Ever since Kev went Gluten Free, I have struggled to get my head around cooking for him. We have always been very strict about having one meal for the family that every one eats. However with the poor quality and high cost of GF substitutes ,I have found myself making a meal for Kev and a meal for the rest of us...or sometimes he just has to fend for himself.
Baking is an excellent example. We do not live in a place where there are many alternative flours available. Almost every single item we have made with GF has been substandard...dry and gritty and marginally unpalatibe. And so I baked with normal flour and Kevin just couldn't eat the cupcakes, the cakes, and the breads I baked. But then every time, he would ask "Can I eat this?" and I would reply "No" and he would look at me with those Harrison blue eyes.
I am a sucker for Harrison blue eyes.
And so yesterday, I thought I would try again. Ellis loves to bake and skipping preschool meant we had plenty of time to whip up a cake. And it was AWESOME...so seriously light and moist and essentially indistinguishable from normal cake. So, before I lose the recipe I made up, here it is for posterity and rainy days.
Gluten and Dairy Free Banana Cake
1.5 cups plain GF flour (I used Dove's Farm)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1t Bicarb of soda (baking soda)
2t Baking powder
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
4 bananas
1. Preheat oven to 150F and grease a cake pan (I used a 9" springform)
2. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside
3. In separate bowl, mash bananas and eggs
4. Add banana and egg mix and the oil into the flour. Mix thoroughly
5. Pour into cake tin. Bake at 150F for 45min - 1 hour, until knife in centre comes out clean
Brown Sugar Frosting
1 cup milk of choice (I used soy)
5T GF flour
1 cup of margarine
1T vanilla
1.5 cups of brown sugar
(A shout out to Ali whose advice made this frosting work for the first time EVER for me! Thank you!!!)
1. Heat milk in a saucepan. Add the flour and stir constantly until it thickens. Leave to cool. (I let mine cool on the counter to room temp and then put it in the fridge for 30 minutes)
2. Mix the butter and sugar and vanilla for 5ish minutes until the brown sugar completely breaks up and loses all of its grainy-ness. I refrigerated this as well for aprox 30 minutes.
3. When both mixes are very cool, mix them together. Don't mix too long or else the frosting goes all weird, but make sure the lumps from the flour mix are all mixed through.
4. Spread and enjoy.
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Val had asked about the link things to sections of the blog...I broke them. I will put them back one day when I remember how I got them there in the first place.