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Posts Tagged With: xmas

Spiced Orange and Almond Upside Down Cake – Vegan and Gluten-free

Posted on December 18, 2017 by leroy watson

Spiced Orange & Almond Polenta Cake – Vegan, Gluten-free

This is just the kind of deliciousness I like at Christmas, something light and rich. Makes a nice change at this time of year! One of the highlights for me is the intense spiced marmalade glaze (with or without whiskey;) This cake can be served as festive dessert with some vegan creme fraiche or cream.

I do enjoy Christmas cake and pud, but they can get a little heavy. This one is so easy to make and looks lovely, it’s also gluten-free, so it ticks many dietary boxes. I know that we can be cooking for friends and family at this time of year and catering for dietary requirements. I love recipes like this, that everyone can enjoy, vegan, gluten-freers and the rest! It’s just a straight up delicious cake.

You’ll probably get a better, caramelised look in your oven. I was using a big old oven (looks like an ancient steam train) which is a temperamental creature, ideally, we’re looking for loads of gorgeous caramel all over your oranges. But either way, it’s a lovely cake.

The only problem I can see with your average polenta cake is that it can be a little dry. You won’t have that issue with this recipe as the oranges sit on top and keep the cake nice and moist. You can also use blood oranges (which I couldn’t get hold of), pears, apples, pineapple, plums, in fact most fruit will be great on top of this almond and polenta base. The polenta means that you get a nice crust on this cake, soft in the middle, crisp on the outside is always a good combo in my book.

If you’re looking for some Christmas recipes, here’s a few we think you’ll like:

boozy snowball truffles

roast winter vegetable salad

parsnip, cranberry & chestnut roast

oven baked squash gnocchi with sun-dried tomatoes, fennel & spinach pesto

festive pear & cranberry chutney

decadent double chocolate cake

ginger & chocolate treats (simple festive fun)

This will be my last post before Christmas ’18, I’m just leaving to Spain, so I must scoot. Thanks to everyone for the support, inspiration and love in 2017! You really make the BHK a very special place to be!! Have a peaceful and chilled Christmas filled with tasty nibbles. Let us know what’s cookin’ in the comments below?

Love and Happiness, Lee & JaneX

Recipe Notes

This cake is not a big riser, but it should still be light.

The texture of this cake is moist, when checking it during baking, bare this in mind. There is a difference between moist and sticky/ raw. You can tell when you check it with a skewer, there should be nothing that looks like raw cake batter on the skewer. I hope that makes sense;)

If you are using other fruit, feel free to freestyle with the glaze. Using other jams for example is a really nice idea to compliment the fruit.

Because of the fresh fruit, this cake does not keep well. I guess you’ll just need to polish it off quickly (don’t worry, this is easily done:)

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Everyday, there is cake!

Spiced Orange & Almond Upside Down Cake

The Bits – For 8-10 slices

4 mandarins

125ml light rapeseed/ olive oil

100g light brown sugar

150g ground almonds

80g polenta

1 lime or ½ lemon (juice)

1 teas baking powder (gluten-free)

½ teas turmeric

1 teas vanilla extract

2 tbs ground flax/ chia seeds (mixed with 5 tbs water)

A little light brown sugar (for dusting)

Glaze

5 tbs marmalade

2 star anise

4 cloves

2 green cardamom pods (cracked)

2 tbs whiskey (optional but nice)

Do It

Line and oil the base and sides of a 8 inch cake tin with baking parchment. Lightly dust the base and side of your cake tin with sugar. Preheat oven to 180oC.

Zest one of the mandarins, neatly peel the rest and slice across into ⅔ cm slices. Pick out any seeds. Lay the slices over the bottom of the tin and fill in the gaps with segments if needed. Beat together the oil and sugar and add the orange zest, lime juice, almonds, polenta, baking powder, turmeric, vanilla extract and flax seeds. Mix until combined well. Pour the batter into your cake tin. Smooth the top.

Bake on a middle shelf for 25-30 minutes, until the cakes top is golden brown and springy. Test with a skewer and remember this is a moist cake, so there will be more stickiness than a normal cake when testing.

While it’s baking, warm the marmalade and spices in a small pan, boil for a minute and then set aside.

Leave the cake to cool and turn out of the pan onto a serving plate/ platter. Brush with the marmalade (easiest to do when warm). Decorate with the spices if you like and serve with vegan creme fraiche or ice cream.

