Yum!

More cakes! Not that we’re complaining. If only they didn’t taste so good and I wouldn’t feel the urge to eat so many of them. Our latest cake delivery was from Amanda Rayworth-Kiernan and the nice people at The Gluten Free Kitchen based in Hove, East Sussex. They specialise in super-cute gluten free cupcakes, birthday cakes, and wedding cakes.

We loved the packaging on these cakes, which arrived in something similar to an egg box. It means the cupcakes don’t get damaged in the post and so make the perfect birthday pressie for a gluten free friend.

Postman friendly packaging

Amanda is always experimenting with new flavours. So on this occasion we got to try lemon curd filled sponge (sublime); vegan chocolate (chocolatey); carrot and pecan with orange buttercream (amazing combination); and cherry jam filled vanilla sponge (a lovely old school sort of flavour). All are gluten free and dairy free, and all were light and fluffy and scrumptious.

Amanda makes celebration cakes too and gets regular orders for engagement cakes and other celebration cakes as well as loaf cakes and Bakewell tarts.

Find Gluten Free Cake Kitchen at the Brighton Open Market on London Road every Sunday.

Cupcakes are £2.25 each with a minimum order of £10. And celebration cakes start at £12. At the moment delivery is within the UK only and is £8 to £15.

Find out more about the Gluten Free Cake Kitchen:

• Web: glutenfreecakekitc.wix.com/glutenfreekitchen
• Email: glutenfreecakekitchen@gmail.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/theglutenfreecakekitchen
• Twitter: twitter.com/gfcakekitchen
• Pinterest: pinterest.com/theglutenfreecakekitchen
• Instagram: instagram.com/theglutenfreecakekitchen

Ready to be scoffed!

Marnie Searchwell Gluten Free Cakes

With a birthday coming up, the month of July is all about cake eating. Like I need an excuse. This week we met the lovely Marnie Searchwell who swung by Gluten Free Towers from her kitchen in Kennington, London to drop off some samples of her award winning cakes. And they were an absolute treat.

Marnie makes gluten free cakes; gluten and dairy free cakes; and gluten, dairy and egg free cakes for all kinds of occasions: from weddings to kids’ birthdays. So no matter what your allergy, there’s no reason to miss out.

What’s more, Marnie only uses the finest ingredients, and organic wherever possible like Fairtrade organic chocolate, Appleton Jamaica Rum and organic unrefined cane sugar. The ground pimento berries (allspice) she uses in her fruitcakes come from a tree in her father’s garden in Jamaica.

And let’s just mention that gluten free luxury Jamaican fruitcake shall we? Unbelievable. Juicy fruit, moist and with a kick. This would make a lovely wedding cake.

Marnie bakes everything herself to order, in her own kitchen. And with a gluten intolerant husband she’s worked hard to create delicious cakes everyone can enjoy. Marnie has worked out a special blend of gluten-free flours that ensures her cakes have a fine texture and are light and delicate in the mouth. Five of her cakes won Great Taste Awards. It’s not difficult to see why.

So what else did we try?

Gluten-free cake flavours:

• Rose & Pistachio Cake
• Reine de Saba (amazing)
• Coco Blondie

Gluten- & dairy-free cake flavours:

• Luxury Jamaica Fruit Cake
• Tunisian Orange & Almond Cake
• Chocolate & Olive Oil Cake (highly recommended)

Gluten-, dairy- and egg-free cake flavours

• Carrot & Pineapple Cake
• Mocha Chocolate Cake (delicious)
• Lemon & Almond Cake (LOVED this!)

Find out more about Marnie Searchwell:

• Web: www.marniesearchwell.com
• Email: cakes@marniesearchwell.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/marnie.searchwell.cakes
• Twitter: @Marnie_Cakes

You may already know about Almondy. They’re the Swedish bakers who have teamed up with some of the world’s biggest confectionery brands to produce such delights as almond cake topped with Toblerone and almond cake topped with Daim. Amazing, right?

Hold on to your hats. Now they’ve partnered with two more superbrands, Cadbury and Philadelphia, to add more scrumptious cakes – or tårta to give them their official name – to their best selling range.

We were lucky enough to get our sticky mitts on the new cakes recently and they were sweet, creamy and delicious. They’re 100% naturally gluten free, as they’re made with an almond base inspired by an original Swedish recipe dating from the 1890s, and they’re free from artificial colourings and preservatives too.

