Recipe of the Week - Strawberry Cake {Gluten Free & Dairy Free}

A couple of weeks ago I shared a photo on the Housefulofboys Facebook page of a cake I had made to bring along to a pot-luck supper. I also promised to share the recipe soon, and so here it is at last.

This is essentially just a sort of all in one Victoria Sponge, with some chopped up strawberries added into the mixture and isn't very challenging to make at all, but it looks impressive! The fruit in the cake mixture gives it an extra bit of moistness - if moistness is even a word? If you've ever been concerned about gluten-free cakes being dry then you have no need to worry about that with this one.

{I also use this recipe to make Strawberry Cupcakes. This mix will make about a dozen cupcakes.}

For this cake you will need:

125g strawberries

225g sugar

210g gluten free self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

25g cornflour

225g dairy free margarine

4 eggs

And for the icing you will need:

100g dairy free margarine

300g icing sugar

Method:

~ Blitz the strawberries in a food processor until they are small pieces. Don't overdo it though, you don't want them completely liquidised, but also don't make them too big as you don't want big chunks of strawberry in your cake either!

~ Add the rest of the cake ingredients to a bowl and beat well together with either a handheld or freestanding mixer. Beat it until you have a smooth and creamy looking batter, then add in the chopped strawberries and mix them in.

~ Divide the mixture evenly between two greased and base lined 8 inch sandwich tins and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for around 20-25 minutes.

~ Transfer the cakes to a cooling rack while you mix the icing together. 

~ For the icing just beat the dairy free margarine and the icing sugar together. To get a really fluffy textured icing, continue beating it for a few more minutes after it has all come together. 

~ Once the cakes are cool, sandwich them together with the icing. If you want to make the cake look fancy then use about 2/3 of the icing for sandwiching it together and then pipe the rest of the icing around the top of the cake, finishing it off with some sliced strawberries and a dusting of icing sugar. I don't always do this though, and it looks (and tastes) just as good with just a dusting of icing sugar on the top. 

Christmas Countdown

Last Friday started a run of a very busy few days, packed full of Christmas events.

It started off on Friday morning with the very lovely Gaelic Christmas service at Greyfriar's Kirk in Edinburgh. The service is held every year for all the pupils at the Gaelic school, all the Gaelic pupils in the High School, their families, and other Gaelic speakers who want to attend. It's so nice having all ages of the Gaelic school community together, from Primary 1 to S6.

Friday afternoon was spent in the kitchen, preparing for the Sunday School party the following day, and making my mum's birthday cake for that evening.

My mum and dad were down visiting for a few days and so we all got together at my brother's house on Friday evening to celebrate her birthday. Here she is with all of her Grandchildren.

I covered her cake in white icing and then Calum suggested that we use some of our metallic food spray because Granny likes a bit of sparkle and bling. So we covered it in gold spray and then finished it off with a few simple white snowflakes. I was finding a subtle gold shimmer on things near where I had made it in my kitchen for a couple of days afterwards!

Inside it I had aimed to make a checker-board effect.

On Saturday the morning was spent preparing cakes and games for the afternoon party, including these little holly cupcakes.

Then it was onto the excitement of the party and lots of shouting out instructions while organising the games.

The party ended with a visit from Santa!

Another tick on my to-do list that busy Saturday morning was to put the icing on my Christmas cake. I don't put marzipan on ours so that James, who has a nut allergy, can eat some.

On Sunday we enjoyed a little break in the busy-ness.

Although, it wasn't as bliss-fully quiet as it looks in this photo!

On Monday morning Ally (7) was singing some Gaelic Christmas Carols with his class at a shopping centre near the school, so Fraser and I went along to watch them and cheer them on.

I used my school run train time on Monday to put the finishing touches to this little guy.

He's called Jingles and Ally and Fraser are delighted with him. Maybe next year I'll make another one so that they can have one each.

On Tuesday morning we had out church Toddler Group party.

Then on Tuesday evening we all, including Granny & Shen and other Granny, went to watch the high school Christmas concert in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.

Before the concert I took the younger three boys for a well needed haircut, and Fraser was delighted when the barber put some gel on his hair just like the big boys.

