Red Velvet Cake

I think this is my favourite cake in the world. Bright red, moist sponge with a delicate chocolate flavour, filled and coated with light cream cheese frosting - yum!

I first tried it in New York in 2009, and hadn't seen it anywhere in the UK at that time. It has now made its way over here and I've seen it in several bakeries and cake shops. So far, I haven't had the pleasure to find it in gluten free form. Clearly, the only solution here was to make my own!

This one actually took a bit of trial and error. First of all, I ruined the first cake by cooking it too high, resulting in a soggy middle and a concrete exterior. Then I ruined the frosting by thinking it looked a bit too firm and adding a tiny bit of milk. Don't do this! You will end up with sloppy, but tasty icing.

It is based on a recipe I found on the internet, with a few tweaks to make it gluten free. It uses oil instead of butter because the cake should be very moist. I guess you could quite easily make this cake vegan too by substituting the eggs, cream cheese and butter!

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

300g Dove's Farm self-raising flour

1tsp gluten free baking soda

300g granulated sugar

2 medium eggs

480ml vegetable oil

1tsp cider vinegar (or any other gluten free white vinegar)

8-10 tsp red food colouring

2 tsp vanilla extract

240ml buttermilk

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 tubs of soft cheese

300g icing sugar

200g butter

1tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170. Grease/line 3 sandwich tins, or two larger cake tins and wrap the outside in foil. This prevents the cake cooking too quickly at the sides, and also helps to prevent the 'mushroom' effect in the middle of the cake.

Use an electric whisk to mix the sugar and oil in a large bowl. Add the eggs, food colouring, vanilla essence and vinegar and whisk until mixed. Sift the flour and baking soda together, and add to the mixture gradually, whisking to incorporate. Add the buttermilk and whisk on high for a few minutes until the mixture becomes lighter. Divide between your trays and bake for around 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave each layer to cool.

To make the frosting, whisk the butter and vanilla extract in a large bowl on a high setting until it becomes light and fluffy. Add the two tubs of cheese and sift in the icing sugar, a bit at a time, whisking until you have a light frosting. Use to sandwich together the layers of your cake and coat the outside.

To prevent getting crumbs in your frosting, spread a thin layer on first to seal the cake.

Cowboy Pie

Apparently, this is a well-known recipe to a lot of people, but I had never heard of it until sometime last year! Anyway, I thought I would share one of many versions because it's really simple to make especially gluten-free!

Cowboy Pie - serves 6

4-5 large potatoes, peeled and chopped

Butter

Olive oil

350g gluten-free sausages - I used the Co-op's 'Truly Irresistable' chipolatas as all of this range are gluten-free

1 large onion, sliced

1 tin of baked beans

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2 finely chopped garlic cloves

1/2 tsp dried sage

1 gluten-free beef stock cube

handful of grated mature cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes until tender. Mash with butter and seasoning and leave to cool in the pan.

Fry the onions with garlic and herbs in a large frying pan and add the sausages. Cook until the onions are soft and the sausages are brown on all sides.

Add to the pan the whole tin of baked beans and tomatoes and the stock cube. Season to taste.

Empty the pan into a large casserole dish and top with the mashed potato. Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 degrees.

"Bakewell" Cookies

This is a 'happy accident' recipe for some lovely cookies using a basic shortbread recipe and some experimentation with things I already had in my cupboard. The resulting cookie tastes a bit like a bakewell tart, hence the name!

Bakewell Cookies

150g Butter or margarine

90g caster sugar

100g rice flour

100g cornflour

50g ground almonds

4tsp almond extract

100g dried or glacé cherries

100g white chocolate chunks

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add almond extract, ground almonds, cherries and white chocolate chunks and mix together. Sift flour and cornflour in gradually and mix to form a dough. Line a baking tray (or two!) with greaseproof paper and shape approximately 50g balls of dough, flattening on to the baking tray until about 1/2cm thick, spaced apart enough to allow for a little spreading. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden.

Leave to cool and store in an airtight container.

