body

Holiday baking with the kids


Chocolate cocoa cola cake topped
with Chocolate Ganache


It's the start of the local school Easter holidays, which means 2 weeks of keeping the kids entertained.    Normally in April all you need to worry about is rain showers, however we've been getting a lot of unseasonal snow lately.  So it's always good to have a few back up plans, for when there stuck in the house.


Funny thing is I discovered this recipe a few years ago when I was on the weight watchers diet.  I never made it as diet soda is made with artificial sweeteners.  It isn't really great for my IBS, as there one of my triggers. 

Last time my niece and nephew had an in service day (Teachers training) we had a bake day at my house. I love teaching the kids to bake, talking them through the recipe and letting them do the work themselves.  The only thing off limits is the oven, that I take care off myself.

Strange fact: Supermarket brands own Chocolate sponge cake mix are usually dairy free.  It's the more expensive brands that have dairy products added.

We made a version of this cake using plain soda water. The kids loved the idea of taking a chocolate cake mix and adding fizzy water too it.  It was great watching there faces as they watch the cake rise in the oven. 

The recipe is dairy and egg free so perfect for little and big people who have to watch what they eat.  Just remember to check the ingredients list. 

TIP: - An easy way to do this is too go onto a major supermarkets website and check the recipes that way.  It's a lot easier to read that way. 



Ever since Iv been dying to make a chocolate and coca cola version, just to see if it works.  Only problem, I'm not really keen on Chocolate cake.  So I decided to use the guys at the Pantry as taste testers, to give myself an excuse. 

 If your going to bake a cake, and your not on a healthy eating plan to loose weight.  Buy the full fat variety, your baking with it not drinking it. 

Every thing in the USA seems to be larger than average.  The Morrison's chocolate Sponge cake mix I used is only 225g.  So I reduced the amount of coca cola and used a mixer sized tin instead. 

If you want to make one from scratch use a Wacky cake recipe, and replace the liquid used for your fizzy soda. 

Other idea's to use when making a wacky cake

Lemon soda cake - use Sprite or lemonade

Chocolate and cherry cake - Cherry coca cola or Barr's Cherryade

Cream soda Cake - Cream soda

Fruity cake - Pineapple, Raspberry, orangeade, ginger beer

(Check out the Barr's soft drink web site or more idea's.

They only limit the kids have is there imagination xx





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How not to make a pineapple upside down cake

Image
My personal philosophy is that you should try to look for the positive in every situation.  - If you never try something, how are you going to know if it works?  - While mistakes are just ways too learn how not to do something.  So I thought Id share with you a few ways Iv learnt how to not make an upside down cake.   Thursday at the Pantry I  made a Pineapple Upside down cake for lunch.  Since it was for the canteen, it was a full dairy version.   Another dessert I couldn't eat, and I so wanted a piece.  We used a ceramic oven dish to bake the cake in.  Which leads me to the first mistake.  Last year I made a dairy free version at home, and used a loose bottom cake tin.  Not one of my better idea's, since the syrup seeped out of the tin all over my oven.  - Always use a solid baking tin or pan.  If you do use a loose bottom tin, wrapped tin foil round it to stop the ...
Read more

Scottish Tablet - Dairy free & Vegan

Image
          Less well know than Haggis, tablet is another traditional Scottish food that's a whole lot sweeter.   Scottish Tablet - wiki    One of our regular customers at work dropped off some home made Tablet for us this week.  As always everyone but me could eat it, so I took a piece home for my mum instead.  It got me thinking that there must be some way to make it dairy free.   Shop bought packaged Scottish tablet is never as good as homemade.  As a child growing up in Scotland, I have fond memories of the sweet.  It was sold at cake and bake sales, and if you were really lucky the little corner shop would have a regular supplier.  It was always wrapped into portions with greaseproof paper, that way you knew it was authentic.        Scottish Tablet recipe     Traditional Scottish tablet is not exactly dairy free.  Usually...
Read more

Curdled Rice pudding

Image
What it should have looked like..... Due to a touch of nostalgia I decided to make some rice pudding today.  Also it mean't I'd have a pre-made breakfast for tomorrow morning and 15 mins more in bed.  Cold porridge just doesn't taste as good as cold creamy rice pudding. For me rice pudding has to be baked in the oven as that's the way my mum taught me to make it.  It was also one of the first recipes I was able to make dairy free.    Basic rice pudding constists of 3 simple ingredients  1 1/2 oz Rice 1 pint Milk  1tbsp Sugar Baked at 150 celsius for 1 1/2hrs - 2 hrs Something magical seems to happen to them, when cooked for a few hours in a low oven.  Only not this time because I decided to add some extra ingredients!!! One of which managed to react with the soy milk and curdle it.  Suspects are Mixed raisins, diced almonds or desiccated coconut.  I was able to save it and make it edi...
Read more