Clementine cranberry cake

Reprising last Christmas' dessert, but with a few tweaks. 

Clementine cranberry cake

Chocolate-frosted yellow cake

While I wouldn't call myself a cake lover, I do occasionally find myself hankering for cake. And that was what happened two weeks ago. I desperately wanted a slice of moist, dense, and fluffy cake. Being swamped at work and not really having an idea of how to make a wheat-free version, I picked up a toffee cake from the shops. While it tasted alright (not amazing, mind you), I paid for it with several days of discomfort and then more. And still, my craving wasn't satisfied.

So I bit the bullet and bought myself a coffee grinder so I could grind up golden linseeds as they seem to be called in several wheat-free, grain-free recipes. And boy, was I glad I did! Not only did the grinder work a treat for the linseeds, I also managed to make icing sugar without cornstarch with it, which was needed to make the frosting for my cake.

The cake I chose to make was a chocolate-frosted yellow cake. I came across a recipe for it in Dr William Davis's 'Wheat Belly Cookbook'. The cookbook has a good variety of recipes and is easy to use once you have the basic ingredients at hand. The wheat-free cakes I'd made so far were mostly loaf cakes so I wanted to try something new and a yellow cake looked like a good choice as it was versatile. I also wanted to try another kind of frosting (using something other than coconut cream/milk).

Chocolate-frosted yellow cake

Baked vanilla cheesecake with chestnut biscuit base

Having attempted pie/cake bases with almond flour and coconut flour, I decided to experiment with chestnut flour to make a base for a cheesecake.

I bought a bag (500g) of ground chestnut flour at Fallon & Byrne a while ago thinking that it would make for a good wheat-free substitute. I didn't realise that chestnut flour was high in carbohydrate content, making it an unacceptable safe flour according to Dr Davis of Wheat Belly fame. But I hate wasting food, so after a couple of months of letting the bag sit in the cupboard, I went ahead. Because of the use of chestnut flour, this cheesecake is strictly an occasional treat.

Baked vanilla cheesecake with chestnut biscuit base

Nutty peanut butter cookies

I had a craving for peanut butter the other day and it didn't go away. Then I remembered I bought a jar of Meridian natural peanut butter a while ago and it was still sitting in the cupboard. The recipe I'm using here is straightforward and easier than a piece of cake (wink wink). Because Meridian has stopped using palm oil in their products, the natural oils from the nuts will separate in the jar. Storing the jar lid-side down allows the oils to distribute evenly throughout the jar.

Nutty peanut butter cookies

Macadamia nut brownies

Because my first batch of brownies received rave reviews all around (and because I only kept a few for the Husband), I made another batch a couple of days later, this time swapping honey for molasses and walnuts for macadamias.

Nutty fudgey brownies

I was invited to a ladies luncheon at a girlfriend's last week. I knew she was a fan of brownies, so I decided to make a some to bring over even though I'd never made any before. 

Orange cranberry cake (1)

Conscious that most of my baking efforts have been lemon/lime based, when I saw fresh cranberries available at the local supermarket, I got a couple of boxes and picked up some clementines as well to make a festive orange cranberry cake.

Baked cheesecake with almond biscuit base

Baked cheesecake was a firm favourite of mine till I went wheatless. I hadn't tried baking any cake/pie base/crust using nut flours as I wasn't entirely sure how it would work out. After making several batches of chocolate chip cookies using almond flour with great success, I felt confident enough to give making a wheatless cheesecake base a go. So this experiment is really about the base.

Madeira cake with coconut & lime frosting

One of the cakes I discovered after moving to Ireland was Madeira cake. I was told it was a sponge but I thought it felt slightly denser than the sponge I was used to back in the East (like the 'traditional' birthday cakes in Taiwan). Still, Madeira cake became my favourite tea cake.

Almond flour pancakes with Jazz apple slices & Greek yoghurt

Apple & berry coconut crumble 椰酥烤野莓蘋果

I'm not a fan of crumble but Husband is, so for the weekend, I made a flourless crumble for both of us to enjoy.

Lime & coconut cake

Ever since tasting the coconut and lemongrass cake at Kate's Kitchen in Sligo town, I've been trying to figure out how to recreate this delicious cake. I decided to use lime (the juice and zest) instead of lemongrass (which would require a food processor that I don't have to purée). And I figured that the almond flour and shredded coconut would provide enough oils/fat on their own that I could leave out butter/coconut oil.

Banana pecan & walnut bread

A second go at a flourless banana bread with a few changes from the previous version: 1) use of butter rather than coconut oil; 2) use of fine sea salt rather than coarse sea salt and much less of it, too; and 3) 1 extra ripe banana.

Dark chocolate chai cake (1)

Wanting something chocolatey but not sweet, I made a dark chocolate chai tea cake. This cake was largely adapted from my earlier Green Earl Grey truffle cake.

Lemon and lime loaf cake with citrus glazing (1)

I managed to get really juicy lemons and limes last week and have been enjoying homemade lemonade with crushed mint and ice at home. Very refreshing in this unusually warm Irish summer. To kick off the weekend, I took advantage of this wonderful batch of citrus fruit and baked a lemon and lime loaf cake with a citrus glazing.

I made something similar for the first time a good few years ago, a zesty lemon pound cake. But at the time, I wasn't overly concerned with avoiding wheat (and so I used cream flour) or using only natural ingredients (hence the addition of lemon essence). I do remember it being rather tasty, and so I decided to make another one using coconut flour. 

Green Earl Grey chocolate truffle cake

A good friend gave me a jar of fancy chocolate truffle sauce. I didn't really know what to do with it until I spotted the can of Fortnum & Mason Green Earl Grey tea leaves sitting in the press. The same friend also gave me an electric mixer a while ago after finding out that I'd been sticking to loaf cakes because I had to do everything by hand. So I decided to try my hands at making something other than a loaf. This green Earl Grey chocolate truffle cake is what I came up with. As per usual, the recipe is adapted from one using wheat flour, and I swapped regular Earl Grey (black tea) with Earl Grey Green (green tea).

Gingerbread loaf

Ginger is a versatile spice, wonderful in marinades, tea, and cakes. One of my favourite ways of using ginger is simply boiling thin slices of it in water and drink it with a squeeze of lemon and a drop of honey. I'm also partial to gingersnaps and gingerbread.

Banana pecan bread

I've been contemplating eliminating wheat from my diet for some time. For the past two years, I've been using wholegrain spelt flour mostly to make cakes, breads, sauce, etc. But then I learned from Dr William Davis, author of the (in)famous 'Wheat Belly' that spelt is still a form of wheat, and while not as harmful as modern wheat, it isn't necessarily good either. This hastened my resolve to seek better alternatives, such as almond meal and coconut flour. However, the former is rather dear and the latter difficult to find.