Chocolate zucchini brownies (egg-free)

Last weekend I was lucky enough to again be included in a share of the proceeds of a friend's early morning trip to a local market. I love the fact that everything is so fresh (and cheap!) and also the challenge of using everything without waste.

At first it can be a bit daunting looking at all that lovely produce and wondering where and how to store it and use it wisely, but I've done this a few times now and have a method: divide produce into things that need to be used quickly (like spinach and ripe stone fruit) and those that will last a bit longer stored in a cool place (like pumpkin or a whole watermelon). I then think of recipes to use most of it and make up a shopping list of groceries to go with the list (eg. dried pasta, legumes, condiments etc). It's very satisfying, in a nerdy kinda way :-)

This time, amongst the goodies were a heap of zucchinis (courgettes). We have a couple of favourite savoury zucchini recipes, including this 'green pasta' and zucchini fritters with garlic yoghurt (Bill Granger recipe), but I also wanted to make a sweet recipe. I remembered hearing that zucchini goes well with chocolate (what doesn't go well with chocolate?!!!), so searched and found a couple of egg-free recipes that my allergic big girl could also eat.

The recipe I tried is for a cake but I've renamed it a brownie as I think it's more brownie-like with its dense texture and deep colour. And I'm thinking that next time I might substitute some brown sugar for white to add to the brownie-ness :-) But for now I thought these were pretty good - not overly sweet, but tasty, quick and easy. And hey, hidden veggies in a dish kids love always makes a mum feel good, right?

 

Chocolate Zucchini brownies (recipe from the la receta de la felicidad blog here)

300 g grated zucchini

125 ml vegetable oil

200 g sugar

250 g flour

50 g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt

 

Preheat oven to 350º F (180 º C)

Line a 20 x 20 cm baking tin with baking paper.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients with a spoon. Batter will be thick (see pic below).

Spoon into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

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Egg-free stress-free lemon cake

It was my little girl's 5th birthday yesterday and for her family dinner she requested homemade pizza (a girl after my own heart ;-) and a lemon birthday cake, so I went in search of an egg-free version that her allergic sister could eat too.

The previous week the birthday girl had a celebration with a few little friends and I'd made a special cake that had caused me no end of problems and a very very late night the night before trying to get the b&@;/! thing to work :-( So for the family dinner I wanted something very simple. With no chocolate. And no lollies. And definitely no late night preparation.

And can I just say that if you're reading this and thinking of having a baby, can I suggest that if you have any way to control it, I'd not plan a due date around Christmas! Trying to get organised for the holidays and a birthday is not my idea of fun. But anyway, we survived... and we have a new egg-free cake to add to our repertoire. Yay! Here's the recipe in case you'd like to try it too.

Stress-free, egg-free lemon cake, decorated by birthday girl

Egg-free lemon cake Recipe from www.spiceupthecurry.com

1 ¾ cups plain (all purpose) flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

115g/1 stick/½ cup butter, softened

½ cup sugar

1 ¼ cups plain yoghurt

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

1 cup icing sugar (Confectioner’s sugar)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F (180 degree C). Grease and paper a 9 inch round cake pan and keep it aside.

Mix flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. Put softened butter in a separate bowl and beat it with a mixer til light. Add sugar and beat til light and fluffy. Add yogurt and beat til mixed. Add lemon juice and lemon zest and mix well again. Add half of the flour mixture and beat it til incorporated. Then add remaining flour mixture and beat well.

Pour batter in prepared cake pan. Lightly tap on counter top to remove any air bubbles.

Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or a toothpick inserted in middle of cake will come out clean. Let it cool for 5 minutes in a pan then remove it to a cooling rack and let it cool completely before icing.

Icing: Sift powdered sugar in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and stir until you get thick and smooth glaze. When you drop glaze from spoon it should be smooth and runny. Add more lemon juice or sugar as needed. Pour icing over top of cake. Spread it with butter knife and let it drip down from sides. Let the icing dry before you serve or cover and store for 3/4 days.

Linking up to my creative space over here.

