Three tier chocolate cake

Junior Masterchef has taken hold at the Q household with my youngest two sons keen to get into the kitchen. We decided to let them try the Donna Hay 4 tier chocolate cake recipe which can be found here. Does it work making it gluten and egg free? Oh yes!!

We simply substitued gluten-free flour (I used Aldi's gluten free plain flour) and Orgran No-Egg instead of the eggs. We also doubled the recipe and cooked it in a rectangular tin as I didn't have the cake tin sizes recommended in the recipe. I cut the cake into 3 evenly spaced pieces and we made a 3 tier bar cake. We didn't double the icing mixture as we thought it would be enough. The consistency of this cake was like mud cake and the chocolate cream cheese icing was so nice! It was a definite winner here. You just need to make sure that you use icing mixture that does not contain wheat starch (Aldi fit the bill again here).

Risotto Pie/Cakes

Everywhere I look nowdays I seem to see a recipe for risotto cakes or pies, gluten-free and otherwise. I've taken bits and pieces of different recipes and come up with one that Matt and I like. Hubby doesn't need gluten-free food but likes to eat one while they're hot. A proper risotto seems to require having hot stock on hand and adding it gradually to the rice, but I have a quick and easy (busy mother's) method instead:

1. Melt about a tablespoon of butter or margarine in a large saucepan. You could probably use a little olive oil instead.

2. Add some chopped shallot or onion and cook a few minutes.

3. Add 1 and a half cups of Arborio rice and stir to coat rice. (Australian 250 ml cup used here - it's a little larger than the 8 oz cup)

4. Add 3 cups of cold chicken stock. I make mine by adding 3 gluten-free chicken stock cubes to 3 cups of cold water.

5. Bring to the boil. Stir thoroughly and place a lid on the saucepan and turn off the heat immediately. Allow to sit for 20 minutes.

6. Add whatever you like to the rice mixture. For the ones pictured above I added a few rashers of chopped, cooked bacon, 1 cup of grated mozarella cheese and about half a cup of fruit chutney. Although some recipes don't use eggs, I also added an egg substitute called "No Egg" made by Orgran (3 egg equivalents). I think that they would work okay without the eggs though, especially if making it as a pie rather than cakes. In the past I've also added cooked corn kernels and chopped capsicum (red pepper in other countries?).

7. You can then cook it as a pie in a pie dish or as muffins. This mixture made 12 large muffins and 15 mini-muffins.

8. Cook in a moderate oven (180 C/350 F) until nicely browned.

The muffins freeze well and can be re-heated in the microwave.

Pumpkin Soup

It's chilling down a little here in Oz so it's pumpkin soup time. I made it today:

Ingredients:

1.4 kg pumpkin, chopped
3 medium potatoes, diced
4 chicken stock cubes (check they are gluten-free)
3 large onions, chopped finely
1.75 litres water
400 ml thickened cream
3 cloves garlic

Method:

1. Chop up the garlic and fry in a little oil (if I don't have any garlic I omit this step).
2. Add the rest of the ingredients except the cream and cook together until the vegetables are tender.
3. Mash with a potato masher then blend with a hand held blender or kitchen blender until smooth and add the cream.
4. Return to the heat until it is almost boiling again.
5. Serve with freshly ground black pepper and grated cheese.

Chocolate Pudding

I found this recipe in the comments section of another blog and have managed to 'Aussiefy' it. It seemed to work (with a guess about how much chocolate to use) so here it is:

Ingredients:

2.5 cups milk

3 tablespoons cornflour (corn cornflour that is, not wheaten cornflour - I've never understood how they can get away with calling wheat cornflour!)

1 teaspoon vanilla

250 grams chocolate (I used cooking chocolate)

Method:

Mix the cornflour with the milk and vanilla and heat in a large saucepan until boiling. Keep simmering for about 1 minute.

Stir in chocolate and keep heating on low heat until the chocolate has melted into the mixture.

Chill until cool.

Option: For a mocha pudding also add 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder with the chocolate

I made this pudding into a pie by making half of the 'base' recipe of the chocolate caramel slice post and cooking it in a 20 cm square dish for 20 minutes in a moderate oven. I then put the pudding mixture on top. We found that the base was a bit too thick and sweet for this recipe so next time we'll try for a gluten-free pastry base or eat the pudding by itself. The other option is to halve the base mix so it's not so thick (so this means use a quarter of the base mix I have for the chocolate caramel slice).

