Courgettes?! In CUPCAKES?!

Some of you are probably well acquainted with the use of vegetables in cupcakes. Others might be thinking 'Vegetables? IN cakes? WTF?!!?' It's a fair reaction and quite honestly, I found it hard to accept when I first encountered this (now popular) phenomenon.

My first experience of this combo was a year or so ago, when the owner of Ma Bolton - a local gluten free baker - offered me a free sample of chocolate fudge beetroot cake that changed my whole outlook. It was rich and sweet and fudgy and the only sign there was anything unusual was a slightly earthy flavour. Later I tried a chocolate torte that was made using grilled aubergine. Again, it sounds strange but it was INCREDIBLE! A richer chocolate flavour you could no imagine.

This year we've had a glut of courgettes (that's right, a glut) and even after giving away a lot of them to friends and family, we still have an awful lot left! What to do!?!?

So I managed to track down a recipe for chocolate courgette cake on the internet. The great thing about this recipe is the courgette replaces the butter in the cake, so it's completely dairy free AND fatless! Wohoo! So having grated an awful lot of courgette (which would have been easier if my food processor worked properly), I mixed away. I was a bit unsure about the texture, since it was a bit sort of....gloopy. It was a sticky, gloopy mess. But I turned it into muffins, rather than one big cake and they turned out pretty well!

If you want these to be cupcakes, you could just do what I did and make some vanilla cream cheese frosting to go on them. Or you could go really decadent and use chocolate cream cheese frosting or ganache....ooohh.....ganache. But you can afford the calories. After all, the fact they have no butter and use courgette means it's practically a health food, right!?

Gluten Free Carrot Cake. Sort Of.

Hello!

For as many years as I care to remember, various people have, at various times, espoused the joys of a great carrot cake. Personally, I could never fully appreciate the concept of a vegetable in a cake (CARROT?!?! In a CAKE?!!), and they often contain dried fruit (DRIED FRUIT!?! In a CAKE?!!?), which I despise - why ruin perfectly good cake with dried up old fruit? - so I left well enough alone. As a result, it seems I've left one of the country's most popular cakes pass me by. As a food aficionado, it's a sin; as a business, it's a rookie mistake to be avoided at all costs.

So, off I went to get some carrots and I searched for a good, free-of-dried-fruit recipe. The one I settled on was taken from the Mary Berry's Baking Bible. As it turns out, it's a bit of a weird recipe and, in my husband's words 'not a real carrot cake', not that I knew this until well after the fact. Mainly because it contains two bananas, presumably in place of butter - absent in this recipe - and no spices at all. Well, I decided to chuck in some spices anyway, since every recipe I've ever seen except this one includes them.

When I brought it out of the oven it didn't look quite right...as you can see here:

Frankly, it looked a bit lumpy. And as it cooled, it took on a sort of 'saggy bag' appearance, which is generally not desirable in a bag, much less a cake!

Okay, I thought. Maybe carrot cake can just look a bit funky. I figured I'd let it cool, ice it, and see how it tasted. Maybe it looked a little weird but it would taste amazing? So I put together the cream cheese icing. I should add here that I have never had cream cheese icing before either. Having tasted it, I cannot for the LIFE of me work out why!! It's amazing! Have you tasted it?! If not, make some! Even if you don't have a cake to put it on. Dip biscuits in it or just eat it straight out of the bowl if you must because it is a revelation of delicious, creamy sweetness. I'm salivating just sat here reminiscing about it. Yum.

Anyway, back to the cake. I iced, I cut, I tasted. Sadly, it tastes entirely of banana and spices and not even slightly of carrot! It also has a VERY tight crumb. So tight there really is no crumb. I can only assume that the 2tsp baking powder I was instructed to include needed a little more time in the oven to stabilise.

On the bright side, it is a delicious cake! Not really a carrot cake, and I think I will have to use a different recipe next time, but still tasty and I suspect it will still get eaten, if mainly for the icing. I think, however, it won't be long before I have another try, so keep an eye out for future posts!

