Gluten Free birthday cake :)

Happy birthday love of my life 🙂 My wonderful husband’s birthday was this week and we baked him a wonderful Gluten Free sponge cake. It was great fun… Usually when you bake gluten free cakes, they don’t rise that well, but this cake did. It started off as a little bit of cake batter, in less than halve the tin we used and it filled the whole pan in the end.

I was so happy with the results we got… We also used butter for the icing rather than margarine because my husband loves butter. It was much thicker and harder than the margarine icing, but just add a spoon full of water and this will fix it very nicely.

We had a wonderful day together as a family and the children are still eating the cake. They decided that the gluten free cake is MUCH nicer than the regular cake with gluten. Wonderful for us all 🙂

Cup cakes

This mixture can be used to either bake one large cake or cup cakes. Depends on what you are in the mood for… This sponge cake is very light and tastes wonderful with the orange.

Ingredients:
1 cup of margarine or butter
1 ½ cups of sugar
1 cup of corn flour(maizina)
1 cup of milk
4 eggs
2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of grated orange peel

Method:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Mix the corn flour with ½ a cup of milk and add.
3. Beat the eggs very well and add to the mixture.
4. Sieve the dry ingredients together and add, taking turns with adding the milk as well.
5. Lastly add the vanilla and orange peel. Mix well and pour the mixture in a round cake pan.
6. Bake in a pre-heated Bak at 180°C for about 50 minutes until light brown.

If you are baking the cup cakes, you shouldn’t need to bake them for longer than about 20 minutes. Decorate them in any colour you feel like… Let the children help 🙂

If you live in Vereeniging in South Africa and want to order cup cakes instead, why not visit our Ouma’s Cookies site 🙂

Kolwyntjies

Hierdie mengsel kan gebruik word om een groot koek te bak en kan versier word met botterversiering en “hundreds and thousands”. Dieselfde mengsel kan ook gebruik word om individuele “cup cakes” mee te bak.

Bestandele:
1 koppie botter/margarine
1 ½ koppies suiker
1 koppie mielieblom (maizina)
1 koppie melk
4 eiers
2 koppies koekmeel
2 teelepels bakpoeier
‘n Knippie sout
1 teelepel vanilla geursel
1 teelepel gerasperde lemoenskil

Metode:
1. Room die botter en suiker saam.
2. Meng die mielieblom met ‘n ½ koppie melk en voeg by.
3. Klits die eiers baie goed en voeg by die mengsel.
4. Sif die droë bestandele saam en voeg om die beurt met die res van die melk by.
5. Voeg vanilla en lemoenskil laaste by. Meng goed en gooi in ‘n ronde of vierkantige
pan.
6. Bak in ‘n voor-verhitte oond teen 180°C vir omtrent 50 minute tot ligbruin.

Indien jy kolwyntjies bak kan die bak tyd aangepas word. Behoort nie langer as so 20 minute te bak nie. Versier sommer met enige kleur versiersuiker 🙂

As jy in Vereeniging Suid-Africa bly en jy wil eerder kolwyntjies koop, besoek gerus ons Ouma’s Cookies webblad…

Klopdisselboom

As ek eerlik moet wees is daar nie VREESLIK baie wat ek kan onthou van wat ek op Laerskool geleer het nie… My brein absorbeer Inligting, dit weet ek beslis, maar wat bly en wat nie is nogal ‘n interessante konsep. Daar is ook baie Inligting in my brein wat ek weet, maar kan vir jou glad nie vertel wanneer of waar ek dit geleer het nie.

Daar is egter iets wat in my brein vasgesteek het toe ek dit gehoor het. Op Laerskool het ons die wonderlikste skoolhoof gehad. Meneer van Zyl was ‘n lieflike man. Hy het altyd so sag met die kinders gewerk, baie geduldig maar tog ook streng en ferm en baie goed gesproke. Hy het altyd die wonderlikste woorde gebruik en die mooiste suiwerste Afrikaans gepraat…

Ek onthou nog die oggend toe ons op die aantrevlak aangetree het in die oggend voor skool begin het. Ons het soos altyd geopen met gebed en Meneer van Zyl het met ons gesels. Hy het vir ons vertel dat dit klopdisselboom met hom gaan. ‘n Groot woord wat ek nie verstaan het nie, maar hy het vir ons mooi verduidelik.

