Gluten-Free & Vegan Blueberry Coffee Cake, or not - Refined Sugar Free

Most of the time, my baking is dictated by what I need to use up before it goes bad.   I had some leftover blueberry pie filling after making some braided crossover blueberry strudels (as shown in the red bean puff pastries entry).  I was going to make a Cherry Sour Cream Coffee Cake with the leftover blueberry pie filling, but I had a sudden urge to try make a coffee cake that was gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free and refined sugar free.  What a challenge!

Success!  Things worked my way!  Very easy to whip up and versatile for an after school snack or afternoon coffee or tea break.  My 5-year old Nessa helped me make this.  I had to add this recipe to my repertoire.  I will make again! 

Instead of cow's milk, I used unsweetened Coconut Dream.  The flaxseed replaces the egg and maple syrup is used instead of refined white sugar.  Being lazy, I did not want to blend my own gluten-free flour.  I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour in my pantry.  I had a package of this and didn't like the flavour of this chickpea flour blend.  I am so glad I gave this another try! 

This is originally a vegan whole wheat blueberry muffin recipe. Luckily, I was able to modify this to be gluten-free and in a pan for a lovely coffee cake.  I sprinkled some coconut sugar and cinnamon on the top of the batter before baking.  Next time, I will combine the sugar and cinnamon together before sprinkling for a prettier presentation.  I will also try make blueberry muffins too.  

If you do not have to go egg, dairy and/or gluten-free, you can use two eggs, cow's milk and whole wheat flour. 

I was impressed how soft and fluffy it turned out!  Not crumbly at all.  I would not have known that this was gluten-free and vegan.    

Gluten-Free Vegan Blueberry Swirl Coffee Cake, or not

makes 1 8"x8" pan and 1- 7"x3" loaf pan

1/4 cup ground flaxseed or 2 eggs

1 3/4 cup Bob's Gluten-Free All-purpose Baking Flour or whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp xanthan gum, if using Bob's Gluten-Free All-purpose Baking Flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup dairy or non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened Coconut Dream)

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice (I prefer lemon juice)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup maple syrup (I used 1/3 cup maple syrup, since my blueberry pie filling is already sweetened)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp orange zest (I used 1/2 tsp lemon extract + 1/4 tsp orange extract)

1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used roughly 1/2 cup leftover blueberry pie filling)

optional:  brown sugar or coconut sugar, cinnamon sprinkled on top

Preheat oven to 375F.  Line 1- 8"x8" square pan and 1- 7"x3" loaf with parchment paper.  Or line muffin tin with paper liners.  

Mix together milk and vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup.  Set aside

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients:  flaxseed, flour, baking soda, xanthan gum (if gluten-free), cinnamon and salt.  

Add the maple syrup, oil, vanilla and orange zest to the milk/vinegar mixture.  

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a spatula until just moistened.  Fold in fresh or frozen blueberries.    

Scoop batter in prepared pans or muffin cups.  If using blueberry pie filling, dollop by tablespoonfuls all over the pans and swirl around with a butter knife.  

Optional:  sprinkle the top of the batter with sugar and cinnamon.

Bake about 15-20 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.   

- Adapted from Madhuram's Eggless Cooking:  Vegan Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

I can't wait to share this recipe with my gluten-free and vegan friends! 

[Edited to add] As the cake sat a few hours later, the texture was still soft and fluffy, but the taste of the chickpea flour and ground flaxseed gave the cake a strong aftertaste.  This recipe is worth another try with a different gluten-free flour blend.  

Enjoy!

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Lemon Raspberry Buttermilk Bundt Cake

I used my heart shaped bundt pan for the first time and I am so happy everything turned out nice.  

For Valentine's Day, I thought it would be a romantic treat for the whole family to have a heart shaped cake studded with red berries.  Frozen raspberries were perfect for this cake.  

Bundt cakes have a dense, tight crumb.  It is great with tea, coffee or a tall glass of milk.  The batter was very thick.  Fresh raspberries would not be able to stand up to the batter while mixing, so the frozen berries were perfect.  Even if the berries were all bashed up, it would still be lovely.  

