Hot cross buns

It’s Good Friday! Thank you to my brilliant husband, Dave, for having hot, gluten free vegan hot cross buns waiting for me on my arrival home from church on this Good Friday! Wooo! And I can attest to the winning combination these tasty treats are.

Firstly, it’s probably important to understand a little about how flours work when cooking with gluten free combinations. These buns have 50% medium flours, 25% light and 25% heavy. If you don’t have the exact flours, you can look here for more suggestions on how this works and use your own combinations. I think it is always safe to use more tapioca flour rather than less so feel free to use more light flour and less medium/heavy if you want to play with it.

Or…you can just follow this recipe. De-licious!

Dry ingredients: 

Medium:                   1 cup  red sorghum flour and ½ cup brown rice flour

Light:                        ½ cup tapioca flour and ¼ cup potato starch

Heavy:                       ½ cup buckwheat flour and ¼ cup almond meal flour

2 tsp xanthan gum

½ tsp salt

1/2 tsp all spice

1 tsp cinnamon

Wet ingredients:

4 dates blended in ¼ cup hot water

2 Tablespoons coconut palm sugar

2 teaspoons melted coconut oil

1 ½ cup warm water

¾ cup sultanas

Combine flour mix, xanthan gum, salt, sugar and dry yeast and mix together in a bowl. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the coconut oil, warm water and pureed dates. Add in dry ingredients and mix on high with hand beaters until well mixed. Add sultanas and mix through.

Shape into a long thick roll and chop into sections of
roughly equal size to form into rolls.

Place rolls on a greased & floured tray, cover with a tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

For the crosses, mix some brown rice flour and water together to form a paste and squeeze onto rolls in a cross formation. (You can do this by putting the paste in a snap lock bag and cutting one corner off to squeeze through)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bake in 200 deg Celsius oven for 40 minutes.

Brush the tops of buns with a light coating of melted coconut oil after they come out for a gloss.

Our buns were brown and crunchy (which we enjoyed) but if you prefer them softer and less crunchy, put foil over the tray after 15 minutes of cooking.

 

Happy Easter everyone!

Sweet buckwheat waffles

Sweet buckwheat waffles

Woweee. I have pronounced my love for Sloveig’s blog, the Gluten Free Vegan Girl many a time, and she has delivered again on this one. This is her recipe, it is pure, healthy and delicious. Breakfast, dessert, or snacks throughout the day – these waffles are awesome 🙂 I have to share.

I have halved the recipe because it makes LOADS. Also, my waffle maker sadly only does animal shapes (haha) so here we have a giraffe and a lion – looking slightly more like a map of Australia actually… not to worry!

I’ve also done this recipe with half buckwheat and half brown rice flour and I have to say, I really loved that also. It seemed a little lighter to me. But please yourself.

 

• 2 cups unsweetened plant-based milk
• 1.5 cups buckwheat flour
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla [extract]
• 1/4 tsp maldon salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom, optional but recommended
• juice from 1/2 lemon, optional but recommended

Directions:

1. Place all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl and stir together.

2. Place the pitted dates, lemon juice, vanilla essence and milk in a high-speed blender (or use a hand blender) and run until completely smooth. Pour this into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until well-combined. Keep in mind that the batter will be slightly thicker than regular wheat waffles. Do not add any more liquid to make it thinner! This will prevent the batter from sticking together properly, and you will end up with a runny gooey mess.

3. Heat a waffle maker and add your mixture. Depending on your maker, you may need spray oil to stop it sticking. I use brushed melted coconut oil.

 

Sweet buckwheat waffles

I have added fresh chopped strawberries and a homemade chocolate hazelnut sauce. Try this:

 

2 dates, pitted, soaked and pureed (alternatively substitute with rice malt syrup)

1 heaped Tblspn cacao

2 Tblspn melted coconut oil

1 heaped Tblspn hazelnut meal

2 Tblspns non dairy milk

dash of vanilla extract
Whisk together and enjoy. Add more milk if you prefer it runnier.

Coconut rice bubble slice

Coconut rice bubble slice

And since my internet has been down lately, I thought I’d give you two recipes to play catch up.
This is a great Christmas season one.

You know the old rice bubble slice that everyone makes at Christmas time? Guess what. It can be healthy and yummy too!