As dit so goed met jou gaan dat dit nie beter kan gaan nie, dan gaan dit klopdisselboom. Dink net… so goed dat dit nie beter kan gaan nie. Hierdie woord het van daardie oomblik af in my kop vasgesteek en ja, as ek aan die woord dink dan glimlag ek sommer breed van oor tot oor.

Elke oggend as mense my vra hoe dit gaan dan sê ek goed dankie, en omtrent 2 sekondes na my antwoord dink ek, ek moes gesê het klopdisselboom  So volgende keer as iemand vir jou vra hoe gaan dit, bly eers stil vir 2 sekondes, glimlag en vertel dat dit gaan klopdisselboom dankie. Dan kan jy ook verduidelik wat dit beteken.

Hierdie is ‘n wonderlike mondvol woord wat net heerlik lekker oor jou tong sal rol. Hoe gaan dit vandag met jou? Met my gaan dit sommer klopdisselboom baie dankie!!!!!

Organic Peanut butter

Do you also get angry when you walk down the isles of the supermarkets and all you can find is processed foods with colours, flavourings and additives? Most of the time you don’t even know what they are using or where it comes from. Is it bad for your health, how does it influence your children?

Since my husband has been diagnosed as a celiac, our choices of products to purchase has shrunk by more than 90%, so we have had to learn to read EVERY single label, find out what exactly goes into all these funny words they add to our foods. Living in South Africa is even HARDER because they do not have to indicate ingredients in products and even if they do, no one are checking up on the companies…

So we have had to go back to the beginning, the basics… Everything we buy is fresh. Fruits, vegetables, plain meats (nothing processed or with spices) and stocks we make ourselves. I know it is VERY inconvenient, but so much healthier for us. At least we know exactly what goes into our food, every single day…

So when I found this 100% natural organic peanut butter with coconut oil, we tried it and it is lovely. Tastes totally different from the peanut butter you purchase on the shelves of supermarkets.

We sell them as well, so if you are interested, please visit our site Natural Choices. The best part is that it is organic, gluten free and produced in South Africa 🙂

Cold, colder, coldest….

You won’t believe it if I tell you that 2 weekends ago we went to watch out little boy play a football match at 11:30 and we had sunburn, at the end of the autumn I have to add 🙂 And then this weekend just gone, we were so cold we could not warm up…

Friday it started raining, continuing right through Saturday and part of Sunday. We do not usually experience such soft rain throughout the day during the start of the winter here in Gauteng. We have a summer rainfall and the days get very cold if the sun doesn’t shine.

Our winters are lovely… It is VERY cold at night, at the moment it is about 1 degree Celcius (but winter is not here yet). At around 9 the sun is shining in it’s full power and the earth starts warming up. If you sit in the house in the sunshine, you can almost get away with wearing a summer’s shirt I tell you 🙂

It warms up to about 19 degrees Celcius in the daytime and then when the sun goes down around 5:30, you feel it. It becomes instantly cold and you have to go indoors. But this weekend with the rain, the sun did not come out (which does NOT happen often, I have to add). It was around 5 minimum and 8 degrees Celcius maximum. Not used to it. No double glazing or any kind of heating in homes, believe me, you feel it. We took out our blankets to keep warm.

Kiddies have the most beautiful warm water bags for their hands. They are lovely and warm and they take it to school in the mornings. They love it!!!!

Let us know your winter experiences, and don’t forget to bake PANCAKES!!!!!!!!! Click on the link to see the recipe…

What is a cup?

Sometimes when you read a recipe and they talk about cups, what do they mean? I grew up with cups, tablespoons and teaspoons. Everything from liquids to flour are measured in this way and that is why I wrote all my recipes in my recipe book like that.

