Home again, home again, Jiggedy jig!

We're back....

We've not been away, as such, but we've been back in hospital. Niblet got a strange version of impetigo, and ended up needing IV antibiotics.... I'm not 100% convinced that was what he had, but he's on the mend and seems to be responding well to the antibiotics. Fingers crossed that he carries on improving!

I had so many blog post ideas to do, that haven't been posted... it's been radio silence. Sorry about that!

I was meant to go back to school for our INSET (training) days on Monday, but being with Niblet in hospital made that somewhat impossible.... I'll have to catch up on what I missed when I go in on Friday.

Tea for Two Ten
Last week, there was a bank holiday on the Monday, and my husband invited some of his friends over for tea and cakes.... I hadn't realised that there would be 9 people, one of which was very anti-cake! I had fun baking, but very little time - only just over an hour, and I still had Niblet to look after, so if you want some quick cake ideas, read on!

My first bake was a classic scone... I used an old recipe my Mum gave me, which she got from Good Food, which a few alterations to make it suitable.

Simple Sultana Scones
350g self-raising flour , plus more for dusting
¼ tsp salt (I left this out to make it baby-friendly)
1 tsp baking powder
45g Pure Olive / Sunflower marg
40g Trex vegetable shortening
3 tbsp caster sugar
175ml milk (I used rice milk) with 1 tsp cider vinegar added
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 big handful sultanas (or other dried fruit)

1. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Tip the flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking powder, then mix. Add the fats, then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar. Add the sultanas.
2. In a jug, mix the milk, the cider vinegar and the vanilla and set aside. You can warm it to body temperature, which is meant to help the rise, but I didn't bother.
3. Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a cutlery knife - it will seem pretty wet at first. Scatter some flour onto the work surface and tip the dough out. Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour, then pat into a round about 4cm deep.
4. Take a 5cm cutter (smooth-edged cutters tend to cut more cleanly, giving a better rise) and dip it into some flour. Plunge into the dough, then repeat until you have four scones. By this point you'll probably need to press what's left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four. Brush the tops with a little more milk, then carefully place onto a baking tray.
5. Bake for 10 mins until risen and golden on the top. Eat just warm or cold on the day of baking, generously topped with jam. If freezing, freeze once cool. Defrost, then put in a low oven (about 160C/fan140C/gas 3) for a few mins to refresh. 

My next bake was going to be a Victoria Sandwich, but it didn't really work properly. It came out far too moist, and bits of the top stuck to the tin, so it wasn't going to work like that... How to salvage it? Betty Crocker Vanilla Frosting... I know, I know, it's a bit chavvy, but it tasted good, it was there when I needed it, and it doesn't contain anything we can't eat....

Vanilla Fudge Cake (AKA Disaster sponge!)
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g caster sugar
175g dairy free marg (I used Pure Olive)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3tsp Orgran egg replacer whisked with 6tbsp water.

Heat the oven to fan 180C.
In a stand mixer, cream together the marg and the sugar. Add the vanilla and baking powder and mix well. Add about 1/3 of the flour and 1/3 egg replacer. Mix well. Add the next third of each. Mix. Add the last bit of flour and egg replacer. Mix well, scraping down the sides to make sure it is all combined.

Pour the mixture evenly between two greased and lined sandwich tins, level out, making a slight well in the middle, to allow the cake to rise evenly. Don't do as I did, don't skimp on lining the tin. I didn't bother, I just sprayed it with cake release. This time, it didn't release! Bake for about 20mins, or until a skewer comes out clean from the middle of the cake. Turn the cakes onto a baking rack once cooked.

Allow the cake to cool thoroughly before icing. I used about 1/3 of the tub in the centre, and the rest on the top and sides. I then shaved some dark chocolate onto the top to make it look prettier.... It didn't look at all like a Victoria Sandwich, but it sure tasted good! I'd make it again like a shot!

