Dilemmas of the Christmas Cake variety

I'm coming to the conclusion that our taste buds have memories.

Most of the year I can happily do without fruit cake. Chocolate usually springs to mind. Yule logs are chocolaty and rather festive, aren't they? One might think they're the perfect combo, for this time of the year. I had noticed, earlier in the month that Pig in the Kitchen had come up with a tempting looking recipe, for one of these. However, come Christmas, it seems desirable, in fact necessary, to partake of the slightly more traditional fruit-full festive favourite. 

Growing up, I remember that I didn't enjoy the cake at all - although I loved the covering - marzipan and icing. However, with age, it grew on me, to the point where I couldn't imagine Christmas without it. 

You might wonder why I'm blogging about this after the Big Day, but you see the thing is, over the years, my mother only seemed to get 'round to decorating her cake, after the event - usually Boxing Day. I seem to have inherited this trait, which seems slightly lacking of me, BUT, it turns out that this is actually more traditional than you might think! The origins of the Christmas cake apparently came from the tradition of baking a cake to celebrate Epiphany and the arrival of the Three Kings on Twelfth Night - a tradition that ended with Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan ideals.

The Hub is not a fan of Christmas cake. Baby does not like fruit cake. So it was that a month or so ago, I was puzzling over what to do about a Christmas cake this year. I did consider making a gluten and dairy free version, but fairly quickly abandoned the idea - after all, much as I love this cake, I couldn't imagine eating a whole one, all my myself!!!

However, I rather wanted to continue the Christmas cake decorating tradition - I have fond memories of decorating the cake, with my mum, and wanted to recreate that with Baby. I did consider buying a ready-iced slice, or what can only be described as a 'chunk,' of Christmas cake (such forms of Christmas cake are readily available in the supermarkets) but really I wanted a small round version -  a miniature of the 'real thing.' I wanted something that could be marzipanned, iced and so on.

I finally found the answer in a cake by a firm called 'The Village Bakery,' which I found in my nearest health food shop. It's organic as well as both dairy and gluten free and being only 450g in weight, the perfect size, so I thought, for me... and maybe Baby as well, if she fancied it.

And here it is:

The ingredients (just in case you're wondering) were as follows:

Sultanas, Raisins, Ground Almonds, Eggs, Sunflower Oil, Brown Rice Syrup, Dates, Apricots, Concentrated Apple Juice, Manioc Flour, Molasses, Cinnamon, Mixed Spice, Raising Agent, Baking Powder

All I needed (on Boxing Day, of course) to do was coat it with some jam, (I think you're supposed to use apricot, but I only had strawberry to hand) roll out some marzipan and slap it on.

The marzipan I used was by Dr Oetker. It contained Sugar, Almonds, Glucose Syrup, Invert Sugar and Water.

The final layer, the icing, was mixed from scratch. It contained the usual: icing sugar, egg white, water and a dash of lemon. 

Icing on, Baby (with a little direction from me) added the decorations.

It may look a little over decorated to you, but believe me, this cake is getting off lightly - you should see the other cake, which Baby decorated unleashed!! That one had a large Easter chick on it - foolishly left in the box of cake decorations, by my mother!!

Once the cake was decorated, Baby couldn't wait to eat it and neither could I, but we had to let the icing set... we didn't leave it for that long though - just an hour or so.

Baby had some. I had a bit more and it was alright, although not as rich as I remembered the Christmas cake of my childhood - maybe I should have fed it with some booze. I'd give that a try next year, but for some reason this cake has made my gut sore - not it's fault - I seem to have developed as sensitivity to a spice or two (following a recentish porridge enriching experiment, I'm thinking the cinnamon). 

So, for me, it's back to the drawing board *sigh*! Next year I may have to begin a new tradition - of baking yule logs. At least I know where to find the perfect recipe!

Related Posts:
Dairy free ways to decorate your tree
Treating Father Christmas (Mince Pies)

Treating Father Christmas

Tonight is the night that Father Christmas comes to visit good little girls and boys, isn't it? Baby's stocking has been hung by the grandparents' fireplace, in expectation of the great man's visit and, so far, she is sleeping peacefully. Now, everybody knows what Father Christmas likes to eat don't they? Earlier in the month I harboured ideas of treating Father Christmas to some good old home made mince pies - gluten and dairy free of course!

