Soy-Supreme Coco-Crème (Vegan & Sugarless) Frosting:

This recipe is from Erin McKenna's vegan New York cupcake bakery - Babycakes.. It's one of the best gluten-free, dairy-free, and mostly sugar-free dessert cook-books around. Seriously. If you want to bake the most luscious cakes and pastries that are also healthy - buy her book! 

Soy-Supreme Coco-Crème (Vegan & Sugarless) Frosting:
(Frosting needs to be made at least 6 hours ahead)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/3 cup dry soy milk powder
1 tablespoon coconut flour
4 tablespoons agave nectar
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cups coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon lemon juice

In a blender, combine soy milk, soy-milk powder, coconut flour, agave nectar and vanilla and blend until smooth and combined. With the blender running, slowly drizzle the melted coconut oil and lemon juice until they are completely absorbed and the mix is smooth.

Pour into a container and refrigerate for at least 6 hours until firm. Can be made up to 5 days in advance.

Apply to cake with a palate knife or piping bag and refrigerate cake until serving.

Gorgeous Ginger Cake - (Gluten-free & Dairy-free)

This recipe makes a fairly large cake (25cm diameter, 7cm high). You can halve the ingredients for a smaller cake.

Ingredients:

350g rice-bran oil
100g rapadura (evaporated cane-juice)
6 eggs
2 tablespoons molasses
285g of sweet preserved stem ginger
1 cup glutinous rice flour
1 cup brown rice flour
3 cups nuts (Almonds + Cashews + Hazelnuts)
6 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
4 heaped teaspoon grated fresh ginger
4 tablespoons soy milk

Method:

• Grind the nuts into a fine meal in a food processor. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat oil and sugar until light coloured.
• Add eggs gradually, whites first and then the yolks and beat until light and fluffy.
• Fold in molasses.
• Fold in sifted flour, baking powder, ground ginger and nut meal.
• Fold in fresh ginger and chopped stem-ginger.
• Fold in milk.
• Pour into a greased 25cm spring-form cake-tin, lined on the base with baking paper. 
• Bake for 50-70 mins in 170°C oven
• Allow cake to cool, before icing with Cashew Frosting.

Cashew Frosting - Sugar-free! (not pictured - but very, very yummy!)

1 cup raw, unsalted cashews (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
1/8 to 1/4 cup agave Syrup (taste it and see how sweet you want it)
juice of 1 large lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup Coconut oil, melted
purified water

Soak cashews in water for at least 30 minutes but no longer than 60 minutes. Drain cashews and combine all frosting ingredients, except the coconut oil, in a food processor or blender and begin blending – add water slowly until the mixture becomes creamy and reaches desired consistency, you might need only a few tablespoons, as the lemon juice and agave syrup often give enough liquidity on their own. When the cashew mix is smooth enough, add the melted coconut oil, which will help the icing to set when it cools. Refrigerate the frosting for a few hours until it is cool and firm, then frost the cooled cake, applying with a palate knife or piping bag just before serving.

Enjoy!

PS: The flowers used for the styling of this photo are from Silk Flora - 109-111 Parramatta Rd Annandale, 2038

Pineapple Lemon Qi Cake

As you may have noticed, the Yum-oh blog doesn't include any recipes that use wheat or dairy, as those things just don't agree with me. Most of the time that isn't an issue at all - there are so many yummy cuisines to eat in the world that don't use wheat or dairy, or that soy is a fine substitute. But the one stumbling block was always CHEESECAKE... How do you get that creamy mouth-feel and unique flavour from anything else? So you can imagine how I was bowled over recently by the introduction to this amazing cake: no wheat, no dairy, but Oh My! how creamy-dreamy-yummy-cheezy it seemed! The discovery of this desert felt like nothing short of a miracle. This truly is an ‘I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-dairy’ epiphany of a ‘cheese’-cake. The recipe is blessedly shared with us by Regina and David Power from calmbirth® and PermaculturePower. Regina created the recipe after researching several sources and drew on some of the ideas from Julie Mitosis who runs a raw food company and cooking course in Sydney.