My third cake was the minty brownies from Sweet Vegan. They were great... I didn't do a buttercream icing, I made a green water icing with a little peppermint essence. I added to much green though, and then look a bit too bright! They seemed to get brighter by the minute! I didn't do the chocolate topping either, as I didn't have any suitable chocolate. They still tasted yummy though, and I would recommend them.

It gets better, people! It gets better!

Day three of the cake

Wow. I thought it was good when I first made it. Then it was light and spongy, and fluffy cake with rich icing. Now three days in, and it is fudgy, and rich, gudgy and almost brownie-esque!

I am officially in love with yet another of Elizabeth Gordon's recipes...

Here it is for you all:

German Chocolate Cake (Taken from Allergy Free Deserts)

4oz free-from chocolate, chopped (I used dark, she says semi-sweet)
1 cup rice milk
1tsp cider vinegar
6 tbsp water
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
2 1/2 cups gluten free plain flour (she gives a special mix to use, which is in the book)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp xanthum gum
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (I left this out)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup organic palm fruit oil shortening (I used Trex)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and line two 9 inch round cake tins. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (or carefully use the microwave like I did!) Set aside to cool.

Make the buttermilk by mixing the milk and vinegar. In another bowl, mix the flaxseed and water. Leave to stand for 3 to 5 minutes.

In a stand mixer, cream the Trex until fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb, xanthum gum, salt and sugar. Add 3/4 cup of the buttermilk mix. Mix until the batter is moistened. Add the chocolate, the flaxseed mix and the rest of the buttermilk. Beat the batter for 2 mins, scraping down the sides (and checking the bottom of the bowl).

Pour the batter into the tins, and bake for about 35 to 40 mins, until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tins on a cooling rack. Turn the cakes out and ice (if you are sure they are cool... double check. Don't do what I did and end up with melted icing!)

MMMM chocolate cake...

My fingers are sticky

The keyboard is sticky. The table is sticky. The knife is covered in smears of chocolate fudge. I can feel the sugar sticking to my teeth. Yum.

I made chocolate cake. It is nearly 8 inches tall. I have never managed to make a cake that tall, free from or otherwise! I am well chuffed. It was gooooood.

The recipe is another one from Allergy Free Deserts (German Chocolate Cake). I will try to post the recipe tomorrow. I would make one big change next time - the only chocolate flavour comes from 14oz melted chocolate, which to my taste buds is not enough. There is still a strong chemically flavour, which I think comes from the Trex that I used instead of the Hard Palm Oil. It makes a great substitute though, and is easily purchased in the supermarket.

Next time, I would sub 1/4 cup of the flour for 1/4 cup of cocoa, and see how it turns out. It looks impressive though, even if the taste is nearly there...

When she says to let it cool before icing, she really does mean completely.... not just cool to touch on the outside. My icing is now a pool of gudge. Oops.

Something good amidst the frustration

I am getting so frustrated about my diet at the moment. I miss all my favourite foods. I know that I need to change my mindset, and start embracing the new way of eating, but it's just so hard.


It's just not fair.


We went to a local market today, and there was a lovely smelling (and looking) food fair too. My husband succumbed to the 'All you can drink gravy' from the Dumpling man that was there, and it looked so good. I just kept borrowing the tub so that I could have a smell of it, as that is as close to eating it as I was going to get! It was a beef filled dumpling, with peas, gravy, horseradish cream and gherkins.


Watching him eat it was torture. I'm so jealous, and frustrated that he can still eat what he wants, without a care for me, and what I can and can't eat. It's bad enough that he has all these lovely, forbidden foods in the fridge that he can take for lunches at work, but to sit there in front of me and eat it all just seemed so mean...


Hmm. This is turning into too much of a rant, when there have been some really good things going on. Maybe I need a Pollyanna moment, and start thinking about what there is to be glad about.