Not having made pastry for years, and not having even tried to make pastry gluten and dairy free, I decided to play it safe and try out a gluten free pastry mix. It wasn't a huge success - the mixture seemed to require far more fat and liquid than the instructions stated. But, apparently, too much liquid (as I discovered, when I read some recipe a few weeks later) can make gluten free pastry hard.

The ones we made looked good, but...

And guess what? Freshly cooked, the mince (and jam) pies were quite edible, but once they were cold the pastry did become hard - in fact very hard and completely inedible! 

Following this disastrous episode, I really, really meant to give Pig in the Kitchen's mince pie recipe (with pastry made with sweet potatoes) a try, following a tip-off from Hannah, on our Face Book page, or even Pippa Kendrick's, but... time ran out on me!

Previous to my problems with gluten, I was able to eat supermarket own brand mince pies. I think they were Waitrose and Morrison's mini ones. I noticed Tesco's own were dairy free this year, however, now that I am gluten free, these are no longer an option. 

Dairy free, but sadly not gluten free

Instead, the Free From aisle is now the first place I look for mine. Last year's mince pies of choice were Sainsbury's own Free From mince pies. This year, I gave some others a try. Both, funnily enough, we're picked by The Hub. The first choice came from Morrison's. Made by OK Foods, they were cheaper than the next choice, which was Hale & Hearty.

Available from Morrison's, I bought these from a health food store.

I like them both, but in different ways. The OK Foods mince pies were quite sugary, but I have quite a sweet tooth, so that's not a problem for me. There was a good helping of mince meat inside, which balanced the sweetness of the pastry casing, quite nicely.

They also appealed to me, because they were made without maize, which I have been unsure about - sometimes I think that some products made with maize have troubled my gut slightly. These are made with ground almonds, so a no go, for anyone with a nut allergy I'm afraid. The packet also warns that the pies contain sulphur dioxide and may contain traces of egg and peanut.

The Hale and Hearty mince pies were a bit more expensive - they cost The Hub £3.99. They weren't easy to get hold of - they were meant to be available at the Co-op, but none of the branches I visited had any. However, I was fortunate that The Hub, working in the city, was able to get some from Planet Organic.

One of the things I liked about these was that some thought had gone into packaging - they were packaged in two packs of two, inside the box. This is a good idea if you are the only gluten free person in the house - it saves you eating the whole box in one go - although that's never troubled me too much!

Hale and Hearty's mince pies. I like the star-topped look!

Another nice thing about them was that the pastry tasted almost home made and looked more home made too. However, a few of them (The Hub bought three boxes - he thought I might get through a few over Christmas and I think he's probably right) looked just slightly over cooked. This didn't seem to spoil the flavour, though.

Allergy advice, for these pies, states that they are made with egg (so sorry to those of you who can't eat egg). Also, although they are not made with milk or nuts, they are made in a factory that handles these ingredients.

So, what did Father (or actually Mother) Christmas wash all these mince pies down with? Nothing more exciting than a cup of weak black tea I'm afraid - although mulled wine would have gone down very nicely, I'm still breast feeding!!

What about you? What does/did Father Christmas get left as a treat, in your house?

Walking, skating, eating (???) in a Winter Wonderland

It's become a bit of a Christmas tradition, for The Hub and his friends, to meet up at some ice rink in London over the Christmas period for a bit of 'shuffling' around the ice. The Hub and I don't get to see them that often and are more than happy to do a bit of ice skating, so we join them. For the last two years it's been at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland. 

The Entrance

Now, although it can get rather busy, there, at certain times of the day, I quite like Winter Wonderland. There are quite a lot of ice rinks and 'Christmas Market' stalls set up in little log cabins, around the UK at Christmas time, but I think that this is the best, (maybe the cheesiest) and most certainly the biggest, that I've been to.

A lovely bit of Christmas 'cheese'!

I'm a real sucker for this kind of thing - festive shopping, broken up by a few fairground rides; fuelled by mulled wine and lots of seasonal goodies. I have to be honest, if I didn't have any food intolerances to consider, I'd be as happy as a pig in a trough!

