Nut free & Gluten free Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

The first attempt

The Real Deal

Here is the promised recipe for my Gluten free Vegan Choc fudge cake. This is a wonderfully moist cake that is oh-so-delicious! Even the non-gluten allergy sufferers loved it and it was demolished in short order. They could not tell the difference. Feel free to adjust the cinnamon in it as some may find the quantity used in the recipe a little overwhelming! 

Gluten free Vegan Chocolate Cake

The dry:
1 1/4 cups gluten free self-raising flour
1/4 cup pure cocoa
3/4 cup soft brown sugar
3 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

The Wet:
1/2 cup mashed banana
1/4 cup apple sauce
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3/4 cup plain rice milk
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon flax meal mixed with 3 tablespoon hot water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Method: Mix everything together with a hand whisk till well combined. Pour into an 2 6" shallow pans or 1 7" pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 180 degrees celcius. Check for doneness with a toothpick, after 20 minutes. Remove to rack and cool in tin. I prefer to chill the cakes in the pan before turning out. Turn out and frost as you wish. I used my Non-dairy frosting from my chocolate cupcake recipe, for frosting this cake. Enjoy!

A piece of 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.    

My Grandmother's Rice Milk recipe.

A glass of rice milk

Rice milk is so easily available now in most grocery stores and has been hailed as a vegan replacement to milk. It is a godsend for many dairy allergy sufferers too, provided rice is acceptable to you. Here's a little secret about rice milk. It has been a part of the poor man's diet, in Asia for centuries as a  frugal source of nutrition and not as a vegan alternative to dairy milk! Even to this day, the poor of India drink the water that rice has been boiled in as they consider it strengthening. It helps to stretch out their consumption of rice as well. It is also the poor mans' electrolyte! Yup, you read that right! Especially for babies. Babies are too small to be given commercial electrolytes and I fed my babies when they were ill, with home made rice milk as it is safer option. It's just some rice boiled in water till very soft with a little salt added to it. Sipping home made rice milk, when you are suffering from stomach flu, helps replace important nutrients in the body and prevents dehydration. I do this for my family when anyone of them is ill, throwing up and purging. Some commercial brands of rice milk add fats to give more body and mouth-feel to their rice milk as well as vitamins. Well and good, but I like my rice milk the old fashioned way - how my grandmother taught me to make it.  

My Grandmother's recipe for Rice Milk

1/2 cup long grain rice, brown or white
3 to 4 cups filtered water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method: Put rice in a dry pan. Lightly toast it over a low flame for a couple of minutes till its lightly brown. Pour in the water and cook till the rice and water has mushed up completely. Add salt. You may have to add more water if the water level runs low before rice is porridgy. Cool and sieve through a mesh sieve. Can be processed in a food processor as well. You now have your rice milk! Store in the fridge. Does not have a long shelf life as its preservative free so it has to be consumed fairly quickly.  

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