Strawberry Cupcakes (makes 12)

Strawberry Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

The other day my Mum was lucky enough to get a huge tray of strawberries at a massively reduced price and after we’d eaten our fill of them accompanied by the outstanding dairy-free ice cream that is Booja-Booja, she very generously gave me the leftovers to use for my blog. I hummed and hawed for a while about what to do with them before settling on the idea of making summery strawberry cupcakes. (One cupcake serving is low FODMAP.)

Strawberries aren’t usually used in cake mixes because they tend to become a very wet ingredient when added to cake batter, but because of the dry, absorbent nature of gluten-free flour strawberries are exactly the type of fruit ingredient that works well in a gluten-free cake. I thought there might have been a risk that the strawberry flavour wouldn’t come through very strongly, but I was wrong because it created a light, gluten-free sponge that was dotted with sweet little gems of jammy strawberries.

Sometimes I like my sponge cakes to be plain, but other times it’s nice to add a flavouring extract or spice that will complement the key ingredient in a cake and will enhance the overall flavour. Strawberries are well complemented by ginger, so I thought I would add a little bit of ground ginger to the cake batter just to add a subtle kick of heat and background spiciness to the fruity strawberry cupcakes.

This idea worked very well indeed, creating strawberry cupcakes that are comprised of a very soft, airy sponge cake with the delicate background spice of ginger that is generously infused with deliciously fruity jammy chunks of fresh strawberry and topped with creamy buttercream icing. I’d say it’s the perfect cupcake for a summer day.

Strawberry Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

Ingredients:

120g fine polenta meal

75g ground almonds

50g gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tsps xanthan gum

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

150g sugar

120ml vegetable oil

120ml rice milk

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

120g strawberries (chopped into small pieces and reserving 12 small slices for the top of the cakes)

To make buttercream icing:

70g dairy-free butter

180g icing sugar

1 tbsp rice milk

1/2 tsp red food colouring

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas mark 6.

Lay your cupcake cases into a couple of muffin trays.

Cut the strawberries into small pieces.

Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and give it a good stir so that they’re all fully mixed.

Measure the wet ingredients into a jug or bowl.

Toss the strawberries in the dry ingredients and then add the wet mixture and stir really well.

Pour into your cake tin and bake for 35 to 40 mins or until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool and in the meantime make the buttercream icing by simply whisking all of the icing ingredients together.

Serve the strawberry cupcakes either as they are or with the buttercream icing spread on top.

Strawberry Cupcakes by The Fat Foodie

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Chocolate Banana Marzipan Muffins (Makes 10)

Chocolate Banana Marzipan Muffins by The Fat Foodie

One of the best ways I find inspiration for my website is by looking at what ingredients need used up in my kitchen and developing a recipe around them, so when I was given a pack of marzipan by my mother-in-law recently I figured it might be nice to use up in some baking. Marzipan is made by mixing icing sugar and ground almonds into a paste, so I treated marzipan in the same way I would almonds and made sure that the quantity of marzipan in the muffins was a low FODMAP portion.

Ripe bananas (i.e bananas which are very yellow and have brown spots on them) are high FODMAP, so don’t use them for these chocolate banana marzipan muffins. However, firm bananas (yellow and firm with no spots) are low FODMAP, so use this type. This recipe makes at least 10 muffins, with one muffin being a low FODMAP portion.

In the bookshop that I work in we sell a book called The Flavour Thesaurus, a fantastic book which tells you what flavours work well with others. Sadly I don’t own a copy of this book, but I’m quite good at imagining what flavours marry well, so when I thought of banana and marzipan together, in my mind the natural ingredient to add to the mix to complete the triad was chocolate. Thankfully, as these muffins demonstrated, I can trust my instincts!

This recipe for chocolate banana marzipan muffins is a winner in my book because as the marzipan cooks it melts through the chocolate banana muffins to create little pockets of sweetness that infuse the surrounding cake with the delicate flavour of almond. As a result, you’ve got a deliciously moist muffin that’s the perfect blend of cocoa and banana flavoured cake base with the added surprise of almond marzipan chunks throughout it. That’s pretty damn tasty in my book.

Ingredients:

175g gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

100g dark brown sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

80g marzipan (rolled into small balls)

3 firm bananas (mine weighed 330g in total)

125ml sunflower oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F/Gas mark 6.

Lay out your muffin cases in a muffin tray. (I’m particularly enamoured with the Jamie Oliver muffin tray my Mum got for me recently.)

Measure your bananas, oil, eggs and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl measure all of your dry ingredients.

Break the marzipan up into small pieces and add them to the dry ingredients, mixing them through so they become coated.

Add the wet mixture into the dry and mix thoroughly.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 25 to 30 mins or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.

Leave to cool.