As it is, I usually just wander among the stalls experiencing huge normality envy - you know the feeling - you watch other people buying and consuming goodies with complete abandon, oblivious to the fact that for YOU (as much as you might want to join in) it's not an option. Sometimes, I have actually felt the urge to say to people, 'Do you know how lucky you are?'

Have to say, I'd LOVE to be able to buy a dairy and gluten free Crepe at a Christmas Market.

The previous year I'd suffered normality envy really bad. It was the first time, (since Baby was born) that I'd been in that kind of setting, and consequently, the misery was intense. That particular day was only redeemed by a quick stop at Costa on the way home, where, in the racks of pre-packaged food, next to the till, I'd discovered their gluten and dairy free Christmas cake slice. And actually, it was quite good!

So it was that Friday night (I'd left it a bit late) I found myself surveying my cupboard and wondering what alternative treats I could take along with me, so that I wouldn't feel so deprived.

Unfortunately, I can't find my small flask at the moment, so taking some Winter Cordial  as a non-alcoholic alternative to mulled wine or Kara dairy free Hot Chocolate, which  would be ideal if the weather turned out to be cold, was not an option. The thermal food flask was ear marked for Baby's lunch (left-over Shepherd's Pie, from the night before that would be re-heated during breakfast) so taking my own dairy free and gluten free frankfurters (by Unearthed and yes, I did consider it) was also out of the question.

So, instead, I packed some Kelkin jaffa cakes, bread sticks, Pom Bears and Popcorn and off we set! I felt semi-prepared for feelings of deprivation but decided that actually  I was more excited to be out and about and seeing our friends again.

Going earlier in the day, was definitely an advantage - Winter Wonderland was less crowded, for one thing, but also I could see more clearly what was on offer at the stalls. And then I came across this:

A stall selling grilled salmon - my favourite fish! I checked it out and the fish was just rubbed in salt before being grilled over an open fire. It came with a salad and a roll, but they seemed quite happy to serve me the salmon with just the salad and no dressing. It cost me £8, mind you (no wonder they were happy!!!!) but I ended up with this:

The grilled salmon was quite salty, but delicious!

Poor deprived creature that I am, I was quite happy with that! 

Which I accompanied with these:

A stall entirely for fries!

This stall was dedicated completely to fries. I had intended to check out whether they were actually made with potato (fries can mean anything) or coated with anything, first, but The Hub disappeared and got them without me. So who knows what was in/on them. Baby and I both ate them and seemed fine, but I'd advise you to be more cautious, than us.*

A couple of other food stalls, I'd like to have checked out, were a corn on the cob stall (I'm quite happy to eat mine without butter), a chestnut stall (do they add anything to them, before they're roasted?) and a Haribo stall (are Haribo gluten free?)!

Anyone for Haribo?

And these were just for starters - there were all kinds of roasts and soup on offer, that I didn't get a chance to investigate (although my gluten-free friend Naomi seemed happy with a roast turkey leg). 

So I went, gloomily preparing myself for the worst, and came back almost skipping for joy, and with very little normality envy at all... although I would like some mulled wine!

Oh yes! and the skating was good too - but perhaps not the best idea for parent-child bonding! However, roll on next year!! I definitely want to go back for more. And if you'd like to go, this year, it's open until January 6th, 2013. However, attractions, such as ice skating,  must be booked in advance!

Couldn't resist including this pic!

*Please note: The choices I made on the day, may not be suitable for you, depending on the allergy or intolerance or medical condition that you are dealing with. Not being diagnosed coeliac, or anaphylactic, gives me a little more 'rope to play with' than others. 

That said, I did check to make sure that the people working in the salmon stall were following hygiene procedures (wiping down surfaces) and weren't slopping stuff (like salad dressing) everywhere - I watched them at work and serving others for a while, first.

Other seasonal posts:

Oo! Ah! Christmas Chocolat!

Baking with Baby 8 - Gingerbread... Bears?

Dairy free ways to decorate your tree

Dairy free ways to decorate your tree.

Last weekend we bought and decorated our Christmas Tree. A common enough occurrence in many households, at this time of the year, but it was momentous in that it was the first real tree we've had since Baby was born, and the first that she's helped to choose and decorate! It was also momentous in that we bought it early - the first weekend of Advent. Usually it goes up a few weeks later, in our household. Also, The Hub (for the first time since I've known him) was the one to suggest buying it - usually he's not so fussed about whether we have one at all!

