Seriously Evil Devil's Food Cake (not gluten free)

Nigella Lawson is a goddess.
I have adapted this recipe from her Devil's Food Cake recipe and replaced the eggs and dairy and my goodness it's been a success!
This is the kind of cake that makes chocolate lovers drool. It's so rich the end of a second slice will make you wish you hadn't so soon, but every crumb takes you to a new level eurphoria. 

This cake is super-rich so when making for children I suggest serving it with vanilla icecream, and for adults offering greek yogurt, double cream or creme fraiche (I offered all three at our afternoon tea). But for those of us who can't delve into these dairy-filled delights, I find a good strong cup of tea (or three) accompany it superbly.

I've made it twice now: it worked well as a shaped pirate cake for my nephew's 4th birthday (I added powdered sugar to the icing to stiffen it), 

and a fantastically rich afternoon tea cake beside French Earl Grey tea** for my Grandmother's 75th birthday (a great way for me to use my new cake stand). Unfortunately I have no photos of this occasion... Obviously that means I'll need to bake it again - oh no! :D

Devil's Food Cake

For the cake
- 2.5 tsp psyllium husk

- 7 tbsp boiling water

- 50g cocoa powder

- 100g dark brown sugar
- 250mL boiling water
- 125g dairy, soy free margarine (I use Nuttelex Original)
- 150g caster sugar
- 225g plain flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bi-carb (baking soda)
- 2 tsp vanilla

For the frosting
- 125ml water (from your pre-boiled jug is fine)
- 30g dark brown sugar
- 175g dairy, soy-free margarine (again, Nuttelex Original is my preference)
- 300g dark chocolate, chopped (I prefer 85% Lindt Excellence, or 70% if you're after something a little lighter)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180oC.
2. Prepare your egg substitute: mix 2.5 tsp psyllium husk with 7tbsp boiling water and set aside until needed, stirring every now and again.
3. Use a hand whisk to mix cocoa and brown sugar together, then add boiling water. Set aside.
4. Cream butter substitute and caster sugar (I use my Breville MixMaster so I can start the next few steps while this is happening).
5. Mix together flour, baking powder and bi-carb.
6. When the butter and sugar is pale and fluffy add vanilla whilst still mixing. Add half the egg mixture, and immediately add 1 spoonful of the flour mix. When this is combined, repeat with remaining egg mix and flour.
7. Once combined, gradually add the cocoa mixture.
8. Scrape your bowl with a rubber spatula (I think the most satisfying sensation when cooking is scraping that last little bit out of the bowl - am I crazy?) into TWO baking paper lined cake tins and bake for about 30 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
9. Leave your cakes for 10-15 before removing from the cake tins and let them cool before icing.

As soon as you bung them in the oven get onto that delicious icing!

Icing
1. Place the water, sugar and butter in a small saucepan over low heat to melt, stirring every now and again to combine.
2. Once the mixture starts to boil, remove from heat and add chopped chocolate, stirring slowly to all the chocolate to melt. 
3. When melted, hand-whisk your mixture until smooth. Set aside to let cool for an hour (the time it will take for your cake to cook and cool), whisking every now and again.
The icing will be quite runny to begin with, but after the hour will thicken surprisingly.

4. When your cake is cool and your icing is thick smother one half of the cake with about a third of the icing, place the other half on top and cover the whole thing! 

ENJOY!

**French Earl Grey is my latest discovery from the new T2 store that's opened in Hobart. All the ladies in my family - except me - love Earl Grey tea, and this is a compromise that both the Earl Grey lovers and haters both adored. It's more fruity than traditional Earl Grey, but less perfumed. 

