Delicious Free From Chocolate Pastry Roll

Two weeks ago The Great British Bake Off focused on pastry. I've seen lots of lovely tarts and vol-au-vents but didn't join in on this occasion, I had the time because I use a bought gluten free puff pastry and can make a gluten free shortcrust pastry, I guess I just lacked the motivation this week and I'm not very imaginative!

I did bake a pastry related item however but chose not to link it because my bake didn't match any of the challenges. This bake is super easy, it's a gluten and milk free chocolate pastry roll and was delicious.

Budget Gluten Free Pork, Apple and Stuffing Pie

This pie is something I wish I cooked ages ago!I had never heard of putting pork apple and stuffing together in a pie until a few years being more used to the traditional chicken or steak and kidney. I have made this pie so many times now but not baked it in a while so I thought why not? Now that I'm no longer a vegetarian I could give this a go and it's perfect for this weeks Great Bloggers Bake Off Challenge with Jenny,this week hosted by An Organised Mess

You will need (for 2 small bowls or 1 small dish)

• Shortcrust pastry either bought from a supermarket or use 80g Doves Farm plain flour and 3 tbsp dairy free butter plus some salt mixed together into crumbs with your fingertips then brought together with 1 egg and a little water into a ball

• 5 pork pieces (I bought a frozen bag which suited my food budget)

• Gluten free stuffing mix 

• Jar of apple sauce

First I defrosted my pork pieces then placed them in a pan with a small amount of oil. When they were cooked I used kitchen scissors to cut the pork into smaller chunks (can't be the only one with rubbish cutlery!?) I made my pastry as the pork kept warm and kept it to one side.

I added a jar of apple sauce to the pork then separated my half and the husbands for the stuffing which I sprinkled on top. I added some boiled water to mix the stuffing in with the pork and apple. When I make a bigger pie I do make my stuffing mix in a jug then pour on top but as these are small pies there really is no need

With the filling in the bowl I separated the pastry ball into 2 then rolled flat before covering both dishes, marking and brushing with milk (you can use an egg wash if you prefer) I used up my left over pastry by making pastry hearts!

The pies were cooked on 180 for 25 minutes and then had 5-10 minutes at 200 before being removed from the oven.

I was really pleased with how they turned out, the pork was really nice. 

Anyway, there's this weeks bake! I have a chocolate pasrty roll on the blog tomorrow which was supposed to go up last week but really didn't fit into any bake off categories; it's very tasty though so do check it out!

Cupcake Mumma

My Dairy Free Windtorte

So I decided to make life difficult for myself this week for The Great Bloggers Bake Off by baking a Spanische Windtorte for dessert week. I wasn't going to go near a dairy free creme brûlée no matter how much I wanted to and I didn't want to do the cheesecakes because finding a recipe was driving me nuts. Some how searching the recipes I could only really find the words 'raw', 'healthy', 'sin free', 'guilt free' am I the only person who doesn't give a fig about the guilt!? I felt like it! Besides, I baked a vegan and gluten free cheesecake in a previous Bake Off challenge so I was only left with the 1 option really!

Gluten and Dairy Free Biscotti

Today I'm blogging the biscuit challenge from last weeks Bake Off. I wasn't too worried about biscuit week, I mean I don't make wonderful biscuits but they've always tasted nice and been fairly successful. This week I took the recipe from another website. I found that 2 eggs would've been better than 3 and that there was too much water for me because my dough was pretty wet and it should've been a lot drier than that.

Gluten & Dairy Free Madeira Cake

The Bake Off is back and that means so is The Great Bloggers Bake Off! Im a little apprehensive about adding my bakes this year because I've seen so many fellow bloggers bakes already this week and the standard is very high! Of course this is all good fun and it's lovely to be inspired to bake again. I have missed the link up because I've been busy and under the weather but I thought I'd share my cake week bake anyway. I'll probably miss a few link ups because i'm going on holiday too!

Last week we had the best (and in my opinion the easiest ) week: cake week. I decided to go with a gluten and dairy free Madeira cake which is the first cake I ever learnt to bake as a little girl in my mums orange kitchen. 

You Will Need

150g Butter (I use Stork or Vitalite)

150 g Caster Sugar

Generous amount of vanilla extract

3 Eggs

150g Doves Farm Gluten Free Self-Raising Flour

1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder

I mixed the butter and sugar together then added the eggs plus a little flour to stop the buttery lumps forming. I then added the flour mixing well. Lastly, Midge added the vanilla plus a little gluten free baking powder.

The overall look of the cake is very nice but if I lined the cake tin properly it would not have been so misshapen. Taste wise this cake was eaten in about 25 minutes so I'm taking that as a seal of approval! I was really happy with the inside, it was slightly fluffy but still firm which I like. It probably could've used 5 more minutes in the oven but I'm happy with my first bake.

This week is biscuit week which should be interesting depending on what I go with! Next week is bread week which I feel slightly less optimistic about! Are you joining in the Great Bloggers Bake Off 2015? Or are you baking along as and when you feel like it like i'll have to do until i'm back from holiday? Perhaps you've been inspired by the show, if so I'd love to see your bakes!

Cupcake Mumma

Dark Chocolate Cake - Free From

I can't believe this week was the final of the Great British Bake Off but it was and so it brings me to my bake for the week: a single tier wedding cake.

The final saw 3 hopefuls battle it out to win the Bake Off title and one of these battles included a three tier wedding cake. Now, going for three tiers in this challenge would be wasteful on so many levels which is why I decided to stick with the theme but be sensible with the amount. Here's what I came up with:

A dark chocolate chip sponge cake which is, as usual, both gluten and dairy free.

This sponge is completely straight forward in that you use:

• 6oz doves farm self raising flour
• 6oz Caster sugar
• 6oz soft dairy free butter
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3-4 tablespoons coco powder
• 1 packet of dark chocolate chips

I added all my ingredients together and stirred until I had a good, runny consistency. I placed my cake in two separate, greased sandwich tins for 20 minutes on 180 degrees.

To decorate, I used most of a packet of fondant icing to include my attempt at two little bird cake toppers! I used white icing to finish off the bottom of the cake and write 'Mr & Mrs' sadly not in the best handwriting I've ever done on a cake but it's not bad.

I've really enjoyed joining in with Jenny and Helen and I think there may be more baking on my horizon! I'll leave you with a photo of the cake after it got 'Little A'd!'

CupcakeMumma

Gluten & Dairy Free Carrot & Raisin Cake

This week I bring you a delicious gluten and dairy free carrot and raisin cake for week 8 of the Great Bloggers Bake Off with Jenny and Helen. It's not a novelty cake but it is a free from cake with a vegetable in!!

I wasn't sure I'd like this cake to be honest but it was SO GOOD! If you'd like to bake this cake then the recipe is below. Enjoy!

Ingredients

175g light muscovado sugar

175ml sunflower oil (I was caught out and used vegetable oil but luckily it was fine!)

3 large eggs

140g grated carrots (about 3 medium)

100g raisins

grated zest of 1 large orange

175g self-raising flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp ground cinnamon

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C and line your cake tin
• Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Mix a little then stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.
• Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices. Stir all the ingredients but dont over mix. It should be runny but all nicely blended together.
• Pour the mix into your tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre.
• After the cake is cooled you can mix together some icing sugar and water to make a thick icing to drizzle over the top and sides.

CupcakeMumma