The Gluten Free Blog

Last weekend I made this seriously tasty chocolate cake from Phil Vickery’s Seriously Good! Gluten-Free Cooking book. Unfortunately, someone was unable to resist before I’d taken a pic! I couldn’t find honeycomb so I bought Crunchie bars and cut the chocolate off. It seemed to work ok. The mint, sugar and water syrup keeps this cake really moist. For the cake:

• 200g unsalted butter
• 200g gluten free dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
• 5 medium eggs
• Pinch of cream of tartar
• 240g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 200g ground almonds
• 50g chickpea (gram) flour

For the syrup:

• 100g caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

For the frosting:

• 500g mascarpone
• 50g honeycomb, chopped
• 100g cleat honey

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4. Line a 24cm round, 7cm deep, loose-bottomed cake tine with baking parchment. Place the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, take the pan off the heat but leave the bowl over the pan to keep the mixture warm.

Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl and whisk until thick and foamy, the add half the sugar, and whisk again until creamy and thick. Add the rest of the sugar and whisk until very stiff but still a creamy consistency. Stir the egg yolks, vanilla extract, almonds and chickpea flour into the warm chocolate and butter, then straight away add half the meringue, mixing well. Finally, add the rest of the meringue and fold in.

Spoon into the lined tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until well risen and firm.

Remove from the oven and cool slightly in the tin: it will collapse a little. Make several holes over the surface of the cake with a skewer.

Meanwhile, place the sugar, 100ml water and the mint in a small pan and boil until the sugar has dissolved, then strain. Spoon the syrup over the cake and leave to soak in and cool completely.

Once the cake has cooled, beat the mascarpone, honeycomb and honey together with a wooden spoon or spatula. Do not whisk of the mascarpone will be too soft and hot hold its shape on the cake.

Turn out the cake carefully on to a large, flat plate. As there is no gluten in the cake it will have quite a soft texture, so be careful. Cover the cake with the honey mascarpone. Eat straight away or chill for 1 hour. If you want to keep it for the next day, remove from the fridge 1 hour before eating.

If you’re looking for a fresh and filling lunch you might want to grab yourself a tasty veg pot from Innocent. Of course, Innocent are more famous for their smoothies, thickies and juices. But they’ve recently added veg pots to their range – and they’re absolutely delicious.

Which Innocent Veg Pots are gluten free?

There are eight in the range and I tried these two this week: Mexican sweet potato chilli with brown rice, jalapeno peppers and smoke paprika; and Indian daal curry with spicy cauliflower, chickpeas and fresh spinach. The ingredients are all fresh with no colourings, flavourings or nasty E numbers. And these two are gluten free, low in fat and contain three of my daily veg portions.

Not all the pots are gluten free so be sure to check the ingredients before you buy.

You can buy Innocent tasty veg pots at Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda where they normally retail for about £3.50. But Asda currently have them for 2 for £5 which is a bargain!

Try out a few of the other flavours and let us know what you think.

Not sure which restaurants in your area serve gluten free foods? Or which ones have a good choice of vegan dishes? Or are nut-free? Wonder no more. Because we’ve recently come across LeaveItOut.co.uk, an all new specialist eating out online guide.

Whether you have a food allergy or intolerance, are vegetarian or vegan or even need to find a child-friendly venue or a place with disabled access, Leave It Out can help.

Simply enter your post code, click which intolerance you have and Leave It Out will show you your nearest restaurants.

You can even win dinner for two at a restaurant of your choice by writing a review or sending the site a new listing. Got a fantastic local restaurant you want to talk about? Just register here (it takes about 30 seconds) and write a review. Or if you want to see your favourite local restaurant listed just contact the Leave It Out team.

You’ll also find lots of informative articles on the site written by Medical Consultant Dr Adam Fox and Dietician Tanya Wright, such as Coeliac Disease And Malt Extract and When And How Can Wheat Allergy Occur?

We think this site is going to be a great resource. Remember to get your reviews and recommendations in. And you might be enjoying a gluten free pizza free of charge at the end of the month!

At the Allergy & Gluten Free Show the other week we found quite a few brands we hadn’t come across before including Lazy Day Foods and Steph’s Free From Cakes.

Dr Sally Beattie of Lazy Day Foods

Dr Sally Beattie who is a director at Lazy Day Foods is a professional food scientist, so she knows a thing or two about delicious food. And as a mum with kids who have allergies she knows a thing or two about food intolerances.

We chatted to Sally for a while and tried quite a few of her products – all in the name of research of course – and we can highly recommend the Millionaire’s Shortbread and the Belgian Dark Chocolate Tiffin. Delicious. And both wheat, gluten, dairy and egg free.

All Lazy Day products are handmade in a dedicated gluten free factory in Scotland and are available to order via the website. They’re so beautifully packaged we think they make ideal gifts.

New items to be added to the range soon include celebration cakes and muffins along with a Rustic Savoury Biscuit range flavoured with cracked pepper, mild spices or sweet chilli. We can’t wait for those.

Stephanie Palmer of Steph’s Free From Cakes

Another stand we spent quite a bit of time at was Steph’s Free From Cakes run by the lovely Stephanie Palmer. Steph told us she suffers from a number of food intolerances herself and began baking free from cakes when she couldn’t find anything suitable (or edible) in the shops.

I rather over indulged in Steph’s sweet Lemon Drizzle Cake and some very cute heart shaped Ginger Cookies which were a fabulous combination of crispy, moist and spicy.Steph’s Free From Cakes are all available to buy online and include classics such as Carrot cake and Battenburg cake. (Not forgetting the aforementioned Lemon Drizzle Cake – a personal favourite.)

There’s 10% off your first order – so get ordering now!

UPDATE: Unfortunately it seems the Bruschetta restaurant in Kingston has now closed down.

If you’re in the Surrey or south London area you absolutely must visit Bruschetta in Kingston upon Thames. This amazing gluten free Italian restaurant is run by the fabulous Julia and Daniele. And the best bit? The entire menu is gluten free. Yes, there is a ‘regular’ menu for those in your party who want to eat the wheaty stuff. But why would they? The gluten free menu is so packed full of delicious and authentic Italian dishes you can probably convert them for good.

Having visited last Saturday, I can thoroughly recommend the Pizz’Italia pizza with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, rocket and fresh ricotta. Seriously tasty. My friend had the Finocchiona pizza with mozzarella, tomato, artichokes heart, Italian fennel salami and parmesan. The pizzas are incredibly filling. But we still found room to share a slice of Julia’s chocolate cake. Delicious.

All the gluten free dishes are authentically Italian and prepared in a gluten free kitchen. For opening times and menus visit Bruschetta’s Facebook page (and become a fan!).