Sharabelle bakes

Top 5 Basic Baked Recipes  - Dairy free If you can make your own, then why buy??????  These are road tested dairy free and vegan baked recipes. I'm lactose intolerant so I know the importance of a good recipe that can easily be adapted. What I've discovered is that there are 5 main base recipes that I use the most. Adjusting the ingredients and flavours to fit the season or occasion.  Or what ever food I'm craving that day x These 5 basic recipes, makes baking dairy free a whole lot easier.  1. Quick Bread Beetroot Soda Bread Scones Basic Soda Bread Recipe 8 oz Self Raising Flour 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda 200 ml Dairy free milk 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar Pinch of Salt Pre-heat your oven to 230 Celsius Measure and dry ingredients, flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl. Whisk to mix in the ingredients. Make a well in the centre and pour in 200 ml milk & vinegar Use a knife to bring the dough together. If you still have some flour at th...

Iv spent the last few years,  reading food ingredient labels when shopping.  The amount of foods that milk powder or whey is added too is pretty depressing. Like milk protein being added to sandwich chicken roll....  However this is offset against the foods that I surprisingly find to be dairy free.  Buying Free From products can be expensive, so It's great not to be completely dependent on them.  It's also great to find products you can adapt to make dairy free, like cake mixes.  I'm Lactose intolerant, which means eating or drinking any dairy causes me a lot of pain. I wouldn't recommend trying these if you suffer from a milk allergy.  Large manufactures can not always guarantee against cross contamination with other products they make.   Cake mix I discovered this trick when I was on the Weight Watcher diet!!!  It's a cheats variation on a Wacky cake recipe, since all the ingredien...

I  Pomegranate Having I.B.S and an anxiety disorder, I avoid eating food with E number  as much as possible.  Or to be more specific any foods that have additives.  The more I avoid, the happier my digestive system is.   From an anxiety point of view, one of the side effects is that I can get really really really hyper.  Think of a stone rolling down a hill gathering speed, and that's without any extra stimulants.  I stick to herbal tea and pretty much stay far away from too much sugar or caffeine.  I hate to think what extra food additives do to me..... So my latest food experiments have focuses on how to create natural colour and flavouring in my food.  One way of doing this is creating your own natural fruit simple syrups.   Basic Fruit Simple Syrup 1 Cup Fruit (Berries, cherries, pineapple, mango and banana) 3/4 Cup Sugar 1/3 Cup Water Cook all the ingredients together in a saucepan.  Smash...

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.  Hungry Girl - Soda cake recipe 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...

Cream Cheese style Dairy free Buttercream Normally I don't do butter cream or frosting, what ever you want to call it.  I have trouble getting over the fact that it's just fat and sugar.  I also find it way too sweet, and over dosing on sugar is not really great for my IBS.  I get windy pops - which lead's to swollen tummy - and worst case scenario stomach spasms The rest of my family and friends love it though.  If I want my baking to be as good as or better than the full fat dairy am going to have to master it.  I also need to make my baking look a lot more pretty..... It's out there Iv said it, I don't do pretty fancy decorated baking.  Which is really strange as I'm into arts and crafts!!! The guys at work have offered to be taste testers, so I used a Wacky cake recipe  to make some cupcakes.  You can't really make butter cream, with out baking something for it to go on......  I reduced the fat by using soya ...

Victoria Sandwhich cake Traditional cakes and bakes have been a theme in my life lately.  Between making dessert at the Pantry or swapping recipes for charity cakes and bakes.  Forget making fancy expensive cake recipes, Iv found it's the old classics that sell out first.  My mum had baked a classic Victoria sandwich, not long ago for a Macmillan coffee morning.  Unfortunately she used one of my grandma's recipes.  My Grandma had many great qualities and I loved her to bits, but she wasn't know for her large serving portions.  My mum's cake turned out kind of flat!!!    On the positive side it did help me today when it came to baking my own 2 cakes for the Pantry.  I'd baked a few this year myself for the guys at the Express Group, where I used to volunteer.  Lucky for me I used a Mary Berry recipe.   So channelling my mum and the queen of cakes Mary Berry, mine turned out just perfect.  ...

 Wacky apple cake and custard  My brother came round last night with a couple of helpers, my 10yrs old  niece and 3 yrs old nephew. (Between my 2 brothers I have 4 nieces and 2 nephews)  I played with the kids, while he wired up my new cooker.  A brilliant idea on his part, due to my anxiety disorder as the kids are a great distraction.  (Worried my brother was going to electrocute himself) I had to do a happy dance, after the delivery guys left of course.  Only wish I'd remembered that my neighbours can see in too my kitchen window..... I was still kind of wired/hyper while I was waiting on my brother.  It's one side effect of my anxiety, which is where the hula hoop came in handy.  I got one from my mum as a thank you for all her baked goodies.  I hula hooped while watching the TV,  to burn off my excess energy.  I controlled myself and waiting till this morning to bake at 6 am.  ...