If you have a food intolerance, you may feel deprived of delicious home-baked cakes and pastries. Many people think it's tricky to successfully bake without including dairy, gluten or wheat.
Not true! Cake Angels is an award-winning British bakery set up by Julia Thomas, whose delicious cakes taste so good you won't believe they are all free from butter, cream and wheat flour.
Julia has put her recipes into a mouthwatering new cookbook Cake Angels: Gluten Wheat & Dairy Free Cakes published by HarperCollins. More than 80 easy-to-follow recipes take you step-by-step through the secrets of successful free-from baking with information on ingredients, helpful tips and plenty of down-to-earth advice. All the recipes work really well using butter and normal plain and self-raising flours too.
Click here for a chance to win one of 10 copies of Cake Angels in a Zest online giveaway.
Julia shares one of her favourite recipes here:
Passion fruit & lemon slice
Julia Thomas says, 'I just love these mouthwateringly good slices. They smell and taste divine, which means I never have any left for the next day!'
Makes 16 squares
Preparation: 30 minutes Baking: 40 minutes Cooling: 30 minutes Freeze? Yes
for the base
120g (4½oz) dairy-free spread
60g (2¼oz) sifted icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
185g (6½oz) wheat- and gluten-free plain flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Icing sugar, for dusting
for the filling
90g (3oz) wheat- and gluten-free plain flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp gluten-free baking powder
65g (2½oz) desiccated coconut
3 large eggs, beaten and at room temperature
225g (8oz) caster sugar
170g (6oz) passion fruit pulp
(approx. 7 passion fruit)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
equipment
18 x 27cm (7 x 10½ inch) shallow baking tin
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4. Grease and line the baking tin with baking parchment, leaving a couple of centimetres over at the ends to help lift the slice out of the pan when baked.
- To make the pastry base, use a hand-held electric mixer on a high setting to cream the dairy-free spread, icing sugar and vanilla extract together for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Fold in the flour, xanthan gum and lemon zest with a large metal spoon until you form a soft ball of dough. Using your fingers, press the soft dough evenly into the baking tin.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden.
- Whilst the pastry base is baking, you can make the filling. Sift the flour, xanthan gum and baking powder together in a big mixing bowl, then add the coconut.
- In another bowl, lightly beat the eggs and sugar together before adding the passion fruit pulp, lemon juice and lemon zest. Fold in the flour mixture with a large metal spoon until combined.
- Remove the pastry base from the oven. Immediately spoon the passion fruit mixture evenly over the pastry base and bake in the oven for another 20 minutes or until firm to the touch.
- Remove the baked slice from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Once cooled, dust with icing sugar and cut into slices. Store in an airtight container for up to five days.
Tip: You need to persevere with folding the flour into the icing sugar and dairy-free spread mixture. It will eventually form a nice moist dough.
