Sabrina is a Lifestyle, Parenting and Product Review Blogger. A Writer, Photographer, Reviewer, Home Cook, Crafter & Nature Enthusiast. You will find a bit of all those categories here on Severn Wishes Blog, Welcome to Sabrina's Lifestyle Blogging & Honest Reviews.
As most of you regular Severn Wishes readers will know, my son was born with a number of allergies. I love to cook and baking is something that I am gradually getting better at. I wanted to make up a recipe that was easy and that I could use with what I usually find in my baking cupboard. But not only that, it had to taste like proper chocolate cake. There’s nothing worse than it not resembling what you know and love!
This moist and soft chocolate cake recipe is egg free and dairy free. You could even change the flour to make it gluten free too if you like. I made it normally first, and then with gluten free baking flour when my sister (she’s coeliac) visited us, and both times it still baked as a soft sponge. Delicious! A great treat if you’re doing Veganuary this year! Why not make this Vegan delight at the end of the month? Give you a treat to look forward to!
This cake serves 10 people, you only want a small slice as it’s rich! Time to Prepare, Make and Bake is… 1 Hour 30 Minutes Preheat your Oven to a Temperature of 180’c or 360’F You will need baking parchment to line your 8″ Tin You shall need a Jug for the Sauce, one Large Bowl and one Small You will also need a Sieve, a Spoon and a Whisk And finally a Cooling Rack
Ingredients
For the Cake:
175g Flour – I used plain or a mixture of Plain and Raising, or use GF 200g Caster Sugar 50g Cocoa Powder 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract – You could use Mint Flavouring instead 240ml Tepid Water 120ml Vegetable Oil
For the Sauce to pour on top:
4 to 6 Tablespoons of Tepid Water 2 Tablespoons of Golden Syrup or Maple Syrup 2 Tablespoons of Cocoa Powder 130g of Icing Sugar
Sabrina’s Free From Chocolate Cake
Method – Making the Cake
Step 1. Sift the Flour, Cocoa Powder, Caster Sugar and Baking Soda together in a large bowl. Make sure you mix them together thoroughly to combine.
Step 2. In a small bowl mix oil, water and vanilla together and stir until mixed.
Step 3. Gradually stir your wet mix bowl into the dry ingredients. Once you have combined them use a whisk or hand processor in order to make the mixture smooth. Mix until all the liquid is combined with the dry mixture.
Step 4. Pour your smooth mixture into the lined cake tin and shake gently from side to side to make it even inside.
Step 5. Bake in the Centre of your Preheated Oven, between 26 and 32 minutes depending upon oven type. Keep an eye on your cake so that it doesn’t over bake, use a knife of skewer in the centre, when it comes out clean it’s baked.
Step 6. Once cooked gently transfer the cake to a rack so that it can cool. You don’t want to pour on your sauce until it is cooled. Make sure the cake is completely cool before serving, you don’t want your sauce running off!
Method – Making the Sauce
Step 1. Sift the cocoa powder and icing sugar together in a bowl. Mix with a spoon until combined and a brown colour over all.
Step 2. Pour the syrup of your choice and the water into the bowl, make sure you stir it immediately and keep stirring until the ingredients resemble a smooth consistency. Start with 4 Tablespoons of water, if it’s not resembling a sauce that is pour-able then you can add more, one spoonful at a time until it’s how you want it to be. It can vary on the size of the spoon you use for example. TIP: Always better to start with less water and add it gradually, if it’s too wet to start with then you’re going to be measuring out more sugar which is a consistency much more difficult to get right.
Step 3. Cover this sauce until your cake is cooled and ready to serve, cut your cake slices, plate them up and then pour the sauce on to each piece. It’s easy to make more sauce if you need it and only takes a matter of minutes!
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Thank you for coming to Severn Wishes today to read this recipe blog post. I hope you have enjoyed it. Can you please leave me a comment on this post if you try the recipe, and let me know what you think!
What makes my recipe different to others? My “Special” Curry is Free From for my family! The great thing about my recipe is that you can put any meat with it or even vegan alternatives such as Quorn with it. Whatever protein you fancy really! Even fish if you’re that way inclined! The combined flavours work well with everything, but I prefer Chicken and… Potato! Yes… you’ll see!