Egg-free Chocolate Mousse

My children were asking for chocolate mousse the other afternoon. I have a recipe that they just love but I don't often have the motivation to make it because it contains eggs which I cannot eat. Some of the commercially prepared mousses from the supermarket don't contain eggs but they are quite expensive. I did a Google search for eggless mousse and found a great recipe on this site.

It just happened that I had all the ingredients on hand so away I went. I found it quite quick to prepare and it certainly disappeared quickly.

You just need to make sure that the marshmallows are gluten-free. I used a packet called 'Dominion' which I bought from Aldi. It does not state that they are gluten-free on the packet but it contains wheat glucose (which is highly refined and does not contain gluten) and uses maize starch.

Rum Balls

This recipe was given to me by my friend's mother years ago and when I had to start eating gluten-free I just adapted it to suit.

In a large mixing bowl combine:

250 g packet gluten-free biscuits (crushed in blender/food processor)*
1 cup coconut
1 cup mixed fruit
2 tablespoons cocoa

Make a well in the centre and add:

1 tin of sweetened condensed milk (in Australia they are 395 g tins)
2 tablespoons rum

Mix thoroughly and place the sticky mess into a fridge for about 30 minutes. Take small spoonfuls and roll into a ball with your hands then roll in extra coconut. Keep refrigerated.

*If you don't need to have gluten-free then the Arnotts Arrowroot biscuits are good for this recipe. For gluten-free there are the Eskal Tea Biscuits which are ideal. I wait until Coles has them for 20% off for coeliac society members and buy them then. Other brands would probably work okay.

Rice Paper Rolls

These rice paper rolls make a nice lunch idea. They're good if you have to travel somewhere for lunch so long as you keep them cool. I find that gluten-free bread is nice cooked fresh and is okay toasted but isn't so nice when used for sandwiches when you're out and it can't be toasted.

The rice paper is very cheap and is readily available in the Asian section of the supermarket. I buy the ones that are the size of a dinner plate (see left above). They are quite stiff but you just brush them generously with warm water to soften them, wait about a minute, then roll them up around whatever you please. For the above rolls I used shaved roast beef, shredded lettuce and grated carrot. Sometimes I use chicken breast that has been marinated in a honey-soy marinade and fried. Our neighbour has just given me some nice mango chutney so I might try some cooked chicken with that one time. If you are vegetarian just omit the meat and put in whatever you like.

My 11 year old son Matt has to eat gluten-free and he really likes these.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

I make this slice often during the holiday time and always make up a double batch because it disappears quickly!

BASE: Mix together 2 cups self raising gluten-free flour (I've tried several types and all work well), 2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups coconut and 250 grams of melted butter. Place into a large baking tin (mine is 34 cm x 24 cm). Bake at 180 C for 10 minutes.

FILLING: While the base is cooking combine 2 tins (395 g each) sweetened condensed milk, 2 tablespoons butter and 4 tablespoons golden syrup in a large saucepan (19 cm diameter)and stir constantly over medium heat until boiling. Turn down the heat slightly, keep stirring and keep it simmering for 5 minutes. Take care not to burn the mixture or yourself. By the time the 5 minutes is up it should be looking like hot, bubbling lava. Spread over the base and cook for another 10 minutes in the oven. Allow to cool.

TOPPING: Melt 375 grams of cooking chocolate in a double saucepan. Spread over the filling and refrigerate.

NOTE: The base part of this recipe can be used as a gluten-free cheesecake base in place of a biscuit base.

No Egg Chocolate Cakes/Muffins

Ingredients:

3 cups gluten-free self raising flour*
200 grams butter
2 cups milk
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 and a half cups of sugar

Method:

Sift the flour and cocoa together.
Add the sugar and golden syrup.
Melt the butter and add to the mixture with 1 cup of milk.
Add the bicarbonate of soda to the other cup of milk and add to the mixture.
Mix well by hand or with electric mixers.
Place into muffin trays and cook for approximately 30 minutes at moderate heat (180 C).

This cake has a nice texture even though it does not have eggs.

All measurements are Australian metric measurements: 1 cup = 250 ml
*I use Orgran self raising flour but in the past have used other gluten-free flours and they work fine too.