Gluten Free Victoria Sponge

Gluten Free Victoria Sponge Ingredients 

• 225g Gluten Free Self Raising Flour
• 225g Sugar
• 225g Butter ( Not margarine!!)
• 4 Large Beaten Eggs
• 1/2 Bicarbonate of Soda
• Strawberry Jam I have no idea how much jam I use. I just kind of do it by eye so you’ll have to do the same!

Butter Cream Ingredients

• 85g Softened Butter ( Just leave it out the fridge for  hour to soften it)
• 225g Icing sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• 1 Tablespoon of Milk

Most shop brought gluten free cakes are a little lack luster in both the taste and texture department. This is not the case if you are willing to put the extra effort and bake one yourself using this recipe. You wont be able to tell the difference between this and a ‘normal’ Victoria Sponge, both the taste and texture are spot on with this recip

Making a simple sponge is about as easy as it gets. But baking is a pretty exact science so do follow the recipe carefully.

1. Start by pre heating that oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Then cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the beaten egg a little as a time, beating the mixture as you go. (Make sure your beating it not just giving it a stir!)
   

   ---

2. Once you’ve beating the egg into the mix add the bicarbonate of soda. Then slowly add the flour mixing it as you go ( Don’t beat it now you’ve beaten it enough, Its time for a gentle mix at this point)
   

   ---

3. Once all the flour has been added  into the mixture. Pop it into two 8″ round cake tins and stick it in your preheated for 25 to 20 minutes.
   

   ---

4. Now for the butter cream, again super easy but unbelievably tasty! Start….. and finish by creaming the icing sugar, butter, milk and vanilla essence together in a mixing bowl (Using electric whisk a will speed things up a bit)
   

   ---

5.  All that’s left now is to remove your cakes from the oven, spread the butter cream and jam on them, and sandwich them together then dust with icing sugar. P.s……. Do let the cakes cool down before you spread the butter cream icing them otherwise icing melts!

Enjoy!

Pesto!

Pesto Ingredients :

• 90g Fresh Basil Leaves ( 3 Good Handfuls)
• 1 Clove of Garlic
• 1/2 A Lemon (Juice)
• 4og Pine Nuts (1 Handful)
• Sea Salt & Black Pepper
• 1/2 A Hand Full of Grated Parmesan
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Once you’ve made pesto you’ll never buy it again. Homemade is infinitely  better than pesto from a jar. It takes a little more effort of course, but i make a fair amount and just fridge or freeze what i don’t use. Having it the freezer means your never more than 10 minutes away from a wonderfully tasty, quick and easy pasta dinner!

If your feeling particularly brave you may want to make the spaghetti to go with your pesto. My home made spaghetti recipe can be found here.

1. Now you can go all cave man by pounding it all up in a pestle and motor. But to be honest who can be bothered to do that? /your already putting in the effort by making your own pesto! Start by chopping up the garlic clove and putting it in a food processor with the Basil leaves, pine nuts and the juice of half a lemon. (I use my Nutribullet check them out they are available from my shop )
   

   ---

2. Add a drizzle of olive oil then whiz it all up for a few seconds at a time. You’ll have to give it a little jiggle every now and again, to stop it sticking to the sides of the food processor. Once its some what blended add the parmesan, a bit more olive oil  and keep pulsing the food processor until you have a paste.(Again you may need to give it a little wiggle/scrape.) The parmesan will dry the mixture out so keep adding olive oil then whizzing it until you’ve reached a consistency your happy with. Season with salt and pepper at this point as well. (If I’m feeling adventurous Ill whiz some fresh chili up with it)
   

   ---

3. Its as simple as that, now all you’ve got to do is stir it into already cooked pasta then fry the pasta for like a  minute or two just to cook the pesto a little. Enjoy!
   

Homemade Spaghetti

Homemade Spaghetti Ingredients

• 1 Large Egg

• 100g ‘oo’ Grade Plain Flour ( Its actually easier to make with normal plain flour so use that if you’ve never made spaghetti before)

• A Little Salt

Its really easy to make and only takes about five minutes once you’ve got the method cracked. Your first attempted may get a little messy but stick with it i assure you its well worth it.

Remember if it all goes wrong you can always squash it all up into a ball of dough and start again.

 

1. For Spaghetti pop your flour on the work top ( I don’t bother using a mixing bowl  because I like to keep the washing up to an absolute minimum) Make a well in the flour into this well crack your egg, add a little salt then begin to fold it all together with a wooden spoon.
   

   ---

2. Once you’ve folded the mixture several times use your hands use your hands to knead it. If the dough is at all sticky just dust it with more flour until the dough stops sticking to your hands (If you try to put in through the pasta maker when its sticky utter carnage will quickly follow)
   

   ---

3. Now use a floured rolling-pin to roll your dough flat ideally you want to roll it into a strip measuring roughly 10 centimeters in width and about 1 cm thick ( if you have a small pasta maker the obviously you’re going to want to roll it so its narrower)
   

   ---

4. Now you want secure your pasta maker to the work top mine uses a little vice thing to do this. Once secure use the just the flat roller fitting on your pasta maker to further roll the dough. You’ll need to put the dough through 4 or 5 times each time change the setting on the pasta maker so its rolled slightly thinner each time (if its going to go wrong this is where its going to happen so please take your time and make sure the dough is properly floured before putting through the rollers)
   

   ---

5. Now for the exciting part! Put the spaghetti attachment on your pasta maker and slowly feed the dough into the pasta maker for the last time. (You’re on the home straight, don’t mess it up now so again TAKE YOUR TIME! We aren’t on ready steady cook!) As if by magic a flat dough should go in and long thin spaghetti should come out. Be gentle with the spaghetti dough it’s fairly delicate. Once all the dough has been made into spaghetti hang it up on pasta hanger. If you don’t have one just lay it flat or use whatever you can find (As you can see from the picture i use the tap!)
   

   ---

6. That’s the tricky part done! Now its just a case of boiling pan of water and cooking the spaghetti. It Will only take a few minutes just make sure your water is boiling before you add the spaghetti.
   

   ---

The Pasta maker i use and recommend  can be found in my Amazon store.

Now you can make Spaghetti why not try my  Traditional Pork Bolognese recipe out!