GF Pasties

So with the xmas leftovers I made pasties and had a go at making some pastry. I should have used more gravy but they were ok - the pastry I used however tasted like Shortbread. Which was a bit wierd. I used half butter half vegetable shortening and the texture was really good, it was really easy  to roll out so I think it will make a brill pastry for sweet things like tarts and next time I will try using all Vegetable shortening and roll it out a bit thinner and see if that tastes less like Shortbread!!

I'll post the recipe for that when I'm happier with it.

Fizzy Pop cake

So for xmas I needed a cake for after dinner, I ran out of time I wasnt sure what to make so I went with Delia Smiths Chocolate Stout cake recipe and changed it to use cola instead - because that was all I had. It was good.

Then in a moment of madness I amended it again and made it with Lemonade. And it was GOOD. Felt like I had achieved something worthwhile!

So here are the recipes (makes enough for 12 good sized cupcakes or 2 small round cakes):

Chocolate Cola Cake:

180g Plain GF flour
40g Chocolate powder
100g Baking Marg or softened Butter
10g Gram (Besan) Flour
4g Xanthan Gum
1tsp Baking powder (heaped)
3 eggs
200g Brown Sugar
200ml Cola

Cream together sugar and marg. Add eggs. Sift flour, gram flour, xanthan gum and baking powder into mix, and fold in. Mix a little cola with the cocoa powder into a paste, then gradually add the rest of the cola and slowly mix together. Add this mix in stages to the dry ingrediants until combined.
Pour into baking tins and let sit for 15mins.
Bake 17mins and 200C.

Lemonade Cake:

200g Plain GF flour
100g Baking Marg or softened Butter
10g Gram (Besan) Flour
4g Xanthan Gum
1tsp Baking powder
3 eggs
200g Sugar
200ml Lemonade

Cream together sugar and marg. Add eggs. Sift flour, gram flour, xanthan gum and baking powder into mix, and fold in. Add Lemonade mix together until combined.
Pour into Baking tray and let sit for 15mins.
Bake 17mins and 200C.

You could swap the cola for Dr pepper or Dandelion and Burdock or Cherry Cola, and the lemonade for almost any fizzy pop. Make sure if the pop you are using has sweeteners in it that they are heat stable - do your own research! (eg I think that Sucralose might be OK but Aspartame may not be so good - this link may help).

I decided to write a book about everything I'm playing with - I'll still put up the recipes on here though because I'm nice like that - but hopefully when I'm done the book will make more sense and be easier to read.