I use my nifty little food processor (Russel Hobbs Mini Chopper) to save chopping time but if you don’t have a processor then just chop the vegetables as small as possible with a knife and watch those fingers!
The Free From Bit! This curry recipe is DF, NF and GF and it serves 4-6 people. So many curries in the supermarkets contain dairy and nuts. Even local take away restaurants cannot guarantee things being free from certain ingredients. Our family has a wide range of allergies so I’ve learnt to cook my recipes alternatively and figure out what works without it including an allergen. This has been my best recipe to date! You can follow this and it be great for you and your family as well! Plus it’s 3 of your 5 a day!
What can you serve with it? You can serve this curry with a nice Rice, Basmati is a good choice or Pilau, and you can easily get GF rice these days, I recommend Tilda or Tesco’s own brand rice for their flavour! Naan Bread is delicious but obviously it’s not DF or GF so do be careful there! Poppadoms and Chutneys are a great accompaniment but again some of these will not be GF and some even contain Nuts! If you don’t have any allergies then you can have any of these (or all of them) with the curry! If you choose all of the above you will serve at least 6 people…
Sabrina’s Special Free From Curry Prep Time: Up To 60 Minutes Cooking Time: 90 Minutes Serves: 6 People (8 if you include side dishes)
Ingredients
500g – 600g of your chosen Protein into bite size pieces for frying
400g Tomatoes – use a tin of Plum Tomatoes for the Sauce, pop them into a food processor until smooth and a sauce like consistency, use plum will taste sweeter
1 Large Onion Diced Finely for the Sauce, you can pop this in the food processor before you prepare the tomatoes until shredded very fine
1 Large Onion Chop into bite size pieces ready for frying
2 Peppers – Chopped into short slices (Red or Yellow) ready for frying
4 Tablespoons of Tomato Puree for the Sauce
The Sauce needs to be made of the following spices and seasonings; 4 Tablespoons of Garam Masala 1 Tablespoon of Cumin 3 Tablespoons of Coriander Leaf 1 Tablespoon of Garlic 1 Tablespoon of Paprika 2 Tablespoons of Chilli Powder (Mild) (Use Hot if you can handle it) 30ml of warm water Salt and Pepper to your taste.
Oil for Frying
400g – 500g Potatoes – Cut into bite size chunks and washed
Method
Prepare all of the ingredients as stated above, diced and chopped.
You need to have a large saucepan and a frying pan warming with a little oil in each. First begin by adding the chopped onion and peppers to the frying pan. Add the tiny diced onion and some garlic to the large saucepan.
Fry off all the ingredients, once the saucepan with the diced onion is nicely caramelised, you can add the sauce ingredients from the list above and mix well. Leave the Onion and Peppers inside the Frying Pan to caramelise and then add the chicken.
Put your plum tomatoes in a food processor and then once blended add them to your saucepan. Next you’ll need to continue frying off the protein and vegetables in the frying pan until thoroughly cooked.
Add anything additional you require for the sauce, that includes the tomato puree and seasonings. Taste it before you add your meat and vegetables so you can tell if it needs more chilli or more salt and pepper.
Simmer your sauce on a low heat, adding the contents of the frying pan which should now be nicely cooked and combined in flavour. You need to continue to simmer this for at least an hour for the flavours to coat everything and for the sauce to thicken up.
Now is the perfect time to add the Potatoes! They will cook inside the sauce and do not need boiling before hand. Use fresh or tinned whatever you have at hand. Leave it to simmer for a while…
Taste test at one hour to ensure the potato are cooked and the chicken is tender, stir occasionally during this hour of cooking time to ensure it’s not getting stuck to the bottom or sides. It should gradually thicken. If you don’t think there is enough sauce when you add all the contents and mix it then add 10ml of water at a time and mix in until the sauce covers everything.
Serve immediately with Rice and any of the other sides I suggested.
Here is my curry when I served it with Pilau Rice and No Potato in this one either… you don’t have to add them it’s optional.
Thank you reading this post today, I really hope you like the look of my recipe, if you give it a go yourself then please tag me on social media to let me know and show me the end result too!
