Oscar turns 5 and a delicious dairy free number 5 cake!

This year Easter Sunday was extra special as it was also my Oscar's 5th birthday! Hard to believe how quickly that chubby little bundle from 5 years ago has turned into the handsome, chatty and all-around awesome 5 year old that he is today.

Oscar had his heart set on a big party this year but after we realised that his birthday fell not only in the school holidays but on Easter Sunday it seemed silly to arrange a party that a lot of our friends would not be able to come to. He will get his party next year but this year was all about family and we had a really lovely day.

One of our birthday traditions for the boys is that they get to choose what we have for lunch. Oscar, bless him, chose to have a simple BBQ lunch at home with sausages, marinated chicken, corn and lots of salad. Yep he really asked specifically for salad!

Our other tradition is that I will make whatever cake they choose from our collection of Woman's Weekly kids' cake books. After much deliberation over the past few months Oscar chose a classic number 5 cake and even wanted the same colours they had used.

I felt a little selfish but I didn't want to make a big cake that I couldn't eat so the cake had to be dairy-free. Well it took a LOT of research to find the perfect dairy-free chocolate cake that would be the right texture to carve into a number 5 shape and taste good and possibly be converted to sugar free as well. Whew.

I eventually found one on The Crafting Foodie and it turned out so well we will definitely be using it again in the future. The original recipe was for a 3 layer 9 inch cake but I converted it into a sheet cake and made it sugar free by using rice malt syrup instead of sugar. I also used decaf coffee so the kids weren't bouncing off the walls!

Dark, Rich, Moist Chocolate Cake - Dairy Free
Recipe slightly adapted from The Crafting Foodie

330g plain flour
1 x 500g jar rice malt syrup (1 1/2 cups)
135g cocoa powder
1 tbs bicarb soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups rice milk
1 1/2 tbs white vinegar
1 1/2 cups strong black coffee, hot
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tbs vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 160 degrees fan-forced. Prepare a 23cm x 33cm baking pan by lining it with baking paper then greasing and flouring it.

Sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.

Combine the syrup, rice milk, vinegar, coffee, oil and vanilla extract in a medium bowl. Beat in the eggs.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients then mix on low speed until well combined. The batter will be very thin.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until the cake springs back in the middle and skewer comes out cleanly.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before inverting the pan to release the cake. Allow it to cool completely before icing.

I also did a lot of research on icing, trying to find something healthy that would also work to decorate the cake as I intended. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything quite right and so ended up with a traditional sugar-filled icing made with Nuttelex instead of butter to keep it dairy free. The search will continue for the next birthday cake.

Dairy-free Icing

185g nuttelex
360g icing mixture
1 tbs vanilla extract
food colouring

Place the nuttelex in a food processor or stand mixed and beat until smooth and creamy. Add remaining ingedients and process until smooth and well combined, and the icing is the right consistency to cover your cake. Add a little more icing mixture if it is too runny, or a little non-dairy milk (a few teaspoons at a time) if it is too thick.  This amount made enough to do a crumb coat and a top coat with only about 1/3 cup leftover.

For the stars I bought a pack of white icing and just tinted them to the colours I wanted.

Overall this was a really easy cake which made preparations for the day stress-free and Oscar loved it too which is the most important thing!

I'm actually going to reintroduce dairy in the next few weeks to see how Noah reacts (I've only cut it out while breastfeeding) but until then it's nice to know I can still made a great cake and not feel like I'm missing out.

Late TWD - Midnight Crackles

A belated happy new year to everyone! That's if there's anyone around after my extended absence. Hard to believe but Charlie is now over 9 weeks old and life with 2 kids under 2 is definitely keeping me busy. I am really missing baking and have a lot of catching up to do both in terms of recipes and reading my favourite blogs.

I actually did have this recipe made and photographed ready for the new year but a computer/camera compatability issue and lack of time means it is now 2 weeks late. Oh well.

So, Midnight Crackles. This is TWD's anniversary recipe chosen by Laurie and Jules. Can you believe it's been 3 years? Happy anniversary everyone!

These are basically a deep, dark chocolate biscuit with a little hint of spice. I baked just 1/4 of the recipe and they disappeared in record time! I am still figuring out our temperamental new oven so they were a smidge overbaked. I still have 1/4 of the dough stashed in the freezer and will definitely underbake these to ensure a yummy, fudgy centre.

I know this is short but I will finish with a few favourite pics of my boys from the holidays. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Here's to a fabulous 2011 for us all! :-)

PS. Since I began this post last week (everything happens in it's own time these days), my home city of Brisbane has been devastated by floods. At last count 16 lives lost and countless thousands who have lost their homes and possessions. We are exceedingly lucky on this side of town but spent a few worried nights as the river began to peak. I had a bag packed for the boys just in case we needed to leave quickly but in the end it was ok. My thoughts and prayers are with all who were affected. If anyone cares to make a donation to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal you can do so here.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Wow, 2 posts in 2 days! What is the world coming to?? Continuing yesterday's theme of wheat and dairy free treats, I made these Oatmeal Raisin Cookies a while back. Oscar is now at the age where it's really difficult to eat in front of him ie. he throws a bit of a tantrum if he can't have a bite! So having something safe for him to eat as well makes life a little easier.

