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.

Posted with Blogsy

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.

 

Posted with Blogsy

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.



- - - - - -

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!

 - - - -

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

Cakes creatively iced by my little girl :-)

Mmm... apple slice

Yikes, things are busy here at the moment, as I suspect they are at your place too! But the kids still need feeding, there are preschool get togethers to cater for and lunch boxes to fill for a few more days... so I thought I'd post my favourite snacky food at the moment - apple slice.

Inspired by Fi recently (after forgetting about this Aussie classic for years), I adapted her recipe so that it was suitable for my egg allergic girl and it turned out really well. I reckon I could almost give a country bakery a run for their money ;-) Give it a try if you're after something to fill a gap. And hey, it's apple - pretty healthy really!


Apple slice

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons caster sugar
155g (5 oz) butter, cubed
cold water

4 granny smith apples

a little milk and sugar for the top

Put flour, baking powder, sugar and butter into bowl of food processor and process until mix resembles breadcrumbs in texture. Then add just enough cold water to bring the dough together.

Peel, core and chop the apples. Place in a saucepan with a little water and cook on medium/low heat until softish but not totally falling apart (you need some texture). Leave to cool to room temperature.

Line the base and sides of a slice tin or square cake tin with baking paper. Roll half of the dough out to a square about the size of your tin and place it in the base, pushing it out to the sides or pulling it in if you need to to make it fit. Pile the cooled apple into the tin and level with a spoon. Roll out the other pastry half in the same way and lay it over the apple, again stretching slightly if necessary. Brush the top with milk and and sprinkle liberally with sugar.

Bake at 180c for about 30 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Leave to cool in the tin then cut into squares.

Yummy egg-free date loaf

OK, I have to admit that date loaf doesn't sound so thrilling, and it also doesn't take a fantastic photo, but... this is so yummy that I made it twice last week, and all of the kids liked it, which is a plus!

The texture is bready and a bit chewy, and the dates give that lovely caramelish flavour. We ate it with curls of butter (shh!), but it's also yummy by itself. If it lasted a couple of days I think you could toast it too. Being suitable for my big girl, it's egg-free and nut-free (though I'd love to add a handful of walnuts to it if we didn't have allergies to deal with). It could also be vegan, or dairy free, if you need it to be, by using dairy-free margarine instead of butter.



So if you are at all partial to this type of thing I'd urge you to try it - it uses only 6 basic ingredients, is super easy and makes a great afternoon tea sweet treat.



Date loaf (based on this recipe)

1 1/2 cups chopped dates (leave some larger bits)
3/4 cup raw sugar (or 1/2 cup will do if you don't have such a sweet tooth)
1 tblsp butter
1 cup water
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarb soda

Preheat oven to 160c.

Combine the dates, sugar, butter and water in a saucepan and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Sift the flour and the bicarb soda together and stir it into the mix. It will be very thick. If it seems so thick that it won't mix properly add a little more water (dates vary - some are plumper & more juicy than others).

Line a square shallow tin* with baking paper, then scrape into the tin, roughly flattening the top. Bake until brown on top and a skewer comes out clean. about 30-40 minutes*.

* Date loaf is normally cooked in a loaf tin, but as I needed it to cook quicker (so that I could get to school pick-up in time!) I used a square tin, making it flatter. I still sliced it and it made nice smallish pieces. You could use any tin you like or have though, just remember to increase the cooking time as it will be denser and therefore take longer to cook.

Holiday treats

Hi! How are your school holidays going, if you're on them?

Here there's been the usual holiday stuff - playdates with friends, hours spent at the park, haircuts, trips to the library, shopping etc, and on my part plenty of avoidance of the much needed toy culling (where do they all come from, do they breed overnight?).

Vanilla cupcakes (Inner Pickle) Shortbread animals Golden syrup scones

Banana bread Honey joys Choc chip cookies

And of course there has been lots of snack preparation and baking, which made me think about compiling a favourite holiday treat list, mainly old favourites. Above are a selection of our old faithfuls (all egg-free of course).

Do you have old favourites or are you an experimenter?

A birthday sleepover part 2

Continuing on from yesterday's post...

After the sleepover bags were thoroughly raided the girls got started on their craft activity. It is a must to do craft before a sleepover, apparently (girls after my own heart :-). They decorated a pillowcase each using the fabulous fabric crayons pictured above. It was the quickest and least messy activity I could think of that related to bedtime.



After dinner was The Cake - do you find that the cake is often the most anticipated part of a birthday? I just love how excited children get about it. My girls talk about their cake all through the year, even when their birthdays are ages away!!

Big girl had excitedly gone through our favourite celebration cake cookbook, The Australian Womens Weekly's "Kids Party Cakes" in the weeks before the event and decided on this moon cake to suit the sleepover theme.



Each time I've used this cookbook I've picked up some new tip or trick, and this time it was the coloured textured icing. It's a standard butter icing coloured yellow, which is then sprinkled with sugar that you tint yellow. The sugar smooths off the surface and can be scattered around any dips in the icing, so it's very forgiving of wonky application! It looks great, but just don't think about the fact that you're eating pure sugar. Hmm, maybe that's why sleep came pretty late to the lovely girls :-) (The cake is this favourite quick and easy egg-free chocolate cake).

OK, one birthday down for the year, 2 more to go...

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.

Shortbread animals

My big girl and I made some biscuits together last week when it was actually bearable to have the oven on, unlike the last few days which have been in the high 30c's. When we arrived home from school pick-up yesterday it was 40c (104f)!