Welcome to today’s post as I discuss Free From Easter Eggs with a Taste Testing and Ingredients Comparison.
This Easter time I might be on a Dairy Free diet, but that hasn’t stopped me hunting for treats! I wanted to share my findings with you all, my opinion, product information, photo’s and all! Here is my Review of several Free From Chocolate Easter Eggs.
So I’m trying a few chocolate eggs that are known as free from, I require dairy free but a lot of these eggs come as free from several allergens. Wheat or Gluten or Dairy, most of these go together. I will be outlining Allergens and Ingredients with each egg below.
Number 1. The first egg I have is an Asda Free From Easter Egg with Chocolate Orange Flavour Disks. The pack is available for £4.00 for it’s 200g. LINK
This Egg is Vegan, Gluten Free, Wheat Free and Dairy Free. The Asda Chocolate also has No Artificial Flavours, Colours or Hydrogenated Fats.
Ingredients and Allergens Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Rice Syrup, Inulin, Coconut Oil, Rice Flour, Flavourings, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithins). Soya is the only allergen present. This Egg should be suitable for those who have Nut allergies because Nuts are not part of the ingredients. The Pack provides 6 servings. 1/6 of the pack (1 serving) Energy kJ 778, Energy kcal 186, Fat 12g, Of Which Saturates 7.1g, Carbohydrate 19g, of Which Sugars 12g Fibre 0.9g Protein 0.8g Salt 0.02g.
Egg Design – The Egg design has lines similar to tree bark or waves. It’s an appealing looking Egg and smells strongly of cocoa. It’s presented inside a piece of plastic (which says is recyclable on the packaging) with disks in a plastic bag at the base. The Egg size and pattern is view able through the mostly clear plastic which is good, you can see what you’re getting. You receive 6 Chocolate Orange disks in orange foil, this is one disk for every serving. The disks are round with lined tops. The foil from the disks is recyclable but the plastic bag they come in is not.
Egg Taste – The Egg tastes very nice, it is quite a strong cocoa taste but leaves a nice aftertaste of sweet chocolate. The sugar content is very high though, and after a couple of bites I had had enough. The Chocolate Orange disks are very tasty, they have a strong natural orange taste to them.
Egg Quality – The Easter Egg itself measures 3mm in thickness at the smallest sections and 6mm at the thickest sections. The chocolate orange disks are 5mm deep and taste great, a nice addition to this Easter Egg treat.
Egg Value – A very tasty Egg and a nice treat for anyone requiring a Free From Easter treat. I would say you get a lot for your money with this considering you get the Egg itself plus the Chocolate Orange disks. Because it’s so sweet you wouldn’t usually eat all of this Egg in one sitting, meaning it will last you longer too.Most of the packaging is recyclable except for the film and carton the egg comes inside.
Asda Free From Chocolate Egg
Number 2. The second egg I have is a Moo Free Easter Egg which cost me £3.00. This pack is only 110g. You can find these Eggs at most stores, I have seen them in Aldi, Asda and Tesco.
Organic Cheeky Orange Egg that is Dairy, Gluten and Soya Free. This pack contains a Chocolate Egg that is a Milk Chocolate alternative made from a combination of Cocoa, Sugar, Rice and Orange Oil. Moo Free are an ethical and family owned manufacturer based in Devon in the UK. They use high quality ingredients that have a single origin, including organic cocoa mass from plantations in the Dominican Republic.
Despite no allergens being present in the ingredients the packaging makes the customer aware that the product is Dairy, Gluten and Soya Free. It doesn’t mention Wheat, and it also states that is is made in a factory that handles Hazelnuts. This pack contains 2 servings it states, 1/2 of an egg is classed as a serving. The values per serving are as follows; Energy 1334 kJ Fat, Total 21.2g Of which Saturates 12.5g Carbohydrate 29.9g Of which Sugars 20.8g Protein 1.8g Salt 0.17g
Egg Design – The design of this Egg is nice, hexagonal shapes are all over the surface of the oval shape and all link together.Taste – The Orange taste of this Egg is very prominent and along with the sugar content makes it rather sweet, almost sickly. I couldn’t manage half of my half (serving) and stopped at a quarter. It’s meant to be a milk chocolate alternative however it’s quite a plain and strong chocolate flavour.
