Free From Apple Crumble Cake

This week was free from week on the Bake Off. I actually struggled with this one (believe it or not!) There were sugar free cakes (okay, refined sugar free cakes!) gluten free breads and a dairy free ice cream cake. I'm having to try and go with the bake that would be the cheapest on our food budget and this week proved hard. I couldn't afford the alternatives for the sugar I always put in cakes. I tried honey but I thought, yuck! I shoved in the sugar and made a sponge instead!

So this week I went with gluten and dairy free sponge cake with a topping of gluten free oats and crumble mix.

Recipe

Free From Apple Crumble Cake

A gluten and dairy free sponge cake with apples and a crumble topping. Perfect for autumn! (And when you can't chose between cake and crumble!)

Ingredients

• 150g Dairy free spread
• 150g Caster sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
• 2 Eggs
• 150g Doves Farm Self Raising Flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Doves Farm Plain Flour
• Gluten Free Oats
• Dairy free spread
• Apples (enough for your chosen dish)

Instructions

First make a sponge cake how you normally would by mixing all your ingredients together making sure there are no lumps

Pour the sponge mix into your chosen dish (I used a long dish for pies!)

Slice your apples and place them on top of the sponge mix

In another bowl, add some flour and butter. Using your hands, make a crumble. I didn't measure this bit, I just judged how big my dish was. Make sure there's not more spread than flour.

Scatter your crumble mix over the apples and sponge, covering entirely just like you would an ordinary apple crumble

I used 2 handfuls of gluten free oats and some more sugar on top of the crumble to give it that crunch.

Cook time: 35 mins at 180'C 

Gluten & Dairy Free Custard Filled Choux Buns

It's week seven of our Great Bloggers Bake Off challenge with Jenny and Helen and it's one I have been dreading. Gluten free and sweet pastry don't exactly fill me with confidence. Suet is hard to come by and doesn't really appeal to me. I wanted to perfect profiteroles but it just wasn't happening so this week I've gone for a dairy and gluten free choux pastry, which on the second attempt was a lot more successful. They didn't rise as much but I've just discovered my oven door doesn't close properly so that's not great!

Because of the rise (or lack of) and my stubbornness to not let this challenge defeat me, I used a dairy free custard piped onto the flatter side of the bun and sandwiched the two sides together. I then melted and drizzled dairy free orange flavour chocolate on the top of the buns. Oh my they oozed and tasted delicious. On this occasion I don't mind the buns not looking great because they were so nice and very moreish too

(I had 3!)

I give you: Gluten and Dairy Free Custard Choux Buns:

Ingredients

75g Doves Farm White Bread Flour

½tsp Caster Sugar

50g Dairy free Butter

150ml Cold Water

2 Eggs

Carton of dairy free custard

150g Cooking Chocolate

3tbsp Golden Syrup

Method

Sift the flour & sugar into a bowl.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add water and bring to the boil.

Remove from the heat and quickly add the flour from the bowl into the water. Beat well to form a soft dough using an electric beater (or wooden spoon)

Beat in the eggs to form a smooth, shiny paste.

Put a teaspoonful of the paste onto oiled baking trays or pipe them on.

Bake your buns in a pre heated oven for 20/25 minutes at 200 degrees

Cool on a wire rack . When cold, pipe custard into the flat side and sandwich together with another half.

Gently melt together the chocolate and syrup, stirring to make a smooth sauce and

drizzle the sauce over your Choux pastry buns and DEVOUR!

CupcakeMumma

Gluten Free & Milk Free Lemon Meringue Pie

Sunday saw me desperate to bake something but what to bake? I had made a lemon meringue pie 6 months ago and it went so bad I have never attempted one since, preferring to rely upon Mother who makes a cracking lemon pie! But I took my baking enthusiasm and ran with it to my cupcake filled kitchen and made one. A ruddy delicious one too if I may say so myself!

I'm going to share my recipe with you now so if you're gluten/ wheat/ dairy free then please do have a go at this pie, it's very tasty! As a little side note here, I'd like to add that by making this with an egg replacement product sold in health food stores, you could also make this pie vegan. Good times.

You will need

200g gluten free plain flour

2 tbsp icing sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

2 tbsp cold water

First you want to make your pastry. Put the flour, salt and icing sugar into a bowl then add the butter. Mix together using your finger tips to create breadcrumbs. Make a well in your ingredients, then add your egg. Now mix together using your hands to create a soft dough.

When you've rolled your pastry out, blind bake in the oven for 12 minutes at 150 degrees. You can make your filling whilst this is being done.

For Your Pastry You will need

Juice and zest of 4 lemons

100g caster sugar

6 tbsp cornflour

6 egg yolks

100g butter

Grate 4 lemons putting the zest and sugar into a pan. Add the lemon juice mixed with water to make 300ml into the pan and bring to the boil. Add water to the cornflour to make a paste and add to mix stirring constantly to avoid lumps.

Remove from the heat and slowly add your egg yolks and butter.(don't forget a sneaky taste!)

Don't forget to remove your pastry from the oven. When your lemon filling has cooled slightly pour onto the pastry. Now you can make your meringue topping!

For Your Meringue Topping You will need:

6 egg whites

1 tsp cornflour

300g caster sugar

Use a hand mixer to beat your egg whites and cornflour until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Add the sugar until you have a thick, glossy mixture. Don't worry too much about your meringue, I'm not very good at making it but it's still edible!

You can simply spoon your meringue on top of your filling or pipe it on if you're feeling fancy!

Bake your pie for 10-12 minutes at 180 degrees and once cool you can enjoy your delicious pie. Yum!

I'm no chef so I wouldn't know where to start with writing a really good recipe here but it's not too difficult so I do hope you have a go. If all else fails there's always Google!

CupcakeMumma