Coffee cake anyone?

This stuff ain't bad.

My kids love my chocolate cake (see recipe links on the right). But I like to mix up the selection every so often with a yellow or white cake. So, I've modified recipes to make this coffee cake. Note, this relies on egg replacer and the gfcf flour mix I use is 1/2 cup sorghum flour and 1/2 cup chickpea flour. You could use any mix you want. Replace sorghum easily with rice flour. Replace the chickpea maybe with 1/4 cup tapioca and 1/4 cup potato starch. Anything will do. But, you'll notice -- no soy, rice, gluten, casein, corn, yeast, butter or margine.

Ingredients:
- 1 egg substitute (I use Ener-G egg replacer: 1 tbsp powder with 2 tbsp water)
- 1/2 cup water (during mixing, I end up adding up to another 1/2 cup to reach right consistency)
- 1 cup gfcf flour (I use 1/2 cup sorghum, 1/2 cup chickpea)
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 2 tsp baking powder (Miss Robens sells some without corn starch)

Topping ingredients:
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (I prefer Wholesome Sweeteners to avoid allergens)
- 1/2 tbsp tapioca starch
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tbsp Spectrum shortening (or just use canola oil)

Directions:
Mix the egg sub in a bowl. Let sit 1 minute. Add all ingredients EXCEPT the last four -- brown sugar, tapioca, cinnamon and shortening. Blend well with mixer.

Mix last four ingredients in small bowl. Stir together until crumbly (this is the topping).

Heat oven to 350. Grease 8x8 baking pan with Spectrum shortening. Pour batter in the pan.

Sprinkle topping over batter until well covered.

Bake about 20-25 minutes. Mine is usually done in 20.

You'll notice this is a "shallow" coffee cake. I prefer it that way. You could also bake this in a round cake pan for a circular cake.

Or, double the batter recipe to make a thicker coffee cake and bake 5-10 minutes longer.

Yum.

Chili burgers

Now here's a really simply burger recipe that my kids like. They seem to like spicy foods. And, it has cumin in it, which is a good spice antioxidant.

Anyway, here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef (I prefer farm bought)
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
diced onion to taste or onion powder
1 tbsp Heinz ketchup

Mix together well. Form into patties. Bake on 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Easy. Enjoy.

Awesome "chocolate cake"

This is chocolate cake for even the most particular diet. To start, it has no chocolate, although you could use cocoa powder just as easily. Needs no rice flour. No butter, milk, yeast or soy. Amazing! This is a staple in our house -- the kids call it "ice cream cake," because it has a shine to the top that resembles ice cream.

This really is a carob cake and if baked properly, comes out full and moist.

Ingredients
------------
1 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour/starch
1/4 cup potato starch (others will do too, but potato adds moistness)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup carob powder (make sure it's free of soy and is gluten-free)
1 tsp baking soda
1 heaping tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups water
Spectrum Organic Shortening

Heat oven to 350.

Mix dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

Add oil and water.

Beat with electric mixer.

Grease an 8x8 baking pan with the organic shortening and do the sides.

Pour batter into pan.

Give kids the beaters.

Bake on 350 for 25 minutes. When done, it will not be completely baked through the middle, but this is a key part of making this because it will continue to self-bake out of the oven. In the end, it will be completely baked through, yet remain moist. (If you do this and it still seems unbaked in the middle, next time, add 5 minutes to the baking cycle.)

I store this in the summer in the fridge with plastic wrap. In the winter, it's OK out.

You can make two at a time by doubling the recipe and freezing one.

You can also make this into a birthday cake. I've split the recipe between two round cake pans. You can easily make icing -- I just make a simple one out of powdered sugar and water with a little oil or the shortening -- not too much.