Showing posts with label dairy intolerant. Show all posts

Hello Again...

So it's been a while huh?

We last posted in 2015 and we're very sorry. Life has been crazy busy, I've finished my degree and am about to finish teacher training, and Caitlin has finished her GCSE's and will soon be finishing her first year at college! So because of this the blog has hit the back burner, something which will soon be rectified!

We have many ideas about what we're going to do with the blog, from new recipes, teaching more of the science side of food to possibly be dabbling in videos!

If anyone has any ideas please share them with us, we would be very grateful.

We shall see you all soon,

Hev and Cakes

xoxo
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Minute Molten Mug Brownie

Hi everyone! As you may have seen we have had a slight blog redesign, with a new banner which should make us easier to find on twitter and instagram! Please let us know what you think of these, we're slowly learning all about blog coding and layouts so please bear with us whilst we figure out how to make the blog look and feel the best it can be! However, now is the thing you've been waiting for- the recipe!
Coming of the back of our delicious minute mug cookie recipe, we are bringing you all yet another super delicious, minute long recipe for the impatient chocoholics out there! The recipe can be made in any microwavable mug, perfect for curling up on the sofa and eating whilst watching some Sunday night TV! Once again this recipe is only measured out in tablespoons, so can be measured at home or in the office (if you're feeling particularly naughty!). This recipe is incredibly moist and gooey, and if you prefer a harder brownie you can keep it in the microwave for slightly longer! The chocolate chips in this recipe can be swapped for a dairy free Nutella style spread, we normally use Natures Store chocolate hazelnut spread which we find tastes exactly the same as normal Nutella! We hope you enjoy!


You will need:

- 2 tbsp water-
- 2 tbsp dairy free butter/ margarine-
- 4 tbsp caster sugar-
- 2 tbsp cocoa-
- 4 tbsp plain flour-
- 1 tbsp dairy free chocolate chips (or dairy free nutella like spread if you fancy it!)




1) Melt the butter in the microwave at short 20 second bursts until fully melted.


2) Mix all the ingredients into the butter well so that the mixture is smooth and has no lumps.


3) Pop your brownie mixture into the microwave for 40-70 seconds depending on how squidgy you like your brownie!

4) Leave to cool for 1-2 minutes until just warm and serve!

We hope you enjoy another super quick and simple mug cake recipe as much as we enjoyed eating it!

Happy Baking!

xoxox
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Momma's Special Chocolate Birthday Cake

Here we are again with a brand new recipe! We can't believe we are almost at the end of February already; where is the time going? However, the end of February means that it is time for our mom's birthday! To celebrate this Caitlin has made the most awesome dairy free cake we have ever tasted, a delicious chocolate fudge cake!


Birthday chocolate fudge cake

The sponge here is incredibly moist, and is enclosed in a deliciously thick and super rich icing which is so fudgy the smallest slice is needed for maximum impact! There are no pictorial instructions for this cake as we were too excited to get this in the oven and bake it before we remembered, so the post is just littered with scrumptious photos of the finished cake instead! This one is for you momma, happy birthday xxx

Ingredients:

For the cake:
-200g dark chocolate-
-200g dairy free butter-
-4 eggs-
-1 tsp  vanilla extract- 
-325g caster sugar-
-175g self raising flour-
-1 tsp baking powder-
45g cocoa powder-

For the icing and filling:

-300g icing sugar-
-150g dark chocolate-
-150g dairy free butter-
-15g cocoa powder-
-1 tsp vanilla extract-

Method:

For the sponge:
1) Grease and line two cake tins and preheat the oven to 180°C.
3) Sieve the cake's dry ingredients together and set aside.
2) Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a bowl over a double boiler and leave to cool slightly.
3) Whisk the eggs and vanilla together until frothy, add the sugar and whisk again until thick. The mixture should leave ribbons.
4) Fold the chocolate and butter mixture into the whisked eggs, then fold in the sieved dry ingredients until fully combined.
5) Pour the mixture evenly between your two tins and bake for 25 minutes until light and springy, or when a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin.
6) When cool, take the cakes out onto a cooling rack and peel off the liner paper.