1. Niblet is slowly but surely gaining weight. He's a much happier chappy. He spends hours of the day giggling. Apparently me getting cross and shouting at Daddy is the pinnacle of funny.
2. I've lost all of my baby weight, and more besides, without having to go to the gym!
3. I'm eating new things that I would never have tried before, and loving them (mostly) Hello Falafel, where have you been all my life?
4. I'm going to appreciate real food so much when I can eat it again! 

As the dumpling man today said - the food world is a little grey at the moment, but one day I'll get handed a pack of felt tips...


I think I might have been handed a colour or two over the past few days, in the shape of two fantastic cookbooks, both by Elizabeth Gordan. From her book 'Allergy-free Desserts', from which I have fallen madly, head-over-heels in love with her chocolate crinkle cookies.. they are amazing. I added a bar of dark chocolate, and didn't roll them in sugar, and they taste fantastic. They are like the best sort of cookies that you can buy.


The second book that I bought was her 'The complete allergy free comfort foods cookbook'. I made her pop-tart style breakfast things... I can't remember what she called them. I made one fatal error with them. I looked at how much jam she said to put in the middle of each (1 1/2tsp) and thought 'that doesn't look enough'.... it would have been.  I put nearer two desertspoons in... needless to say they are REALLY sweet...That didn't stop me eating two one and a half of them...The pastry is so flaky - the addition of lard really makes it light and lovely. I would never have thought that the pastry was allergy free, but it is!


I might have to try making some of the pastry into gluten free 'croissants' and see what happens....


I sound like an advert for her, don't I?! I'm not, but I've really enjoyed being able to make most things in her books, with very few changes...

It burns! It burns!

It is so hot here, I feel like I am slowly melting.

Look, the sun! It's been so long.

 The temperature hit 28C today, and it is feeling every bit that hot. There isn't a breath of wind to cool you. There is however a rocket lolly. Niblet and I are enjoying the fact that they are on special offer in Sainsbury's at the moment, and there is nothing in them that we can't eat! Result!

He ate a whole one yesterday - he's only nine months, and that's a lot of lolly!

Too hot for porridge.

It really is too hot for porridge. We had run out of bread - well, we have the less than tasty loaves that the Dr prescribed (Ener-G Six Flour Loaf, this one) Does anyone know of a good one that we can get on prescription?

Anyway, we had pancakes recently, and cereal, and granola, and I've run out of new ideas for what to eat for breakfast. It really is a challenge. Before cutting things out, I'd have had toast, or cornflakes, with lashings of melting butter on the toast, dripping down my fingers, and layer of marmite on top, with a lovely cup of tea, with skimmed milk..... yum yum yum... I miss that. I wonder if I'll ever start enjoying gluten free bread with sunflower margarine?

Let them eat cake!
So I thought, what do we both like to eat? Cake.

Niblet will happily eat all his breakfast (3 bowls of rice crispies, with Neocate) and then go back for cake. I wanted to make something that wasn't too sweet, that I could have with a drink for breakfast, with the texture of cake, but without feeling naughty, if you know what I mean.

I settled on cornbread... lovely and soft, giving and nutty. The recipe comes from my new favourite allergy friendly baking book, written by Elizabeth Gordan: Allergy-Free Desserts I swapped the cornflour and the corn meal (3/4 cup and 1/4 cup) for 1 cup of chickpea flour (gram flour). It meant that it kept the yellow colour, and the nutty taste that the corn would give it, but was something we could eat. We cut it into squares, which we ate warm with lashings of raspberry jam. I meant to take a photo, but in all honesty, I was too busy eating it, and stopping Niblet from spreading the jam all the way across the garden (we had an outside picnic!)

It is one to make again, but I would make some tweaks to it - I would probably add some cinnamon, and some mixed spice, a handful of dried fruit, and maybe some seeds (I'm thinking the crunch of pumpkin with some sesame and sunflower seeds, mixed with demerara sugar and sprinkled on the top)...