Vegan Easter eggs

It's very nearly Easter and I think most of us are also on our 2 week break to celebrate. I've got a super simple recipe for some yummy vegan creme eggs. If you've ever tried to buy the free from versions of these you'll know you're looking at a pack of 3 for nearly £10 on most sites and almost £3 an egg if sold individually on others.

Vegan Salted Caramel Cheesecake

I've been wanting to write this up for a while now but I've been so poorly that I've had to step away from the laptop. Thankfully I'm feeling a little better! Before I start, the lovely folks at BuyWholefoodsOnline.co.uk have helped me to make this recipe by supplying at least 4 of the ingredients. Their Coconut oil, Maple Syrup, Macadamia Nuts and the most important: Cashew nuts.

The Organic Coffee Shop ~ Redruth ~ Free From Friendly!

As any fellow free from foodie will know one thing that's really hard to adjust to is finding places that will competently serve you whatever allergy free food it is you require. It really is amazing the amount of chefs I've come across who don't know what a vegan is let alone what contains gluten and what doesn't!

I can't eat wheat, milk or gluten and avoid most meat as that makes me feel unwell too. I suffer with IBS and have done since I was 14 so this is nothing new. I've adjusted to shopping for groceries, reading labels (and do this regularly because supermarkets are always changing their ingredients!) I'm also sadly use to completely vetoing restaurants because they don't serve anything apart from a plate of chips.

I recently found a new place in the next town over from me, a lovely cafe and health food shop called The Organic Coffee Shop. This place was recommended to me by the ladies on reception at the chiropractor. The perfect opportunity to check out this new coffee shop arose when my aunt popped round my house (a vegan) and my mother came along too (my mum can't eat gluten or wheat and avoids dairy). We fancied a treat and some quality time together and I chose The Organic Coffee Shop in Redruth.

Enjoying Coeliac Awareness Week with Tesco Free From Foods

This week is coeliac awareness week. ( See here for more info on coeliac disease) I've not been able to eat gluten for about 13 years. At first it was a huge struggle, supermarkets were only just bringing out 'free from' products and the quality wasn't fantastic. If you've been a reader for a while you'll also know I'm intolerant to dairy and wheat. These days the free from ranges are so, so much better. One superstore that has really improved their range not just in general but with their very own range is Tesco's Superstore. Look at my local Tesco:

  The frozen section has improved the most in my opinion. There's a lot more gluten free options than dairy and gluten free but I'm really impressed with pizzas, garlic bread, breads and nuggets which my children love.

I was sent a gift card to pick up some gluten free items from my local Tesco store. The garlic bread has only been available for a few months, I can't tell you how great it is to be able to buy some!  The bread cooks quickly and well and tastes really garlicky, just like your regular non gluten garlic bread. It's also milk and wheat free.

Before we found out I couldn't tolerate the foods that were causing my stomach problems, I had never got around to trying some really good food items. One food I never managed to taste was scampi (shock! I know) I was browsing the frozen section, not getting too excited in case there was milk in them, when I saw they didn't: Hooray!! I had scampi for the first time in my life this week and It. Is. So. Good. I had mine with some veg and chips and it did not disappoint. I do find them a bit sickly if I eat more than 4/5 but other than that they hit the spot. Midge thought they were ace so I will buy some normal ones for her next time.

Before our separation, my partner used to make us a weekly free from battered fish which was delicious. I keep meaning to practice but until I get around to it I've found these crispy breaded Pollock fillets that are a brilliant replacement. They are quick and easy, we all enjoy them and I love the crispy bread crumb coating.

These lemon slices are one of my favourite treats to pick up. The center of the cakes is lemony and creamy, the sponge is firm and the topping is lemon sugar which is delicious. The children loved these too!

As you can see I have finally found loads of tasty treats and essentials I can now eat! The range of food available in Tesco's is really good to see and I am always pleased to see new items being added, especially to the frozen section because that has been some what overlooked for a rather long time!