Ingredients:

3 cups rice bubbles (or even better, get the rice puffs that don’t have sugar)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)

1/2 cup brown rice syrup

Stir together and either set in a tray (to be cut into squares) or drop into patty pans.

You can also add natural colouring if you want to make it colourful!

Delish!

Orange chocolate fudge cakes

Chocolate fudge cakes

I have always loved orange chocolate. I know it’s not everyone’s favourite but wow, I used to consume a lot of it. My favourite was about 15 years ago when Crunchies brought out an orange version. Wowww….my house mate and I used to stock up on them and lucky we did because they didn’t hang around long! We thought perhaps we were the only people buying them!

15 years later and I would get an instant migraine if I tried to eat a crunchie now anyway 🙂 And let’s face it, they are not great on a number of levels. Lucky I can cook!

Early in my blogging days I posted links to recipes relating to red kidney bean cakes and to be honest, I haven’t ever made them since. Today I thought I would dig it out and revamp the recipe. It truly is incredible to me that these work as cakes – with no butter, no sugar, no flour, no eggs. The staples. But truly, these work. And they are a brilliant fibre and protein hit for kids on the go.

I blended some dates and almond butter into a caramel and pasted them on top for “icing” but they are great without it.  You don’t have to make them orange of course. You can just do straight chocolate. Or add in some peanut butter for something different.

Ingredients:

1 tin red kidney beans (rinsed and drained)

2 tsp vanilla extract

8 dates (pitted and soaked)

2 T rice malt syrup

2 T (heaped) cacao powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1-2 tsp orange zest

1/4 cup orange juice

Process the red kidney beans in a food processor (keep scraping down the sides, you DONT want bean lumps in your cakes :)). Add vanilla, syrup and dates and process further. Add remaining ingredients and process until mixed.

Spoon into muffin tins and bake at 180 deg C for 25 minutes or until cooked.

Tropical ice blocks

Tropical ice blocks

These are amazing. And so incredibly simple. The kids have not always liked coconut cream-based ice blocks but these were demolished! Excellent to have for the hot weather coming up!

Ingredients:

1 tin coconut cream

1 tin pineapple pieces

1 orange, rind removed

2 T rice malt syrup

Puree in a blender, pour into moulds and freeze! Enjoy!

Caramel fudge

Caramel, the healthy way

I have noticed that my blog followers are total caramel freaks. Sweet freaks generally but definitely caramel lovers and hey, I can’t blame you.

I remember as kids we used to make caramel (the burnt butter/sugar kind of caramel) and OMG how delicious was that as a teenager, scooping spoonfuls of caramel out of the fridge. I remember hoping no one would notice how MUCH of it I was eating 😉

Today…same issue but a much different version of caramel! So many of you have commented on how YUMMY the caramel is in the slice or the cheesecake so I thought it time just to serve it up direct! Yes. You can thank me later 🙂

Ingredients:

25 pitted medjool dates (presoaked in hot water for 10 minutes and drained)

1/2 cup almond spread

1 T coconut oil

And that’s it. You can add a tsp vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. But the reality is, the caramel is caramel already. You could also add some peanut butter.

And I drizzled melted dark chocolate on top of mine to make it pretty 🙂 But all in all, that’s just dressing. You just need dates and almond spread (which is 100% almonds).
It’s soooo good. I just had a spoonful after dinner and trust me, it is SOO sweet that’s all you need!

 

*NB this is a gooey caramel. If you like it a little firmer, add in some blended macadamias or tahini and freeze.

What do we eat in a week?

I was asked recently what do we eat in a week?

It’s actually a tough question to answer because that seriously changes relating to how much time I have and what else is going on. Before I started back at work, I had OODLES of time to shop, plan and prepare lovely, creative and fresh food. Now that work is ramping up again, I am finding I don’t have that time, energy and mental capacity to put into food. So often I am falling back on quick favourites. Which is fine. But it’s not as exciting as one might think.

And for the kids…well…their eating changes on a daily basis. But let me say, we are not 100% healthy as this blog may suggest. I put our good ideas up here but our not-so-good ideas? They are not blog worthy but it doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

One of the things I have come to realise is that balance is everything. We try to teach our kids about healthy eating and model it also. It does work. My 5 year old asks for salads and he eats raw broccoli yadadyayada. But he also arks up some days because he doesn’t want salad. He won’t eat it in his lunch box at school and has given up on carrot entirely now. And after declaring himself a vegetarian he asked for a ham sandwich at the shops. He’s too young to know what’s up and down sometimes so we roll with it.