Rather than start from scratch I adapted the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe on Simply Recipes here. The changes I made were:

• swapped out the wheat flour for a 50:50 blend of white and wholemeal spelt flours along with a pinch of xanthum gum
• used a dairy free spread instead of butter
• left out the nuts
• cut back on the sugar (I used just 1/2 cup brown and 1/2 cup white and they were still really sweet)

The taste test ...

Chewy, spicy, sweet and completely addictive! I got 24 huge cookies and they make a pretty substantial snack. I froze most of the batch and they are delicious straight from the freezer. These are a definite winner and will be made again and again.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Lots of Ways Banana Cake

Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities chose Dorie's Lots of Ways Banana Cake this week. I adore banana cake (and banana bread and banana pancakes and just plain bananas). My son Oscar is the same. In fact, his third word was banana!

As I have mentioned before, Oscar has a wheat and dairy intolerance. Most of the time it's no problem at all to sub in alternatives but I haven't been too adventurous with baking. And I don't need to be yet. At 15 months old, he's not eating a whole lot of cake!

While I didn't make this cake specifically for Oscar, it's nice for him to be able to have a taste of some of the yummy things I make so I did a wheat and dairy free version with dried apples and a passionfruit icing. Delicious!

Banana Cake with Passionfruit Glaze
(Wheat and Dairy Free)
Adapted from Lots of Ways Banana Cake on pp204-5 of Baking: From My Home to Yours

1/2 cup white spelt flour
1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1/3 cup gluten free flour (mine was a blend of maize, rice and soya flours)
1/2 ts xanthum gum
pinch of salt
1 ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts nutmeg
90g nuttelex or other dairy free spread
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1ts vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 oat milk (or soy milk etc)
1/2 cup dried apple, chopped

Preheat your oven to 180/350 degrees. Grease and line an 8 inch round pan and set aside.

Whisk the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and xanthum gum together.

Using a stand mixer, beat the nuttelex and sugar together until creamy. Add the egg and then the vanilla, beating well after each addition. Lower the speed and add the bananas. Mix well. Add the dry ingredients, followed by the milk and beat until just combined. Stir through the dried apple using a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is a deep golden brown and the cake is starting to pull away from the sides. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Passionfruit Glaze

1/2 cup pure icing sugar, sifted
1 passionfruit
hot water

In a small bowl, add the juice and pulp of your passionfruit to the icing sugar and stir. Add just enough hot water (1 -2 ts) to reach the consistency of thick cream. It should coat the spoon but still be easy to spread. Pour over your cooled cake and spread to the edges.

The taste test ...

Awesome. So moist and absolutely packed with flavour. The passionfruit icing finished it off perfectly. This is one cake I will be making again and again!

Oscar's 1st Birthday Roundup

Hard to believe but my baby is 1 today! The past 12 months have been amazing but it's all gone by so quickly. He's going to be starting school before I know it.

To celebrate we had a party on Sunday down at the waterfront at Manly. We thought the weather was going to spoil it but it turned into a gorgeous day.

38 adults, 7 kids, 1 dog and a ton of food. Sounds like a party to me!

Where's Oscar? Nath worked hard to blow up all these balloons but they didn't last long in the wind

Not too sure about the hat!

Yay, cake!

Hmmm, do I like icing?

Fingerprints in the icing

Who cares about presents when there's bark to play with!

Mummy and Oscar looking a little worse for wear

The car's loaded up with presents. Time for a nap

After spending most of the weekend cooking and baking I didn't even get a photo of the food!

We decided to keep it simple and just have a sausage sizzle, potato salad, pasta salad, green salad, bread and cake.

What you didn't see in the photos are the 48 cupcakes I made. This is one of the 3 leftover that we took home:

I used Nigella's basic cupcake recipe which always works for me. You can find the recipe here. I made a test batch a few weeks ago so felt really confident making 4 doz for the party. But this time I used foil cupcake wrappers and they seemed to cook a lot faster than normal. Mine were done in 13 minutes, not the 15-20 Nigella suggests in the recipe.

I also made a very simple buttercream icing and decorated each one with a freckle.

Buttercream Icing

125g soft butter (I always use salted butter)
3 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 ts vanilla extra

Using the paddle attachment in your mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Turn the speed to low and add the icing sugar in one go. Beat until combined. Add the vanilla then turn up the speed and beat for about 3 minutes. The icing will be thick, white and shiny. Yum!

Oscar's cake was a giant cupcake made using the Wilton pan. I bought this probably 8 months ago and always planned to use it for his first birthday. I was a little worried how it would turn out (there are lots of horror stories of it sticking etc online). I used a packet cake mix for this, figuring it would be easier. I had just 1/2 cup mixture left from 2 boxes. The tin was greased and floured well, the cake baked for 45 minutes and after a 10 minute rest, out popped 2 perfect cupcake halves. Success!

All in all it was a wonderful day and totally worth all the hard work. A big thanks to Nath's mum Di for her help babysitting and cooking on Saturday :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Our new arrival

We are thrilled to announce the birth of our healthy son Oscar Theodore on Monday 20th April at 10.20am - 3.6kg/7lbs 9oz, 51cm/20 in. More details to come but here is one of my favourite pics, taken at 5 days old ...

Blogging may be a little sparse for the next few weeks but I will be back!