Chocolate Cake with Coconut Cream Frosting

On 13 May, 2016, my son turned 10. In these 10 years we have seen so many phases of the life and we have to see many more. He was the only reason when I started GFCF diet and since then we had a lot of research on diet and health. My son loves the chocolate cake so I thought this time I will bake the chocolate cake on his birthday. He celebrated his birthday with his friends in the school.

Chocolate Cake with 3 types of frostings - Chocolate Coconut Cream Frosting, Vanilla Coconut Cream Frosting and Strawberry Coconut Cream Frosting

There was one time when I was working on sugar free recipes, so I was looking for different replacements for sugar. And then I posted my cake recipe - Sugar Free Vanilla Cake. This recipe used xylitol as a sugar substitute. The cake was also yummy and everybody's favorite. But somehow for some reasons, I used sugar in this chocolate cake. The recipe is almost same as my other cake, but modified to make it rich chocolate cake. And the main part of this cake are different Coconut Cream Frostings.

Sugar Free Vanilla Cake

Chocolate Cake 

3/4 cup Coconut Oil (softened)

3/4 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Cocoa Powder

1 cup Brown Rice Flour

1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum

3 Eggs

1 tbsp Gluten Free Baking Powder

Few drops Vanilla Extract

1 tbsp Coconut Milk

 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease and flour (gluten free flour) 8-inch round cake pan.
2. Combine cocoa powder, brown rice flour, xanthan gum and gluten free baking powder in a medium size bowl.
3. In a separate bowl mix sugar and coconut oil in smooth mixture. Add eggs and beat the mixture into a smooth batter.
4. Add dry ingredients to the bowl and mix thoroughly until the mixture is smooth.
5. Pour the mixture into the cake pan. Bake it for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Let it cool in the pan for few minutes, take the cake out from the pan and put it on the cooling rack.

Chocolate Cake

I used 3 types of frostings and decorated the cake for my son's birthday.

 

Chocolate Coconut Cream Frosting

 

1 cup Coconut Cream (I used Nutiva coconut manna / purée)

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1/8 cup Sugar

Few drops of Vanilla Extract

 

1. Microwave coconut cream for few seconds to soften it. 
2. Mix all the ingredients in the bowl.

Chocolate Coconut Cream Frosting

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Coconut Cream Frosting

 

Vanilla Coconut Cream Frosting

 

1/2 cup Coconut Cream

1/4 cup Sugar

1/8 cup Coconut Milk

Few drops of Vanilla Extract

 

1. Microwave coconut cream for few seconds to soften it. 
2. Mix all the ingredients in the bowl.

Vanilla Coconut Cream Frosting

 

Strawberry Coconut Cream Frosting

 

1/2 cup Coconut Cream

1/4 cup Sugar

4-5 Strawberries

Few drops of Vanilla Extract

1. Purée the strawberries in the blender.
2. Microwave coconut cream for few seconds to soften it. 
3. Mix all the ingredients in the bowl.

Strawberry Coconut Cream Frosting

 

Creamy Cheesy Pasta

In my family, everyone likes to eat pasta. When I replace regular pasta with gluten free pasta, it took me some time to understand how to cook and for how much time. Gluten free pasta takes lesser time to cook than regular one. If you cook more, then it becomes mushy. But once I learned, it was hit. My kids love to eat pasta.

 

As I named this recipe as creamy cheesy pasta, it has nice flavor of cheese. But It doesn't have cheese at all. And that is the surprise element. So, here is my creamy cheesy pasta recipe

 

Ingredients :

 

1 box gluten free Pasta, penne

1 small Onion

1/4 Red / Yellow / Orange peppers

Few florets of Broccoli

Salt as per taste

For Cheesy Sauce : 

1 Avocado

1 cup Cashews

2 tbsp Lemon juice

Salt as per taste

Black Pepper as per taste

Method :

1. Soak the cashews for 15-20 minutes.
2. Cook pasta according to instructions given at box. Add some salt to the water while cooking pasta. Drain the pasta and put it under tap cold water for few seconds.
3. Prepare cheesy sauce. Put the cashews in blender with little bit of water and make a paste. There should be no cashew chunks left. When you get smooth paste, add avocado, lemon juice, black pepper and salt, blend it till it becomes smoother.
4. Heat the pan, add onion to the pan and cook until it is transparent.
5. Add peppers and broccoli to the pan, stir fry it and add some ware. Cover the lid and cook vegetables for almost 5 minutes or until vegetables are cooked.
6. Add cheesy sauce to the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes.
7. Add pasta to the pan and mix thoroughly. Cook almost 2-3 minutes. Adjust salt, lemon and pepper according to taste. Serve hot and enjoy.