Egg Quality – The Moo Free Egg is only 3mm thick all the way around the oval. It has been the thinnest of all the eggs I have tried, and is also the most rich. The taste is nice but very strong in comparison to others. Moo do several eggs but I chose to try this Orange one, so perhaps the other flavours are not to overpowering.
Egg Value – This Egg is small and you don’t get much chocolate for the amount of money that you pay. Considering most other Dairy Free items are made with Soya products though, this item gives those who suffer with a Soya allergy a way of eating chocolate this Easter. I’m very happy to see a notice on the Moo Free box which says the plastic that their egg comes inside was made with recycled plastic, and could we please recycle it again. The box is also recyclable, so of course I will do that Moo Free Company! I’d be happy to because I’m big on recycling and it makes me happy to!
Moo Free Egg
Number 3. The third egg I have is a Trio of Flavoured Chocolate Eggs. This one is a little more indulgent, I had it from Asda in their extra special range, it cost £4.50 for its tiny amount of chocolate at just 150g. LINK
There are three eggs inside this Easter Egg Selection, the first is a Chocolate Egg with Raspberry Pieces. This one tastes delicious, there are sweet and tangy raspberry pieces in every bite. The second egg is a White Chocolate Egg with vanilla, and you can see the flecks of vanilla all inside the white chocolate. The taste is surprisingly similar to white chocolate and has lots of vanilla flavouring too. Finally the third of the set is a Dark Chocolate Egg with cocoa nibs inside. This one tastes delicious because of the dark, rich chocolate flavour combined with the cocoa nibs which give boosts of taste, it’s rich and indulgent but also has a really nice after taste.
Soya is the only allergen present. This Egg should be suitable for those who have Nut allergies because Nuts are not part of the ingredients. It also states that there are No Artificial Colours, Flavours or Hydrogenated Fat.
The Pack provides 6 servings, half of each egg which would be about right considering the different tastes. 1/6 of the pack contains (1 serving) Energy kJ 583 Energy kcal 140 Fat 8.9g Of Which Saturates 5.5g Carbohydrate 14g of Which Sugars 9.9g Fibre 1.0g Protein 0.7g Salt 0.01g
Easter Egg Selection Trio
Trio Eggs Design – Each of these Egg tastes great, I would say that the Raspberry combination is my favourite, closely followed by the Dark Coca Nibs. The White is some of the nicest Free From White Chocolate that I have tried however, which gives this Egg a bonus point in taste design. The Vanilla definitely makes a big difference. Over all the set is nicely balanced in flavours, you have the fruit combo which is both Sweet and Tangy, you have the Classic flavours of the Vanilla and then you have the Rich and Indulgent Dark.
Trio Eggs Quality – The Easter Eggs were not hugely thick, however they were consistent at around 4mm. The Cocoa Mass was pretty high within this chocolate, dark chocolate has 58%.
Trio Eggs Value – Although they are the more expensive per 100g these eggs also have the better quality. Over all I would go for the taste and these have that in abundance. You don’t feel like you’re eating something that has been designed to not have Allergens in it, but instead you are enjoying a delicious chocolate treat of high quality cocoa and its adjacent flavourings to match. I have to ask myself, would I buy these again because of the taste and quality? Yes in fact I would do. Only as a treat, and Easter is that sort of one of time where I would allow it. I only wish the eggs were a bit larger, I would pay another £1 for larger ones of this quality and deliciousness!
Easter Egg Selection Trio
Of course there are plenty of other Free From Eggs out there, however I needed to avoid any that definitely contained Nuts due to my husbands allergies. And there were others that I didn’t think I would enjoy due to their flavour combinations…
I loved the flavour of the Orange Disks from Egg Number 1, and I loved Eggs Raspberry and Dark from Number 3 the Trio.
Thank you for visiting Severn Wishes today, I hope you have enjoyed this Review and that you all have a great Easter Bank Holiday!
✩ Sabrina ✩
HAPPY EASTER!!!
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