Gluten-Free Dalek Smash Cake and Lemon Sour Cream Cake Recipe

My partner and I have our birthdays two days apart, so the last couple of years we've had a joint costume party.  Last years theme was video games, and I spent weeks making decorations, about half of which are still up a year later.

If I remember rightly, the guitar hero song was Sweet Child of Mine, on the basis that it always has to be played ad nauseum at parties, but I didn't want to actually listen to it at mine.

(I was dressed up as Toadette.)

This years party was movie-themed, and I dressed up as Sara from the labyrinth.  I made the waistcoat by getting a plain white vest, stenciling on the pattern in pencil then painting over it.

My favourite part of the night was the cake.  It took me three days to make (mostly because I was organised and made it in stages), but ended up amazing.  It was a Dalek smash cake, which I made following the instructions here (I know that Doctor Who is technically not movie themed - though the eighth Doctor was in a movie.  The cake is just too awesome to care!).

If you don't know what a smash cake is, basically the top half of the cake is a hollow chocolate dome that is supposed to be smashed open before eating the cake:

Inside there were the brains of the Dalek.  Delicious, gummy brains!  Plus, the entire cake (which was lemon sour cream) as well as the 'plunger' and the eye were gluten-free!  It would be just as easy to make it dairy-free as well by using dark chocolate, the right sort of cookie and making an appropriate cake.  My Dalek is a bit on the short side compared to the one in the tutorial, but that has more to do with the fact that I had to use a rectangular pan rather than a square pan for the base so did not have a lot of mix to give it height, rather than it being flat because it's gluten-free.

Because he was so short, I couldn't use chocolate buttons as the Dalek bumps.  Instead, I just piped them using chocolate icing.  I also didn't use liquorish for the black bits.  Liquorish contains wheat, plus it's gross.  I added black food colouring to the chocolate icing and piped that on as well.

I found the recipe for the cake somewhere online a few years ago, but I can't seem to find it again so I thought I'd post it here as it's a really good one.  To make the Dalek, I made a double batch.

GF Lemon Sour Cream Cake

Ingredients

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup (125 g) sour cream

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

zest of 1+ lemon

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cup gf flour - 2 parts rice, 1 part corn, 1 part tapioca

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp xantham/guar gum

1/2 tsp salt

• Whisk eggs and sugar together until it gets stiff and forms ribbons
• Add sour cream, vanilla, zest, juice and butter and mix through
• Add dry ingredients and mix well
• Bake at 180°C for 30 min for cake, or 15-20 min for cupcakes

Icing

1 cup icing sugar

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

~2 tsp oil

Food colouring

boiling water

• Mix icing sugar, lemon juice, oil and food colouring together
• Add boiling water slowly until icing is reasonably thick

This cake is also really good with cream cheese icing (Definitely my favourite icing)

250 g cream cheese

3 Tsp butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 Tsp lemon juice

2 cups icing sugar

• Mix cream cheese, butter, vanilla and lemon juice together until smooth
• Add icing sugar and mix well

GF Lemon And White Chocolate Cookies

150 g softened butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups flour (2 parts rice, 1 part corn, 1 part tapioca plus 1 tsp guar gum)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
~100 g white chocolate, chopped into chunks
rind and juice of 1 lemon

• Mix butter, sugar and egg together until smooth
• Add vanilla and mix through
• Add flours and baking paper, mix until combined
• Stir in chocolate and lemon rind and juice 
• Roll in to balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper
• Bake 10-15 min at 180°C until lightly browned

Variations:  To make a lactose-free version, use dark chocolate and margarine.  

The recipe works with just rice flour - use only 1 tsp baking powder, and add about a tablespoon of water

This is a very versatile recipe, so play around with different types of chocolate, with or without lemon.  I particularly like using a mix of white and milk chocolates, with no lemon.