Carrot & Cabbage Soup

I keep trying to improve my recipes for better taste and textures. And sometimes, I try my old recipes by replacing or removing few ingredients for health reasons. I wrote my recipe for Carrot & Cabbage Soup 3 years back and so many things changed since then. Currently, I am working on no oil recipes and I will write about it sooner. So, my revised recipe for carrot & cabbage soup is here -

Ingredients :

1 big Onion

3-4 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Cabbage

5-6 Carrots

1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder

3-4 tsp Lemon Juice

1/4 cup Coconut Milk

Salt as per taste

Method :

1. Heat the pan, put the onions and garlic. Dry roast the onions and garlic cloves (remember, it is a no oil recipe). Add sme water if it starts to stick on the pan and keep stirring till the onion is little brown.
2. Add carrots and cabbage to the pan and stir fry till the vegetables are softened. Add some water and cover the lid. Let the vegetables cook on medium heat.
3. When the vegetables are done, put off the heat and let it cool down.
4. Put the vegetable mixture in the blender, add some water and blend till mixture is smooth or little bit chunky (depends on what you want).
5. Put blended mixture in another pan, add water, salt, black pepper, coconut milk and cook for 5 minutes. Adjust salt, pepper and water according to your taste and cook for 2 more minutes.
6. Put the heat off and add lemon juice. Serve it hot.

Please try this recipe once and tell me your comments and suggestions.

Spinach Chutney

Dark leafy greens like Spinach are very important for skin and hair, and bone health. It is a very nutrient dense food. It is low in calories but very high in vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.

It is a very good source of vitamin K, vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, copper, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin E, calcium, potassium, and vitamin C. You can find all about Spinach at Wikipedia.

Ingredients :

1 bag baby Spinach - 10 oz

1 Onion

3 cloves Garlic

1 tsp Mustard seeds

2 tsp Urad daal

2 Bay leaves

Few Curry leaves

2 Dry Red chillies

1 Lemon Juice

Salt as per taste

Water as needed

Method :

1. Soak Urad daal in water for 10 minutes, drain all the water and dry it.
2. Put the pan on medium heat on stove and dry roast mustard seeds. 
3. Stir in bay leaves, curry leaves and dry red chillies to the blender. Dry roast the mixture thoroughly and put it aside till it cools down.
4. Chop onion, garlic, spinach and put it in the blender with water. Blend it, add water as needed.
5. Add dry roasted spices, lemon and salt to the blender. Blend it smoothly. 
6. Add water as needed and adjust lemon and salt according to your taste. Store in the refrigerator, best for 2 weeks.

Spinach Avocado Chutney / Dip

Spinach Avocado Chutney / Dip

Our Indian food always has a lot of accompaniments - chutney, raita, papad, salad, pickle. Chutneys are smoothly grounded paste of different vegetables, fruits, nuts and spices. Green coriander mint chutney and coconut chutney are my favorites. We like to have chutneys almost with every thing - paranthas, pakodi, idli, dosa, samosa. 

So, I use different combinations to make chutneys healthier and tastier. Spinach Avocado Chutney is healthy and tasty, as well as it can be used as a dip like hummus. It is a great combination of good fat (Avocado and Cashews), Vitamin C (Lemon), Iron and Calcium (Spinach).

Ingredients:

1 bag of spinach leaves 10 oz

1 medium Avocado

1 cup cashews

1/2 lemon

2 medium size green chillies
Salt as per taste

Water 1/2 cup + as needed

Method:

1. Soak the cashews in 1.5 cups water for at least 1 hour. When cashews are softened, put them in a blender and make a smooth paste with help of little water.
2. Add avocado, green chillies and little water, blend it till it is a creamy mixture.
3. Add spinach in 3-4 batches depending on the jar size and keep adding little water to blend it smoothly. When all spinach is done, check the smoothness, if you want more smooth, add little bit more water (1/2 tbsp) and blend it.
4. Add lemon juice and salt as per taste, blend it. Adjust lemon and salt according to your taste. 
5. Store it in the refrigerator. It will be good for 2 weeks.

Chocolate Chia Pancakes

I have already posted different kinds of pancakes recipes - Pink Pancakes, Banana Pancake, Cooked Daal Pancake and Hidden Greens. But Chocolate Chia pancakes are the best. My kids liked the chocolate flavor in the pancakes.

Ingredients

2 cups Brown Rice Flour
2 Eggs
1-1/4 cups Coconut Milk
2 tbsp. Agave Syrup
2 tbsp. Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Chia Seeds
1/8 cup Slivered Almonds
Coconut oil to cook

 

Method

1. Beat the eggs in the medium size bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly brown rice flour, agave syrup, coconut milk and prepare smooth pancake batter. Stir in chia seeds, cocoa powder , slivered almonds and mix them.
3. Add salt, pepper and all the veggies.
4. Preheat the oven for 350 degrees. Fill lightly greased muffin cups ¾ full with the omelet batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve them hot.