sweet miscellany

So it’s my berfday and I made myself a cake. Yes, I made my own birthday cake. I haven’t actually tried it yet (I will be enjoying it tonight), but based on the fact that I stood in my kitchen for 10 minutes licking every last bit of the batter out of the bowl and off of my fingers, I’m betting that it will be delicious.

It has whole grains, and cocoa, and beets. Beets??!!!???!? Yes, beets. My fingers (and kitchen) were stained pink temporarily for the sake of this cake and I didn’t even care. What’s life without a little color, right?

To make it fancy, I baked it in a bundt pan I got for Christmas, and then made a thick glaze out of organic coconut milk and organic powdered sugar. If you have a birthday coming up, or a hankering for cake, make this and tell me how you like it 🙂

Chocolate Beet Cake with Coconut Milk Glaze
this cake works well in a bundt pan, but if you don’t have one, divide the batter between two regular round cake pans and decrease your baking time to about 30 minutes

for the cake:
1 cup organic unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup organic spelt flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
2 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1 cup grapeseed oil, safflower oil, or extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup wildflower honey
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 medium-sized beets

for the glaze:
1 cup organic powdered sugar
about 3 to 4 tbsp organic coconut milk

Preheat your oven to 350F and grease/flour your pans. Scrub the beets, slice them into halves, and steam them until just tender. This took me around 10 or 15 minutes. Once they are tender, remove them and let them cool until they can be handled. Grate the beets into a colander, making sure to discard the skin. Leave the beets in the colander to drain some of their juices while you prepare the rest of the cake. Right before adding them to the batter, gently squeeze the beets with a paper towel to release more of their juices.

In a large bowl, sift the flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine all of the dry ingredients and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer), beat together the oil, honey, and maple syrup until combined. Next, add the eggs one at a time, beating after each until they are completely incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and beat until everything is combined. With the mixer on low, gradually beat in the dry ingredients until everything is just combined (make sure not to over-beat!!). Remove the bowl from the mixer and gently fold the beets in by hand until evenly distributed in the batter. Pour the batter into your prepared pan(s) and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes until the cake springs back when touched and a tested inserted in the middle comes out clean. If you are using 2 regular round cake pans, start testing for doneness around 30 minutes.

Once you remove the cake from the oven, let it cool in the bundt pan for about 30 minutes, then invert it onto a plate or platter and let it cool completely before serving.

To make the glaze, whisk together the coconut milk and powdered sugar until it comes to a thick, glaze consistency. If it is too thick, add more coconut milk. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar. You want the glaze to be thick, but still pourable. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake. Enjoy!

Let me start this post by saying last year at this time, I was just starting to explore gluten free/vegan baking. It was around the time I seriously starting thinking about opening my etsy shop (and eventually a brick & mortar bakery). I also became serious about eating healthier, not just as a fad or a diet, but for life. Since then I have created gluten free, vegan, and sometimes both gluten free & vegan cookies and treats for my shop. In my opinion, it’s become rather easy for me to make a gluten free/vegan cookie. I cannot really say the same for cakes.

Cakes are a whole different beast altogether. Gluten gives baked goods the proper viscosity and rise they need. When you remove this, along with eggs from a cake, you have to make up for it elsewhere. It can be done and is done all the time, however; most recipes call for large amounts of starch or not-so-appealing gluten free flours like white rice and garbanzo bean. The reason for this is that starches (and bean flours) bind well just like gluten. My problem with this is starches in large quantities freak me out. The thought of eating a starch cake doesn’t really make my mouth water. So, I had to figure out a way to make a gluten free/vegan cake without a large amount of starch. This involved a lot of research and recipe reading. And, for this recipe, it involved 3 failed attempts, with sunken in tops and weird oily and crumbly textures. It wasn’t until I finally tried using ratios and measuring out ingredients by weight that I had success. I literally did a happy dance when these came out of the oven merely because they had lovely puffed tops instead of ugly craters. I have this link to thank for the ratios/weights and a great starting point for any cakes/muffins/cupcakes in the future.

The wonderful thing about these muffins is that you can use any combination of gluten free flours and starches that you want and still produce a lovely muffin. As long as it’s 70% flour by weight and 30% starches by weight, your muffin will be lovely. As much as I passed right by weighted recipes in the past, they really are more accurate. To make a long story short, although it may be too late for that already, buy an inexpensive kitchen scale and make these muffins. You won’t be sorry and your tummy will thank you for it 🙂

Gluten Free/Vegan Meyer Lemon & Lavender Scented Muffins

Makes 6 to 7 muffins, depending on the size of your muffin or cupcake tins. The easiest way to measure the flour is to put a bowl on the scale, hit tare to bring it down to zero, then add the flours/starches.

175 grams gluten free flour mix (I did 50 grams millet flour, 50 grams sorghum flour, 22 grams amaranth flour, and 53 grams arrowroot)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp baking powder
90 grams organic raw sugar
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
2 good pinches of dried, culinary grade lavender
the zest of 1 meyer lemon
1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water
100 grams rice milk (you can use any type of milk here)
50 grams coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a muffin/cupcake tin with 6 liners. Mix the ground flax seed and water together in a small bowl and set aside to thicken.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, starches, baking soda, baking powder, raw sugar, sea salt, lavender, and lemon zest until well combined. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the thickened flax mixture, the rice milk, and the coconut oil until very well combined and uniform.

Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until everything is mixed in and no flour remains. Fill the lined cups about 3/4 of the way (you may end up have 7 muffins, depending on the size of your tin). Do not overfill the cups or the batter will spill onto the tin and your muffins won’t be too attractive. Bake the muffins at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes until the top springs back when touched and a tester comes out clean. Enjoy!

*Serving Ideas: these are quite delicious plain, but if you want to make them a bit more elegant, you can serve them with a dusting of organic powdered sugar or make a glaze out of about 1/4 cup organic powdered sugar and a couple of teaspoons of meyer lemon juice.