A merry gluten free Christmas

It's been super busy here over Christmas with two lovely short breaks away from home with our overseas visitors, however,  I still managed to squeeze in a little bit of baking for my lovely little coeliac ...

These Christmas cake minis are a winner.  I gave some away to friends and neighbours who all gave them the thumbs up and they are all loving gluten free!!  This was a recipe published by the Australian Women's Weekly in their Christmas issue 2014.  It makes six small cakes using 10 cm round deep tins or you could make one large.  I used some square tins too to mix it up.  A few Christmasy ribbons, a generous splosh (or two or three) of rum and it all looks rather festive :)

This the children's creation!  A gluten free gingerbread house decorated in Sue Shepherd jelly sweets and some other gluten free treats found at the supermarket.  The recipe for the house comes from The Coeliac Society cookbook and has a lovely gentle peppery flavour.  Make a double batch if you are making the house so you have enough or make a single batch and make some festive cookies instead.  A winner either way!  

I always love an excuse to make a bundt cake but haven't used this fancy tin in a while until I spotted a fabulous recipe by The Baking Beauties so I happily whipped up this gluten free delight.  It was so light it was unbelievable and a very delicate cake without being crumbly.  It lasts a few days after baking; just keep it covered to stay fresh.  Serve with some whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Growing up I was not a fan of anything fruity - cake, mince pies, puddings etc so my Mom always made me a Yule log.  This is a Nigella Lawson recipe and entirely gluten free.  You need two bowls on the go - one to whip the egg whites and another to cream the butter and sugar but it's really very easy and worked a treat.  Use a fork to give your frosting a 'log' effect, add a few retro decorations and there you have it!  This didn't last long with my two :)

Another Christmas tradition for us growing up (or served on many a Sunday just because) is a trifle.  I was a little short on time so I used a store bought gluten free madeira cake as the base layered with fresh strawberries and then covered in jelly.  Leave it to set in the fridge then whip up a batch of thick custard for the next layer and top with lashing of cream.  I finished it off with some cherries, flaked almonds and more fresh strawberries.  This is really best eaten on the day but it still just as nice the day after.  Add some lashings of sherry on to the cake layer if you are not serving it up to children.  

Lastly, although not really baking as such, is my gluten free stuffing.  I have NEVER cooked a turkey before having been a vegetarian nearly all my adult life but these days I eat a little meat now and again.  We had visitors coming too so I wanted the day to be special and so we could all eat the same turkey I made this batch of gluten free stuffing in the Thermomix.  

The recipe is by Alyce Alexandra and you can watch the YouTube how to video here.  I simply froze some gluten free bread and turned it into breadcrumbs and followed the rest of the recipe exactly as is except for using cranberries and walnuts as those were what I had to hand in my pantry.  I have to say it was delicious and 

There you have it ... a quick round up of the little bit of baking I managed to do.  You really don't have to miss out on old favourites or family traditions to eat gluten free.  It might take a bit of research in the beginning but once you have your repertoire of favourites recipes next year and the years to come will see plenty of gluten free dishes on the table that will become firm favourites with your family and friends.  

I hope that you have all had a Merry 'Gluten Free' Christmas and a wonderful New Year. xx

A Happy 8 th Birthday {Gluten & Nut Free}

Well we were a little late to the party this year with my daughter's confirmation falling in the same week as her birthday along with a lovely surprise trip from my Dad, so here we are in October celebrating turning eight!!

It's our second event 100% gluten free and this year we had a guest with anaphylaxis to tree nuts so we were super careful about every ingredient and managed to incorporate everyone's needs.

The cake itself was a gluten free white chocolate mud cake (recipe by Sweetness & Bite) that came in a little over five inches tall once sliced and ganached!!

My daughter has a super cute pencil case (a make up bag gifted by my Mom) and we just loved the black and neon combo so we thought this would make a great design for the cake.

I took a trip to the party shop for some must have party tableware and gift boxes.  Very important to munch popcorn out of a big bucket just like the movies and to pretty up some homemade take home cookies ...

The party menu consisted of ... a fruit platter, little servings of Orgran Itty Bitty bears, Sue Shepherd's party mix and snakes, Natural Chip company crisps and jelly cups.  The girls all made their own pizzas using pre-made bases by Julian's and we finished with popcorn buckets using a combo of Cob's and Jonny's popcorn to eat while the girls watched Mr Peabody and Sherman.  Everything was gluten free and nut free.  

