If, like us, you’ve been frustrated recently by the lack of flour available in the shops, don’t despair! These three easy recipes are delicious, don’t use any flour (making them gluten-free), and might tide you over until the real thing is back on the shelves!
1. Raspberry and almond cake recipe
This cake is a sort of sponge cake, but uses ground almonds instead of flour. The end result is moist with a soft texture. This also makes a great pudding cake.
Ingredients:
- Small punnet fresh raspberries
- 140g softened butter or margarine
- 140g sugar
- 3 large freerange eggs
- 170g ground almonds
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and grease and base-line a 23cm square tin. Beat the butter and sugar together well, then add the eggs and almonds, beating well to combine. Carefully fold in the raspberries (these may end up sinking to the bottom a bit, but it makes no difference to the taste!). Spoon into the prepared tin, and smooth the mixture out so that it’s even. Bake for around 30 minutes until risen and golden.
A skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake should come out cleanly, so if it doesn’t the cake needs a little longer. You may need to cover the top with foil to stop it getting too brown. Leave to cool in the tin before turning out.
2. Flourless chocolate cake recipe
This cake is light, chocolatey and makes a fantastic weekend treat. There’s no kind of flour in it at all, it gets its ‘ooomph’ just from the whipped egg whites so it’s important not to skimp on that stage! Serve with fresh fruit and cream.
Ingredients:
- 300g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
- 220g sugar
- 170ml boiling water
- 225g butter
- 6 freerange eggs, separated
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and grease and baseline a 23cm square (or round!) loose base tin. Put the water in a saucepan and add the chocolate and butter. Gently heat everything together until it’s a smooth liquid, then add the sugar. Stir until dissolved. Remove from the heat, let it cool for a few minutes and add the egg yolks, beating to combine.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they’re really stiff and solid (try turning the bowl upside down to check – the mixture shouldn’t move!).
Gently fold the beaten whites into the chocolate mixture until completely combined – don’t be too rough, you don’t want to knock all that air out again! Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for around 45 minutes until cooked through (try the skewer test again). Let it cool in the tin, then put it in the fridge (still in the tin) for a couple of hours.
When you’re ready to serve, remove it from the tin and dust the top with icing sugar or pour over some cream.
3. Flapjacks recipe
Photo credit: sk8geek
A cross between a biscuit and a cake, the beauty of these flapjacks is that you can jazz them up any way you like. Try adding sultanas, chopped apricots, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, desiccated coconut or grated orange rind.
- 250g porridge oats
- 125g butter
- 3 tablespoons golden syrup
- 75g light brown sugar
- flavouring ingredient of your choice (see suggestions above) – or leave them plain
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c, and grease and baseline a 20cm square shallow tin. Put half the oats in a blender and pulse until you have something that looks like coarse flour (if you like, you can make extra of this ‘oat flour’ as it keeps well in an airtight container for several weeks, ready for next time). Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and heat gently until combined, then stir in the both the ‘oat flour’ and the porridge oats. Add flavouring, if using.
Press the mixture into the tin with the back of a spoon, and bake for about 15 minutes. When ready, the top should be firm to the touch. While still warm, cut the cake into 12 squares. Leave to cool in the tin before trying to remove the squares!
All images (c) Pixabay unless otherwise credited