Categories: Baking, Cakes, Desserts, gluten-free, photography, plant-based, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: christmas, polenta, xmas | 1 Comment

Christmas Pudding Truffles with Cashew Brandy Butter Sauce – Vegan, Gluten and Sugar-free

Posted on December 23, 2015 by leroy watson

Boozy Christmas Snowflakes – Vegan, sugar-free, healthy, all that jazz……

These snowflakes taste just like Christmas pudding but are waaaaaayyyyy easier and packed with natural sugars and gorgeous plant power! When combined with our warm Cashew Brandy Sauce, this makes for the perfect Xmas sweet thang.

I always loved snowballs, normally chucking them at my sister. Also snowmen (or women) maybe one day we’ll make a boozy snow human! YUM! We are visiting Jane’s Ma and Pa in sensational Stafford and it’s 14oC! These sweeties will probably be as close as we get to snowflakes this year.

Here we have little explosions of tastiness, super rich and with a massive kick of brandy, chocolate and pecans to get you right into that festive cheer. Everyone will LOVE them (guaranteed). They can be made well in advance and keep nicely.

The warm sauce elevates these into the realms of dessert. Quantity wise, have a play. Thin out with water and add a touch of vanilla extract. Make to your taste. Its a little like custard but dare I say it…..even better (contentious behaviour there). Having said that, custard would be lovely with these.

They are part of our lighter, nutritious, simple Christmas this year. These little snowflakes are easily made gluten-free, technically they are ‘sugar-free’ (refined that is) and are of course, full power plant-based, vegan happy.

MERRY CHRISTMAS Y”ALL!!!!!XXXxxxxxxxx

Festive sweet thangs….

Recipe Notes
Use any combo of dried fruits, all welcome. We are not massive fans of that ‘dried mixed fruit’ stuff you can buy, they’re a little too dry. We used whole dried fruits that are relatively inexpensive.

Not into the booze aspect. That’s very cool. Just up the juice quantity.

You don’t necessarily need a blender for this. You can mash the fruit mix up with a potato masher. Jane’s Mum’s blender wasn’t doing it for us here, so we mashed it up.

The Bits – Maple syrup, soaked boozy fruit and pecans. Woooah!

The Bits – Makes 15 little snowflakes
1 handful of each, dried apricot, dried pear/ apple, dried dates, dried figs (all roughly chopped)
2 handfuls raisins
4 tbs brandy
3 tbs apple juice or orange juice
1 orange (zest)
1 1/2 inch fresh ginger (finely grated)
1 teas ground cinnamon
2 teas mixed spice
1/4 teas ground cloves
2 teas vanilla extract

4 handfuls oats or gluten-free oats
4 handfuls pecans (broken up with hands)

125g dark vegan chocolate

2-3 tbs maple syrup (optional)

Snow
2 handfuls desiccated or grated fresh coconut

Cashew Brandy Sauce (varies depending on numbers)

Cashew butter

Maple Syrup

Brandy

Vanilla extract

Do It
Soak the dried fruit, spices, vanilla and orange zest for at least two hours in the brandy and juice. Longer is better.

Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl above gently simmering water. Leave to cool for 15 minutes.

In a food processor/ blender, add the oats and blitz until they resemble a coarse flour. Add the dried fruit mix and pulse until the mix is broken down but still chunky.

Scrape out into a large bowl, add the chocolate and pecans. Combine well with a trusty wooden spoon/ spatula. Taste and stir in maple syrup if you’d like it sweeter.

Scatter the coconut over a plate and with slighty wet hands (prevents too much sticking) grab a squash ball sized lump of the mix and roll between your hands into nice even balls.

Place in the coconut and roll gently. Now pop them onto your display plate.

These snowflakes will keep well in a sealed container, but look best when freshly rolled.

For an extra special dessert, gently warm up enough cashew butter in a small saucepan and add maple syrup, vanilla extract and brandy until you love it! One tablespoon at a time is best. Thin with a touch of water or soya milk if needed.

Just like Christmas pudding, but wee.

Serve

Spoon your sauce onto a plate and pop two or three snowflakes on top. They are also amazing as they are.

Foodie Fact

A word on ‘sugarfree’-ness. Not all sugar is the same! Sugar in dried fruits like these are in a natural solution of all kinds of things; anti-oxidants, minerals, micro-nutrients most of which are beneficial to the body and really help out the immune system. Dried fruit is packed with goodness and the ideal winter snack and fruit sugar should not be lumbered in there with refined, cane, beet, corn sugars etc. Fruit sugars (not loads of course) are way cool with us.

PS – Dried fruit is also very high in fibre, which is an all-time superhero for our bodies.