[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1463″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This month’s recipe comes to you courtesy of Ruth in Rake of Cakes. Rake of Cakes is a certified gluten-free bakery in Wexford, selling delicious treats in The Bullring Market on Fridays and Saturdays from 9am until 3pm. They also supply Stable Diet cafés, Blásta Café and Button & Spoon in Bridgetown. See www.rakeofcakes.com or follow them on Facebook!
For anyone trying to make healthy changes to their lifestyle or for those with special dietery requirements, the meal-time ritual can be a tricky one. Especially at dessert time. You can make it through the main meal just fine, filling up on tasty vegetables and delicious lean meat. And then comes the stickler. Out comes the creamy, sugar-filled creation … sure it’d be rude not to try some …
Now imagine said creation was neither creamy nor filled with buckets of refined sugar. Instead, it’s free from dairy, gluten and sugar, and is packed with delicious fruit. Of course, this is not fat-free or a completely guilt-free treat. But it is miles ahead of it’s sugary counter part. Using a vegan spread or dairy free margarine (eg, Stork) makes it suitable for lactose-intolerant friends while using xylitol, a natural alternative to sugar (unnatural as it sounds) makes it a suitable choice for diabetics as it doesn’t cause blood sugar levels to spike. It also doesn’t rot your teeth like refined sugar. Just make sure to pick up a good quality brand.
This dessert is deliciously fruity and very, very easy to make. It also freezes well – I sliced up the remaining cake, put the slices into a sealed food bag and left them in the freezer, to be defrosted as we wished! All of the ingredients listed are available in Only Natural and your local supermarket.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”15px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]
Ingredients
5 Cooking Apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
1 punnet Frozen Raspberries
6 tablespoons Honey / Agave Nectar
225g / 8oz Dairy Free Margarine / Vegan Spread, at room temperature
225g / 8oz Xylitol (you can use normal sugar if you wish)
4 eggs, at room temperature
150g / 5.2oz Gluten-free Flour (I use Doves)
110g /4oz Ground Almonds
1 teaspoon Gluten-free Baking Powder (I use Doves)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 tablespoons Unsweetened Almond Milk[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
Method
Preheat the oven to 180’C and lightly grease a 25cm round tart dish. You can of course improvise and use a different but similar size tin/dish. Just allow it to cook for a little longer if it’s smaller and vice versa if it’s a bit larger.
In a medium sized pot, combine the apples, raspberries and honey, along with 5 tablespoons of water. Bring to the boil and then simmer on a low/medium heat for 5 minutes. Set aside.
In a mixer, combine the margarine and xylitol until smooth and then beat in the eggs. Add in the remaining cake ingredients, except the milk. Beat until just combined. Check the consistency of the batter. It should be similar to a thick pancake batter, dropping from the spoon smoothly rather than in one ‘plop’! If it’s too thick, add some milk and combine until a nice smooth texture develops.
Tip most of the stewed fruit into the tart dish, keeping about a quarter to use as a sauce to pour over the slices. Quickly place big heaped tablespoons of batter all over the fruit base, and then spread it evenly with the back of the spoons. Don’t worry if it looks a bit messy, it’ll sort itself out in the oven!
Place in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until golden brown. Check the centre of the cake with a skewer to make sure that the centre is cooked. If the skewer comes out clean of batter, you’re good to go!
Allow to cool slightly on a wire rack. To serve, add 5-8 tablespoons of boiling water to the remaining fruit, stir and drizzle over each slice. This cake is particularly delicious with a small scoop of dairy free ice-cream (I love Swedish Glace Vanilla) or Soya Yoghurt with some vanilla extract stirred through![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