Regina and David's two-year-old daughter Maia has taken to calling it ‘Qi-cake’ – which besides being incredibly cute is also very apt, because you feel full of good Qi-energy after eating this delightful raw-food desert. (Regina says technically I can't call it an entirely raw-food recipe, because I created the addition of the agar-agar jelly topping, which does require boiling for a short time to set the jell in the seaweed - and the more hard-core raw-foodies wouldn't be seen within a hundred feet of a stove... But me? I'm into this cake for the flavour, the texture and the feeling of utter indulgence!)

So let’s cut to the chase – here’s the recipe - you’ll need a very strong blender for this one! I bought a whizz-bang, you-beaut, ice-crushing Ikon 600 from the Breville factory shop in Wattle St Ultimo for $160 that handles the job extremely well.

Pineapple Lemon Qi Cake Recipe:
(recipe kindly shared by Regina Power)

Cake Batter:
1 really nice, ripe, fresh pineapple (3 cups)
1-2 lemons juiced (taste the batter and see how tart you want it to be)
1½ half cups of fresh Thai coconut meat (approx 4 Thai Coconuts as sometimes you get more water than flesh.)
2 cups of dry cashew nuts (they get really soft when you soak for a few hours.)
3 tablespoon Agave Nectar
1 tablespoon Yacon Syrup (if you don't have yacon syrup, just use an additional tablespoon of Agave or Honey or to taste.)
2 Tablespoons lecithin*
1 Tablespoon of honey
¾ cup organic extra virgin coconut oil

Note:
*Soy Lecithin consists of three types of phospholipids, which are basically phosphorus rich lipids. The purpose of using soy lecithin in raw desserts is to emulsify and homogenize the fats and the aqueous liquids so that they do not separate, and it also helps make the dessert creamier. This desert will work without it - I didn't have any and it worked fine!Nut Crust:2 cups of dry almonds
Rind of one lemon
Some lemon juice to your liking
3/4 cup of pitted dates

Pineapple Agar-Agar Jelly Topping:
500ml fresh, unsweetened pineapple juice
200ml water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons agave syrup
5g agar-agar powder
extra water, if needed

Method:
Pre-soak the cashew nuts for the batter in fresh cold water for a few hours to soften.

Place the crust ingredients in a food-processor and process until mixture forms a ball. Take out small chunks and press them into the bottom of a spring form pan, pressing to form a solid base. Be sure the cover up the seams of the spring form pan as the cake batter may leak through the sides since it tends to be a bit runny until it hardens.

Open the Thai coconuts by shaving the pith off the top of the nut with a large kitchen knife, revealing a bald ‘friar tuck’ nut. Keeping your hands away from the coconut, whack the nut on the ‘hairline’ with the sharp corner of the butt of the knife (not the tip) and wedge the base of the blade into the crack, working it backwards and forwards until the round ‘lid’ of the coconut lifts off. See a video demo here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THEdI_gSNQ4

Serve the coconut water as a refreshing drink. Enjoy... it is delicious!

Scoop out the flesh of the coconuts and place the flesh in a heavy-duty blender with the remaining cake-batter ingredients, except the coconut oil, and blend on high speed until smooth and creamy. Taste the batter and adjust the lemon juice and sweeteners to your liking. Then when the batter is very smooth, and whist the blender is still running, add the coconut oil and blend until well incorporated and mixture is smooth and uniform. This is the stage where you get to see if your blender can handle the job, as it can really start to work hard at this point.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared spring-form tin, covering the nut-base. Refrigerate for approximately 3-4 hours until the mixture hardens. Any left-over batter can be poured into dessert dishes and keep in the fridge. Put a plate underneath the spring-form tin in case it decides to leak a bit. Allow to set before adding the pineapple agar-jelly topping.

To make the pineapple agar jelly topping, bring the pineapple juice and water to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Measure the amount of liquid remaining and add extra water to make up to 60ml. Add the agar-agar powder and bring liquid to boil again, stirring until dissolved. Add agave syrup, sweetening to taste. Allow the agar jelly to cool slightly, but don’t allow it to set too much. Pour the jelly syrup over the cake and return it to the fridge for the final setting – it won’t take long, 15-20 mins should be enough.

And Voi-La... there you have it: Pineapple Lemon Qi Cake...

Yum-Oh!
Eat & enjoy!