Right – to the cakes. So the Philadelphia Almond Layered Cheesecake with Lemon has a tasty almond base with layers of creamy Philadelphia and a covering of fresh lemon frosting. Is your mouth watering yet? It should be. You can eat it like this, of course. Or you could top it with fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries for a super special after dinner dessert. You could pass it off as homemade then, and no one would be any the wiser.

Philadelphia Almond Layered Cheesecake with Lemon

The Cadbury Chocolate Mousse and Almond Cake has a crunchy almond base topped with a delicious chocolate cream and a layer of frothy chocolate mousse, covered in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate and a sprinkling of Cadbury Dairy Milk buttons. Yes, it’s a lorra lorra chocolate. And it’s sweeeeeeeeet. But because the mousse is really light and the base is nice and thin and crunchy, it’s not in the least bit cloying. Perfect for dessert, perfect with an afternoon cup of mint tea and perfect for kids too.

Cadbury Chocolate Mousse and Almond Cake

So where can you find them? If you’re in the UK, you can find them in the regular frozen dessert section of Asda, Budgens, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco. Live somewhere else? Take a look at Almondy’s cake finder map.

Don’t be put off by the ‘frozen dessert’ thing. They’re perfect to keep in the freezer for when gluten free friends and family members pop round. And they really don’t taste like frozen desserts. They only take an hour to defrost although the Cadbury chocolate mousse cake is nice to leave a little more frozen so it’s like ice cream! Once your cake has defrosted just keep it in the fridge (if there’s any left!).

The Philadelphia Cheesecake and the Cadbury Chocolate Mousse Cake retail at £3.19 each, which is extremely good value we think.

Especially Delicious Gluten Free Christmas Cupcakes

Can you believe it? Christmas is just around the corner. And there’s no better way to celebrate it than with gorgeous gluten free Christmas cakes from the aptly named Especially Delicious.

The company was started by Sarah Jones, a keen baker since childhood. When she was told to start following a gluten free diet she set about creating her own gluten free goodies.

Her cakes were so delicious her friends and family couldn’t tell the difference between gluten free and ‘real’ cakes. And so with their encouragement Sarah started Especially Delicious in 2004, specialising in fabulous celebration cakes.

Especially Delicious Gluten Free Christmas Cupcakes

She’s based in south west London but can deliver nationwide. And Especially Delicious makes luxury gluten free celebration cakes for all occasions – not just for Christmas!

We think a box of gluten free cup cakes makes an amazing holiday gift.

Christmas cakes start from £39.95 and cupcakes start from £12.95 for 6.

For more information vist the Especially Delicious website, become a fan on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Order your gluten free Christmas cup cakes now and call Sarah on 020 8944 0373.

• 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.

Anyone who doubts that a feather light cake can be made without wheat flour should try this!

• Hazelnuts, skinned, roasted and lightly crushed – 100 g (4 oz)
• Margarine – 225 g (8 oz)
• Vanilla extract – 2 tsp
• Almond extract – 2 tsp
• Unsweetened cocoa powder – 4 tbsp
• Fructose – 200 g (7 oz)
• 4 medium eggs
• All-purpose wheat-free flour – 100 g (3½ oz)
• Baking powder – 1 tsp

For the frosting:

• Margarine – 225 g (8 oz)
• Vanilla extract – ¾ tsp
• Unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted – 12 tbsp
• Maple syrup – 1½ tbsp

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4. In a saucepan, melt the margarine with the vanilla and almond extracts and sifted cocoa powder until just melted. Do not boil. Stir and remove from the heat. In a mixing bowl, beat the fructose into the eggs until they become light and thick, using a balloon whisk or electric mixer. Do this thoroughly to achieve lightness in the finished sponge. Stir in the margarine mixture. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and stir. Add the nuts and mix well.

Cut two circles of greaseproof paper/baling parchment and place in the bottom of two 25 cm/10 in round cake tins. Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and bake for 20 minutes. The sponges will seem soft when removed from the oven and will come away from the sides of the tin if pulled gently with your fingers. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then turn out on twp wire racks to cool.

Put all the frosting ingredients into a mixing bowl and using a balloon whisk or electric mixer, beat until thoroughly blended. Refrigerate until the cakes have completely cool. To assemble the cake, put one of the cakes bottom side up on an upturned plate. Cover with a layer of frosting. Then place the other cake on top, bottom side down and frost the top and sides. Refrigerate until time to serve.

Serves 8