Recipe: Cherry Cake

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs
• 225g sugar
• 1 package of vanilla sugar
• 1/2 tube of butter-vanilla aroma
• 125ml water
• 250ml oil
• 375g flour
• 1 package of baking powder
• 1 jar of cherries
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Instructions:

1. Separate the eggs.

2. Combine the yolks, sugar and vanilla sugar.

3. Add the aroma, water, oil, flour and baking powder.

4. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are stiff. Stir them into the dough.

5. Divide the dough in two and add the cocoa powder to one half.

6. Line a baking tin. Add two spoons of each dough in turn to the middle of the tin, adding cherries in between each layer. Start with the vanilla dough, otherwise the layers won't rise properly.

7. Bake the cake at 160℃ for 50 minutes.

Recipe: Paleo Plum Cake

Last week I tried this recipe with plums. It was very easy. I mixed the dough, let it rest while I cut the plums, put them on top and then in the oven for 35 minutes. I'm really pleased with the result. I think maybe I'll put some fruit into the dough next time though and then experiment with different fruits.

Recipe: Paleo Almond and Orange Cake

For Nico's birthday I wanted to try another new cake and a colleague recently put me onto this website where I found the recipe for this almond and orange cake.

I wanted to make something fruity and not too dry which can be a challenge when baking gluten free. 

This turned out to be a pleasant surprise, very soft and juicy. It was a little more in the Christmas direction but we really enjoyed it.

The colleague who recommended the site is leaving next week so I'll be baking another one for her. I'm really looking forward to browsing through this site for some good recipes this summer.

Recipe: Plain Madeleines

Following on from the success of the Nutella Madeleines, I wanted to try tweaking the recipe a little. I had planned to make these more lemony but the ground lemon spice didn't have the effect I wanted so I'll keep working on that.

Ingredients:

• 75g butter (melted)
• 75g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 75g cornflour
• 2tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Mix the sugar and eggs in a mixer until light and fluffy.
2. Combine the dry ingredients, adding the butter at the end.
3. Bake at 180 degrees for ten minutes.

Tip: these were very plain for my sweet tooth so I mixed some icing sugar with a little water to top some of the cakes.

Apple Pudding Cake!

I can't remember having ever baked a cake by myself.  Last week, when we went to Nico's family for Easter brunch, I decided to change this.  I always feel bad when we turn up and everyone brings a cake or other food and we are empty handed.  It's especially bad as they are even kind enough to bake me gluten free cakes too.  Now that I'm joining the family, I decided it's time things changed.  So I baked two apple pudding cakes and took some Easter daffodils.

I forgot to take photos but this week, I tried out Nico's new baking tin and made a huge cake for my birthday BBQ.  We still have half left over so it's going to be a tasty week!  Here's the recipe:

Mix 250g flour (I use cornflour and rice flour), 100g butter, 1 egg, 2 tbsp baking powder and 150g sugar.  Use the mixture to line the base of a mixing tin.

Core and chop eight apples.  Mix 75g ground hazelnuts with 50g sugar and 2 tbsp water.  Add this mixture to the apples in a large mixing bowl.  Make a vanilla pudding (using two packets) with 1 litre of cream and 100g sugar.  When the pudding is ready, combine it with the apples and fill the baking tin.

Bake in the oven on 175 degrees for 60-75 minutes.  

We added some coconut and run raisins for the second cake and it worked really well too.  Delicious!!

Fischerhude

As I mentioned yesterday, this week we went to Fischerhude with my good friend Loreto.  Loreto often visits this village and had talked about it a lot but because it is really only accessible by car, I hadn't managed to get there until now.  I think it is fair to say that we were all blown away by it.  I now see why she takes all of her visitors there!  First we wandered around the village and then we headed to a little coffee and cake shop which even did three different gluten free cakes!!  I think it's safe to say that it is good for the diet (and the purse) that Fischerhude can only be reached by car!

Nico and me

Mum and Doug

Ponies

Me and Loreto

This dog looked just like Loreto's!

Beautiful Scenery

An escaped goat

Loreto reliving when Spain won the world cup

Chatting in the coffee and cake shop

Mum