I had my reservations about removing the cake from the pan.  Would it stick?  

Whew!  I gently ran butter knife around the cake and slowly coaxed it out.  Luckily, it all came out in one piece.  I used melted butter to grease the pan.  This recipe is from Smitten Kitchen.  I love her recipes, but often it is very high in butter and sugar.  I usually decrease the sugar and butter to our milder, lighter palate. 

Wow!  The icing on the cake really makes it look so pretty.  I only made half of the glaze.  I thought that it was sweet enough.  You can taste the slight tangy bite from the lemon glaze and tart raspberries.  

Lemon Raspberry Buttermilk Bundt Cake

Cake

2 1/2 cups (355 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (20 grams) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
1 cup (8 ounces or 225 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used 3/4 cup) 
1 3/4 cups (340 grams) granulated sugar (I cut down to 1 cup)
Zest of 1 lemon (used 1/2 tsp lemon extract instead)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup (175 ml) buttermilk (or 1 Tbsp lemon juice and fill with milk to 3/4 cup)
3 cups (350 to 450 grams) mixed berries (I used 3 cups frozen raspberries)

Glaze (I halved the amount of glaze:  1 cup powdered sugar, juice of half lemon & 1.5 tsp butter)  
2 cups (240 grams) powdered or confections’ sugar 
Juice of 1 lemon (half gram)
1 tablespoon (15 grams) unsalted butter, very, very soft

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 10-cup Bundt non-stick pan with butter or a nonstick spray.  If using nonstick spray, dust the pan with flour to ensure no sticking.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk or sift 2 1/2 cups flour (save the additional 2 Tbsp flour for the berries at a later step), baking powder and salt together.   

In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest (or extract) until light and impossibly fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Then, with the mixer on a low speed, add your eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition. Beat in vanilla, briefly. 

Add 1/3 flour mixture to batter, beating until just combined, followed by half the buttermilk, another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the remaining buttermilk and remaining flour mixture. Scrape down from time to time and don’t mix any more than you need to.

Toss the berries with the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour. With a silicon spatula, gently fold the berries into the cake batter. The batter will be very thick and this will seem impossible without squishing the berries a little, but just do your best and remember that squished berries do indeed make for a pretty batter.  Spread cake batter — you might find it easier to plop it in the pan in large spoonfuls, because it’s so thick — in the prepared baking pan and spread the top smooth. 

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, rotating the cake 180 degrees after 30 (to make sure it browns evenly). The cake is done as soon as a tester comes out clean of batter. 

Set cake pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes, before inverting the cake onto a serving platter to cool the rest of the way. Cool completely. Once cool, whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon juice and butter until smooth and very, very thick. (If you’d like it thinner, add more juice, but I like the thick drippiness of it, seen above.) Spread carefully over top of cake, letting it trickle down the sides when and where it wishes. Serve at once or keep it covered at room temperature for 3 to 4 days.

- Adapted from Smitten Kitchen:  Triple Berry Summer Buttermilk Bundt

This cake did not last long! It was a little on the tart side due to the raspberries and lemon glaze.  The kiddies prefer things that are not too sweet and slightly tart.  If you prefer sweeter, use the full amount of sugar or use a blend of sweeter berries.  

Enjoy!

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UBC Ponderosa Cake (Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake)

UBC is short for University of British Columbia, my alma mater.  UBC Food Services named this yummy banana chocolate chip coffee cake after the Ponderosa Cafeteria on campus.  It is wonderful with coffee, tea or a glass of cold milk.  

Making this cake brings back fond memories of my undergraduate days.  At UBC, I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Laboratory Science (BMLSc) from the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine.  I figure this entry will give my children an insight of my time at university.

I learned much of my ability to analyze, troubleshoot and solve problems during my last two years of BMLSc.  I am so grateful for that.  After taking intensive organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, toxicology, histology, photo-microscopy and other laboratory related courses, I am thankful for these skills.  I can't believe I even defended my undergraduate thesis in front of a panel of professors! Back then, I never realized that I was taught how to think and not memorize.  UBC helped shape my way of thinking at work and at home.  