For the icing and filling:

1) Pop the icing sugar and butter into a bowl.
2) Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and then pour over the butter and icing and mix until combined.
3) Add in the cocoa powder and vanilla and again mix until fully combined.
4) Spread a thick, even layer over the top of one of the sponges and sandwich the other sponge on top.
5) Spread the rest of the icing over the cake and down the sides until fully covered and looking glorious!



We hope you enjoy this ridiculously delicious cake as much as we do and enjoy baking it in a slightly different style to normal!
Happy Baking!
xoxox
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Genius Gluten Free Pains Au Chocolat Review

Since becoming dairy free, continental style breakfasts have gone out of the window. Traditional croissants contain huge amounts of butter so they are completely out of the window. So coming off a massive fail of trying to make croissants (the dough wouldn't stop rising for 2 days and we ended up with bread...) seeing these pains au chocolats peaked our interest. The pains au chocolats, as they are Genius are predominatly made for the gluten free market. This comes as no suprise to us as pretty much everything on the shelves that are dairy free are gluten free too (why would you only make one if you can cater to both markets?). The packaging doesn't claim to be dairy free (is produced in a factory that handles milk so cannot guarantee milk free) but as long as you do not have an allergy or an intense intolerance you should be fine. The taste test was from me (Heather) and our little brother Joe, who is also dairy intolerant.


Pains Au Chocolat Packaging

The pain au chocolats had the same size as normal pain au chocolats, and also had the same appearance. The pain au chocolats required 10 minutes in the oven at 190°C, to cook through and melt the chocolate in the middle.  


Before baking out of packaging

So after 10 minutes we took the pains au chocolats out of the oven. They had become darker in colour and more golden brown, like you would expect from a traditional pain au chocolat. The size was the same still and was piping hot throughout.

Out of the oven and cooked through
So here we get to the actual tasting. The pains au chocolats tasted nice but there was a few bits that both me and Joe were slightly disappointed with. The amount of chocolate inside was pretty dismal. As you can see from the photo below there was a thin layer of chocolate at the bottom of the pain, which considering there was alot of pastry inside the pain I for one found this dissapointing, yet Joe still loved this regardless as chocolate is chocolate! The other thing that disappointed me as a person who eats gluten was the texture. I completely understand that gluten free products will have a completely different texture, but this was quite claggy and sometimes hard to chew. For the product in hand and actually being able to eat a pain au chocolat again it was something I could and can live with, but I would just love some normal textured replacement food soon! This was a treat for me on New Years Day after a heavy New Years Eve and did help to quell the slushy stomach I had at the time. Joe enjoyed this product alot, he had never really eaten anything along the lines of croissant/ pain au chocolat before as these were unavailable when he was younger, and I think he enjoyed the aspect of something new to try that wasn't going to make him ill.


Pain au chocolate cut through the middle

For the sake of eating something that resembles normality, I did enjoy the pains au chocolats, as sometimes, as im sure quite a few of you will agree that you just want to feel a bit normal and not sat on the restricted diet train! These pains are not exactly healthy, but you can't really expect something with that much pastry, gluten free or not to be healthy! These pack a punch at 388kcals per pain, so would be a once in a while breakfast treat (I'm thinking Sunday morning in bed!). I feel like I struggle with the texture more than my brother as up until last year I was eating regular food and regular croissants! If you are gluten and dairy free however these are a good alternative to pains au chocolats and the only ones I have seen on the supermarket shelves. I would repurchase these again and would urge you to try the croissants in the brand (We have tried these and preferred them, liberal dairy free chocolate hazelnut spread applied!) As they are the best alternative you can get at the moment to normal all butter croissants that we know about! We bought these in Sainsburys and currently cost £2.49 which is pretty steep, but Genius products tend to be on the more expensive side in our experience. 


Pain au chocolat layer peeled apart

Overall I would rate this a 7/10, with more chocolate and a better gluten free texture would bump up the score further.

We hope this has been useful for you and opened your eyes to some other options available on the market for the dairy free crowd!

Happy Baking!

xoxox







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4 Ingredient Apple Crumble!

What is better than on a cold winters night than having some warm apple crumble with some soya custard? For us it's a no brainer! This is a super easy recipe to prepare as it only involves 4 ingredients and a bit of elbow grease! Get ready for some warming vegan friendly apple crumble!