"Allie's Mum's Dumplings"

What do you normally have with your gluten-free stews and casseroles? Do you have bread? Yorkshire puddings? Chips?! I used to love dumplings before I was gluten-free and I believed that you needed suet to make them. To my knowledge, you can't get gluten-free suet (though correct me if I'm wrong and then tell me where to purchase it!) so I figured I'd just have to let them go and keep them as a memory instead.

That is until I learned that you don't need suet at all, and I just so happen to have a recipe to make gorgeous dumplings, courtesy of this lovely lady who shares her mum's family recipe on her blog. They're easy to tweak so they're gluten-free!

Allie's Mum's Dumplings

1 cup plain gluten-free flour

2 tsp gluten-free baking powder

1/2tsp Xantham gum

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

2tbsp vegetable oil

(optional) 1/2 tsp your choice of herbs - sage and thyme work well with chicken, for example

Sift the flour, baking powder, xantham gum and herbs (if you're using them) into a bowl. Stir in the milk and oil until just mixed and sit spoonfuls of the dough on top of your stew. Cover and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Flapjacks

It's time for another Autumny recipe! This time it's flapjacks. Perfect for snacking or a breakfast when you're in a rush.

Honey Seedy Nutty Fruity Flapjacks (rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?)

150g butter

150g honey

150g demerara sugar

pinch of salt

tsp ground cinnamon

250g gluten free oats

150g your choice of a mixture of nuts, seeds, dried fruits or chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180°c.

Combine the butter, honey, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a large saucepan and stir gently over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients to a large mixing bowl, and pour over the sugar mixture, stirring until everything is coated and sticky.

Line a 20x30cm brownie tin with greaseproof paper and pour in the mixture. Flatten as much as possible with the back of a metal spoon and then put the tray in the oven for 15-20 minutes (cooking for longer will give a firmer, chewier flapjack).

Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before cutting into rectangular slices. Cool completely and gently remove each slice from the tray (you may find it easier to remove the whole thing and peel the paper off afterwards)

Store in an airtight container.

Gluten-free Crumble Topping

It's beginning to look a lot like.. Autumn. The leaves are falling and there are golden, earthy hues in the trees. It's getting cold enough to warrant putting the heating on in 15 minute bursts. Last year's knitwear is making a reappearance. I don't want to get up in the morning because it's still dark out (unfortunately my 11 month old doesn't understand lie-ins). Yes folks, it's that time of year again.

I love Autumn, though. Particularly for all the lovely food synonymous with this time of year! I'm going to bring you more comfort food recipes over the next few weeks, but to start with, here's a basic crumble topping. Great for fruit crumbles or on top of mince pies, it's simple and very tasty.

Gluten-free Crumble Topping

200g gluten-free plain flour

1 tsp xanthan gum

100g demerara sugar

150g butter/margarine

Combine the flour, xanthan gum and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the butter and lightly rub together with the flour to make a breadcrumb consistency. Use to top fruit crumbles or mince pies. Simple as that!

I used to make crumbles without xanthan gum, but it really does make a difference. Previously, I found the texture of the crumble to be too light and 'loose' but the xanthan gum in the recipe gives it a bit of density and elasticity. You could also substitute 50g of flour with some chopped nuts, oats or ground almonds. I sometimes add a teaspoon of ginger or cinnamon for a little extra kick. Feel free to experiment!

Jamie Oliver's Empire Chicken

A while ago, I borrowed a few recipe books from our local library to see what sort of meals I could cook from them with little or no adaptation to make them gluten free. One of the books is Jamie's Great Britain and there's a delicious recipe I want to share that is becoming a bit of a favourite!

As I've said in a previous post, one of my favourite meals is a roast dinner. This recipe brings an Indian twist and is great for an alternative to your traditional Sunday lunch.

Empire Chicken

The recipe can be found on Jamie Oliver's website

Have a look through the ingredients required and you'll notice there are only a couple of changes you'll need to make this gluten-free. Flour is needed to thicken the gravy - here you could either use gluten-free flour, or even cornflour. The gravy also calls for Worcestershire Sauce. I have yet to find a gluten-free Worcestershire Sauce (and would be grateful if anyone can suggest one!) but I have previously used balsamic vinegar as an alternative.

..and that's it. Those are the only changes you need to make and this dish really is worth the effort!