Friday, January 30, 2009

Recipe: Djinn's AMAZING Instant Whip Fairy Cakes

This evening I've been doing a spot of experimental bakery. (I'd run out of butter and milk!)  I came up with a cake batter that tastes exactly like Chocolate Instant Whip!!!!  

I used this basic recipe as my guide.

These cakes have a very light texture, not too sweet, just chocolatey enough.  Enjoy!

Djinn's AMAZING Instant Whip Fairy Cakes
Makes six small cakes

25g gluten-free self-raising flour
25g cocoa power (I like Cadbury's Bournville)
50g corn oil
50g xylitol
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsps plain yoghurt

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.  Line a muffin tin with bun cases.  In a mixing bowl beat the oil and  xylitol until pale and fluffy.  Add the beaten egg, a little at a time.  Whisk to incorporate with oil and xylitol mixture.  Beat in vanilla essence.  Sift flour into bowl and fold into mixture.  Add the yoghurt.  Sift in cocoa powder and fold until well combined.  Spoon into bun cases and cook for 12 minutes in the centre of the oven.  Remove and place on a cooling rack for a few mins. Tuck in!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Just browsing the web and found your site. Two of my children have just been advised to follow the candida diet. I'm interested in the whole sweetener thing. We have been told to cut out all sugar(including fruit)as well as artificial sweeteners. So, whilst I can bake soda bread for them, it's really boring with nothing but butter! Any comments or suggestions gratefully received. Kate

Djinn said...

Hi Kate, and thanks for your query. I don't profess to be any sort of expert on candida: I can only described my own experiences. I presume your children have seen a naturopath? If so, you should ask them for advice. Certainly, when I started the diet, I was advised to avoid fruit for the first couple of weeks. Then I reintroduced apples and pears, and a little while later bananas and other fruit. I still go easy on dried fruit (concentrated fruit sugars) and dilute fruit juice, but otherwise I can get away with it. I would be very surprised if your naturopath completely excluded fruit for ever. In that case I would suggest you found a new practitioner, to be honest!

Re, sweeteners. As I'm sure I've said elsewhere on this blog, I avoid synthetic sweeteners like the plague. Aspartame et al have always made me feel peculiar - light-headed, nauseous, confused. But I am quite happy to use naturally-derived sugar substitutes, like maltitol (from wheat, too much can cause a runny tummy though!) and, my personal favourite, xylitol (from birch trees), which is available quite widely these days (in the UK, at least). I have also tried fructose, but I find it less convenient for baking, as when substituting it for 'real' sugar, you have to reduce the amount you use by a third (I think). With xylitol the quantities don't change at all. You can get lots of different types of chocolate and sweeties made with maltitol, xylitol or fructose. Health food shops are worth checking out. You can even buy jam sweetened with natural fruit sugars.

However, there are also plenty of baked goods you can make using just fruit or honey. I have added some recipes to this site. You could also get hold of Barbara Cousin's books for some sugar-free cookery ideas. Again, check out the links on the left-hand side menu bar.

Hope this helps - good luck!