Super Lemony Gluten- and Lactose-Free Lemon Meringue Pie

Pastry

125 g chilled margarine, cubed

250 g gf flour (I use 2 parts rice, 1 part corn and 1 part tapioca)

1 tsp guar/xanthan gum

2 Tsp caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg yolk (keep white for meringue)

2 1/2 Tsp cold water

• Sift flour, sugar and salt together 3-4 times to make soft and fluffy
• Add cubed margarine and rub into the flour, lifting as you rub to ensure there is lots of air
• Whisk egg yolk and water together
• Make a well in the centre and pour in egg
• Mix through by 'cutting' rather than stirring (or use dough beaters)
• Form the dough into a ball and chill in the fridge for 30 min
• Once chilled, roll out or press into a 23 cm tin
• Blind bake for 15 min at 180°C, then bake for another 15-20 min
• Allow to cool to room temp

Lemon Filling

3-4 large lemons

100 g margarine

1 cups sugar

2 eggs, beaten

• Grate lemon rind and squeeze juice into a saucepan
• Add eggs, sugar and cubed butter
• Stir constantly with a whisk over a low heat until sugar has dissolved
• Chill for ~an hour in freezer, or overnight in fridge

Meringue

4 egg whites

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 tsp salt

• Beat egg whites and salt together
• Slowly add sugar while beating
• Continue beating until stiff

Putting Together

• Mix 2 Tsp meringue through the lemon filling
• Pour lemon filling into cooled pastry shell
• Spread meringue evenly over the top
• Bake ~15 min until the meringue top is light brown

Colourful Chicken, Quinoa, Amaranth and Rice Risotto

After a visit to the organics store to stock up on flour, I bought a bunch of different coloured quinoa and some amaranth to have a play with.  While I've used quinoa before, I'd never had amaranth, but I figured it'd be similar enough that I could figure something out (I also discovered that you can pop amaranth like popcorn!).  My first experiment was to make up a mix of equal parts red, black and white quinoa and amaranth.  It's very pretty.

I used this mix to make a risotto that was half quinoa, half rice and very colourful.


Colourful Chicken, Quinoa, Amaranth and Rice Risotto

200 g Chicken thigh, cut into chunks
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup quinoa/amaranth mix
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
~ 1 Tsp dried rosemary
~ 1 tsp dried parsley
a sprinkle of chilli or pepper to taste
1 flat brown mushroom, diced
~1/4 of a yellow capsicum, sliced
1 tomato, diced
generous handful of fresh spinach leaves

• In a medium saucepan, cook chicken in oil until cooked
• Add rice and quinoa and cook until rice begins to stick
• Add half a cup of stock, herbs, chilli and mushroom and cook with stirring until all liquid is absorbed
• Add stock in 1/2 cup lots, allowing to absorb and stirring frequently
• Add capsicum and tomato with last lot of stock to allow to warm through
• Add spinach leaves at the end and stir through

This recipe is even more delicious if a cup of cheese is added with the spinach, or maybe some garlic added with the rice, or a few rashers of bacon with the chicken.  The possibilities for adaptation are only limited by what you have in the house, or what you are able to eat.

Gluten-Free Carrot Cake or Muffins Recipe

It came as a bit of a surprise when I realised that I've never actually baked a carrot cake before, considering that it's my most favourite cake ever.  I spent a bunch of time trying to find a recipe that didn't have nuts or dried fruit, as I'm on a low FODMAP diet so dried fruit is not allowed, and currently not eating nuts as they're a potential migraine trigger.  Also, I don't like walnuts.  But after half an hour of searching, I kept finding recipes contaminated with sultanas and nuts, or worse still, coconut and pineapple (not a dietary issue, just a grossness thing).  So I decided to try my hand at adapting one to my needs.  I started from this one, as it looked the most tasty and I had all the other ingredients in the cupboard.   Conveniently, it's also dairy-free, as most carrot cakes tend to be.

Also, I was given a bug-shaped muffin tray for Christmas which I was itching to try and this recipe seemed a good one to try given the large egg content for extra gluey-ness.  I also added extra guar gum in the hopes that the cake would stick to itself, rather than the tray or crumble everywhere.



Carrot Cake

2 cups gf flour mix*
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated carrot

• Preheat oven to 180°C.  Grease a 20 cm round baking tin
• Sift flour, spices and soda together.  Make sure they're well mixed
• Add all the remaining ingredients and stir until just combined
• Cook for 55-60 min (Or if making muffins 20-25 min)

* I make my own flour mix from 2 parts rice flour, 1 part corn flour and 1 part tapioca flour.  I also add 1/2-1 tsp guar gum per cup of flour.  For this particular recipe I added 2 tsp due to the muffin tray.
Other flour mixes should be fine, just make sure they have guar or xanthan gum in them.

Ice with cream cheese icing:



Cream Cheese Icing

250 g cream cheese, softened
3 Tsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tsp lemon juice
2 cups icing sugar

• Beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla and lemon together until smooth
• Add icing sugar and mix

As you can see from the picture, the muffin tray was a success!  They slid right out with no casualties, and were delicious.