Ingredients:


-3 to 4 Bramley cooking apples-
-100g granulated sugar-
-150g plain flour-
-75g of dairy free margarine-

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2) Peel, core and chop the apples into small chunks and place in a large pan of water to stop the apples turning brown whilst chopping.


3) Drain the water from the pan, add 60g of the sugar and two tablespoons of water back into the apples and simmer on a medium heat until the apples become soft and mushy. Pour the apples into an oven proof dish.


4) Using your hands, mix the flour, butter and sugar together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

5) Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over the apples until the apples are fully covered, you may need to make more mixture if necessary.


6) Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until the breadcrumbs have turned golden brown and cooked through.

Spoon into a bowl, pour lashings of soya cream or soya custard on top, sit by the fire and enjoy!


Happy Baking!

xoxox
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Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes!

I have been fantasising about lemon drizzle cake for weeks now and as there was a friends birthday and other friends stopping for the weekend I thought this was just the perfect time to bake some lemon drizzle cupcakes! In the baking process we put chocolate chips in, and they subsequently sunk to the bottom and out of the actual cake! The recipe we're putting up will be without chocolate chips but if you have a fool proof way to keep the chips from sinking like brick then please go ahead (and let us know how you did it!). If you want to cheat (like we did) then you can just use bottled lemon juice and no zest but they will be even more lemony with zest! The cupcakes are accompanied by a super tart simple icing which is a doddle to make! Don't be alarmed by how moist the cakes are and if they peel off the wrappers messily its a good thing! The recipe makes about 9 larger cupcakes!
Enjoy! 


Ingredients:


For the cake:
-150g dairy free margarine-
-150g caster sugar-
-2 medium eggs-
-zest of 1 lemon-
 -juice of half a lemon or a generous splash of bottled lemon juice-
-150 to 170g self raising flour (depending on how moist you want the cakes)-
-teaspoon of baking powder-
-optional chocolate chips-
For the icing:
-500g icing sugar-
-as much lemon juice to get the consistency of icing that you want-
Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180°C and measure out your ingredients.
2) Cream the butter and sugar together until lighter and you can't feel the sugar underneath the spoon.
3) Add in the 2 eggs one by one and mix until well combined and not lumpy (this will take longer with cold butter and warm eggs!).

4) Add in your lemon zest and juice and mix together.
5) Sieve in your flour and baking powder and fold together, if you feel the mix is too runny just add a little more flour. Fold in some chocolate chips if you wish.


6) Spoon or use an ice cream scoop to evenly spoon the mixture into cupcake cases. Pop in the oven for 15-18 minutes until golden brown and drawing a clean skewer. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.


7) Mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice until the icing reaches the consistency you desire, then when the cakes are cooled spoon the icing onto the cakes! Don't be afraid to microwave the icing for a couple of seconds to make it runnier and easier to work with!


Now peel off the wrapper and tuck in!


Happy Baking!
xoxox
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Halloween Icing Figurines!

Trick or Treat?!

Our Halloween cupcakes blog is up (the cupcakes are to DIE for mwahahaha...) and to top the cupcakes we made some little icing Halloween figurines!
To make the figurines all you need is some royal icing (or modelling icing), some food colouring, cocktail sticks, paintbrushes and some eerie imagination!

Below we have included pictures of all the monsterous icing figurines we made to sit on top of our Halloween cupcakes and some picture instructions on how to make the quickest and easiest pumpkin ever!

Have a freakishly happy Halloween everybody!

xoxox










How to make the pumpkin:
Roll some orange food dye into the icing and keep rolling into a semi flat ball until there is no creases and is super soft to the touch.

                                              

             Take a cocktail stick and press indents into the sides of the pumpkin ball, working
                                                     slowly and to the top of the pumpkin.


                                             
                        Use some black or brown food colouring in a tiny bit of icing, roll into a little
                                                           sausage and attach to the top.

                            For the leaves, add some green food colouring to some icing, mould into
                                         a leaf shape and use a cocktail stick to create the lines!

                                             

And there you go!
Happy Halloween!
xoxox


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Chocolate Orange Marbled Halloween Cupcakes!

