Hazelnut and Walnut Cake

We spotted this recipe in the Waitrose Kitchen Magazine, November 2013 issue, and thought it looked like something that'd convert to being Gluten Free quite easily... specially since there's only 2 tablespoonsful of flour in the ingredients.  It could probably also be adapted to be dairy free by using a dairy free cooking spread like Pure (which we use in baking our Quick Mix Chocolate Cake).

These are the ingredients we used -

150g unsalted butter, cubed and softened
90g walnut pieces
90g blanched hazelnuts
175g light brown soft sugar
2 Tablespoons Gluten Free self raising flour (we used Dove's Farm)
1 teaspoon Gluten Free baking powder (again, we used Dove's Farm)
3 eggs, beaten
1 orange, zest only
pinch of salt
icing sugar for dusting

The nuts and 50g of the sugar were whizzed in our small Braun hand blender - they're shown in the green bowl in the pic.  To this, we added the flour, baking powder and salt (shown in the red bowl) and mixed well.

In another bowl, we used our electric hand mixer to cream the butter and remaining sugar.  Once fluffy and light in colour, the eggs were added in small amounts.  Next, the orange zest was added, followed by the nut and flour and combined thoroughly.

Having lined a 20cm tin, we poured in the cake mix and baked in a pre-heated fan oven (160ºC) for 35-40 minutes until a skewer came out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.  We checked the base of the cake for 'sogginess' and were delighted there was no sign of a dreaded soggy bottom!



The cake was cooled in the tin, removed when cool and dusted with icing sugar prior to serving.

We served the cake with a dollop of Rodda's clotted cream.

Having had a hearty wedge of cake each, some of slices were placed in a plastic pot and frozen for a treat at a later date.

Sticky Date and Walnut Cake with Maple Syrup Icing

This is a recipe from the Waitrose website that we printed out a L-O-N-G time ago.  Finally, today, we got around to making it.

Ingredients used were -
250g dates, chopped
150g butter, softened
100g soft brown sugar
4 Tbsp (60ml) maple syrup
250g Plain flour (we used Dove's farm gluten free)
2 eggs, beaten
1½ tsp baking powder (we used Dr Oetker gluten free)
1½ tsp mixed spice
50g walnuts, chopped
125g icing sugar, sifted

Having chopped the dates, they were placed in a bowl and covered with 150ml boiling water.  Whilst they were soaking, we prepared the rest of the ingredients and preheated the oven to 170C (fan).

The butter and brown sugar were beaten together until creamy.  Half of the maple syrup was added and mixed through.  Then, the flour and eggs were added a little at a time and fully incorporated.

After this, the mixed spice and baking powder was added and stirred through thoroughly.  Once this was done, we added the dates (and the soaking water) and two thirds of the chopped walnuts.  Again, the mix was thoroughly stirred.

The mix was then shared between metal baking tins which had been well greased.  A traybake tin, about 25cmx17cm, and a small loaf tin (10cmx7cm) were used. 

These were then baked in the pre-heated oven for 40 minutes when they were tested using a knife to see if they were cooked through.  Once the knife came out clean, the tins were placed on a cooling tray and, after about 10 minutes, the cakes were removed and left to cool fully.

Whilst the cakes cooled, the icing was made by mixing the icing sugar, remainder of the maple syrup and a small amount of warm water to get a runny mix.  This was then drizzled over the cakes and the remaining chopped walnuts were sprinkled on top.

Doughnut Sticks

 When @CoeliacStudent Saara posted that she'd made some Gluten Free Sticky Doughnut Sticks on her blog  it was only a matter of time before Sous Chef J and I were having a go at making them!

The recipe calls for very few ingredients which is always something that catches our eye.  As a tester batch, we decided to make half the quantity the Saara used.


So, we gathered together flour (65g Plain and 65g Self Raising from Dove's Farm and, of course, in this recipe we use gluten free) and 15g caster sugar.  Weighed out 200g water (yes, really) and added a Tablespoon of oil.

The water had the oil added to it and was then put into a pan and brought to the boil.

This hot water/oil  mix was then added, gradually, to the flour/sugar bowl which had also had a pinch of salt added.

 The mixture was brought together with a fork until it formed a rough dough ball.

Next, small amounts of the dough were rolled into stick (we used a silicone sheet and a little flour for dusting).  We were as quick as possible and, whilst this was happening, we had a small frying pan heating with oil on the hob.

 Once the oil was heated to 'bubbles when you drop a bit of dough in temperature' we carefully added the dough sticks, in batches, to cook (remembering to turn them) til lightly browned.










The cooked sticks were drained on kitchen towel and cooled slightly before being rolled in granulated sugar.

Finally, the Doughnut sticks were served ... and they didn't last long!  

 Thanks again, Saara for sharing your recipe... we think we'll be making these quite often from now on.

Lemon Drizzle Loaf

Inspired by seeing a tweet from @utterlyscrummy about her baking and looking at her blogpost, we decided to give the recipe she posted a try with gluten free flour.

The recipe calls for the following ingredients -
200g softened butter
200g caster sugar
200g self raising flour, sifted (we used Dove's Farm Gluten Free Self Raising flour)
3 free range eggs (we used medium eggs)
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
for the lemon drizzle:
Juice of the zested lemon
50g of sugar  (add 5g more if you used a rather large lemon)

After gathering the above ingredients, Sous Chef J set about creaming the butter and sugar... for once, he was happy to give it a go with our electric hand mixer (this may have something to do with the promise of "cook's reward" of licking the beaters at the end of mixing).  He made a good effort and managed to handle the mixer quite well.

He then grated the zest of the lemon and mixed this into the creamed butter and sugar.

Next we added in the flour - about one third at a time, with one of the eggs - and mixed some more.  By the end of this time, the mix was quite firm so Sous Chef J had swapped back to being photographer.





Finally, the cake mix was dolloped into a pre-lined (we use the ready made loaf tin liners) tin. the mix was evened out before the loaf was put into a warm oven (170C fan) for 40 minutes. It was checked with a knife at this point but was still very batter-like so it was left in the oven for a further 10minutes (obviously this stage depends on your cooker and the ingredients/tin you've used so you need to keep an eye on it).  After this time, we turned the oven off but left the loaf in for a further five minutes.  It was then removed to cool slightly in the tin.

The lemon drizzle mix was prepared using the juice of the lemon and sugar.  It was poured over the warm cake which we'd 'stabbed' all over.  Then we had to be patient and let it cool a little more before we could eat it!

Having waited as long as we could, we cut a slice of cake each and were delighted at the light, lemony lusciousness we were rewarded with!  Sous Chef J did comment that "we've used too much baking powder" having seen that the middle had sunk... however, this will have been the result of our frugal oven use as we also cooked 2 pizzas and a tray of coconut biscuits so the oven door was opened a few times.  Anyway, to use a favourite phrase of Sous Chef J ""it all goes the same in your tummy; YUM." So we weren't put off by the saggy bit... in fact it absorbed the drizzle very well indeed.