Bread (not gluten free.. yet)

The week I found out I was dairy, egg and soy intolerant I visited the supermarket on my way home from a very long day. Trying to figure out what I could possibly buy to eat the following morning for breakfast (I was dreading cereal without soy or cows milk - I now use almond milk and love it) I thought fruit toast would make it all better. Until I found soy flour was used to make it. All the brands. So I shrugged it off and went to choose my favourite farm-style bread to toast with honey. Checked the  ingredients just to make sure: soy flour.
Every single bread in this major chain supermarket contained soy flour. ARGGHHHHHH. I just about spat the dummy and had a trantrum my nephews would be proud of with fists waving and feet stomping then and there in isle 1.

BREATHE. I called my mother instead.
And what became of that? The darling woman bought me a bread maker!
A recipe and instruction book came with it with recipes for plain white, wholewheat, fruit loaves and all sorts. Unfortunately many of these contain dairy/egg/soy so they needed to be adapted - but the only one I've tried from there was a big flop so I've left the book for now and done my own hunting.
Ultimately I wanted a bread that was packed with protein and could make a healthy snack on its own. I've found this great Flax and Sunflower Seed recipe that tastes amazing and works every time.

I want to alter this to make a gluten free loaf as well. I've had one go at this so far using hazelnuts and different protein flours but none have yet been successful. I WILL keep trying and will pass on any successes (which will come!).

Flax and Seed Bread
Makes 14 slices (153cal per slice)
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 2 tbsp light olive oil
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 cup plain four
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup protein flour (Sorghum works great, you can also experiment with others or just halve this between plain and whole wheat flour)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup ground flax seeds (I use a coffee grinder but you can buy pre-ground)
- 1/2 cup mixed seeds (sunflower, pepitas, poppy or a blend of any you like!)

Place all ingredients except the whole seeds into your bread maker, give them a mix (my bread maker doesn't mix particularly well) and select a basic cycle for a 0.75kg loaf. Place the seeds in your fruit/nut depositor or add them just before the rising stage begins.

Chocolatey balls of goodness

'Good-ness'. The word my trainer uses to describe things that make your body scream but leave you (somehow) wanting more. Like Bulgarian squats.
I promise these are nothing like bulgarian squats.
These are real goodness. And if you feel a little guilty about eating a few too many (believe me, once you start you will not stop), you could always do some 'good-ness' to make up for it ;)

These chocolate balls are a dairy-free dream, they're way healthier than truffles with the sugar from dried fruit and fat from nuts. Sorry, but in this one nuts are a must.
There are four ingredients that are open to change, require no cooking and the only utensil is a food processor/blender/stick mixer/knife.

I use my Breville stick mixer for everything: processing, smoothies, grinding, chopping (onions and garlic - yay!) and its great for this recipe but my mother-in-law uses a standard blender. This recipe is her genius:

Chocolatey Balls of Goodness
makes ~34 balls
1 1/2 cups Cashews
1 1/2 cups Dates
1/3 cup Cocoa (or cacao)
Coconut (for coating)

The amounts are variable, I don't usually measure them out. If you like nutty food, add more nuts and if you like them to be more chocolatey add more cocoa!

Throw the nuts and fruit into your food processor and blend them up (if they don't both fit do one at a time and combine them at the end). Once they're chopped finely, add the cocoa.
Roll into balls and roll the outsides in coconut!

They'll harden up when you put them into the fridge but I usually sneak a few before I put them away - you can't put the lumpy ones away, right? ;)
Store them in an airtight container in the fridge, they can last for weeks if you don't eat them all!

Approximately (per ball) 50 cal, 7g carb, 2g fat, 1g protein.

I've tried replacing the dates with apricots and a little raspberry jam to sweeten when I've run out of dates and they're yum too. Dates and cashews are the most chocolatey though.
Have a go with other nuts and dried fruits, maybe figs and walnuts?

Muesli Bars!

