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.

Peanut Butter Granola (Secret Recipe Club)

Secret Recipe Club time! This month I was assigned Curious Cuisiniere by cute couple Sarah and Tim! Their love of food really comes across on their blog and I had a great time exploring their site and bookmarking lots of recipes.

When I came time to choose I actually couldn't decide and ended up making two and funny thing is, both recipes contain peanut butter. Sarah mentions eating peanut butter straight from the jar and while I haven't done that (yet) I do love my peanut butter!

The first recipe I made was the African Sweet Potato Peanut Soup. Smooth soups always go down better at our place so I added extra stock and blended it. It was absolutely delicious and a real winner but unfortunately I didn't get a decent photo.

The second recipe I chose was the Peanut Butter Granola and it was awesome. I've been making homemade granola for ages and I've done chocolate, gluten free and ginger-spiced granolas among others, but it never occurred to me to use peanut butter.

I made a few minor changes to the recipe like swapping the honey for rice malt syrup to make it fructose free. I also left out the whole peanuts to make it child-friendly and then used crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth to give some extra crunchy texture.

3 of the 4 of us absolutely loved it but weirdly, my PB obsessed 3 year old didn't like it. Kids!

My only complaint is that it didn't make enough so next time I will definitely be making a double batch.

Great recipe, thanks Sarah and Tim!

Peanut Butter Granola
Adapted from Curious Cuisiniere

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup natural crunchy peanut butter
3 tbs rice malt syrup
2 tbs water
1/8 ts salt

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C / 325 degrees F. Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside.

Place the oats in a large bowl. Place the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until smooth and well combined. Pour over the oats and mix well. Tip the mixture into the prepared pan and press down (this will give you lovely clumpy granola which you can break up later).

Bake for 20 minutes then remove from the oven to break up the clumps. Bake for a further 20 minutes breaking up the clumps once during that time.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

An InLinkz Link-up

Choc Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie

We love our breakfast smoothies around here. In fact if the boys are being a bit naughty at bedtime the thought of maybe not getting a smoothie the next morning is usually enough to settle them down!

As I am still off dairy I usually make a smoothie just for me while the boys will have the same as my husband. After trying lots of different milk alternatives I am thrilled to say that my tummy is loving rice milk. I really like the Vitasoy one that is enriched with chickpeas and very high in protein. It is quite sweet (although unsweetened) and a perfect base for a smoothie.

This smoothie is rich and sweet but packed with goodness and is a great start to the day. You won't be hungry for a while after drinking this for breakfast.

Have a great weekend!

Choc Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie
Recipe by me

1 cup rice milk

1 small banana
1 ts raw cacao
1/2 ts vanilla extract
1 tbs chia seeds
1 tbs smooth natural peanut butter
handful of ice

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Makes 1 (big) serve.

Breakfast Bars

Lately it's been really hard to fill up my kids. At 3 and almost 5 these boys eat a LOT.  Even my 5 month old who has just started on solids has already eaten kilos of fruit and vegetable purees. Heaven help us when they're teenagers!!!

I spend a lot of time looking for new recipes for snacks and quick meals that will fill them up for longer. My main criteria are high protein, low/no sugar and wholegrain. I've been reading Bianca's Wholefood Simply blog for ages but last week I splurged and bought her gorgeous cookbook of the same name. It is a treasure trove of favourites from the blog and so beautifully photographed and put together. The boys spent a good half an hour last night before bed flicking through and deciding what they would like me to make.

For me these breakfast bars were an immediate winner in terms of both ingredients and being so easy to make. My boys loved them for afternoon tea with a glass of milk and it keeps them going until dinner.

Breakfast Bars
Very slightly adapted from Wholefood Simply

1 cup raw macadamias
1 cup dessicated coconut
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 ts vanilla extract
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a loaf pan with baking paper and set aside.

If you have a high speed blender or food processor simply throw in all the ingredients and blitz until smooth. If you think your blender would struggle (like mine did), use it to process the nuts then simply mix with the remaining ingredients in a bowl.

Tip the mix into the prepared pan, smooth the top and bake for approx 25 minutes or until it is golden around the edges and skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool on a wire rack then slice into bars and enjoy!

Spelt Quick Bread

A quick post about a quick bread! Sorry, bad joke there. Anyway while it has been radio silence on the blog lately I have actually been cooking and baking a lot but never seeming to find the time to post. I do have a lot of things photographed that I will get to when I can.

This morning though I wanted to bake something healthy for a late breakfast and stumbled across this quick bread. Just a handful of basic ingredients, 5 minutes to mix and 30 minutes later I was enjoying a few slices topped with natural peanut butter and a drizzle of rice malt syrup. The perfect Saturday breakfast.

Spelt Quick Bread
Very slightly adapted from Anja's Food 4 Thought

1 1/2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 ts salt
1 ts bicarbonate of soda
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, divided
1 cup rice milk
2 ts apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Line a loaf pan with baking paper and set aside.

Place the vinegar in a 1 cup measure then fill with rice milk then allow to stand.

Add the dry ingredients (but only half the pumpkin seeds) to a large bowl and stir together. Pour in the rice milk and vinegar and mix well to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, sprinkle the remaining seeds over the top and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning out. Delicious served warm from the oven or you can slice, freeze and toast to enjoy another day.