Now, I am thankful that I can figure out how to tweak and create recipes, fix leaky toilets and make "boo-boo's" feel better!  

 

This is a very easy sour cream banana cake.  There is a layer of brown sugar, cinnamon and chocolate chips in the middle and on top.  Normally, there should be double the amount of chocolate chips but this time I used half.  

 

After 45 minutes, it's done!  I wanted to use my new 7"x9" pyrex glass pan instead of an 8"x8".  This recipe can be easily doubled for a 9"x13" pan.  I normally double this and freeze it, but I only had 1/2 cup sour cream left.  I think plain or greek yogurt will work too.  

Wanna come over to my place for a cup of coffee? 

UBC Ponderosa Cake 

makes 1- 8"x8" cake

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup mashed bananas (approx. 2 bananas)

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sour cream (I used 7% light sour cream)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used half) 

Cream butter and granulated sugar. Add egg, then vanilla and bananas. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add to banana mixture alternately with sour cream. 

Pour half of batter into greased 8" square pan. Mix cinnamon and brown sugar together. Sprinkle half on top of batter, then half of chocolate chips. Repeat layers. 

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until cake tester in middle comes out clean.

- Adapted from AdrienLiem.ca: UBC Ponderosa Cake

The kiddies (and hubby) enjoyed this for breakfast this morning!  I started my day with yummy bowl of steel cut oatmeal instead. 

Have a wonderful day!

Enjoy!

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Cherry Sour Cream Coffee Cake

My firstborn turned 8 yesterday and we had a very nice and quiet family birthday celebration.  It was -26C!  Brrrr.... not as cold as the day he was born: it was -38C!  It was the first week back to school after the holidays.  We resumed our normal hectic schedule filled with field trips and extracurricular activities for our three children.  

By the end of the week, I just did not have the energy to throw a birthday party filled with cupcakes and a bunch of active 8 year olds.  Instead, I decided to throw his "official" party with friends at a later date, preferably 1 month after Christmas!  In the meantime, I baked a lovely warm, comforting Cherry Sour Cream Coffee cake for a very cold winter's day. Instead of frosting, I thought a buttery, sweet, crunchy streusel topping would be just as good.  

OK, it was not a classic child's birthday cake.  Surprisingly, the children ate more of pieces of this cake than any of my other ones with frosting!  Another bonus, it was easy to make with simple ingredients.

Once cut, the children went crazy over the cherry filling.  The wonderful thing with this recipe is that you can use your favourite flavour pie filling instead.  Canned or homemade.  For simplicity, I used canned.  With cherry pie filling, I put 1 tsp almond extract in the cake for a "cherry almond" flavour combination.  For apple pie filling, the cake would be wonderful with vanilla extract and cinnamon in the batter and/or in the streusel topping.  I would also like to try bumbleberry and blueberry pie fillings too.  

Cherry Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Coffee Cake:

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened (I used soft non-hydrogenated canola oil margarine)

1 cup sour cream (I used 7% light sour cream)

3 eggs

1 tsp almond or vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 (21 oz) can cherry pie filling, or your favourite flavour of canned or homemade pie filling

Streusel Topping:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter

1/4 chopped pecans (I omitted, possible nut allergy)

1 tsp cinnamon (I forgot!)

Heat oven to 325°F. Combine 1 cup sugar and 3/4 cup softened butter in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.  Reduce speed to low. Alternate adding sour cream and dry ingredients. Beat until well mixed.

Spread half of batter into greased and floured 13x9-inch baking pan. Spoon cherry pie filling over batter. Spoon remaining batter over pie filling; spread carefully. 

Stir together 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut in 1/4 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle crumb mixture over batter. Bake for 45-50 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and topping is dark golden brown.

Adapted from Land O'Lakes:  Cherry Coffee Cake

Even better with a whipped cream topping!  The birthday boy enjoyed THREE pieces!

Enjoy!

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