After the haircuts, and still before the show, we went out for some dinner with Granny & Shen.

We don't eat out for dinner as a family very often as it's so hard to do so with all the boys' allergies. They often end up with just a bowl of chips, or some plain baked potatoes. We wanted to go to the Beer Kitchen on Lothian Road, Edinburgh as it is so near the Usher hall and so had emailed them in advance about the allergies. 

I saw on their online menu that they served Macsween's Haggis, which the boys can eat and love to do so, and so asked if it would be possible to serve it with mash that had no butter in it. The restaurant replied that as it's Christmas they have a different menu and so didn't currently have haggis on it, but that they always have it in stock and so would be happy to cook some for the boys along with some butter free mash.

Not only were they really helpful about the allergies, but the restaurant was lovely and the rest of the food was also delicious.

The concert was amazing, as it is every year. It was only the younger two boys sitting with us as James & Calum were both playing in the wind band, and David was taking part in the assembled choir made up of all the P7s from the feeder Primary schools. 

Yesterday school finished at lunchtime for the holidays, and while Fraser and I waited for them to come home he suddenly noticed that someone had put Kevin the Carrot at the top of the tree, which he found hilarious!

In the afternoon yesterday we had some heavy snow showers, which got Fraser really excited as he is convinced that it has to snow for it to be Christmas, so when he saw the snow coming down he began jumping up and down shouting that it was Christmas at last!

It was far too wet for the snow to lie though, and he was fine with that too.

Then last night, while Storm Barbara started outside, we all watched a Christmas Movie we haven't seen before -Elf - to kick off the school holidays. I don't know how we have never got round to watching it before but we all found it really funny and it might just join Home Alone as one of our must watch movies of Christmas.

Today we braved the shops, and the storm, and finished off the food shopping so now it really feels like we can finally slow down, relax and enjoy the season.

Free From Favourites

This week is Allergy Awareness Week here in the UK. I've been meaning to share a post about some of our favourite free from buys for a while now and so this seemed like a perfect week to finally do so!
Since we first started buying Free From foods, around 13 years ago when we first found out what Calum's allergies were, I have noticed a huge improvement in the range of free from products around. The gluten free market is continually growing, and the taste of the products has come a long way too. If you are catering for more than one allergy though, the choice is quite a bit smaller. I'm just glad that the boys can eat eggs in baked products otherwise their choices would be tiny!
As a quick recap, we have one boy with a nut, lentil, and egg allergy, which seems a breeze to manage compared to the three boys with dairy, wheat, egg and nut allergies. We also have one boy who can, and does, eat anything and everything that he wants! All four egg allergies are the type that allow them to eat a cake or biscuit containing egg, but they can't eat a mainly egg product - scrambled egg, meringue, quiche etc - or touch raw eggs.
They all have allergies as opposed to intolerances.
They don't just avoid these foods to improve the condition of their eczema, if only it were that simple!
And it's not OK for them to have something containing just a little bit of an allergen, as some people seem to think. The tiniest amount of anything they are allergic to will cause them to complain that their throat feels funny, their mouths start to puff up and they break out in hives anywhere on their body.
It's far from a health fad, and I seriously object to the perceived opinion of allergy parents as slightly paranoid and over protective. If you have seen your child wheezing, swelling up and becoming distressed after eating something that you were assured was safe then you certainly wouldn't think so!
Anyway, onto the foods.
A long time favourite of the dairy free boys is this Swedish Glace Dairy Free Ice Cream. Our local supermarket only sells the vanilla flavour, but it is also available in chocolate or raspberry flavours too. The boys have tried the other favours but Vanilla remains their favourite, thankfully! It tastes really nice, with a real vanilla flavour, and is a perfectly good substitute for 'normal' ice cream.

 A few months ago we also found that Swedish Glace had started making an ice lolly, similar to a Magnum, with Strawberry Ice Cream surrounded by a layer of chocolate. The boys absolutely LOVE these. The only trouble is that they are sold in packs of 5, and 5 into 3 does not divide very evenly!