Bournemouth Food and Drink Festival 2014

That's right folks, I have been hitting the food festivals all weekend. I'd love to say this has been an entirely altruistic attempt to tell you where the best gluten free options are, but I'm afraid it's more a pure, unadulterated love of food and drink (not to mention being out in this heat wave seem to be getting!).

All in all, the Chilli and Cheese Festival yesterday might have been more of a success on the gluten-free front, but I wasn't disappointed. Why? Well, we got into Bournemouth just after 10am and, having forgotten briefly that it was a Sunday, and that the shops wouldn't open until 10.30am, we stopped by the Food and Drink Festival first. For those who haven't happened upon it yet, it's all based in Bournemouth Square.

Before you get too close, even as early as 10.30am, you can smell all the delights that await you. Primarily cooked meats, there is plenty there for everyone. But the first place we found that could cater for coeliacs was Giggi's Gelataria (normally based in the Burlington Arcade in Bournemouth).

Although they do stock a non-gluten free ice cream (Cookies and Cream), all their other flavours are safe and they use a separate scoop for each flavour, so the risk of cross-contamination is very low. The prices are NOT cheap (a small tub cost almost £3) but I must tell you that their pistachio ice cream - my very favourite flavour - was the best I have ever tasted, outdoing even that offered Forest Glade Ice Cream in Lyndhurst. It was creamy, yes, but the flavour of pistachio was deliciously strong and nutty. It's definitely worth a try!

The second place I found was a fantastically fun creation called 'The Taco Bus'. Aside from being very eye-catching, the Taco Bus offers a great array of different tacos, which they can make in a gluten free tortilla on request.

I'll be honest here. Although they do say their corn tortillas are gluten free, I didn't risk having one because I believe that they primarily use wheatflour-based tortillas and I couldn't be 100% certain there would be no cross-contamination. Have you ever eaten gluten free from the Taco Bus? If so, please comment below!

Brilliant news for fans of Spanish food - there were a great number of paellas there, including those provided by popular restaurant La Tasca! Unfortunately, no vegetarian paellas to be found anywhere but La Tasca's paellas are suitable for coeliacs and, if cooked properly, they other paellas at other stalls should also be safe.

Fancy a drink to go with your food? There are also a number of stalls offering thirst-quenching purchasables, including a small, locally-based firm that makes cider.

It's been a terrific weekend. I hope you'll take the opportunity to visit either the Bournemouth Food and Drink Festival, running until 29th June (for more info, check out the website), or visit one local to you, and check out what is available for either yourself or for the coeliac in your life.

Have a great week, folks!

Chilli & Cheese Festival 2014

Oooh today has been a fun day for me! Why? Because today we went to the Bournemouth Chilli & Cheese Festival at Bournemouth Sports Club.

Naturally, as a coeliac, I expect there to be nothing much for me to try at these events. Although, yes, most of the dips, sauces and salsas are gluten free, the tasting pots are always accompanied by bread or crackers and are therefore out of bounds to the sensible coeliac (that would be me).

But sometimes people surprise you. Where to start?! Well, first of all, there were a couple of stallholders who, when I explained I was coeliac, proffered a teaspoon and my own little supply of whatever it was I wanted to taste. The fiery peach ketchup was an interesting find. Not something I would want on my chips and onion rings, but just the sort of thing you might want on a meat dish like pork. Beautiful stuff and pretty spicy!

However, my two main finds were Purbeck Ice Cream, who we all know make gluten free ice cream. What was surprising was they stock gluten free ice cream cones! Yes, that's right, I actually got to eat a gluten free ice cream IN A CONE!!!! If you aren't a coeliac, that will seem a bit of a sad reason for such excitement. But as a coeliac, it's the most incredible thing if you find an ice cream cone you can eat. And for the same price as a 'normal' cone. As you can see, I was rather chuffed!