So, it was, that late, on an outrageously cold Saturday afternoon, we chose and decorated our tree. And here it is!

Once Baby had gone to bed, I redecorated bits of it (couldn't help myself) and added just a few finishing touches - namely chocolate! 

The thing is, for me, a Christmas tree is not complete without a few hanging chocolate decorations. My memories of Christmas (as a child) were that Dad may not have spent out on a new tree each year, but he did the right thing when it came to chocolate. 

I looked around on the Internet for a bit, but research didn't yield the dairy free options for which I was searching, although I did like the look of some fillable baubles, sold by Love Lactose Free Life. 

Then I had an idea! 

The idea came from some time back, when I visited a friend. She wasn't dairy free, just trying to make her money go further and she was employed, together with her children, in making her own chocolate tree decorations! The idea came back to me and it seemed perfect!

The Hub questioned the wisdom of loading the tree with chocolate - pointing out that Baby had the self-control of any normal little one and wouldn't be able to leave it alone. 

Equipped and ready to go!

However,  I couldn't imagine a Christmas tree without chocolate on it! Plus, I had a bit of a bee in my bonnet - I had already bought the chocolate (Sainsbury's Free From Chocolate Coins and Mint Crisps). The coins pictured here are silver and gold, as I bought them a few weeks ago,but at the moment they seem to have changed to  a lovely festive red and green. 

It didn't take me long to gather the rest of my equipment: metallic thread (ours was by Korbond and I think I bought it at the supermarket), stickers, sellotape and scissors. I was ready and determined to give it a go!

One I made earlier

The method is simple! You just take some foil covered dairy free chocolate coins, and stick a Christmassy sticker on the flat side.  I had some stickers left over from last year. These stickers came from the Early Learning Centre, but I also used some from a packet I bought at Accessorize. 

On the other side, where the foil is gathered, you stick a loop of metallic thread (or a slender ribbon, if you prefer) with some sellotape (the stickier the better) and hey presto, there you have it! 

The only thing I would add, is that you need to make sure that you stick the sellotape near the top, or else the coin will hang at a bit of a strange angle! 

I would love to have had Baby help me with this job, as she loves stickers, but even I thought that was a step too far for her self-control! 

The easy option

If that sounds a bit faffy to you, you could always buy some little gift bags instead, fill them with some chocolate coins and hang them from your tree (as you can see, in this picture). The bags I used came from Tesco and come in packs of three, but Hobbycraft also sell these kinds of bags, in their Wedding Favours section.

I had originally considered actually making my own tree chocolate, by melting some dairy free chocolate and filling some chocolate moulds, that I bought from The Works - only 99p and 3 for 2, at the time! 

The only reason I didn't was because I wasn't sure how good they would look once I had foil wrapped them. Well I ask you - how do you get a small square of foil to wrap to neatly around a snowman or a Rudolph? However, it would be a possibility with these bags, because I think the bags could hide my unsightly wrapping quite easily!

Candy Canes seem to be dairy free!

After the chocolate was hung, I added some candy canes. I'm sure they are an American thing, but you see them everywhere, in the shops now. Just for the effect, I bought a few from a Christmas shop in Basingstoke. 

These are strawberry flavoured, as I thought Baby would prefer that to peppermint. I've checked out the ingredients and they seem to be dairy, soy, wheat etc. free. Baby hasn't suffered from the one she's attacked so far - yes her self-control is virtually non-existent!

Still surviving!

The chocolate hasn't survived too well either! A few have gone missing - I thought they were out of reach, but obviously not!! The rest have been moved to higher branches!!

So far, the gingerbread decorations, that we made have survived - well... the two that made it as far as the tree anyway! However, I know that Baby has her eye on them...

My next plan is to try making some dried orange and lemon slices or maybe a pomander, using an orange stuck with cloves, but I think I'll save those for another day.

Meanwhile, how's your dairy free Christmas preparations going? I hope you have a good 'un!

Update! 

Would you believe it? Having just written this post, I've unearthed some dairy free decorations after all! £2.99 for a pack of six, they are available online, from The Vegan Store. This online shop also sells a lot of other great dairy free and egg free products!

