chia pudding

Poppy makes...

Serves 2

1. In a large measuring jug combine
   2/3 cup filtered water,
   1/3 cup rice milk,
   2.5 tablespoons white chia seeds,
   1/8 teaspoon vanilla bean powder and
   1 teaspoon maple syrup with a fork.
   
   
2. Leave for 10 minutes, stir again then pour into serving bowls, glasses or containers.
   
   
3. Serve with
   seasonal fruit and/or some
   chocolate buckinis.

Feel free to double or triple this recipe to make more serves if you prefer to make a large batch or simply larger serves. 

flourless chocolate cake

Poppy bakes...

My best critic is my husband; so the fact he likes this cake makes it a winner! It is a variation of the popular Thermomix Magic Bean Cake, but if you don't have a Thermomix, you can do the exact same process with a blender and mixer or food processor. I love how it contains red kidney beans as a flour replacement, but you can't taste them. You can make this cake vegan too by using a flax egg or egg replacer.

Serves 10


CAKE

1. Preheat oven to 180º and line a cake tin.
   
   
2. Puree
   400g red kidney beans or butter beans, drained and rinsed,
   1 tablespoon water,
   1 egg and
   1 teaspoon vanilla extract until smooth on speed 7; then set aside.
   
   
3. Without washing the mixing bowl, beat
   125g butter and
   140g coconut sugar for 30 seconds on speed 5.
   
   
4. Add
   4 eggs and beat for 20 seconds on speed 4.
   
   
5. Add bean mixture back in and combine for 5 seconds on speed 4.
   
   
6. Add
   65g cacao powder,
   1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder,
   1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda and
   1/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt and blend for 10 seconds on speed 4.
   
   
7. Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
   
   
8. Allow the cake to cool, then remove from tin. You can simply decorate it with
   raspberries and
   desiccated coconut; and/or serve with a generous dollop of
   coconut ice cream.

JAM

To take this cake to the next level, you can add some raspberry jam to cut through the dark chocolate taste.

1. To make the jam filling, in a small sauce pan heat
   1/2 lemon, juiced,
   1 tablespoon coconut sugar and
   2 teaspoon rice malt syrup.
   
   
2. Once the coconut sugar has dissolved, add
   1 cup raspberries,
   1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and
   2 tablespoon white chia seeds; gently mashing the raspberries with a fork.
   
   
3. Remove from the heat and cool in the fridge until the chia seeds have absorbed most of the liquid to form a jam.
   
   
4. Slice cooled cake in half and spread the jam between the two layers.
   

CHOCOLATE ICING

This is the best healthy chocolate icing! I don't have any pictures yet but I will be making this for my daughter's next birthday cake, so I'll share some pictures soon.

1. Pour
   150g dark chocolate buttons into a stainless steel mixing bowl over a boiling pot of water and slowly stir with a whisk until melted.
   
   
2. Add
   1 cup coconut cream and slowly whisk together until combined.
   
   
3. Cool in the fridge until the right consistency to spread onto the cooled cake.

CHOCOLATE SHELL 

This is another icing option which creates a thinner and harder layer of chocolate around the cake which I use when I make this cake in my Wilton 5 Layer Cake Tin Set.

1. Melt
   150g dark chocolate and
   3 tablespoons coconut oil in a double boiler, refrigerate for about 20 minutes just before it sets then whisk until fluffy. Pipe or spread over cake - voila!

In this picture I have spread the raspberry jam between the 5 layers and encased the cake in the chocolate shell and topped with freeze dried raspberries.

ITALIAN MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM

For icing that you want to be able to colour, that isn't sickly sweet...

1. Prepare your Thermomix bowl with the butterfly whisk attachment and add
   4 large egg whites then place in the fridge. You can do this up to a day before to produce a stiff meringue.
   
   
2. If you keep your butter in the fridge, take it out now to bring to room temperature. You will need
   300g unsalted butter cut into chunks.
   
   
3. Make sugar syrup by bringing
   120g water and
   200g caster sugar to the boil on high heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the syrup is boiling/bubbling at 118ºC.
   
   
4. Whilst the sugar syrup is coming to the boil take the Thermomix bowl out of the fridge and add
   1 teaspoon cream of tartar and
   2 tablespoons caster sugar.
   
   
5. As soon as the sugar syrup is ready, set Thermomix to 20mins/37ºC/speed 3 and after a few seconds, start very slowly drizzling the sugar syrup in.
   
   
6. Bring the bowl to room temperature by placing in the fridge for 1/2-1 hour.
   
   
7. On speed 3, slowly add the chunks of butter until completely smooth. If it is too runny, cool down further in the fridge.
   
   
8. You can add your colour to the Thermomix bowl or colour smaller batches in separate mixing bowls. Use a spatula to put buttercream in a piping bag and place in the fridge for 10 minutes before piping onto cake.

passionfruit, coconut + chia cake

Serves 8

Wet ingredients

2 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup rice milk

1/4 cup honey

1.5 tablespoons nuttelex

1/3 cup passionfruit pulp

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt

Dry ingredients

1 cups gluten-free self-raising flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup fine desiccated coconut

1/4 cup ground chia seeds

Method

1. Prepare 18cm round cake tin by greasing with coconut oil
2. Preheat oven to 180°C
3. In a food processor or hand-blender, mix wet ingredients until well combined and smooth at medium-high speed
4. Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix gently to combine
6. Spoon mixture into a cake tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean
7. Remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving

Notes
You can sprinkle extra desiccated coconut or passionfruit pulp for decoration. It also tastes great served with vanilla coconut ice cream. 

The cake pictured above was baked using double the quantities of ingredients to serve 12 larger pieces. I found that the centre of the cake didn't cook as well being a very moist mixture. That is why this cake recipe is also great for making muffins...

Does Poppy want a passionfruit, coconut + chia muffin? Sleepy face with ears pulled back in confusion.