  Get ready for a shock as these delicious monstrosities have a spooky surprise in store!
you will need:
For the monsterific cakes
- 150g caster sugar-
- 150g soft dairy substitute margarine-
- 2 eggs-
- 150g self raising flour-
- 1 grated rind of an orange-
- 10 ml of orange flavouring-
- orange food colouring (or yellow and red)-
- 1 tsp. baking powder-
 -10g cocoa powder-

For the spooooooky icing
-50g soft dairy free margarine-
-200-300g icing sugar (depending on consistency)-
-juice of half an orange-
-orange flavouring-
-orange food colouring (or yellow and red)-
For the monsterific cakes:
1) Preheat the oven to 180°c and set out a cupcake tray with twelve cupcake cases.

2) Cream the margarine and sugar together in a bowl until light and fully combined, then whisk in the eggs one at a time (doesn't matter if the mixture separates just keep mixing and it will come together).
3) Next, add the grated orange rind and flavouring.



4) Gently fold in the flour and baking powder, then separate the mixture into two even bowls. in one bowl, add 10g of cocoa powder and gently fold in. In the other, add 5 drops of orange food colouring and mix until bright orange.

5)Finally, add a spoon full of each mixture into each cupcake case. once this is done, use a toothpick to swirl the mixtures slightly to create a marbled effect. bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until light and fluffy and clean when poked with a skewer.

For the spooooooky icing
1)Cream the icing sugar and margarine together until combined.
2)Add in the orange juice and orange flavouring until it is orangey enough for you!

3)Then add the orange food colouring until spooky and bright orange!
4)Pipe (or spread) the icing on top of the cooled cupcakes, add your spooky decorations and enjoy!

We hope your Halloween is extra spooky!
xoxox




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Yummy Rustic Homemade Pizza

Eating without dairy doesn't mean that we have to exclude all the yummy things in life, such as our personal favourite: pizza! This pizza is made entirely from scratch, using all cheap ingredients that are really easy to find! The pizza base might take a while to prepare (has to double in size like bread doesn't it?) but you can freeze the base which will speed things up for the future. On the plus side, the sauce takes a mere 5 minutes to make, and doesn't involve scales (which makes for excellent Uni grub!)
 Hope you all enjoy!


Ingredients:
For the base:
2 1/2 average mug size scoops of flour (strong or normal, we have used strong wholemeal)
-1 sachet of quick dry yeast-
-250ml of warm (not hot!) water-
-4 capfuls of virgin or sunflower oil-
-2 pinches of salt-

For the sauce:
-Half a tin of plum tomatoes-
-Half a chopped onion-
-4 chopped sundried tomatoes or tomato puree-
-Splash of tomato ketchup-
-2 chopped cloves of garlic-
For the topping:
We enjoyed our pizza with buffalo mozzarella and salami, but you can go for anything you want!
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C
For the base:
1) Measure out all ingredients and into a bowl add the flour, yeast and salt.


2)  Make a little well in the middle of the flour, and then add the oil and slowly pour in the warm water.  Roll this mixture into whole ball of dough, at this point it doesn't matter if it is a little bit wet as the rolling flour will absorb this.


3) Spread a little of the flour onto a surface and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Then put back in a bowl and cover with cling film or a damp towel, and place somewhere warm until it doubles in size.
4) Once doubled in size (shouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes) take out of the bowl and knead again for a couple of minutes.

5) Split the dough into portions and then roll out into any shape until about 1/2 cm thick. Pop onto a pizza tray and pre-cook for about 12 minutes to make sure the dough cooks thoroughly when the yummy toppings are added!

For the Sauce:
1) In a saucepan fry the chopped Onion and Garlic until soft. Then add the chopped sundried tomatoes (or puree), and then the Plum tomatoes. Add a splash of tomato ketchup and reduce and cook for about 5 minutes.

2) Puree the sauce if you want a smooth sauce or leave chunky for a little bit more texture.


Once the base is partially cooked and quite hard to the touch, add the sauce and then the fun bit- your chosen toppings!
 Pop into the oven for another 10- 15 minutes until the toppings are melted and cooked, and the base is starting to crisp and brown.


Take out of the oven and enjoy!


xoxox

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