Sticking with the sweet theme, one of Ally's favourite treats is a slice of Lazy Day Foods Millionaire's Shortbread. These are not only dairy and gluten free but also egg free too. I bake most of the cakes and biscuits for the allergy boys but it's great to have something that tastes as good as this as an option to have in the cupboard.

He and Fraser are also rather partial to the Lazy Days Rocky Road and Tiffin, and I rather like their chocolate orange slice.

Calum, however, has more particular tastes and doesn't like any sort of shortbread based product. He also despises raisins and so that rules out Millionaires Shortbread, Rocky Road and Tiffin!

He does like these Angelic Cookies though, as do the other two boys. We first discovered Angelic Gluten Free at the Royal Highland Show a few years ago. They had a stall with samples of their cookies, which we tried and loved. Everyone in our house, including the non allergy boys, who are only allowed to have one very rarely, loves the Orange Chocolate ones the most. But the Cranberry ones come a close second. I haven't been able to find these in a shop near us and so have to buy them online instead, or stock up when we visit my parents!

Moving away from the sweet stuff now, and I should say that I make no apology for starting with it. I'm sure that most people who have to avoid allergens will tell you that it's the sweet things that are harder to replace.

That and bread.

Gluten free bread is one thing that has really come a long way since we had to first start buying it. Mostly I tend to buy Sainsbury's own brand free from bread. Ally and Fraser both enjoy eating it, either as a sandwich or as toast. And it's not as expensive as other brands either! Calum, however, much prefers to eat the Newburn Bakehouse bread. I have to agree that it does have a much better texture, and more 'normal' feel to it than the supermarket bread, even if it is more expensive.

Calum doesn't like to eat sandwiches though, and instead prefers to take one of the Newburn Bakehouse sandwich thins in his packed lunch instead. Every single day he has one of these with tuna on it for lunch. He's very much a creature of habit that boy.

Newburn Bakehouse also do a lovely gluten & dairy free wrap that the boys have when we are having Fajitas for dinner. Before these were available I used to have to make my own wraps for fajitas!

We have also found that Newburn Bakehouse do a very good Artisan loaf, which the boys love to have with soup. It really does taste and look as much like a 'real' loaf as any I have ever seen.

The two holy grails of free from baking, that I have either never tried making, or had any success with are bread and puff pastry. So I was delighted a couple of years ago when Genius brought out their frozen puff pastry. If you've read my blog for any length of time you will have seen how Steak Pie is one of the non- gluten free boys' favourite dinners. Whenever I made it in the past I would cook all the meat in the slow cooker and then separate it into two portions. On one of these I would add my own rough puff pastry. The other portion I would serve just as a stew for the gluten free boys. Since we discovered Genius pastry I can now make the gluten free portion into a steak pie too.

Genius also do a shortcrust pastry.

                     

            

When I make our steak pie I use Beef Bisto Best to thicken and help flavour the gravy. I also use it to make gravy for roast beef, flavour our mince and tatties/cottage pie and use the Chicken Flavour for gravy for our roast chicken.

It's not an official free from food, but the beef and chicken flavours are both wheat and dairy free. Other flavours are not though, so do check the ingredients, and definitely do not use ordinary Bisto instead of Bisto Best as it is not wheat free.

For those Saturday nights when I really want a night off in the kitchen, Genius have a perfect solution in their ready made steak or chicken pies. While hubby and I enjoy something ready made, my current favourite being a Sainsburys boxed Thai meal, the two boys who can have it enjoy some pizza, and the three gluten & dairy free boys will always choose these Genius pies. Ally and Fraser like the chicken pies, and Calum loves the steak pies.

Finally, and still with Genius, Calum's current Saturday morning breakfast favourite is a warmed Genius Pain au Chocolate. They are lovely and flaky, with plenty gooey warm chocolate inside them. These are all products that we have discovered over the last few years and that are regulars in our cupboards at home. We weren't asked to review any of them and their popularity in our house is purely down to the choices of the free from boys.
I hope our wee selection will be helpful to someone, either starting out on a free from diet, or who may have a free from friend and have no idea what to feed them!
Like I mentioned at the start, it's great that free from foods have come such a long way in recent years. Now if only they could find a way to reduce their costs and make them a bit less expensive then that would be perfect!