 

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Amazing orange cake

In my creative space this week there are a heap of unfinished projects...  I'm solo parenting so I'm just grabbing bits of time here and there where possible (and trying not to go to bed too late!). I'm working on my big girl's costume for the Book Week parade, some stock for my shop and a new bag prototype  amongst other things. But one thing I have finished this week are these delicious cupcakes and I'd love to share the recipe with you.


I feel justified in naming this recipe 'Amazing orange cake' for several reasons:
1. It's allergy free
2. It doesn't taste like it's allergy free ;-)
3. It's quick & easy (honestly!), no mixer or fancy gadgets required, except maybe a zester
4. It's delicious!


I've seen the recipe around on a few different blogs and pinned this one recently, but apparently it originally come from The Joy of Cooking. I've made both a cake and cupcakes from the recipe so far and they're both great.

I made the cake version at my mum's house and she brought out a jar of preserved orange peel that she'd made recently. We poured some of the syrup over the hot cake and then sliced the peel and put it on the top. It finished it off beautifully and I got to bring home a jar of the peel (thanks mum!). If you are after a recipe, Abby from Things for boys has a lovely looking one here.



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Orange Cake

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarb soda)
1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of orange zest, finely chopped

1 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed (about 2/3 oranges)
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/3 cup vegetable oil

In a mixing bowl combine all of the dry ingredients with a whisk.

Then in a seperate bowl or jug combine all of the wet ingredients and the zest. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.

Put into a small cake tin which has been lined with non-stick baking paper (this cake sticks if you don't use paper!). Cook in a moderate (180c) oven for around 25/30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Alternatively pour into cup cake cases and bake for around 15/20 minutes or til cooked.

Top with either an icing made of icing sugar mixed with a little orange juice til spreadable consistency, or drizzle with syrup from preserved orange peel and preserved or candied peel slices to finish. Enjoy!

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Your weekly dose of creative inspiration can be found over here.

Cakes creatively iced by my little girl :-)

Egg-free spicy carrot cake

Continuing with my egg-free baking recipes, this time I have carrot cake to share with you...

My first memories of carrot cake are of my mum buying it at the local health food shop in my home town in the 80's. I remember thinking it was unlike anything I'd tasted before with it's delicious flavour and wholesome overtones. It was in the time of the aerobics revolution and I'm sure I was wearing leg warmers and fluoro t-shirts at the time and listening to Madonna, Bananarama and Duran Duran :-)

My mum was later very generously given the recipe for the carrot cake by the lady at the health food shop and we made it many times over the years.

I'm sure my mum still has the recipe but I use a different one these days because of my egg and nut allergic girl. Gone are the tasty walnuts, which I would surely have put in, being vegetarian and a nut lover, but in their place are some lovely spices and still that beautifully moist texture and wholesome flavour. Almost 30 years on my kids love carrot cake too.



I made this one as a quick lunch box filler last week, and I was reminded again of what a forgiving recipe it is: only have plain flour available? No problem, use that. No sultanas in the house? No problem, leave them out. Can't be bothered finding cardamom and nutmeg? No problem, just used mixed spice. Can't be bothered softening the butter? No problem, just use vegetable oil.

One thing I do think is mandatory though is the fresh ginger as it gives a beautifully warm flavour. If you can find the very tender young ginger that grates very easily that's ideal, but even the stringy old one works fine too.

Spicy egg-free carrot cake

1 heaped cup wholemeal flour (or plain)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bi-carb soda
4 tblsp butter softened (or vegetable oil)
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1/2 cup raw sugar
3/4 cup natural yoghurt
1/4 cup sultanas
1 tsp fresh ginger grated or chopped finely
1/4 tsp nutmeg
large pinch cardamon powder (or replace nutmeg & cardamon with 1/2 tsp mixed spice)

Grease a 6" square pan. Preheat oven to 180c.

Sift flour, powder and soda into a big bowl. Add butter/oil, then yoghurt and sugar and mix. Batter will be very thick.

Add carrots, ginger, spices and sultanas and mix well. The moisture from the carrots should loosen the mixture but if it still feels too stiff add a little more yoghurt. Scrape into pan and smooth top.

Cook for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Let sit in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack. When cool cut into squares.


* If you want to make this cake a bit more special it's good with a cream cheese frosting like this one.

