca flour from the local market, would list under ingredients just tapioca flour, which is fine. Cheap too. But there is no assurance or disclaimers that it contains just tapioca. For that, we have to head for over-priced specialist organic food shops. Even then, the range of products available is pretty limited. This leads to a great deal of frustration for most of us with allergies to contend with in our daily lives, especially when we call home, a real food paradise! Hopefully, this will change soon and we will have a better range of well-labelled food products with all the necessary information at lower prices available at local markets.....sounds like a dream.   

Animal Safari fondant decor workshop

Busy at work with the animal toppers

Ong Sansan and her two boys, Nathaniel and Immanuel have been such staunch supporters of my cakes from the the early days of my baking career, with Foodinfinity. I have been making their birthday cakes for them for over 3 years. Last year, we did things a little differently! All of us together, baked and decorated the birthday cakes for the boys. A real family effort with just a wee bit of input from yours truly. 

Beautifully decorated cupcakes!

Here are the pictures from our latest cake decorating venture together. A few weeks ago, I did a decorating class for Sansan. There were 6 kids including Sansan's two sons, and between the lot of them, we had a whole gamut of allergies. The cupcakes I baked for the class were egg-free and dairy-free chocolate cupcakes with dairy-free icing. They were nut-free as well.

Animal Safari cupcake toppers

"Animal Safari" was the theme for the fondant decor and the toppers for the cupcakes were a reflection of that. There was an elephant, tiger, lion, monkey, snake and hippo.I did a set of toppers so that the kids could have some idea of the finished result. But apart from the basics, I left it to them to make their own toppers as they saw fit. We had a great time, and so did my hired hands - the Princess and Pee-Wee. Thank you Sansan, for bringing together your wonderful kids, their cousins and friends for the 'Animal Safari' theme workshop 

A very pleased little cutie with her elephant cupcake

Gluten-free Egg-free Dairy-free Chocolate fudge Cupcakes

Gluten-free Egg-free Dairy-free Chocolate Cupcakes

After playing around with several recipes, I hit on this combination that works, at least, I think so! First of, let me tell you, that here in Singapore, it is very difficult to find ingredients which are properly labelled and certified as being free of this and that, namely egg, dairy, gluten and nuts. Make no mistake. You can get a whole range of stuff but just can't be sure if there are traces of any of the baddies in them. So I work with what I have available and whine about what's easily available to the rest of the world. The recipe had to be egg, dairy, gluten and nut free. I did not want to use xantham gum, because of my issues over its origins and I'm not crazy about the overwhelming taste many gluten-free flours have. So this is what I came up with. Cocoa and cinnamon do a great job in gluten-free recipes to add flavor and yummy aromas while masking the "graininess" of the millet and rice in the cupcakes. I used guar gum as the binder. The cupcakes did not crumble after baking so I think that works as a xantham gum substitute. Maybe, next time I'll try them without guar gum, add more applesauce and ........well, lets see where I go with this....I'll let you know. Current recipe, as is, follows. Let me know what you think.

Gluten free Egg free Dairy free Choc Fudge Cupcakes

Dry Ingredients: 1/2 cup rice flour 1/4 cup millet flour 3/4 cup light brown sugar 1/2 cup pure unsweetened cocoa 2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon guar gum 1/2 teaspoon fine salt 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder  Wet ingredients: 1/4 cup extra-virgin coconut oil sunflower oil 1/4 cup rice milk  1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal mixed with 3 tablespoon hot water 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon unsweetened apple sauce

Frosting: 1/2 cup non-dairy spread 1/2 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 tablespoon cocoa 1/4 cup melted gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate

Cupcake Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. Mix wet ingredients into dry and beat with a whisk until well combined.
3. Half-fill cupcake cases.
4. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Check with a toothpick after 8 minutes.
6. Remove to a wire rack and cool.
7. Top with egg-free, dairy-free choc fudge topping.
8. Makes 6 to 8 cupcakes.

Frosting Method:

1. Beat all ingredients together till smooth.
2. Swirl on the top of cooled cupcakes.

Father's Day and Gingerbread - Once upon a time........

Egg-free Gingerbread

With Father's Day round the corner, I kept checking with my two what they were doing for Daddy. Finally, we figured that I will bake a cake, the Princess will cook breakfast and Pee-Wee will butter toast (he figured everything else was too difficult and besides, he had made his dear ole Dad an Angry Birds card! Reckoned he had done enough). Mulling over what flavour of cake to bake, I settled on old-fashioned gingerbread. My grandmother used to bake gingerbread when I was really little aand I can still remember the taste and smells from way back when.....This was my first go at making egg-free gingerbread and the resulting cake turned out moist, fine-crumbed and down-right delicious, if I do say so myself. I think the picture speaks a 1000 words, all of them good, yes? Now I'm working on making it gluten free and dairy free. That will be great.

Kiran's Angry Birds Birthday Cake

Kiran's Angry Birds Birthday Cake

My son, Kiran's 8th birthday cake was a real labor of love.....8 mini 'labors' - Angry Bird characters, one for each child at the party. The birds were made of fondant and seated on an egg-free chocolate mousse cake. The cake was a hit with the kids but we nearly had a riot on our hands when, some of the guests wanted the same character! Thankfully, the situation was resolved with minimum fuss and all had a great time.