What I have learnt is that in striking balance, one of the keys to a peaceful house is not to be stressed about it. Sometimes we are super healthy and other times not. Sometimes my 3yo refuses to eat anything of an evening but chips. Other days he’ll eat  soup and cucumber and good stuff.

In a day, it’s not going to make any difference. Over a week, or a month, balance is what his body needs. So I have given up worrying about any particular meal. Some days, if chips is it, well at least he has food in his stomach and we ate a peaceful meal together without any nagging. THAT is of benefit too.

Other days, I thank my lucky stars for the nutrition that does enter their little bodies.

Having said all that – here’s a round -a -bout meal plan for a week if you are looking for ideas.

Pumpkin soup with hot chips.

Shredded rainbow salad with added scrolls for kids (or, it’s not blogged, but I put the bean sauce in pastry and bake as scrolls that they love)

Stir fry veg with rice   or pad see eew (Thai noodles, oops have just realised this also isn’t blogged yet!)

Peanut noodle salad with baked spring rolls  for kids on the side

Curry with rice (and wraps so the kids can wrap up their rice and curry as they like to do)

Mexican – tacos/bean bowls/nachos using the Frijole Refritos and salad and guacamole (or, 2 nights ago we had this but used baked sweet potatoes as a base rather than tacos or wraps. We baked sweet potato chips for the kids and they used those to dip into the sauce and guacamole). The chickpea wraps are a favourite for Dave and I.

Indian baked veggies is a hit. My 5 yo especially likes baked cauliflower for some reason.

Tomato soup with bread rolls for the kids to dip.

Cobb salad where they can pick out their favourites.

Often we will serve a salad (which Dave and I will eat) and have homemade pasties on the side because the kids WILL eat the pasties and are learning about salad. Which is fine. We can serve it all up while they are learning and if they learn in little bits, I’m totally fine with that.

We have seen such a shift in my 5 yo this year that I am confident they will be established veggie eaters as they get older. But with young kids?
Don’t stress. Do what works and encourage and model what you can.

As Sid Garza Hilman says, you can’t change everything over night so if all you do is eat a piece of celery in a day that you didn’t eat yesterday, well celebrate that. It’s the beginning of something.

x

Almond ginger cookies (GF)

Almond ginger cookies

It’s been a long time since I made biscuits. We are off the sugar bandwagon with our kids but I do miss cooking with them. And last night my 3 yo was dreaming talking about ginger biscuits. He woke up asking for them! So I thought today we really need to master how to do them well without butter, eggs and sugar.

It turns out it’s possible. Oh my, we absolutely gobbled these biscuits and felt no guilt about it at all! hehe! Well, no concern about negative health impacts at least. These are full of goodness and if you were to sub in fresh ginger I’m sure the benefits would be even more so. The one thing I would say, is that we ate so much of the mixture (far out, totally moorish!) that there weren’t too many biscuits that actually got made in the end. Nevermind!

I think I might use this cookie dough in coconut ice cream at some point!

Sadly, mr 3 has asked for them in his lunch box tomorrow and of course, the school and child care centre don’t allow nuts so these will be a home based treat for us. Yay you if you’re allowed nuts in lunch boxes though, this is a winner!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups almond meal

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1 tsp bicarb soda

6 dates

1 T chia seeds soaked in 1/4 cup water

1/3 cup brown rice syrup

2 T melted coconut oil

1/4 cup almond milk with 1 T apple cider vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

pinch salt

Process the almond meal, buckwheat flour, bicarb and dates in a food processor until crumbly. Add in remaining ingredients and stir into a moist dough*.

Drop balls onto a lined baking tray and bake at 180 deg C for 20 minutes or until brown and reasonably firm (how long you bake them for will determine whether they hold a moist, soft biscuit texture or a firmer one).

I was tempted to make up a chocolate mix and drizzle them with chocolate syrup but hey, they didn’t hang around long enough. Next time…

*NB IF you like a more dry biscuit, lessen the milk content. It is important though to keep the vinegar to offset the bicarb.