Some canvases and a heap of paint provided the pre-movie entertainment ... a few requests for drawings of Olaf, butterflies and rabbits ... and 

here she is, my gorgeous girl celebrating 'it's great to be 8'!!  

Easy Gluten Free Birthday Cake

I'm a busy Mom who loves to bake but there are many occasions when I am time poor and need something in a hurry.  Whether it's for a park date after school or bringing something allergy friendly along to a party I like to be prepared even if I have been out all day running errands or working around the house.  I also like to make a little something for our own birthdays at home so we can light some candles and sing Happy Birthday. 

My children have always loved Australian Women's Weekly cake books and often flick through them and tell me which ones they like and what cake they want for their next birthday.  I've made notes on what occasions we have made the different designs and I will be passing these on so they can continue these traditions.  This year, things changed for us a little now we have Coeliac Disease in the mix but the children don't have to miss out as the Australian Women's Weekly manages to be there for us, as always, with some great recipes in their Gluten Free/Allergy Free cookbook (endorsed by The Coeliac Society of Australia).

This buttercake takes about 10 minutes to prepare and 50 minutes in the oven so you have plenty of time to get on with some other jobs in the house while it bakes.

For the cake you will need:

200 g softened butter
300 g gluten free self raising flour (I like Orgran)
220 g caster sugar
125 ml milk
2 eggs
2 egg whites

To prepare:
Preheat the oven to 180 or 160 fan forced
Prepare your cake tin - AWW use a heart tin for this particular cake but you could adapt this shape to suit another design
Beat butter until pale
In a separate bowl sift flour and 1/4 cup of sugar together and then beat it into the butter in two batches along with the milk.
Beat the eggs and egg whites until thick and creamy.
Add the remaining sugar one tablespoon at a time, beating until the sugar dissolves between additions.
Gradually pour egg mix into flour mix and beat on a low speed only until just combined.

To decorate, the AWW use a fluffy frosting but that involves candy thermometers and way more attention to detail than most of us have time for so personally I would use a favourite buttercream recipe and add a few Hopper sprinkles or edible decorations.  Many of the 'own brand' royal icing decorations contain wheat so choose carefully and read all labels. I always chill my cake and then do a thin crumb coat of icing and chill again.  This gives a nice smooth base before adding the final buttercream.

Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcakes

These little gems have been a favourite for us this year and really easy to whip up last minute when someone at school is celebrating a birthday or we go to afternoon tea at the park and can't indulge in all the goodies the other Moms bring!

The recipe comes from 'The Gluten Free Cookbook for Kids' by Adriana Rabinovich.  I've made several of her recipes and they all work beautifully.  I adapted the recipe and use my Thermomix to make my icing sugar, caster sugar, ground almonds and buttercream but you can buy all of these ready made if you want to.  I have put the Thermomix instructions side by side if you want to do it yourself.

You will need:

100 g gluten free plain flour (I like Orgran)
50 g ground almonds (nut to nutmeal 8 to 10 seconds sp7)
1 1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder (I use Wards or Bob's Red Mill)
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt (I use Himalayan pink fine salt additive and preservative free)
150 g unsalted butter (20/25 seconds at 50 degrees on speed 4 softens hard butter nicely without melting it)
175 g caster sugar (you can use Rapadura or I use raw sugar 2 seconds sp 9)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (I use Queens Organic Vanilla Paste for extra flavour)
1 tbsp milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and line your 12 x cup cake tray or 24 minis.

Combine the flour, almonds, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt in a separate bowl.

Cream the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.  Add the eggs in one at a time beating well after each addition until the batter resembles a thick mayonnaise.  Add the vanilla.

Add the almond/flour mixture to the butter/sugar and be careful not to overmix.  Add the milk and spoon the mixture into your cupcake tray.  I always use an ice cream scoop with a trigger to help release the batter.  This way I get an even amount in each and it also helps give the baked cupcake a lovely dome - the perfect base for decorating.

Bake the standard cupcakes for approximately 15 minutes (mine take over 20 minutes because of my old oven so you will know your own appliances) and mini cupcakes for around 10 minutes.

You can use your favourite frosting/buttercream recipe however I found this one on the Thermomix Recipe Community and it worked beautifully and was so easy to make. 

I like to add fresh lemon zest for extra flavour and you can add the colour of your choice just before you finish mixing.  Hopper colours are made from natural fruit and vegetable colours.  I get mine online from Happy Tummies as well as a variety of Hoppers sprinkles for extra 'wow'! 

All of my cake decorating gadgets, nozzles etc are in storage at the moment but I added a simple buttercream swirl using a kit from Coles and added a few Hoppers gluten free sprinkles. 