Pistachio and Apple, and Almond and Apricot Muesli Bars

I'm in a constant battle to come up with healthy snacks to take to uni with me. I want high protein, low calorie, filling, tasty.. and it's not easy to come up with new ideas.
These energy bars I'm hoping to develop further to pack in more protein and take out some sugar but here is my skeleton recipe:

Muesli Bar Skeleton Recipe
1 1/4 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1 cup chopped nuts (any combination you like!)
1 cup chopped dried fruit (try naturally sweetened cranberries, or a combination of apricots, apples and raisins!)
3/4 cup ground flax seed* or a combination of: flax, bran, sesame seeds, coconut, or extra ground nuts (I like 2/4c flax:1/4c coconut)
1 1/2 cups gluten-free puffed rice cereal (without added sugar)
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup raw honey or brown rice syrup (the rice syrup isn't so sweet)**
1/4 cup nut or seed butter (I like tahini, but peanut butter works great to - or maybe try sunflower or almond butter!)**
1 tsp vanilla extract (I like to use Queen's vanilla bean paste)
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Cover a 18x28cm lamington/slice pan with baking paper (it needs to be 5cm or so deep)
2. Combine the oats, nuts, fruit, ground seeds, cereal and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Warm the honey/syrup with the nut butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until smooth. Turn off the heat and add the vanilla and salt.
4. Mix the syrup into the dry ingredients thoroughly and press into the slice tin. To make it even, try covering the mixture in the pan with another sheet of baking paper and smoothing with the back of a spoon.
5. Refrigerate overnight, then slice into 16 bars!

Each bar contains: 178calories, 4g protein, 22g carbs and 13g fat.
**Next time I'll try to use 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 nut/seed butter to reduce the sugar.


*did you know you can only absorb the goodness of flax when it's ground? when whole they go straight through you!

Be careful what you wish for ;)

I recently discovered that my body really doesn't like dairy, or egg (whites), or soy.

It's my own fault. When I was in high school and in the depths of my chocolate addicition I said to a friend 'I wish I was allergic to chocolate! Then I'd stop eating it!'. And what do you know? The powers listened! (didn't listen when I said I wanted to be a famous singer.. gee.)
I'm not allergic, I have an intolerance. Which means it's not the end of the world when someone cooks me something with cream or egg in it without realising, I just get very uncomfortable with headaches and eczema.
An intolerance means that if I go completely without for 6 or so months, my body will be able to tolerate these products in small amounts every now and again.

But I've read The China Study by Campbell and Co., and I know that animal products (yep, that's dairy and egg) don't agree with anyone of us, really, and my body won't ever like dairy or eggs in large quantities, so I am rediscovering my love of cooking - and this time it's dairy, egg and soy free!
I also believe that the body doesn't much like guten (I have no gluten intolerance). Even if I'm cooking for those of us who are perfectly happy to eat gluten (or dairy etc.), I'd like my food to be open access for everyone.
I do love to cook with nuts, but most recipes that use them usually work out just fine without.
Similarly, The China Study (and the results of numerous other studies I've read) has made me aware of the vast quantities of animal proteins we load our bodies with and the (mostly negative) effects they have on us.

I am not vegan. But when given the choice I would much rather eat a plate of vegetables than a beef cheek any day. (I do on the rare occasion really crave a great steak.. but we won't go there).

My busy lifestyle means my family often cook for me and they do not follow my everything-free persuasion, however they do ensure there are no soy, egg, or dairy products in my food. My boyfriend also thinks I'm crazy and raises his eyebrows when I present a cake and say 'It's dairy, soy, egg and gluten free!' like it's a mud pie from the garden........ or perhaps a rock. So my challenge, and I choose to accept it, is to rediscover the world of baking (and other cooking) without all these icky things that our bodies don't like, AND make them taste more awesome than any 'normal' food.

So this is a blog of my free-cooking adventures.
Each post will include labels of what its free of. I'm hoping almost all of them will be VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE, EGG-FREE, SOY-FREE, DAIRY-FREE. I haven't had a go at gluten-free replacement of flours but I'm taking on board all I've learnt from great blogs like Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom and Manifest Vegan and cookbooks like Allergy-Free Cooking by Dr Sue Shepherd and think it will be a great success.

I'd love to hear your experiences, tips, criticisms and requests to help me along my way.

Hello!