The other find was a Venezuelan stall. They were doing these sort of kebab/bun things like arepas, which they then stuffed with combinations such as pulled beef or pork, black beans, tomatoes, feta or cheddar, and their own homemade avocado sauce. They looked and smelled INCREDIBLE and the best part was that it was ALL gluten free!!! Unfortunately, this particular blogger was so overwhelmed with excitement that I forgot to take a picture or even note down their name. All I remember is 'Venezuelan' on their stall. Sorry about that. I desperately wanted to try one, but having downed a cocktail and an ice cream cone, I had no room to fit these enormous delicacies.

Thankfully, my husband and a friend both had one and I can tell you that they were very, very happy with their purachses! If you get to go (they're still there tomorrow) then I recommend you stop by this stall. And maybe pick me up a vegetarian one while you're there?!

In the meantime, here's an extremely happy and blissed-out me, drinking a chilli margarita at just after 11am!

Big Fun With Big Cakes

Fancy a piece of cake? I certainly do!

As you know, it's been recommended that I work on being able to produce traditionally flavoured gluten free cakes, as it seems coffee shops don't necessarily favour cupcakes and cookies, which up til now have been my 'thing'. You also know what utter disasters some of my previous large cakes have been.

Well, I'm pleased to say I seem to have solved the issue. I found a fantastic website that acts as a sort of troubleshooting guide for baking, and it suggested that I was adding my eggs too fast and the oven temperature was too low. Since then, I add the eggs slowly as I mix, and I've turned the oven up so it's around the 190 degrees C mark.

Now I know it's not technically a 'traditional' cake flavour, but I'm a huge fan of almonds, so my first attempt with the new technique was a twist on a victoria sponge, flavouring the sponge with almond extract, and using my homemade rhubarb and strawberry jam and almond buttercream for filling. This was the result:

It's not quite perfect, but it was SO much better than my previous attempts, so I was incredibly proud.

But since the focus is meant to be good old-fashioned, traditional British jolly-hockey-sticks type stuff, I turned to Buttercup Bakery followers on the Facebook group and asked them what their favourite traditional flavour is. Overwhelmingly, the responses fell into two main groups: coffee and walnut cake, and lemon drizzle. Since I had the ingredients I needed already, I decided to have a go at coffee and walnut.

Confession time: I have never made, nor eaten, a coffee and walnut cake in my life. I was always assured I would hate it and nobody I knew liked it so somehow this one passed me by. Nevertheless, I decided to use my tried and tested make-it-up-as-I-go-along approach. So, several tablespoons of coffee and a LOT of chopped walnuts later, this is what I got:

Frankly, even I have to admit this looks like something of a behemoth, as far as cakes go! But I'm really very pleased with it. It also smelled better while cooking than any cake I've ever made or eaten. A homely smell that made me ache for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. I'm telling you, bottle it, sell it as a scented candle and nobody will ever leave your home without eating ever again!

Naturally, I had to try a slice. It's only decent, after all.

How have I missed this cake all these years?! Why did nobody tell me!?

The only thing that's bugging me is that never having had coffee and walnut cake before, I don't know whether it has enough coffee flavour. Should it be very strong? Or should it be a subtle flavour in the sponge and strong flavour in the icing? I just don't know. And that is frustrating. But for now at least, I like it.

And I especially like it with a nice cup of tea.

Next up: lemon cake! Until next time, food fans...

The Great Cake Mystery

Sometimes, only cake will do. And when those moments strike, you can think of little else beyond that first bite. The light, airy, fluffy sponge, perhaps flavoured with chocolate or vanilla. The sweetness and creaminess of the buttercream that draws you in for the next bite. It's the delectable, edible embodiment of a hug after a bad day, or the extra little treat with a cup of tea during a shopping trip.