Enjoy! 

Gluten Free 7th Birthday

As we travel through the year, each holiday and celebration brings a new challenge to develop new recipes and recreate old favourites now we need to cater for the dietary changes Coeliac Disease brings.  Eight months into our family's new diet, our daughter's 7th birthday was fast approaching I knew I wanted everything to be just right so she could enjoy all the same food along with her friends.  She has been to so many events this year where I pack a special lunchbox of healthy snacks. fruit and gluten free treats but there are times when it's hard to miss out.  She is amazing at not getting upset when the main cake gets cut or her friends indulge in cupcakes for a birthday at school but sometimes it's lovely to eat everything on the table and not have to think twice.
 
Now every party in this household just has to have a theme!  We have done dinosaurs, bugs, pirates, safari style, magicians ... you name it but this year we were having a movie party to see The Smurfs and as much as I loved little blue people in the 70s I wanted to make something pretty and girly for my daughter this year and step away from the character figures.  Over winter I made my daughter a double bed throw using two different layers of fleece which I bound together with some homemade satin bias tape.  Now the top side features a beautiful owl design and after workshopping through her current loves we decided on the owls!  (Cue Mommy launching into google image research for some 'to die for' design ideas!).

Now flavoured popcorn and fizzy drinks were never our usual style anyway, however I couldn't be sure that the popcorn made at the cinema would be gluten free and I knew none of the lollies would be so I thought I would pop together a movie bag of treats for each child to enjoy throughout the film.  Some clever shopping over a few weeks (I can never find all I want in one shop!), some glow in the dark bangles and some cute bags and here we have it ...

As a keen cake and cookie maker prior to going gluten free I have been trying out lots of recipes this year and searching for the perfect 'sugar cookie' was proving difficult!  I found loads of recipes for fabulous cookies such as choc chip but nothing suitable for decorating until I discovered the Sweetness and Bite blog through a recent publication of Australian Cake Decorating.  Now this New Zealander makes some beautiful creations and I was keen to give her cookie recipe a go.  It uses rice flour (I made mine in the Thermomix) and the cookies turned out beautifully, held their shape and had the perfect crunch.  I always like to give children a decorated cookie as a take home gift.  I often find myself removing the dollar shop toys before they get swallowed or battling it out with the kids as to when they can devour all of the sweets they just acquired so this new cookie recipe was going to work well for the take home treat.  I didn't have any owl cookie cutters but a simple round cookie with a fondant owl shape on top (made quite simply using an egg shape cutter with a half circle cut out) with some oval and mini rounds for eyes and wings these cute little guys were done.  As I had some cookie dough left over I made number 7 cookies to go into the bags too.  Some more cute bags and the party favours were done :)

There are some beautiful flourless and gluten free cake recipes around.  The Torta Caprese in the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook is delicious and many flour recipes can be remade using gluten free blends but my go to party cake this year has to be the chocolate banana cake by Quirky Cooking.  I have made it several times and it's so rich just like a traditional mud cake (as well as deep so perfect for decorating).  I knew it wouldn't keep for as long as a traditional mud cake so I decided to make a two tier cake and put all of the detail on to the top layer which would be a 6" styrofoam round so I could make this ahead of time and then bake Quirky's chocolate cake for the bottom tier the day before.  I've been itching to make a ruffle cake for ages and this was the perfect opportunity!  I researched the ingredients of store bought fondant, gumpaste and colours earlier in the year and on this occasion I used Satin Ice fondant/gumpaste and Americolour for tints you can however make your own fondant at home and use natural colours if you want to.  I covered the dummy cake with a little syrup, covered it in white fondant and then cut LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of frills in shades of white to pink.  I was a little impatient in letting them dry but I was really pleased with the overall effect.  I made the owl topper with some gumpaste and finished off with a few little fondant flowers.  The bottom tier was a 3 layer 8" cake with dark chocolate ganache, pink fondant and a name plaque I made with fondant and letter cutters (left to dry ahead of time).  I only put it altogether on the morning of the party which was cutting it fine for me but I made it and surprisingly got it all to the venue with no mishaps.  Gotta love those precarious car journeys to the beach, park, movies, shopping mall balancing a cake on my knee!

Here is the finished product and one very happy just turned 7 year old ...

 

All in all the party went really well.  I was so happy to provide food everyone could enjoy and the other children didn't even notice any changes in taste.  It took a little research, time and effort but to be able to celebrate as we have always done with good food and friends and not miss out on anything was priceless.  Roll on gluten free Christmas!