Do you eat free from foods? Are you a coelic who has been struggling to find tasty replacements for your cupboards? I hope this post has shown you just a selection of yummy goodies available to you. If you don't find something in your store you can always speak to customer services who in my experience have been really good ant trying to get products in that are normally more commonly found in my larger Tesco store. Check out the Free From Range by Tesco online!

Cupcake Mumma 

Qwerkity Chocolate Teapot ~ Review

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I'd never heard of Qwerkity (now MenKind) before but I'm so glad they got in touch to ask if we'd like to review this fabulous gluten free chocolate teapot! How unique is this? So much cooler than a boring old Easter egg. This teapot makes you a couple of hot chocolates, then a delicious dipping fondue for your strawberries and marshmallows AND you can smash it and enjoy the dark chocolate for days after!

This chocolate teapot is gluten free. Although the ingredients do not list milk there is a 'may contain' for it. Because I am not allergic to milk I actually did get to enjoy the fun with the Mini Cupcakes. The teapot does contain soya though. 

Ingredients: Dark Chocolate, Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier (soya lecithin E322), vanilla essence, Shellac E904 Dark chocolate contains minimum 58% cocoa solids.

Gluten free. Contains soya. May contain traces of milk and nuts.

I made some hot chocolate for myself and was really surprised that it worked so well. Then we dipped strawberries into the delicious chocolate sauce before breaking it up. We still have some sat in our fridge! We all gave the chocolate teapot a huge 10/10 because we'd never seen anything like it before. It worked wonderfully, it's totally unique and if you want to surprise your loved ones with a rather different Easter gift this year the chocolate teapot has been put on sale for £14.99 (RRP £23.99) You can find the direct link at the top of the post. 

Enjoy and Happy Easter!

Cupcake Mumma and The Mini Cupcakes

Enjoy Gluten & Dairy Free Pancakes AND Vegan Pancakes on Pancake Day!

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

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 

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

Weigh, Lose or Stay ~ Week 2

I was really pleased with myself this week! I've eaten really well (bar the fairy cakes I inhaled and the generous handful of fruit pastilles I ate) I'm not one for ruling things out. You put rules on me like that and I'm eating the whole of Tesco you know what I mean?

Anyway, I concentrated on my food last week and I'm so pleased to have found a new love of adding good things to my breakfasts and trying a couple of new recipes too. I even had a smoothie this week (which looked like vomit so I spared Instagram that image) it did however taste delicious!

Exercise was always going be an unlikely event last week, mainly because I've been PMS'ing and looking about 4 months pregnant, although the good food has helped enormously! I haven't indulged in junk food (bar the above mentioned) so the evil mood and bloating hasn't lasted as long as usual. 

So this week is about continuing my good eating progress and putting some working out into my daily routine. I have the time and hopefully feel like I have more energy. It'll be very simple. I've finally accepted this has to be a slow process for me, I mustn't expect fast results and get fed up and binge as a consequence.

I've not done any measurements, I can't be bothered right now to be honest, I'm kind of going by how I feel and look rather than numbers! I shall post week 3 on Friday! I'm also linking up with Fitness Tuesday with Fitness4Mamas!

If you're trying to lose weight or keep yourself healthy, head to Laura's blog where I look forward to reading and commenting!

Cupcake Mumma

Banana Loaf~ Gluten and Milk Free ~ A-Z Challenge

Today I bring you B is for Banana Loaf with Golden Syrup and Chopped Peanuts. I love making banana cakes so shoving my mixture into a loaf tin and adding some last minute toppings of choice is a great way for me to spend an hour or so! This recipe is gluten, wheat and milk free but of course you can easily use ingredients of your choice and experiment with your toppings. Icing sugar, caramel sauce (yeah I can't make it either- disaster!) other nuts you prefer or chocolate would taste great (naturally) here goes...

*Banana Loaf with Syrup & Peanuts.

100g butter

100g sugar (I used brown sugar as that's what I had in but can use any really)

3 eggs

200g Gluten free flour (I use Doves Farm)

2 Bananas Mashed

1/2tsp bicarbonate soda

1tsp vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

Topping

Golden Syrup to drizzle

Handful of salted peanuts finely chopped to sprinkle

How To Bake The Mrs Cupcake Way:

Take all your ingredients and put them into a bowl. Mix really well, use a whisk before adding your banana if you like. Make sure your loaf tin is lined with grease proof paper and pour your mix into the tin.