Since I can remember my mother has had a cup in her cupboard. Pink on the outside and white on the inside with a little ear to pick the cup up with. I believe it used to be part of a tea set a loooooooong time ago 🙂 If you see the cup you will understand what I mean… It has a chip on the top and reminds me of little Chip in Beauty and the Beast… This cup must have experienced so much in it’s lifetime.

This is what everyone should have. A cup used for baking and cooking. Something you can grab that you know for certain is going to result in the correct measurement every single time. All you need to do is measure 250ml of water and add it to the cup. If the cup is full to the top, then this is the cup you should use for measuring. Even if you then have to measure 1 cup of flour, it will still be that specific cup (that holds 250ml of liquid) you need to use.

Go on, get yours today and keep it safe in your baking cupboard…

Chocolate mousse

How many of you sometimes wake up craving chocolate? I am sure most of you can say yes to that statement. I certainly can…. Then a wonderful recipe to try will be a chocolate mousse….

Here is a very easy to follow recipe and it is very rich, so add a few scoops of ice cream with it.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup of cream
1/2 cup of cocoa
1/2 cup of icing sugar
50g of dark chocolate

Method:
1. Beat the eggs together for about 5 minutes. Add the cocoa and icing sugar and mix.
2. Beat the cream and keep in a separate bowl.
3. Melt the chocolate and add to the egg mixture.
4. Add the cream last and fold everything well together.
5. Place spoons full of mixture in wine glasses (to look pretty) and put in the fridge to set.
8. Add a scoop of ice cream on top when serving.

Eat and enjoy.

Sosaties

Aaaaahhh….. sosaties is a wonderful invention. What can be easier than taking meat, cubing it and putting it on a stick… Only work that goes into it is the marinade (and that is very fast) and off you go.

We decided to have sosaties last week but it was a bit wet outside, so instead of having a braai (BBQ) as usual, I decided to make the sosaties and grill them in the oven.

I know it is not the same as cooking on the braai, but it had to do and it sure did. I put together a quick marinade. Have a look at this:

Ingredients:
Chicken cubes (we used 5 chicken breasts)
Red pepper (I prefer the red to the green, tastes a bit sweeter)
Onions
4 tablespoons of olive oil
Squeeze the juice of 1 large lemon into the oil
1 tablespoon of soy sauce (we use a gluten free sauce)
Salt (to taste)
Fresh parsley, finely chopped

Mix everything together and add the chicken, peppers and onions. Let it marinade for at least 2 hours, longer if you have time.

Remember to soak the sticks you are going to use in water beforehand, it stops the sticks from burning too much.

Place the chicken, peppers and onions on the sticks and grill in the oven. It doesn’t take too long. I heated the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Make your own and show us your photos 🙂

Rainy day…

What a wonderful rainy day outside. This morning we woke up at 5:45 in the morning to get ready for the day ahead. It took us by surprise when it was still dark outside, considering it is still summer… but we soon realised that it was very cloudy. Although, cloudy is not really the word…

If you look up at the sky, you can only see a grey cover. There is NO blue sky to be seen, not even a little piece as small as a toothpick :). It does not happen that often. In the beginning of summer it was so dry we had water restrictions and the Vaal Dam was under 25% full (which meant water would run out in 7 days), but it did start raining a little bit at a time and this morning we were very blessed.

This is called pancake weather. Soft drizzling on the roof, no thunder, no lightning, just cloud cover, rain and darkness… All of you South Africans out there, no matter where you are, will know that this means PANCAKES!!!. Nothing nicer than baking pancakes and sprinkling cinnamon sugar on top. You need at least about 5 pancakes each (for me it is more like 10!!!)

We would eat the pancakes faster than my mother would be able to bake them when we were little. She would bake and bake and if there were 2 left for her she was surprised. She ate as she baked and at least had some of them 🙂

Why not bake and send us photos or tell us about your day 🙂

Check out our pancake recipe in English.

If you would like to view the recipe in Afrikaans, have a read at this link..