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

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.

 

Gluten-free, Dairy-free and Egg-free Coffee Cinnamon Scrolls

 

One of things that most people with coeliac disease or gluten-sensitivity miss is bread. Maybe when I retire I’ll be able to spend time trying to  find a recipe that works.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve eaten an awful lot of commercially available gluten-free bread that just tastes horrible. A lot of them contain eggs, so I can’t eat them anyway. One brand I do like is Schar, and another egg-free brand I don’t mind is Zehnder. I’ve also tried most of the mixes that don’t need eggs and I can’t say I really like any of them, with one exception. Last year a friend told me about the F G Roberts Cottage Bread Mix and yum, finally there is a gluten-free bread that tastes ‘normal’.  It is dairy-free and egg-free but it does contain soy flour. I’m sorry for the non-Australian readers who have no access to it, but here’s some more infomation for fellow Aussies as to where to purchase it. I decided to have a go at making some cinnamon scrolls with this mix and have to say that they are way too yummy for my waistline!

The bread mix uses yeast. One thing to be careful of is the temperature of the water. Yeast only needs a lukewarm temperature and will die at high temperatures. A lot of people make the mistake of having the water too hot for the yeast. Another tip is with the proving of the bread. I have a double oven. The bottom oven is fan-forced and the top oven is a conventional oven. To prove the bread I put a bowl of boiling water on the bottom of the conventional oven and put the tray on the shelf and close the door.  Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

380 ml warm water

330 g F G Roberts Cottage bread mix

5 g dry yeast (I use Lowan)

6 ml vegetable oil

6 ml white vinegar

handful of sultanas or mixed fruit (optional)

60 g butter (for dairy-free use Nuttelex or another dairy-free margarine)

60 g brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Walnuts or other nuts (optional)

Icing: 140 g GF icing mixture, 20 ml hot water, 1 teaspoon instant coffee

Method

1. Place the water into a mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast across the top. Add the vinegar and oil and mix with a fork until the yeast is dissolved.

2. Add the bread mix and the sultanas and mix together with a spoon.

3. Lightly flour a large board with rice flour or other gluten-free flour and lightly knead the bread until it comes together smoothly. Roll out until it is a large rectange.

4. Mix the soft butter, cinnamon and brown sugar together and spread across the bread dough. Sprinkle with walnuts if using.

5. Roll up the rectangle and cut the log into 3 cm pieces.

6. Place the pieces evenly into a round or square cake tin. I used a 23 cm square tin lined with baking paper.

7. Allow to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes (see directions above).

8. Bake at 200 C fan-forced  (210 C/410 F conventional) oven for approximately 25-30 minutes.

9. Allow to cool before icing. For leftovers, freeze without icing and reheat using a microwave.

10. Ice with coffee icing. For the icing, combine the hot water and the coffee. Pour only enough of the coffee mixture into the icing sugar to make a smooth icing (you may not need it all).

Gluten-free, Egg-free and Dairy-free Coffee Cake

This recipe was given to me by a friend about 23 years ago and I’ve made the usual adjustments to make it friendly for our diet. I did not have enough dairy-free margarine to make this today, so I made it with a dairy-containing margarine, but I see no reason why it would not work with dairy-free margarine and rice milk as substitutes. Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients

125  g margarine (use a dairy-free margarine for dairy-free or use butter if you prefer)

170 g brown sugar (1 metric cup)

2 teaspoons instant coffee (I used de-caffeinated instant coffee)

1 tablespoon hot water

2 tablespoons cold water

1 teaspoon cinnamon

300g gluten-free self raising flour

2 teaspoons Orgran No Egg egg replacer (or use EnerG) – if you can eat eggs use 2 eggs and omit the cold water

125 ml milk (use rice milk for dairy-free)

Method

1. Dissolve the instant coffee in the hot water, add the cold water and set aside to cool.

2. Cream the margarine and brown sugar together.

3. Add the coffee mixture and mix well.

4. Sift the flour, cinnamon and No Egg powder together.

5. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the creamed mix and mix until incorporated, then 1/2 of the milk, then 1/3 of the flour, then the rest of the milk and finally the rest of the flour.

6. Pour into a greased and lined 20 cm cake tin.

7. Bake at 160 C fan-forced (180 C/350 F conventional oven) for approximately 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

8. Ice with coffee frosting and decorate with walnuts if desired.

Coffee icing: Mix 1/2 a teaspoon of instant coffee with 1 tablespoon of hot water and allow to cool. Cream 60 g of margarine or butter until soft and add the coffee mix and add 140 g of gluten-free icing mixture* and mix well.

*You need to be sure that the icing mixture does not contain wheat starch, or use pure icing sugar. At the time of writing the CSR icing mixture is sold with a ‘gluten-free’ label.