Bake on 180• for 20-25 minutes (or when your knife comes out clean when inserted into the cake)

Carefully remove your cake whilst warm and now you can drizzle on your syrup or caramel or chocolate or whatever you've chosen as your desired topping.

Add those chopped peanuts and enjoy!

I have a rather slap dash approach to baking so if this isn't for you, may I recommend a Google search, Pinterest or maybe one of my other recipes that are more sensibly written?

Now then, whose for cake?

* If you scroll to the bottom of my blog, you'll find a handy fact sheet with all sorts of information including weights for those who don't use Grams!*

Cupcake Mumma

A Fantastic Gluten & Milk Free Pancake Day!

I love Pancake Day! A lovely friend popped over today and handed me a recipe for some gluten free pancakes. I didn't bother with weights, but I had all the ingredients and my very good (alright, overly keen) eye and piled up the plate!

Hubby went for good old chocolate spread, Midge had already eaten some at Grandmas house so decided against another round, while Little A went for a sprinkle of sugar on both of his. I however, went for banana and vanilla flavoured soya custard. It was So. Good!

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It's little mans birthday on Thursday and we usually do birthday pancakes for breakfast but since we are having a nice breakfast out, I think I will have them for birthday dinner instead! It has the positive of also being something A is definitely going to eat and they're very filling (especially so if you're a massive pig like me who had 4!!)

Happy Pancake Day Everyone!

Cupcake (Pancake?) Mumma

Happiness Jar & Frozen Cake #thecraftingprompt Week 2&3

It's been a while since I messed around with the felt I keep in the kids craft box. I had a brief spell with felting but I'm just not gifted in this type of craft (see also knitting, sewing and crotchet!) but still, I can cut out felt and find all sorts to decorate with and that's just what I've done for the second crafting challenge prompt of felt.

I wanted to make a happiness jar to pop all those random happy thoughts onto paper and place them into the jar. I'll then open the jar at the end of 2015 and read them all back! I've simply just stuck chosen coloured felt and buttons on my little jar (which once contained Apple sauce. I'd go for a bigger one if I was you but it's all I had available) and I had some fabric paint I used to 'write' on the felt and this lovely pendant I found in a craft box. I've had it for years so I'm pleased to finally have a use for it.

The next prompt is Spoons. I thought I'd post a photo of my recent Frozen inspired birthday cake for this one (after all, baking is done with wooden spoons in this house still!) I used a well known recipe of 6, 6 and 6oz flour, caster sugar and butter and 3 eggs. Then I used some baking powder and a couple of tablespoons of coco powder. All of this was milk and gluten free. The icing is a bought icing because it is so utterly delicious and the wonderful design on top was a great eBay find costing around £3. *Tip* Pop your rice/sugar papers into the freezer for a few minutes to make the removal super easy and minimise tearing! They are so delicate to handle.

Next time the prompt is Googly Eyes so look out for that post this week!

Link up and take a peek with Let Them Be Small by clicking the badge below.

Cupcake Mumma

This Weeks Reasons to be Cheerful

Today I'm feeling a little blue so writing one of these posts is the perfect antidote I believe. I've had an earache on and off all day, it's something that always happens now it's cold but I still can't get used to them! It's also piddling it down which hasn't bothered me until now! Anyway, let's get on with some cheerier things shall we?

1) Fireworks night and Halloween are now all over for another year. This year both celebrations were so good and I have some lovely memories to keep. On Halloween I did my usual tea party for my two and their cousins. My niece stayed over night so we took her Trick or Treating which was good fun. Everyone was so polite and friendly. We had a lot more this year than last, perhaps thanks to Jack?

Firework night isn't something I go all out on. I guess I just don't believe in it and what it stands for. Having said that, I feel it's such a possibility for cosiness and memory making so I'm no scrooge! We had homemade fish and chips with butter drizzled corn on the cob for dinner, watched the neighbourhood fireworks, took some lovely photos, did our own sparklers and made our own version of s'mores (which I am now going to label free from Wagon Wheels! So watch out for that!)

