Gluten-free and Egg-free Recipes (with some Dairy-free options)

Posts tagged ‘allergy’

Basic Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free and Vegan Cake with variations

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I’ve been playing around a little with getting a basic cake that is free from the most common allergens including soy and nuts. Although I am able to eat dairy, some people that I cook for at times need either lactose-free or dairy free food also. This recipe uses the technique of replacing the eggs with bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and vinegar and works well. The basic vanilla cake recipe is below then the variations appear underneath the post. The picture is of a coffee cake variation (omit walnuts for nut-free). I’m still experimenting with this recipe so more variations are to come.

Ingredients

185 g gluten-free plain (all purpose) flour*(see below)

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1/2 teaspoon salt

225 g caster sugar

30 g cornflour (it must be corn cornflour for gluten-free)

250 g cold water (this is 1 metric cup = 250 ml)

75 g oil (I use sunflower or canola oil)

20 g white vinegar (4 teaspoons)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

  1. Mix together all dry ingredients well in a bowl. For a Bellini Intelli (or other thermocooker) add all dry ingredients to the jug and pulse a couple of times to ensure they are mixed well.
  2. Mix the wet ingredients together into a small bowl and add to the dry ingredients.
  3. Mix quickly with electric beaters (do not over mix) until lumps disappear or use speed 6 for 5 seconds with the Bellini, scrape down the jug and repeat.
  4. Cook in silicone muffin trays for 20 minutes at 160 C (fan-forced oven) or 180 C (conventional oven) or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean.

*For flour I use Aldi Has No Brand gluten-free plain flour. Other brands including Woolworths, Orgran and White Wings will work in this recipe. If you are in the UK the Tesco or Sainsbury brands of gluten-free plain flour will work. In the USA I think there is one called King Arthur which is available from Walmart which looks to have a similar make up of flours to the ones in Australia. Also, Aldi in the USA has a similar looking all purpose flour. At some point I’d like to put a mix together myself but if I do, I’ll come back here to post my mix recipe.

And now for the variations (watch this space for more)!

Chocolate: Replace the cornflour above with cocoa powder (the same weight). Ice with chocolate icing. Icing: 140 g icing sugar (powdered sugar) sifted, 24 g cocoa powder, 30 g hot water and 30 g melted dairy-free margarine. Mix together well and ice the cakes.

Coffee: Dissolve 1 teaspoon of instant coffee (I use decaffeinated) in a small amount of hot water then add cold water up to the 1 cup (250 ml) mark. Use in place of the 250 g cold water. Icing: 140 g icing sugar, 1 teaspoon coffee dissolved in 30 ml hot water, 60 g dairy free margaine (I use Nuttelex). Mix together well and ice the cakes. Top with walnuts if desired.

Mocha (I haven’t tried this yet): Replace the cornflour with cocoa and also the water with coffee. Use the chocolate icing mix but add coffee into the hot water before adding to the other ingredients.

Berry: Thaw some frozen berries (or use fresh) and puree well in a blender. Replace some of the cold water with the berry puree. When I made this I used mixed berries and the puree was 200 g so I added 50 ml water and used this to replace the 250 g water in the recipe.

Lemon and Poppy Seed: Replace the vinegar in the recipe with freshly squeezed lemon juice (the same amount – 20 g) and add the zest of two lemons and 4 teaspoons of poppy seeds to the mixture.