Rhubarb and Date Cake

Well you've all been asking for it, so here you go :-)



Rhubarb and Date Cake

170g GF baking mix
1 tsp baking powder
1/2c canola oil
100g sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1 large egg
250g Rhubarb (raw, you don't need to precook it at all!)
120g dates
about 4 tablespoons rice milk

Preheat oven to 170c and prepare a 20cm cake tin

Clean rhubarb and cut into 1 inch pieces. Cut up dates into rough pieces.

In a large bowl, sift flour, add oil, sugar, vanilla essence and egg, mix together with a wooden spoon to make a dryish crumbly dough. Add in the dates and rhubarb and stir in, it will appear as if there is not enough batter but don’t worry. Add the rice milk as needed to loosen the batter.



Turn into the cake tin and press in massaging it a bit with a rubber spatula to spread the batter about and flatten it.




Bake for at least 35mins, take care that it is cooked in the middle, press with your finger and check that it springs back. Cool in the tin for 10mins, then on a wire rack.

Freezes well (so my expert cake testers tell me)

Annette's Lemon Drizzle Chickpea Cake

This one is super quick and easy, I use the little whizzer that clicks into my stick blender.

Lemon Drizzle Chickpea Cake



410g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

3 eggs

1 lemon

170g caster sugar

1 - 2 tbspns clear honey



Put the chickpeas in a food processor and blitz until they make a paste. Add the eggs, sugar, zest of the lemon and juice of half the lemon and blitz until it makes a batter.

Pour into a well-greased and lined 2lb loaf tin, and cook in a medium oven, 160C, for around 45 mins. Remove from the oven and drizzle over the honey.

Leave to cool for 15 minutes, then pour over the juice of the other half of the lemon. Leave to cool completely before removing, carefully, from the tin.

This cake has the texture of Madeira cake, and really doesn't taste of chickpeas. You can also make it with orange and with lime. It will keep for up to a week, but does not freeze well.

Chocolate and Pecan Cookies

Measure the baking powder carefully, but be generous with the vanilla! Be sure to cream the fat and sugar well, if you don't they will spread out like pancakes in the oven and be ruined.

110g non-dairy substitute
1/4c sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
1c GF flour
1tsp baking powder
1/4c chopped pecans
1/4c chopped chocolate (whittaker's dark ghana is GF and DF)

Preheat oven to 160deg, line a baking tray with paper.

Cream the fat and sugar, add golden syrup, vanilla, baking mix and baking powder then fold in the nuts and chocolate chips. Roll into balls and place on trays. Press lightly with a fork to flatten and bake for 15mins until golden. Cool on a rack.

Espresso Amorettis

A bit like macaroons, but with coffee :-)

3 tab short espresso
3 eggs
3c almond meal
1c sugar

Preheat oven to 160deg, line a baking tray with paper. Make the espresso and allow to cool. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Combine egg whites, almond meal and sugar with the coffee. Dollop table spoons of the mixture onto the tray. Bake for 20mins or until just beginning to brown.

I will try and think of something else to use up the egg yolks.

Following on from corn muffins

Just made them again, 1st time in ages. Added cayenne pepper this time, little bit of an aftertaste which is nice.

Great photo in my remodeled kitchen:

Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons

3 egg whites
1 1/4 c caster sugar
1/2 tsp. coconut essence
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
2 tbsp cornflour, sifted
3 c desiccated coconut

Line 2 baking trays with paper, preheat oven to 160c
In small dry bowl, beat egg whites until firm peaks form
Add sugar gradually, beating constantly until thick and glossy and all sugar is dissolved.
Add the essence and rind, beat until just combined.

Transfer to large bowl, add cornflour and coconut. Using metal spoon, stir until just combined.

Drop spoonfuls of mixture onto the trays about 3cm apart. bake in oven until golden, transfer to wire rack to cool.

Variations:
- sprinkle with coconut before baking
- once cooked drizzle with melted chocolate.

I'm pretty sure I've never had coconut essence so must have made these without it, didn't seem to matter at all!