Chocolate Cupcakes

I find it handy to have staple recipes which you can adjust slightly and have on hand not only to manage allergies but when you don't have something in the pantry, this is a great recipe for that. It could easily be made into a cake or have some banana added or flavoured icing to change it a bit. It makes beautifully moist cupcakes. I found it via a google search here. The recipe is below as well:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Method (preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius or 160 fan forced)

1. Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside. 
2. Mix all wet ingredients together and add to the dry ingredients. You can use an electric mixer as the recipe calls for but I actually just used a wooden spoon and mixed well until it was all smooth.
3. Pour into 12 prepared patty cases and bake for approximately 25 minutes.

Icing:

I used a dairy free marg with a little rice milk and icing sugar to lightly spread on top and then put white icing fondant on top of that for something a little different. You just dust these with some dry icing sugar, make a dairy free marg icing or try something a little different with flavoured icing. The best thing is these cakes will be tasty every time regardless!

Cinnamon Scrolls

On the weekend I had a sudden need to make some cinnamon scrolls. I had not made them before and was keen to give it a try. I searched the internet and found a recipe on this blog that suited my needs (egg free). I can substitute butter for a dairy free margarine so it was as simple as following the steps on this blog and making the scrolls. I've written the recipe out below, I've tried to add little comments that might help along the way, my husband always complains that so many recipes require an understanding of certain cooking terms or an assumption on what steps you have to do within a recipe, so hopefully I've covered enough tips for someone else to follow successfully.

Ingredients

150ml water
300g plain flour
155g unsalted butter (or dairy free margarine)
7g salt (approx. 1.4 teaspoons)
7g yeast
Cinnamon sugar – 1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon mixed with 6-8 heaped teaspoons of white/raw sugar
1 cup brown sugar

Method

1. Using 150ml of warm water add yeast and cover with cling wrap. Set aside to prove, the water will become a muddy colour and slightly frothy on top. If this combination fails to happen then it might mean your yeast is no longer active.

2. Sift the flour and salt together and rub 30gm of the butter/margarine into the flour making a breadcrumb like texture.

3. Making a well in the middle of the flour mixture pour in the activated yeast and slowly mix making into a dough type mixture (I found it was quite a dry loose dough at this point). Lightly flour a bench top or large cutting board and pour the dough on to this. Knead the mixture for 5-10 minutes until smooth (depending on how effective you are at kneading will determine how long you knead for). The dough should spring back slightly if you push a finger into it. 

4. Spray a bowl with oil and place the dough inside, cover with cling wrap and place in a warm spot until it doubles in size. This can take anywhere from 30 mins-1.5 hours depending on how effective your warm spot is. If putting outside ensure there is not a cool breeze as this will affect the rising. 

5. Once the dough has doubled knock the dough back (this is basically reducing the rising back to the size it roughly was prior. Roll it out into a rectangle shape about 5mm thick.

6. Melt the remaining butter and spread roughly 3/4 of it over the dough.

7. Sprinkle the cinnamon mixture over the buttered dough, followed by the brown sugar. You can use as much or as little of the brown sugar depending on how sweet you would like your scrolls.

8. Roll the dough up from one of the shorter ends of the rectangle to the other. Making sure it is not too tight a roll.

9. Starting from the centre of the rolled dough and moving outwards cut approximately 2cm thick slices. 

10. Oil a baking dish (I used a large round cake pan)and place the slices in the dish spiral side up. I worked evenly around the dish from the middle and around the side. The key is to ensure space for expansion, if its a small dish you may wish to use 2. 

11. Place a moist tea towel over the top and set in a warm place for a second rise. Similar to the linked recipe method I put the dish on the top of a pot on the stove top and would occasionally lightly simmer the water within to let the heat up onto the cake pan above. I kept an eye on the scrolls and how they were rising, it will probably take the best part of 45 mins to get a good rise on them. During this rising preheat your oven to 180degrees celcius. 

My risen scrolls ready for baking. I didn't use as much filling as the recipe calls for as I didn't want to make them too sweet for the kids.

12. Brush the top of the scrolls with half of the remaining butter/marg. It will seem like a lot, but trust me! Put in the oven and cook for approximately 25 minutes (keep an eye on them as cooking time will depend on the oven) removing at the 10 min mark to brush the remaining butter over the top.

13. Remove from oven and tip onto a wire rack, the buttery sugar goodness from the bottom of the pan will drip over the sweet scrolls...warning you will possibly drool! 

The finished product, I didn't use all the butter either so my scrolls were less 'gooey' than the recipe will provide if all ingredients used.

Why I am here!

As a mum of a 10 week old reflux baby (our 3rd refluxer) I have so much time on my hands. No really I do, essentially I spend a lot of my day with baby in a carrier sleeping or being comforted so I thought this morning that instead of spending that time shopping online (my husband might kill me if he knew how much I shop online) I thought I would start a blog with information I find that might be helpful for other parents of refluxers, recipes as creations. I know there is an abundance of websites out there, there are allergy blogs/websites, there are reflux blogs/websites but I rarely find both. Hopefully even if just 1 or 2 people find my blog and it helps them with a recipe or support then I've achieved something.

This morning it dawned on me that little Miss 10 weeks is allergic to Egg. How do I know? Well I've had egg intermittently since she was born (which would explain the low grade rash on her chest since not long after birth), she's broken out in a horrific rash and unsettledness a couple of times now when I have had concentrated egg (mayonnaise and fried eggs) and our two year old has an allergy to egg so its not outside the realms of possibility. So now in addition to eliminating dairy I need to eliminate egg. 

Recently I saw a friends post on Facebook "Just had a gluten free, dairy free meat pie....was actually quite good" this shocked me a little but reminded me how many people think that by eliminating food groups or particular foods that a diet becomes instantly boring or less tasty, which is not true. There are so many alternatives and substitutes on the market AND there are so many wonderful recipes which provide tasty alternatives to old favourites. 

So I'm going to share the favourites that I find! I am not a nutritionist/Dietician/Allergist/Paediatrician/Doctor/Nurse, I am simply a mum looking for tasty and healthy(ish) recipes!