Chocolate Banana Marzipan Muffins by The Fat Foodie

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Rhubarb and Lime Cake

Rhubarb and Lime Cake (serves 8-10)

Rhubarb and Lime Cake

Rhubarb and Lime Cake

My previous blog post discussed the beauty that is rhubarb and gave a recipe for rhubarb compote. I’ve still got quite a bit of compote left over (it keeps for a good week or more in the fridge) so I was searching for things to make with it. I’ve already baked a rhubarb and stem ginger crumble with this year’s harvest so after a quick peek in the cupboards I decided to bake a rhubarb and lime cake.

It turned out to be a very tasty combination, with the flavour of the two acidic, tart fruits marrying well within the sugar-sweetened sponge. Swirling the compote onto the rhubarb and lime cake mix prior to baking creates a sweet sticky crust on the top and as the sugary rhubarb sinks down through the cake it forms a moist layer of fruit in the middle.

If the notion took you, it’d be easy to add some vanilla extract or ground ginger or cinnamon to your rhubarb and lime cake sponge mix, but I think it’s just fine as it is. Keeping it simple lets the rhubarb sing and what a pretty song it is.

Ingredients:

200g butter (or non-dairy version)

175g sugar

3 eggs

200g gluten-free self-raising flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

1 tsp xanthan gum

The grated zest of 1 lime

The juice of ½ a lime

4 tbsps. of rhubarb compote

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4.

Grease or line a loaf tin.

In a mixing bowl, cream your butter and sugar together and then add in your eggs and mix.

Add the lime zest and lime juice and mix.

Add the flour and mix together. (Gluten-free flour is notoriously dry, so if you feel the cake mix needs a little liquid then just add a little milk or rice milk to loosen it.)

Pour the mix into the prepared loaf tin and level off.

Put the rhubarb compote on the top of the cake and loosely mix it into the top of the cake mixture.

Bake it in the oven for 40-50 mins or until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out completely clean.

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Rhubarb Compote

Rhubarb Compote

Rhubarb Compote

Lately, a couple of generous individuals have gifted me handfuls of rhubarb stalks, but for a couple of reasons I’m not entirely convinced that they’re being given to me entirely altruistically. For one, rhubarb grows like a triffid, producing huge leaves to soak up the sun which they use to create a late spring to early summer crop of deliciously tart harvest produce. The problem with these massive leaves is that they block out the sun for the herbaceous neighbours of said rhubarb plant. As a result, most gardeners will happily prune their flourishing bushes by ‘gifting’ the stalks away to friends, neighbours, or in my case, their daughters.

The second reason for giving away the rhubarb is one that I cannot find fault with though. You cannot blame a gardener for donating an abundance of rhubarb when they know they’ll receive a tasty, sweet rhubarb dish in return. This is the very essence of food produce trading and it’s one which benefits both parties.

Although I sometimes find myself cursing those who give me rhubarb when I’m relentlessly sawing away at the rhubarb trunks before stewing them (because I simply cannot bring myself to just throw them out) I still find myself enjoying the rhubarb as its grassy, lemony, acidic fragrance coats my hands. The smell always reminds me of being a child and every year, as I fondly remember dipping a relatively ripe rhubarb stalk into a poke of sugar as a kid and thinking it was a real treat, I pop a small chunk of rhubarb into my mouth to test whether it really is as tart as I remember and my lips disappear behind my teeth in response to the sheer overwhelming sourness that floods my mouth. Good times.

Even though there are easier, and tastier, fruits out there to cook with I never object to rhubarb though. There’s something rather ancient about it, I think. Apart from the fact that the plant looks as though it belongs in the Jurassic era, its stalks have been turned into delicious confections by optimistic cooks for hundreds of years. Surely this is a tradition which must be continued by those who are willing to do battle with a crop so heavily infused with acidic bitterness?

To make my rhubarb compote I chopped up the freshly washed rhubarb, put it in a large pan with a couple of tablespoons of water and added sugar to it before putting it on a medium heat. The amount of sugar you add is pretty much according to your own taste, so add a few tbsps of sugar to the simmering rhubarb, taste it, and continue to add more until it suits your palate. I generally go with around 70-100g of sugar to 700g of chopped rhubarb. You’ll probably need quite a lot of sugar. Just be careful when tasting it because it’s incredibly hot!

The rhubarb compote will keep in the fridge for a good couple of weeks and you can use it for loads of different things: as a jam for toast or scones; to top porridge or ice cream; folded into whipped cream to make a syllabub; as the fruit base for a crumble or cobbler; or (if you want to pair it with a savoury item) to serve with pork dishes. The list of ways to celebrate such an unexpected, and yet rewarding, harvest is endless. Rhubarb compote may not be the prettiest dish in the world, but I can assure you, it’s delicious. Go find a gardener to befriend and get your hands on some stalks. You won’t regret it and neither will they.

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