Update Nov. 2014
It seems that D and D Chocolates now sell chocolate Christmas tree decorations (see here). These are made with sunflower lecithin rather than soya and are also gluten and nut free, so a great choice for those with allergies! 

Related Post:

Baking with Baby 8 - Gingerbread... Bears?

More 'Cheese Please!' More dairy free alternatives to cheese

A few months ago, when I joined Twitter, my initial plan was to get the news out about the Dairy Free Baby and Me Blog - there's no point in writing a blog unless there are people reading it! I was keen to get out there, to pass on what I'd learned, so that others who struggled with Cow's Milk Protein Intolerance (or similar issues) would have some kind of starting point - which is what I would have liked, when I began this 'journey'. What I didn't expect, however, was that I'd find companions, friends even, to share the 'journey.' 

One such, is 'Sugarpuffish' - a beauty blogger who has grown up with eczema and various food allergies. Having grown up with these, she has a wealth of experience behind her. She is, moreover, able to do something that I cannot - which is tolerate soya. So, following my own post about dairy free cheese, she has very kindly agreed to write contribute this post about dairy free 'cheese' made with soya.

Thank you, Sugarpuffish, over to you!

I was diagnosed with allergies during my childhood. In those days there were no Free From aisles at the supermarket, soya milk was prescribed by my GP and I simply went without cheese.  I have watched the Free From market developed and the most exciting part for me has been the invention of dairy free cheeses. Unlike Dairy Free Baby and Me, I can tolerate soya so I am going to tell you about my favourite dairy free "cheeses". Before I get started people will moan at me that dairy free cheese is not very nice and tastes nothing like the real thing. I do not disagree there are some grim alternatives but for me the real thing is a distant memory and I think that what makes them easier for me to digest. Plus manufacturers are always improving techniques. I always say forget about what you are trying to replace and you can then embrace the alternatives.

My favourite hard/block cheese replacement is Sheese and I buy it at an independent health food store. There are eleven styles to choose from – Blue, Cheshire, Cheddar with Chives, Edam, Gouda, Medium Cheddar, Mild Cheddar, Red Cheddar, Mozzarella, Smoked Cheddar and Strong Cheddar. I personally like the Medium Cheddar style. I enjoy the stronger flavours as the milder varieties taste a little bland. I use hard cheeses for pizzas, sauces and topping off dishes like spaghetti bolognaise or nachos. Sheese also have spreadable varieties which I enjoy.

Tofutti is the brand I have known the longest and its from the USA.  The choice of products available in the US is larger than here and makes me rather jealous.  Tofutti is available to buy at Holland & Barrett or Goodness Direct and they usually stock spreadable cheese, slices and grated mozzarella style. Let’s start with the spreadable varieties. This is the one I most enjoy on crackers and I love the Garlic & Herb.  My Holland & Barrett also stocks Original and Herbs & Chives but I see Goodness Direct also offer French Onion, Country Vegetable, Chopped Olive and Sour.  I think it’s the flavouring that makes this dairy free cheese more enjoyable than others on the market. I have been told the Original version is excellent for Vegan cheesecake recipes.

Tofutti slices are similar to dairy counterparts. It tastes and looks fake so for that reason I think its best suited to sandwiches and burger buns. I am not going to lie it does have a distinct flavour and I have learnt to love it over the years. It is a convenient alternative to grating or chopping. It will melt but it does smell unpleasant and will affect the flavour so I do not recommend using it in this way. 

Other brands to look out for are Cheezly and Vegusto.  I buy Cheezly when I cannot get hold of Sheese. I think that Sheese is slightly superior in taste and texture but they are fairly similar. One problem I do have with Cheezly is it goes mouldy quickly. As for Vegusto, I tried this at the Allergy & Free From Show and found the texture grainy and not to my liking. Others do rave about their cheeses and it has won awards.  It retails online or at independent stores so not the easiest for me to get hold of. This is a plant based cheese alternative which is gluten, dairy and soy free.

I hope you have enjoyed reading. Thank you to Dairy Free Baby and Me for the opportunity to guest post on her blog.

Click here to check out my blog

© 2012 MicrosoftTermsPrivacy & cookiesDevelopersEnglish (United Kingdom)