DIY date ‘bliss’ balls

Date balls

It seems we are being asked a lot how to make these date balls. These are a total staple in our house and sometimes i make them everyday because they disappear so quickly.  Other days I manage a batch big enough that we keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days. They are easy to do and even easier to mix up flavours and textures so you can’t get bored. They are also delicious, nutritious and a healthy sugar free snack.

I’ve seen them in so many cafes lately called “bliss balls”. They cost the earth to buy and never ever taste as good as home made ones! There is one little place in Port Macquarie NSW that made good ones 🙂 but that’s the only one I’ve actually liked commercially.

In the past I have posted some recipes such as Seed balls and Baci balls. Really the world of date/energy/protein/chocolate balls is your ‘oyster’ (so to speak). Here’s the breakdown:

Nuts: I use a base of almonds or cashews mostly but you can add in whatever nuts you prefer.

Dates: Add in soaked medjool dates (You don’t have to soak them, but this makes processing them easier). Usually about 10 dates to 1 cup of nuts but you can mix it up.

Seeds: Pumpkin seeds are my choice but try sunflower and chia too (noting that these will make a more textured ball). Youc an also throw in goji berries.

Cacao: There’s no chocolate ball without raw cacao powder 🙂

Protein: Tao Nutrition all the way! (this will add in countless nutrients – yes, even kale 🙂 and up your protein intake

Fats: Sometimes I add in coconut oil because it gives a gorgeous texture and is good for you. And I find I lack fats in my diet so this helps too. It is not criitical to the world of date balls though.

Flavour: Vanilla extract is delicious. Or try peanut butter (100%, no added sugar), or ground hazelnuts. Or use coconut oil and desiccated coconut. Or orange peel or peppermint essence….there are gazillions of options 🙂

 

Process nuts and seeds in the food processor until fine and then add the remaining ingredients. Roll into balls and refrigerate.

Sometimes I find, because I don’t measure, that the ball mix is too crumbly. This is easily countered by adding more dates – or sometimes I add in 1 T water which softens and binds the mix enough to roll into balls.

Hope this helps!

xx

 

 

 

Chocolate mousse tart

Chocolate mousse tart

This is a recipe my sister put me onto from Wholefoodsimply. It’s healthy, it’s yum and it’s good! It is vegan, gluten free, sugar free and nut free.

Having said that, next time I’ll add nuts to the base because I think I would prefer that. The coconut cream mix on top was beautifully creamy and needed to soften the potency of the sweet chocolate layer and base! A good recipe to have on hand!

 

Base

1 cup coconut

4 medjool pitted dates

Blend together and press into individual tart pots or as I did by doubling the recipe, use a round tart tin (lined). Refrigerate.

*FYI next time I will replace half the coconut with ground almonds or ground hazelnuts. I think the nuts would be a welcome addition actually but it’s good to have nut free recipes!

 

Middle

1 avocado

1 ripe banana

1 T coconut cream

4 medjool dates (pitted and soaked)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 T cacao

pinch of salt

Blend on high until processed and smooth and spread on top of the base and refrigerate.

 

Top

300gm cold coconut cream (the thick part)

2 T rice malt syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

Blend, and spread over the filling and refrigerate.

 

This could need a couple of hours in the fridge, or you can speed freeze it 🙂

We actually only ate half as it is quite rich so I have frozen the rest and cut off a slice as needed, lol! Quite helpful!

Baked beetroot spring rolls

Baked beetroot spring rolls

It sounds uninviting really doesn’t it. Haha. I just called it that to get your attention 🙂
But these actually do have beetroot in them.

I actually think beetroot tastes like dirt. I’m not a big beetroot fan (except for in the Indian baked veggies and the Shredded rainbow salad). But you can’t tell they are in these…the first time I made them my 5 yo ate about 5 of them. Though I think he was onto me last night… 😛

Buy some spring roll wrappers. They are wheat based so I don’t eat these anymore but I have yet to discover if you can do them with rice based wrappers as effectively. They would be delicious raw with rice paper rolls though if preferred.

These seriously take a matter of minutes to throw together because I cheat! I buy a bag of pre-shredded beetroot, broccoli stem and carrot. It’s that easy! Have a look 🙂  I LOVE watching the boys eat broccoli stem and beetroot without really knowing it. But you could easily shred your own vegetables of choice for this.