And as my mouth starts to salivate for a slice of cake, I'll tell you that my current fascination relates to my visit to The Little Pickle Deli Cafe in Boscombe. As you might remember, I dropped some samples off with them on Friday, in the hope they'd want to stock some of it. Well, they called me on Monday...and said they'd really prefer it if I was able to provide large cakes. Oh, my heart sank. I haven't baked a large cake in yonks!

The main reason I haven't baked a big cake in a long time is I've been focusing on smaller, individual-serving things, like cookies or cupcakes, and on cheesecakes. But it now occurs to me I ought to focus for a while on larger cakes. Unfortunately, larger cakes HATE me!! They all seem to go wrong! I figured maybe it was because I now use Dove's Farm self-raising flour, rather than Juvela White Mix. Maybe that was why the texture keeps being a bit...well...lumpy!

So today I set out on a mission - two cakes made exactly the same way, one with Juvela White Mix and one with Dove's Farm. Oh, it did not go well. See for yourself!

Left: sponge with Dove's Farm. Right: sponge with Juvela White Mix

Neither is perfect, that much is obvious. But my GOD, just look at that one on the right! Disaster doesn't quite seem to cover it, does it!?

The Dove's Farm sponge has that annoyingly lumpy texture, while the one on the right looks more like an oversized greasy crumpet. Deeeelish! And this the Great Cake Mystery begins...what went wrong?!

A search on the internet to work out where the hell I'm going wrong suggests it could be the oven temperature is too low, or that I added the eggs too fast. Every problem that I have with these cakes has those two possible causes in common. So, tomorrow I will have to try them again, but this time with a higher temperature, and I'll add the eggs more slowly. I HAVE to get this right! Aside from anything else, I refuse, REFUSE, I tell you, to be stumped by flour, butter, eggs and sugar!!

I'll let you know how it goes, but in the meantime, let me know if you have any experience with this. All suggestions are welcome!

A Little Cake And A Big Step

Happy Friday!

I'm pleased to report that the cake I did for Grandad's 87th (!) birthday was FAR more successful than Dad's birthday cake. A simple victoria sponge, with a gooey homemade (own recipe) strawberry and rhubarb jam. Yum!

I have no idea why, but I tend to struggle a little with baking any cake larger than a cupcake, so when it came out of the oven I was ecstatic to see it still looked like cake. MASSIVE bonus when you choose to bake for a living, dontcha think!? Then came the tricky part. Decorating.

I'd come this far, so I powered on through. It wasn't exactly easy. You know when you see the shows on Food Network, like Cake Boss and Amazing Wedding Cakes? You know how amazingly simple it looks to cover a cake? SO not easy! I crumb-coated and put the cake in the fridge, but even that was tricky because the jam oozed out the sides as I went. When I rolled out the fondant and lay it over the cake, it started to crack and tear all over the place. Strops were had. Big, screaming, stomping hissy fits, with smoke coming out my ears and everything.

Eventually, with help from my husband (who clearly has 'the knack' for this cake-covering stuff), the cake was covered, I decorated it and it ended up like this:

Not too shabby huh?!

I do need some more practise at this, mind. Like an elderly woman on an HD TV, close-up shots are less forgiving...

It's far from perfect, but I'm not too unhappy with it and Grandad was really pleased, so all in all, still a win!

So moving on from that, I took a big step today. For a while now, I've said I would prefer to sell my products through cafe's and coffee shops or restaurants, rather than directly at events. I get a bit panicked dealing with all those people and handling the change, so I always had this plan in place, to approach local eateries, especially ones that prefer to stock local produce and understand avoidance of cross-contamination.

Well, today I did it. I spent the last couple of days baking up some samples, and this afternoon I took a sample box to The Little Pickle Deli Cafe in Boscombe. I've left them with a lovely man named Andrew, who will taste and discuss with his wife, and I'm to call them to see what they thought. Nervous doesn't begin to describe how I feel. Thank goodness I have some leftovers to nibble away my nerves with...! Wish me luck!

Devil's food cake, dark and white chocolate cheesecake, double-chocolate fudge cookies