Delicious Lunch in Healesville

Hello friends :-)

Today I was lucky enough to share this delicious antipasto for lunch at Essenza in Healesville, in the Yarra Valley. It was so delicious, followed by one of the best coffees I've had in years :-) And to make it even better the service and staff were lovely as well :-) I think I'll be heading back there very soon :-)

Their website doesn't actually seem to be up and running yet, but you can see some great reviews on Urbanspoon by clicking on HERE and you can take a look at their Facebook page HERE

Gluten Free Ginger Cake with Caramel Icing (Fructose Friendly!)

Okay friends, here is another one of my recipes that is not only delicious, but can also be enjoyed by folks with special dietary needs. This amazingly moist and rich ginger cake is gluten free, and suitable for people with fructose malabsorption or intolerance. Although, just remember that not everyone is the same, so some ingredients may still irritate some people with these conditions, so if you're making this for a friend, perhaps just ask them about the ingredients first to make sure they are suitable for them :-)

Gluten Free Ginger Cake with Caramel Icing (Also Fructose Friendly :-)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup (110g) Gluten Free plain flour

1/2 cup (75g) Gluten Free self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

125g butter, softened

2 eggs

2/3 cup (160ml) buttermilk

Caramel Icing

60g butter

1/2 cup (110g) firmly packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons milk

3/4 cup (120g) Icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 170C (150C fan forced oven). Grease a deep 20cm ring pan or bundt tin.

2. Sift sugar, flours, bicarb, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg into a medium bowl. Add butter, eggs and buttermilk. Beat with an electric mixer on low until all ingredients are combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat for another 2 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and paler in colour.

3. Pour mixture into prepared tin, bake for about 35 minutes. You'll know it's cooked if you poke a skewer into it and it comes out clean. Stand your cake in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out, and let it rest on a wire cooling rack. Note: If you have used a ring pan, let you cake rest with the topside up. If you have used a bunt tin, let your cake rest topside down :-)

Caramel Icing

Gently heat butter, sugar and milk in a small saucepan over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil then simmer, stirring for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sifted icing sugar. Drizzle warm icing over cake.

Now your cake is ready to serve :-)

Gluten Free, Fructose Friendly Rum Balls

So, here it is, as I promised, my recipe for Gluten Free and Fructose Friendly Rum Balls! I make these quite often and whenever I take them with me to a party/picnic/etc they are always a hit.

I have Fructose Malabsorption (Fructose Intolerance), which means I can't eat lots of common foods, one of which is wheat, so I often miss out on delicious things. These Rum Balls don't contain any wheat, and incidentally any gluten either, so they can be enjoyed by a lot of people, even those with dietary restrictions.

I took them to a party this weekend and they were very popular. I even had a woman who I didn't know come and sit next to me with a handful of my Rum Balls and exclaim : "Oh boy! Have you had some of those Rum Balls!!!?? They're so good! But you better hurry, they're going fast!" Of course, I was pretty chuffed :-)

Okay, here's the recipe:

Gluten Free/Fructose Friendly Rum Balls

Ingredients

500g Gluten Free Chocolate cake*

1 tin Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 cups desiccated Coconut*

1/2 cup Cocoa powder*

1 tbs Rum*

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method:

Whizz the chocolate cake in a food processor until it is fine crumbs. In a large bowl place your cake crumbs, tin of condensed milk, cocoa powder, rum, cinnamon and 1 cup of coconut and set the other cup of coconut aside in a small bowl. Mix well until all ingredients are combined. If your mixture is very moist add a little more coconut. Now using about 1 heaped teaspoon of mixture roll it into a ball with your hands then roll it in your remaining coconut to coat, place on a baking tray that you've lined with baking paper. Continue doing this with the rest of your mixture, then place the tray of balls into the fridge for about 1/2 an hour. You can then pack them away in an air tight container for later, or you can eat them all now with some friends :-)

These balls will last for about 1 week in an airtight container in the fridge (if you don't eat them all!)

Makes approx. 40 balls, depending on the size you choose to make them.

*Instead of buying a ready made gluten free chocolate cake, which can be hard to find and quite expensive, you can either make your own from your favourite recipe or you can make one from a packet cake mix (this is what I do). In this case I recommend not using a Mud Cake mix as this is often too moist. Regular Gluten Free Chocolate cake is best. You will also find that a lot of Gluten Free cake mixes will give you instructions for using Egg Replacer instead of fresh chook eggs, just incase you need to avoid eggs.

* You may find that you need a little more than 2 cups of coconut if your mixture is very moist. Coconut is not suitable for everyone who needs to avoid Fructose, so check this beforehand if you are making these balls for someone else.

* Not all cocoa powder is gluten/wheat free, so make sure you check this. Use one that you're familiar with that you know is suitable for you and your dietary needs.

*You might like to add more or less rum to your balls, or use Rum essence instead, or omit the rum or rum flavour all together, the balls are delicious whatever you do!

*If you're not a fan of getting too messy you might like to wear powder free disposable gloves when rolling the balls.

*Of course, this recipe can be made using regular cake too, if you have no dietary restrictions :-)

Alterations:

*If you're making these balls for a children's party you might like to try rolling your balls in a mixture of half coconut, half hundreds and thousands, instead of straight coconut to add a bit of colour and fun!

*Try making the balls with a vanilla cake instead of chocolate cake, omit the cocoa powder, add a dash of vanilla extract and a little more coconut for Vanilla Coconut Rum Balls!!! Oh yeah!!!!!!

I'd love to hear from anyone who tries this recipe, and of any delicious alteration you try!!

Now lets get cooking!!