Birthday boy

This time exactly one year ago I was pottering around at home, wondering when my baby boy was going to come out into the world and meet us. Little did I know that later that evening we would be greeting him. My baby boy turns 1 today!

We had a hastily organised little celebration for him in the local park yesterday which I think he enjoyed, despite needing a little nap in the middle of it! He got to show off his new walking skills, as well as waving, clapping and doing his little dance to the music playing. Where has my baby gone?!!


His big sisters are always very excited to have a birthday in the family to celebrate, but particularly for their beloved baby, who they fuss over like mother hens! Of course they wanted to open his presents ASAP in the morning and burnt themselves out with excitement before it was time for the party! The things most anticipated were 1. the cake (isn't that always the way) and 2. the lucky dip we'd organised. I remember absolutely loving lucky dips when I was a child - the anticipation of putting your hand into the box or bag, picking something out and unwrapping it was huge! What a pity things don't excite us so much as adults!

As usual at our birthday celebrations I didn't take nearly enough photos, or rather not the right sort of photos. Lots of blurry group shots with kids running around but noone looking at the camera, but not so much the carefully planned details, like the loving wrapped lucky dip parcels being eagerly handed from one child to another (all chosen and wrapped by the big girl), and none of the CAKE! It astounds me that I can take so long making and decorating the cake then forget all about photographing it! So please forgive the dodgy zoomed-in detail shot.

It's become tradition that the kids all have a teddy cake on their first birthday - the one from this great kids cake cookbook. So here's what it's supposed to look like below. I used a bit more cocoa in the butter icing so he was a chocolate brown bear - which satisfied the chocoholics in this family.




And my chocolate apple cake is also a tradition with us now. The recipe was found by my mum when the big girl was little and we were hunting for egg-free cake recipes. It's a bit more special than our everyday egg-free chocolate cake. It's a good cake to cut into shapes as it holds its form well, plus I can kid myself that it's a little bit healthy as it contains apple (just don't think about all that butter icing on top ;-)



Chocolate apple cake

400g stewed apple
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
125g butter or margarine
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups self-raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 180c. Lightly grease and line a shallow 16 x 26cm pan. Place the apple, bicarb and milk in a saucepan and stir over a low heat for 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar, add the vanilla. Sift over the flour and cocoa and gently fold together. Fold through the warm apple mixture.

Spoon into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then turn onto a cake rack to cool completely.


Happy Birthday Mr Milo!

BYO birthday cupcake

On the weekend I took my big girl to the birthday party of one of her kindy friends (great party!). As usual we took along a cupcake for her to have instead of the birthday cake...

When she was tiny we found out that she is allergic to eggs and nuts. This generally isn't a huge problem, more of an inconvenience, and it's not too difficult to avoid both. When it comes to parties though, a girl's got to have cake! So I make a batch of egg-free cupcakes now and then and freeze them, then on the morning of the party take one out of the freezer to defrost, ice it and away we go. She seems very happy to have her own special cake and I try to decorate it to look nice so she doesn't feel she's missing out.

Below is the chocolate cake recipe, originally given to me by my friend Sarah (thanks Sarah!). It's super adaptable (see the notes) and very reliable. If you know someone with allergies, need to make an allergy-free cake for pre-school or just don't have any eggs in the house and want to make a cake, give it a go. Another time I'll post my special occasion egg-free cake (containing apple - yum!) and other egg-free baked goods.


Easy egg-free chocolate cake

1 1/2 cups SR flour
1 cup sugar (can use all white or a combination of white and brown)
4 tblsp cocoa powder
1 cup milk (or water to make it dairy-free too)
1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola, sunflower or olive)
1 tblsp vinegar (white, malt or red wine)
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 180c (or 160c fan forced) and place patty pans into a muffin tin (*see note below about making one large cake). Mix together the flour, sugar and cocoa powder in a medium bowl (I generally don't bother sifting but you might like to if your cocoa is lumpy). In a jug or separate bowl whisk together the milk, oil, vinegar and vanilla essence. Add to the dry ingredients and whisk (mix will be quite runny). Spoon into patty pans and bake for about 18 minutes or until cooked.

Makes about 12 cupcakes.

* Alternatively use a small round cake tin or loaf tin to make one cake