Ingredients

1 pkt spring roll wrappers

1 pkt shredded veg (beetroot, broccoli stem, carrot)

1/2 cup bean shoots

2 T soy sauce (or tamari)

coconut oil spray

Heat a fry pan and toss the shredded veg and soy sauce together until warmed through.

Wrap the veg up in the spring roll wrappers as per instructions, spray with coconut oil spray (or brush if need be), and bake at 200 deg C for 20 minutes or until brown and crispy.

Enjoy!

Chocolate fudge brownies

Chocolate fudge brownie

Good news! Tomorrow (Sunday) is World Chocolate day! Oh, so many ways to celebrate!

Today’s gem is a chocolate fudge brownie recipe- gluten free, vegan, sugar free goodness. I put almonds in it but honestly, if I had pistachios or hazelnuts on hand I probably would have used that! This is delicious! And guilt free. It is best cold – and goes slightly mousse-y if left out of the fridge or if not baked long enough in the first place. Either way, it wins. Enjoy!

(This recipe is adapted slightly from Femfusionfitness)

Ingredients:

15 Medjool dates (pitted)
3/4 cup hot water
1 Tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp finely ground coffee or espresso
1/2 cup raw cacao powder
1/4 cup  almond flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp  salt

Plus 1/4 cup roughly chopped nuts (add at end)

Soak the dates in hot water, coconut oil and coffee mixture. Blend the dry ingredients together and add all into a food processor and process. Stir in roughly chopped nuts of choice and press into a lined 8/8inch baking tray/dish and bake at 180 deg C for 15 minutes.

Let cool, refrigerate and enjoy for World Chocolate day! Woo!

Chocolate peppermint slice

Chocolate peppermint slice

I just adore these adaptable recipes! This is vegan, gluten free and pretty healthy in the scheme of things!

You could make this a raw slice by creating a base out of nuts/dates/cacao. Or use flour etc and bake it like I have. You could also make the middle out of a silken tofu base rather than coconut (although it will form a soft pie-like centre instead). I had a lot of trouble deciding on each layer but was happy with the result!

Had a 3 year old yapping at me for a taste so the photo was a bit rushed but it tastes good, I swear :). Hope you enjoy!

Base:

1.5 T chia seeds (chia meal if preferred)

1 T apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup  rice syrup

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

Mix together.

Add:

1 cup  nut meal (I used a combo of almonds and walnuts, processed in food processor)

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 T cacao

Mix ingredients together and press into lined baking tin. I used a 9 ” round.

Bake at 180 deg C for 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

Centre:

1 cup shredded coconut

2 tsp coconut oil, melted

1 T agave nectar

1/4 cup coconut cream, chilled

1 tsp peppermint extract (but start small and add this to taste!)

Add the coconut, oil and nectar to the food processor and process away until it begins to smooth. This takes a long time so walk away and do something else rather than watch it! It will get there! Then add the coconut cream and peppermint and mix.

Press on top of the base and refrigerate whilst making the top layer.

Top:

2 T cacao

1/4 coconut oil

2 T agave (or rice syrup)

4 squares dark chocolate, melted

Melt the coconut oil and dark chocolate and stir in the cacao and agave. Pour over the peppermint layer and set in fridge.

* You can use all dark chocolate for this or leave it out completely and add more cacao and agave. I like the combination of both but either or all options will work well.

This recipe is a combination of so many things! Each has been adapted but the base is based on the Spunky Coconut, the centre is based on Fork and Beans

Fluffiest wheat pancakes ever

Before we get to the pancakes, how about that gorgeous plate :). Made with love by my 5yo for Mothers Day. So cute – hearts, sun, rain clouds, rain, a flower and our names. Gorgeous plate to serve pancakes on 🙂 We were in a bit of a rush with this one so the photo is blurry~ Argh. But I’ll update it next time I make some.

This is a gluten alert for the non-gluten followers.

But oh my, they are the most delicious fluffiest pancakes ever. I’ve played around with a lot of pancake recipes on here and although the hazelnut pancakes are my favourite, the kids don’t like variations: they just want plain pancakes. Even if you eat animal products, if you’re one to send pikelets in a lunch box with children on any given day, many places are creating no-egg rules these days. And certainly no nuts.
So traditional pikelets are out, and the nut variations are too.

