1st Birthday Competition

I'm so ridiculously excited to announce that it has been 12 months since I started writing this blog! To celebrate I have this amazing competition which I'm over the moon about!!!! First I would like to  mention to the wonderful Emma from What's in Emma's Brain , she gave me that final push, that extra encouragement to start writing this blog and she's also a great friend who continues to answer my blogging questions.
I had no idea how much this blog would flourish, the people that it would reach, the pleasure that I would gain from it. For those of you who have been following me throughout the year I haven't had the best of health and I haven't been able to blog as much as I wanted to. But it's my blog and my readers that have pulled me through some hard times. To have an outlet, a purpose, to know that I'm helping others has been amazing.
My plans for the next 12 months are even bigger and better than the first and I hope that you stay along and bring your friends to travel this journey with me.

Drum roll please....... Here's the announcement of my Fantastic 1st Birthday Competition. I would like to give a big special thanks to the lovely people at:
 Mamee www.mamee.com.au
Basco www.basco.com.au
Candy Brokers www.candybrokers.com.au
Bounce www.bouncefoods.com
Gluten Grain Free www.glutengrainfree.com
Tasty Bites www.tastybites.com.au
(There may be some modifications to the prizes as I may still be receiving some more fantastic gluten free goods to add to the already amazing prizes)
Please visit the links I have provided as the gf food that these companies provide are wonderful, with each website giving you an opportunity to view the products they have on offer.

If you note the Tasty Bite prizes have a separate photo, there prizes arrived the day that I posted all the other pictures, this is why they have their own individual picture. I have eaten these meals many times with rice, they are a great quick meal, a quick healthy alternative, something great to always have in your cupboard. You can find these in the Indian/Asian section of most supermarkets or alternatively check out there amazing website, thanks again Tasty Bites for your sponsorship.

I have divided the prizes up into four amazing prizes as you can see below. Unfortunately this competition is only available to Australian residents due to the customs laws as the prizes are all food.

Here is the wonderful 1st Prize

Consists of 4 Basco Cake mixes, Basco preheat pasta mix, Basco soup, Bounce bars, Basco Pancake mix, x4 tubes of Mamee Rice Chips, x 4 snack size Mamee Rice Sticks, Basco Apricot & Apple Muesli , x 3 boxes of Tasty Bite meals.             
                                 2nd Prize

    Consists of x3 Basco Cake mixes,  Basco preheat pasta, Basco soup, Bounce Bars, Basco Pancake mix, x 4 Mamee Rice chips, x4 snack size rick sticks, The Lost Cereal, x 3 boxes of Tasty Bite meals

           3rd Prize
          

   Consists of x2 Basco cake mixes, Basco preheat pasta, Bounce bars, x 4 Mamee Rice Chips, x 2 snack size Mamee Rice sticks, Florida Natural Nuggets, x 3 boxes of Tasty Bite Meals
                 4th Prize

   Consist of x2 Basco cake mixes, Basco preheat pasta, x4 Mamee Rice chips, x2 Mamee snack size rice sticks, Bounce Bars, Florida Natural Nuggets, x 3 boxes of Tasty Bite meals.

There are several ways to enter this competition, the entry that will gain you the most points is to tell me how this blog has helped you and how one of these prizes will be of benefit to you. Some of the other ways you can enter are follow me on twitter @MMOAGFL, tweet daily about the competition, like my Facebook page, like the competition. The specific point details are listed in the competition list.

I would once again like to thank the sponsors of this competition, without them this competition would not have been possible. Their generosity has enabled me to provide four prizes for my lovely readers. If you have not tried the gluten free products that are displayed, I suggested visiting the website of the various goods and looking at the wide variety of products they have to offer. All the food is not only gf but healthy so be assured if you win, it's something you can stock up the lunchboxes with guilt free.

If you have any questions about this competition or in general please feel free to email, tweet me, or message me on Facebook on Mishaps and Mayhem of a Gluten Free Life.

Good luck everyone and the competition runs for two weeks, closing Monday 11th June 2012. Keep up with those entries I wish I could win, believe me it's taken some pretty strong will power having all that delicious gf food in the house and not touching it. But knowing it was for my readers was motivation enough.