Making biscuits is a holiday activity we often do, as it keeps most of us happy and provides more household snacks or something to take on a play date. I find shortbread a good mix for the littlies to cut into shapes and decorate, while being yummy for kids and adults alike. It also seems to handle being rolled and re-rolled quite well, which happens a lot! And it's suitable for egg-allergic people too.

Shortbread

1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 tsp salt
225g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer for 1 minute. Add sugar and mix for 2 minutes. Add vanilla to combine and then gently stir in flours and salt til just incorporated (I do this with the mixer on lowest speed).


Then roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper to about 5mm thick. Refrigerate until firm. This will make handling the dough much easier. Take top sheet of baking paper off, cut out the shapes and decorate with chocolate drops or anything else you have on hand. Take off the excess dough and set aside, rather than move the shapes. This helps ensure the shapes don't fall apart. Re-roll the excess dough and use for more shapes, or you can just shape into flattish discs if your precious littlies have had enough!




Slide sheets onto baking trays and bake in 180c oven for about 10 minutes or until light brown.



The cute cookie cutters came from Ikea and we decorated them this time with white chocolate drops.

- - - - - - -

Bizarre kid quote of the day:

3 yr old: "Mum, you got more of these" (pointing to my forearm)
me: "They're moles, darling"
3 yr old: "No, not that, the grass. You got more. You gotta cut them."

The 'grass' was hair and the comment came after watching me recently using an epilator (or "tractor" as a friend calls hers) on my legs.

Egg-free choc chip cookies

We've been making lots of biscuits and baked goodies here over the holidays, but they don't last long between our snacking, play dates and visitors dropping by.

Lately we've made honey jumbles (from the Country Women's Association cookbook), Coconut Sticks (from Lottie+Doof) and today these choc chip cookies. Of course all of them are egg and nut free so that my big girl can eat them. These are a good standby, the golden syrup and brown sugar add a nice caramel-ish flavour and as long as you've got choc chips in the cupboard they should be able to be made without a trip to the supermarket for ingredients, which is sometimes very important for me :-)



Egg-free choc chip cookies

180g butter
125g brown sugar
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp golden syrup

180g choc chips (white or brown)
250g self raising flour

Cream butter and sugar with electric beaters.

Add milk, golden syrup, choc chips and flour to the bowl and stir til well combined.

Place spoonfuls onto baking paper lined trays and flatten slightly with fingers.

Bake in 180 c oven for about 10 minutes until golden brown and cool on wire racks.

Makes around 30 cookies, depending on your assistants' techniques!

Double-up baking

My thoughts have turned to baking today as I start to get into the festive baking mood, finally. Top of my list is going to be some crispy thin biscotti to have with coffee on Christmas morning, but for today, this first day of holidays for the kids, we have made:

Two loaves of cinnamon bread, one for my lovely friend who recently gave me a huge bag of flour. Recipe the same as this one but instead of the individual rolls, lately I've been making it into one big snail shape and baking til very brown. That's the butter and sugar caramelising on the outside - it's worth a little scorching slightly to make sure the inside is cooked all the way through to avoid the dreaded doughy-stodge syndrome! The base is all crispy with sugar and butter and the inside squidgy and soft.



Also two loaves of banana bread with the addition of a handful of raspberries. One loaf for us and one the freezer, as it freezes really well.

Hope you're feeling cooking inspired too as we hurtle towards the holiday season.

Cheese biscuits

I get quite obsessed with cheese biscuits and finding just the right recipe. This is my latest attempt and I'm pretty happy with them. They are very buttery of course, but not greasy like others I've tried.


And I love that the dough is one of those that you can freeze then use at a later stage, like when you have guests coming and don't have time to cook, or have something more important to do - like sewing!


They're great on their own or with cheese. Cheese, cheese and more cheese. I don't see a problem, do you? :-)

Cheese biscuits

1 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons cornflour
1 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika (sweet, not the hot variety - don't want to scare off the kidlets)
125 grams butter, chilled
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

Put flours, cheese, salt and paprika into food processor. Chop butter into big chunks and add to the food processor while it's going. Process until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add lemon juice and the mixture should form a ball in the processor. Stop the processor once this has happened.

Take the dough out and lightly knead it, then roll into a log. This should make two logs, about 20cm in length each.

Wrap the logs with plastic wrap and chill. Once the log is solid, cut up into slices about 3mm thick. Logs can be frozen for a long time, if you don't want to cook the whole lot. Just let the log thaw out a bit then slice them and bake.

Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 15 to 20 mins or until light golden brown.

Golden goodness

One good thing about being the cook in the family is that you get to eat what you like :-)

Under the guise of "feeding the hungry kids" after school I sometimes make these golden syrup scones based on a Donna Hay recipe. They're quick and simple to make, there's no rubbing in of butter or anything fiddly like that, no fancy kitchen appliance is necessary (so the clean-up is minimal) and they always turn out light and fluffy.

Plus, any excuse for golden syrup is a good one, I say!



Golden syrup scones

2 cups self raising flour
2 tblsp caster sugar
2 tblsp golden syrup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
extra golden syrup

Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the flour and sugar into a bowl and mix a little with a bread and butter knife. Make a well in the centre and add the golden syrup, milk and cream. Mix lightly and quickly with your knife until just combined.

Place on a lightly floured bench and press out until about 3cm high. Using a scone cutter cut out scones and place on a baking tray that has baking paper on it and allow them to just touch each other.

Bake for about 20 minutes until tops start to brown. Take out of oven and generously coat with extra golden syrup.

Serve plain or with cream and extra (more!) golden syrup.

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