These just got the big ‘thumbs up’ from mr 3, and despite limiting gluten these days, I managed to eat THREE before even offering any. haha! (And now I’m still in recovery…) The original recipe comes from The Healthy Family and Home.

3/4 cups homemade non dairy milk
2 T white vinegar
1 cup wholemeal Atta flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon quality salt
1 T chia seeds soaked in 1/4 cup water
2 T coconut oil (melted)
1-2 T agave nectar or rice syrup

Mix the vinegar in with the non dairy milk and set aside for 5 minutes to sour.

Mix the dry ingredients together and stir well.

Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.

Scoop 1/4 cup measurements on a lightly greased pan.

Cook for 2 – 4 minutes on each side – until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Lush chocolate avocado cake

Lush chocolate avocado cake

My beautiful boys wanted to make me a cake for mothers day (any excuse!). Luckily I had a healthy recipe I wanted to play with so we gave it a go! This cake is quite lush and rich. It is amazing to think it has no gluten, no dairy, no eggs, no refined sugar and no nuts. It is the perfect cake if you are concerned about allergies – or to take to a party where you want something that anyone and everyone can eat! Diabetics, vegans, coeliacs, …anyone I’m sure!

The boys chose a love-heart shaped cake tin that was my grandmothers (appropriate for the day!) and we sprinkled the top with naturally coloured sprinkles (Yes, don’t mess such a lovely cake up with artificial colours! 🙂 ) (I’m not sure about the GF nature of the sprinkles – maybe check that if you have an allergy/intolerance before using them).

Once again, this is my GF flour mix that I like and works well for me. I don’t have a desire to change it at this point. If you want to use gluten, just substitute a wholemeal wheat flour (I recommend Atta flour because it is wholemeal but very fine and not ‘bitty’)- or if you don’t have these GF flours, try a GF premix. I’m sure it will still hold up. Whatever you do, if you follow this recipe, don’t leave out the starch. The blend of GF flours needs the starch to function. (You can buy it in health food shops). You can substitute potato starch instead if you prefer but don’t mix this up with potato flour! That one won’t work.

My last little note is to try not to skimp on the chocolate. 70% cocoa minimum, buy Fair trade and don’t buy any chocolate where sugar is the first ingredient :). Loving Earth is my favourite brand at the moment but it’s not easily sourced where we live. Green and Blacks is a good alternative and you can find it in any supermarket.

My 5yo was pretty funny when I got him to mash the avocado. He raised one eyebrow (just like his mother :)) and said in disbelief “We’re going to put THIS in it?”. Yes, sweetness, we are! And it’s good!

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice flour

½ cup millet flour

½ cup tapioca starch

1/3 cup coconut palm sugar

1/3 cup cacao powder

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

80 gms 70% dark chocolate (dairy free)

2/3 cup freshly brewed coffee

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/3 cup rice syrup

1 small very ripe avocado, mashed (or 1/2 a big one)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup coconut cream

 

For the ganache:

20 gms dark chocolate (dairy free)

1/2 cup coconut milk

 

Instructions

1. Grease and line cake tin. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Place a small saucepan over low heat and add in dark chocolate and freshly brewed coffee. Whisk until chocolate is completely melted, then remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cacao powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
4. In a separate large bowl, beat together mashed avocado, oil, rice syrup and vanilla extract until smooth. Whisk in cooled chocolate mixture and coconut cream. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Your cake batter should be pretty thick. If it’s too thick, add in an extra tablespoon or two of milk.
5. Pour batter into prepared tin and smooth top. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until tester inserted into center comes out almost clean, with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool in pan an hour on a wire rack before flipping over and transferring to wire rack to finish cooling completely.
6. To make chocolate ganache: In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add in coconut milk and chopped chocolate. Watch carefully and whisk until chocolate is completely melted. If you want a thinner ganache, add in more coconut cream. Let stand for a few minutes then immediately spoon ganache over cake. Top ganache with sprinkles, more chocolate chips, nuts, or another topping of choice. Cut into 12 slices and serve immediately!

 

Thanks ever so much to Ambitious kitchen whose recipe I used and adapted.