2) I'm seeing my best buddy and 2 of her gorgeous clan next Saturday and I'm super excited..Bet you can't guess who it is? I've dug out Little A's Moses basket which has brought back memories! It's only one night but I'm still so excited.

3) Now half term is over I am pleased to be back into a routine. I get some quality time with Little A, Midge loves being back at school, the hours don't drag so much and I get some me time too- which is ever so important! I get a long hot shower, or to read in peace and do some snail mail. I also love that Little A and I are back to watching our morning trains after dropping Midge off. We love waving to the drivers, watching the birds waddle about looking for dropped bacon sandwiches but mostly I just adore watching how much A likes to see his train and watch it disappear around the bend when everyone is aboard. Isn't it great when your children just really love something!?

Lastly, we have heard back from the SEN department and they're going to observe A in nursery before having a little meeting with us which is such good news. Whilst I don't believe he has any specific behaviour problems or anything, he does need more help with his speech and communicating with him still isn't easy, even though I can see how different he is even from a few months ago. I just want to hear him talk to me like all the other children in nursery talk to their parents about what they want or what happened in their day. I'm happy to wait for it though.

Cupcake Mumma

Great Bloggers Bake Off 2014: Cherry Cake (Free From)

The Great British Bake Off is back! That means The Great Bloggers Bake Off is back too! Hurrah! This week the challenge was very simply, cake. Mini cakes, cherry cake and um cake.

I went for a cherry cake. Not a Mary Berry cherry cake just a big standard cherry cake with some butter icing. Yum yum. Just like last year all bakes are Gluten free, Dairy free and Wheat free.

I simply took a normal recipe for a Madeira cake and bunged in 200g of glacé cherries. I baked until golden brown and clear when tested with a butter knife at 180 and left the cake to cool. I mixed up a whole box of icing sugar with vitilite butter, added pink food colouring and refrigerated until I needed it. The pesky cake must have still been a little hot despite having over an hour to cool because I noticed my icing sliding a bit. Oh well!

I decorated with fresh cherries and voila, a free from cherry cake! I'm very pleased with my first bake it tastes good but is a bit too heavy, I'd prefer it a lot more softer but it's not too bad. The cherries didn't all sink either so that's a win!

Are you watching the Bake Off? Why not get your bake on too?

Cupcake Mumma

Free From Find #2: Baked to Taste Pasties!

Living in Cornwall you just got to have a Cornish pasty! Sadly, the good old traditional pasty is out for me but that's where Baked to Taste have come in handy!

Now of course you can make your own pasties and I have the perfect gluten, wheat and dairy free pasty recipe (filled with sun dried tomatoes and vegetables) so do check this out for something to bake and eat straight away or even wrap up and take out!

Back to Baked To Taste and their pasties. There are several flavours of pasty in the range: cheese and onion for those who can eat dairy, curried vegetable and the one I bought: sun dried tomato and spinach. The pasties are sold so far in health food stores in the frozen section. Once bought I popped the pasty in the oven and roughly 30 minutes later I was tucking in to a really rather tasty tea. The pastry isn't hard and crumbly but flakes off with a nice big bite like any other pasty! The only part of the pasty that's a bit of a let down is its crimped edges which seem to cook slightly harder and crispier than the rest of the pasty. I've seen this mentioned elsewhere too so I'm glad it isn't just me!

The pasty is filled to the brim which is so good to see. Nothing like the disappointment of a stingy pasty! The filling is quite peppery and the sun dried tomatoes add to this with their own flavour. I think it's absolutely delicious.

Cost wise they're not cheap (but free from never is) they are £2.18 and I consider them to be classed as a small pasty. The price does put them with your freshly baked pasties so you can't complain!

They are rather nice and filled me up perfectly at lunchtime...I'd probably add a side of chips for dinner though!

Product: Baked To Taste pasties (Sun dried tomato flavour)

Price: £2.18

Dietary info: wheat free, gluten free, lactose free.

Cupcake Mumma