Almond Fruit Cake

This is a recipe from when we started on the GAPS Diet 6+ years ago. There have been a number of 'adjustments' we've made over the years but the following is what we started out with!

Almond fruit cake

Makes 2, 7" round cakes.

6 large eggs

0.75kg Butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped finely in food processor (can also use other squash or courgette)

1 Tablespoon coconut oil - add to chopped butternut squash and blitz for a short time in processor

Dried fruit (any combination)

Ground Almonds - enough to make a porridge like consistency (amount needed will depend on freshness of eggs)

Flaked Almonds - handful (as topping)

Pre-heat oven to 170-180C.

1. Whisk eggs well.

2. Add Butternut squash mixture to eggs and mix thoroughly.

3. Add sufficient ground almonds so mixture has a porridge-like consistency.

4. Line cake tins and sprinkle bases with dried fruit.

5. Pour in cake mix and then top with flaked almonds.

6. Bake for 30-45 minutes until skewer inserted in middle comes out clean.

7. Allow to cool and store in airtight container in fridge or freezer.

Making it today, however, we used 3 extra large eggs, added about 100g of sultanas and 7 Tablespoons of ground almonds.  Also, we baked the cake in one, lined, 8" round springform baking tin.

To start, the butternut squash was peeled and chopped roughly before being placed in the large bowl of our Braun multiquick and whizzed for a few minutes... ending with evenly sized pieces.  The blitzed butternut squash then had the coconut oil added to it, mixed through and then this was all added to the whisked eggs.  

After mixing the butternut squash and the eggs together, ground almonds were then incorporated until the mix was a little firmer and at this point the sultanas were added.  Next, the mix was put in the lined baking tin and some flaked almonds were sprinkled on top.  

Finally, the cake was put in a preheated (170ºC) oven and baked for 40 minutes. To test it was cooked, a knife was inserted and, as it came out clean, the cake was removed from the oven and left to cool in the tin.

This cake cuts well once cool, can be frozen if needed and is good with creme fraiche as a pudding.


Give it a go... and let us know what you think!

Banana Bread

Sous Chef J was delighted to get a SUSTRANS leaflet through the post about Free Range Kids.  In it he quickly spotted a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe for Banana Bread and, eyeing up the spotty bananas on the windowsill, he asked if we could bake it.  Taking a look at the ingredients, I agreed, although we did have to swap the apricots in the recipe for dates... and, of course, the self raising flour was substituted by Dove's Farm Gluten Free Self Raising Flour.

With Sous Chef J firmly in charge, preparation commenced.  He got the ingredients together and weighed out the things that were needed. So, we assembled 75g sultanas, one lemon, 100g soft unsalted butter, 125g sugar (recipe says caster, we had granulated), 2 large eggs, 3 large ripe bananas, 200g self raising flour (we used Dove's Farm Gluten Free Self Raising) and 75g dried dates (although recipe says ready to eat apricots!).

Then Sous Chef J moved onto the task of making the dates the same size as sultanas... but was surprisingly adept at the task and completed it without a moan!




The sultanas and dates were placed into little pots (a la MasterChef) and I was told to cream the butter and sugar.  Next an egg was added to the butter/sugar mix and combined well before repeating with the remaining egg.  At this point, the dried fruit and lemon zest were added and mixed in.

Sous Chef J then mashed the three bananas and added them to the mix.  Finally, the sifted Gluten Free Self Raising flour was carefully combined using a metal spoon. 

Next, the whole lot was added to the lined loaf tin and placed in the pre-heated oven.  As we were cooking other things in the oven, the temperature was higher (at 180ºC) than the recipe's stated 160ºC so we have a rather more brown outer loaf than would be expected!

Mmmmm... lovely Banana Bread

We checked it after 50 minutes but returned it for another 15 minutes as the inserted knife came out with cake mix on... then checked again, repeating until the knife blade came out clean.  In the end it was baked for about an hour and a quarter.  It was cooled in the tin for 15 minutes, then turned onto a wire cooling rack.

Delicious!  And well worth the wait.

Update - 7 October

Today we found ourselves with three VERY ripe bananas so Sous Chef J thought another batch of Banana Bread would be a good way to use them up.  I had other ideas and convinced him to try making muffins instead.  So, we agreed on a mix of muffins and mini muffins. The mix was shared between 12 muffin cases and 6 mini muffin cases.  The mini muffins were cooked for about 10 minutes, whereas the muffins took around 20 minutes.  Here are some pictures to show the results.

 

These are some ready to be frozen as we like to be prepared with Gluten Free goodies!