Saturday, August 10, 2013

GFCF Lemon Blackberry-Strawberry Coffee Cake

By popular demand I'm posting this. I have grown up baking and cooking. GFCF baking though took a bit of a learning curve this past year to really get any good at it. I tend to not measure, but eyeball a lot of things when I cook and (gasp) bake. Some bakers would swear you can't eyeball anything, but my mother always did and so do I. I make my own jam which went into this cake too, but you can use whatever you like. I hope you make it and enjoy it! I do tend to lean even heavier on the spices, but toned it a little bit down for you all. It was going to be raspberries, but my bush just stopped producing them and the blackberry bush was full plus I had some late summer strawberries in the fridge. You can use whatever berries are on hand and in season!


GFCF Lemon Blackberry-Strawberry Coffee Cake
Dry Ingredients
1 ½ C. Pamela’s GFCF Baking Mix
1 ½ C. GF All Purpose Flour
½ C. Either Garbanzo Bean or Almond Flour
½ Tsp. Salt
2 Tsp. Baking powder
1 Tsp. Baking soda
1 Tsp. Ginger
1 ½ Tsp. Cinnamon
2 Tsp. Cardamom
¼ C. Sugar
Wet Ingredients
½ C. Vanilla Coconut Yogurt (if not vanilla add in 1 Tsp. of vanilla extract)
1 C. Light or regular canned Coconut Milk
1 Lemons (zest and juice)
¾ C. Honey
3 Eggs
Filling and topping
1 TBS Strawberry or Blackberry Preserves (heaping)
Blackberries
Strawberries
1 Lemon (zest and juice)
1 ½  TBS. Brown Sugar
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
½ Tsp. Nutmeg
½ TBS. GF Flour
1 ½ TBS of non-dairy GF margarine melted
Powdered Sugar
½ to ¾ C. Nuts of your choice: Walnuts or pecans are great! (Optional)
If you like a little more lemon, I did end up adding in a little lemon extract too to punch it up a bit. Do that to taste.
Preheat oven at 375. Combine Dry ingratiates. Combine wet ingredients. Combine dry and wet together to make batter. Spray bunt pan and add in ½ the batter. Spoon preserves on top of batter putting as many berries as you wish in this filling. I wouldn’t overfill the middle with berries or it will get super mushy. I probably did ¼ C. of each kind. Spoon in the rest of the batter on top of this.
Prepare topping (or bottoming in this case!):
Combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon zest. Combine with melted margarine or if you are like me and forget the margarine I put the topping on and then go, “Oh the margarine!” and then drizzle it on top of the topping so it will combine. Either way works. It can be easier to forget as the dry stuff goes on easier and covers better that way. Place on top of batter (it will end up being on the bottom when you flip it out of pan). I suppose you could start with this as the first layer if you wanted it on top of the bunt. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes and check to see if done (everyone’s oven is different).

After it has come out and cooled for about 10 minutes. Flip out of bunt pan onto serving plate. Combine a little more preserves with lemon juice and a little powdered sugar to drizzle on top of cake. A light dusting of powdered sugar if you want to make it even prettier. Place berries on top. Eat and enjoy!

Thursday, August 01, 2013

Another poem....

My son is into keeping all the windows open at the moment. Even when the nights are dipping down into the low 50s. I have been writing poetry still since April, when I wrote so many, but here is one I wrote this morning that seems blog worthy.

Summer’s Opportunity
You’re opening windows
Insisting that they be not shut
Such an effort to open them
You climb up on a chair to reach
Stretching to your full height
Pulling on stiff levers that secure them
You push them free
Swinging out
Nearly falling yourself
You rock back on your heels
Standing in the silhouette of the sky
Breathing in summer’s sweet release

Hemmed in no more