Gooey Chocolate Icing (dairy free, sugar free, vegan)

Here we are, a couple of days into our (mostly) grain free, sugar free, dairy free challenge, and I realize I'm going to have to make a birthday cake for my youngest that will not make her want to live permanently at Grandma's house! What to do? She had asked for a plain chocolate cake, which I quickly agreed to a few days ago, thinking I'd just whiz up our favourite, quick chocolate cake in the Thermomix (Cyndi O'Meara's Chocolate Cake from her "Changing Habits, Changing Lives Cookbook", made with spelt flour and rice-almond milk). Sigh. Couldn't do that, has grains in it. I thought about making the Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies in a cake tin, but I didn't have any hazelnuts. I couldn't make the Flourless Chocolate Espresso Cake because it has lots of chocolate in it - too much sugar. Torte Caprese? No, way too much sugar! Hmmm... So I decided to make a chocolate cake based on my Flourless Pecan Cake recipe instead. 

I had some leftover ground almonds, so I chucked them in, added some pecans and started grinding them up... then realized I didn't have any coconut cream! And so a new recipe was born. It has some pretty cool changes - a couple of surprise ingredients which help to cut down the Rapadura to 40g, and keep it moist and rich. I'll share the recipe soon, as I'm still tweaking it, because I want to be sure it's 'just right' before I post it for you all to try! (You never can have too many chocolate cake recipes, right?)

Anyway, I digress. What I wanted to say was after making this grain free chocolate cake, I decided it really would be better with some icing. And surely my eight year old wouldn't argue if I put some icing on her 'plain chocolate cake'? I'd been meaning to work out another dairy free, sugar free icing that didn't involve margerine (ick, one of my pet hates!) or chocolate pieces (because you don't always have chocolate on hand, especially if you have a husband like mine who steals it and leaves the empty packet in the fridge so you don't realize!)... and anyway, I couldn't use chocolate unless it was my healthy homemade one, because we're avoiding sugar. So, with some internet research and a bit of imaginative tweaking, I came up with this simple, delicious recipe! Hope you like it as much as we did. (Yep, it's all gone. At least it will be when I get back into the kitchen. :D )

Makes enough icing for one 20cm round cake (spread thickly!)

1. Grind cashews for 10 seconds, speed 9, until fine:

- 100g raw cashews*

2. Add remaining ingredients and mix at speed 6 for 30 seconds, scrape down, add a little more water if needed, and mix another 30 seconds until smooth:

- 3 fresh pitted dates

- 20g raw cacao powder

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 20g pure maple syrup

- 20g filtered water

Spread the icing thickly on your cake and enjoy, guilt free!! 

* Next time I'll try soaking the cashews for half an hour first, then grind up all the ingredients at once. This might make a smoother icing. I was too impatient to try it this time!

Grain Free Sultana Spice Bread

Did you know that if you're suffering from bloating, fibromyalgia, headaches, exhaustion, hay fever, sinus problems, brain fog and weight problems it could very well be all the bread you're eating? I know that when I eat a lot of bread, I have less energy, and my allergies start playing up - even if it's my healthy, homemade, low gluten breads. So I try not to over do it with bread.

Today I decided we needed to be a bit more proactive about getting rid of the coughs, colds and sniffles that have been plaguing our family lately! Our yearly youth camp is coming up in a week and a half, and it would be awful if the kids were sick for that. And I can't afford to be sick either as I'm cooking at camp... So for the next two weeks, breads and most grains, all dairy, and most sugars will be strictly off limits! (I'll still use some natural sweeteners like raw honey, dates, a little rapadura, pure maple syrup, and stevia, but will cut down on them.) And of course we'll be avoiding additives, preservatives and colours as usual.

I've asked on my Quirky Cooking Facebook Page if anyone else wants to join me in getting rid of breads, dairy and refined sugars for two weeks, to see if it makes a difference for them too. We're going to share our menus each day, and hopefully recipes too, to help inspire each other. Do any of you want to join us?

Here's what we had today:

Breakfast: Boiled jacket potatoes (organic) with homemade mayo; fruit

Morning Tea: Fruit salad with berry sorbet

Lunch: Leftover pasta e fagioli warmed up in the varoma (it was made with rice & corn pasta, but we needed to finish it off)

Afternoon Tea: Grain free sultana spice bread (recipe below!) and strawberries (loving strawberry season!)

Dinner: Grain free, dairy free lasagne and coleslaw with homemade mayo

The lasagne was a hit! Instead of pasta, I used thinly sliced eggplant, as I had a few in my vege box. I salted them, let them sit for a while in the Varoma, rinsed them, then steamed them in the Varoma while the bolognese sauce was cooking in the Thermomix bowl.

Once it was all cooked (about 25 mins) I layered the eggplant and bolognese sauce in a baking dish and topped it with a dairy free 'cheese' sauce, made from 500g rice-almond milk, 2 Tblspns (or so) nutritional yeast flakes, 30g macadamia oil, 1 tsp vege stock paste and 40g cornflour - cooked at 90 degrees for 7 mins, speed 4. Then I popped it in the oven, turned oven on to 180, and dashed out the door to a demo! When I got home there was only the tiniest bit left (2 litres of bolognese sauce and 3 eggplants, plus 'cheese' sauce!!)... Apparently the kids LOVED it! So we'll definitely be having that one again. :) (By the way, they did leave me a little bit, and I loved it too!)

Anyway, if you'd like to share some grain free, dairy free, naturally sweetened ideas (or check out others' ideas), please come on over to my facebook page. The more the merrier! :)

How to make Grain Free Sultana Spice Bread
This bread is based on the Pecan Bread I made a few weeks ago. Spicy, naturally sweetened and delicious, even without any butter!

1. Grind up in Thermomix on speed 8 for 10 seconds:

- 200g raw almonds

2. Add the pecans and chop on speed 5 for 6 seconds:
- 120g raw pecans (or use hazelnuts for a low salicylate version)
   Remove the ground nuts to a bowl and set aside.

3. Place in the Thermomix bowl the following ingredients, and mix on speed 6 for 10 seconds:
- 60g coconut butter
- 1 apple, quartered (no need to peel)
- 5 large (or 4 very large) free range eggs
- 50g macadamia oil (or grapeseed, or other light oil)
- 1 tbspn lemon juice (or 2 tsp apple cider vinegar)
- 3/4 tsp bicarb soda
- pinch of fine sea salt
- 1 Tblspn ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 50g raw honey (optional)

4. Scrape down sides and add the ground nuts back in to the mixture, with the sultanas, and mix for a few more seconds on speed 6:
- 100g sultanas

5. Pour into the lined tin and bake at 160 degrees for an hour or so, until risen and browned; a skewer poked down into the centre of the bread will come out clean when it's ready.

6. Let the bread cool for 10 minutes before removing carefully from the tin. Pull it up with the paper so you don't break it. It will firm up as it cools.

Note: If you won't use it within a day or two, it can be sliced thinly, frozen in loose layers, then when completely frozen, wrapped and kept frozen to use a slice at a time.

We'll be having what's left as toast for breakfast, with some homemade strawberry jam. Yum!