A Fragrant Orange Rosewater Cake

Autumn has well and truly set in and Winter is fast approaching. Of course, as the colder months get close it seems like my body tries to go into hibernation mode and all I want is carbs and sleep. One of my favourite cakes is Orange cake - a lot of orange cakes are made with ground almonds which is great for us gluten free eaters, but I find they can be incredibly dense - sometimes that's fine, but more often than not I don't want to feel like I have a brick in my stomach!

I wanted something light, fragrant and delicious. I'm obsessed with citrus and coconut together, I think because it reminds me of summer, and the addition of rosewater takes it to another level - the flavour of rosewater is very subtle, but the smell is incredible and it does wonders to this humble little treat.

Ingredients 

1C sorghum flour

3/4C cashew nuts, blended

1/2C  desiccated coconut

1t baking soda

2 oranges

2T pure maple syrup

1/2t pure vanilla essence

2 eggs

60ml rosewater

Place your oranges in a pot of water and boil, skin on for about 45 minutes. When done, let cool them cool a little before cutting into quarters and blending with the rind on (don't worry it won't be bitter!) until smooth. 

Blend up the raw cashews with a magic bullet or food processor, and in a bowl mix together the cashews, flour, coconut, vanilla, maple syrup and rosewater.

Add the blended orange to the rest of the ingredients, then the eggs. Finally add the baking soda before transferring to a round springform tin or loaf pan. 

Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.  

Serve with coconut yoghurt, or fresh whipped cream and maple syrup for a decadent treat. 

Easter Carrot Cake Bites

Carrot cake is my favourite, but it doesn't make my tummy happy. Even the healthy-fied versions usually contain a pretty high ratio of dried fruits which aren't recommended when you're on a fodmap diet or have issues with IBS. So, in that spirit and with Easter just around the corner I came up with these carrot-cake inspired (and gut-friendly) raw bites. Sweet, but not too sweet, these are a great mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

Fodmap-friendly Carrot Cake Bites

1/3 C ground almonds

1/3 C desicated coconut

1/3 oats*

1 carrot, grated

1.5 T maple syrup

2 T coconut oil

a dash of cinnamon

1/2 t pure vanilla essence 

For the frosting...

 1/3 C coconut butter

1/2 lemon - juice and zest

1/2 t pure vanilla essence

Blitz the almonds, coconut and oats in a blender until fine before adding carrot, maple syrup, melted coconut oil, cinnamon and vanilla essence until it's well mixed. Scoop the mixture into mini cupcake moulds and press firmly, put in the freezer while you prepare the frosting.

Gently melt the coconut butter and stir in the lemon and vanilla. This mixture is pretty lemon-y, so adjust to taste, but I wanted something that reminded me of a cream cheese frosting but without it being overly sweet. Pour over the carrot cake mixture and put back into the freezer until it's set, about 20 mins, et voilà! 

Makes around 12 mini bites. 

*to make this gluten free, simply use certified gluten-free oats, or sub with your favourite nut flour.

A Fresh Start

My name is Frances and, if you can't tell by the title, I like to write stuff.

Just a heads up that I will be making the move over from my old blog, The Wayfarer, to this one over the next few weeks.

I'm at a bit of a life intersection at the moment, so thought it was the perfect time for a change.

You can check out my old blog here for my full archive, though I may go through and occasionally repost some of my favourites on here.

See you soon!