Happy 1st Birthday to you all!!! Good luck all with the competition!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

GF Choc Mint Tea Infused Cake UK Blog Hop

I am very excited to be joining my first international blog hop! Thank you for the personal invitation to join this fantastic themed blog hop. What a great variety of dishes and blogs that I didn't know existed. That's the best thing about blog hops, meeting other like minded bloggers'!.


http://www.meandmysweets.blogspot.co.uk/

Since I was a little girl I have loved peppermint, I always sifted through chocolate boxes looking for the peppermint ones. Now, as an adult I love to drink peppermint tea, particularly after a heavy meal, I find it quick refreshing and cleansing. I was fortunate enough to have a sample mix of Cool Mint Green Tea from A Touch of Tea in Bowral www.atouchoftea.com.au, I decided that instead of adding warm milk as the recipe called for, I added warm Cool Mint Green Tea. The original recipe called for 3 tablespoons of warm milk, I added 6 tablespoons of Cool Mint Green Tea, to ensure the cake was moist and not dry, like alot of gluten free cakes.

The consistency of the cake was like a thick fudge, don't worry this is how it is meant to be. The cake takes 20 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius, I made sure that I took the cake out when some of the crumbs were clinging to the skewer, this ensured that the cake was moist and stayed moist for more than one day.

I have to be honest and say that this was the most moist gluten free cake I have made since I have been baking gluten free! This is definitely a cake I recommend that you make, if you don't have access to the tea, I'm sure peppermint tea would make a nice mix.

GF Chocolate Mint Tea Infused Cake

Ingredients:
125g butter (softened)
1/2 cup caster
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup gf self raising flour
1/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup gf cornflour
1 1/2 teaspoons gf baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa
6 tablespoons Cool Mint Green Tea

Method:
Preheat over to 180 degree Celsius. With electric mixer cream butter and sugar until smooth and light. Add eggs individually and beat well. Sift the flours, cocoa and baking powder into the butter mixture and mix, add tea to make a thick batter (the consistency of brownies, fairly thick). Spoon the mixture into a greased and lined 20cm tin. Bake for 20 minutes, until skewer comes out with cake clinging onto it, this means that it will be moist and delicious. Place on a wire rack, cool and ice.

Icing:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon sifted cocoa
2 tablespoons milk

Method:
With butter softened mix all the ingredients in a bowl, add icing sugar or milk if needed. Using a spoon and knife ice over the top and side of the cake. Leave to set and eat.

GF Chocolate Mint Tea Infused Cake

I have been participating in the SABH Blog Hop for as long as I can remember, I think my first entry might have been the chocolate Pavlova recipe, with Pavlova being the theme. I was so excited to find other like minded food bloggers' and a place to share my passion/love of food. The monthly blog hop with a specific topic has at times challenged me, got my creative juices flowing. The third week of every month is definitely something that I look forward to every month.


http://84thand3rd.com/2012/05/21/macha-green-tea-cupcakes/
This month when JJ announced that the theme was tea, I have to admit I was a bit unsure, where to start, this wasn't your traditional ingredients in a cake. But I was excited it pushed me out of my comfort zone and encouraged me to extend myself with my cooking abilities. When I came to the conclusion of what I was cooking and shared the decision with one of my good friends, who is a chef, he was very impressed, it was then that I knew that I was onto a good thing, the flavour combination would work wonderful, a perfect marriage.
I had already settled on making a chocolate cake, this was not a recipe that I had made before I was adapting it from a plain cake recipe I had made previously, instead of adding vanilla I added 1/3 cup of sifted cocoa to the cake to make it chocolate.

Since I was a little girl I have loved peppermint, I always sifted through chocolate boxes looking for the peppermint ones. Now, as an adult I love to drink peppermint tea, particularly after a heavy meal, I find it quick refreshing and cleansing. I was fortunate enough to have a sample mix of Cool Mint Green Tea from A Touch of Tea in Bowral www.atouchoftea.com.au, I decided that instead of adding warm milk as the recipe called for, I added warm Cool Mint Green Tea. The original recipe called for 3 tablespoons of warm milk, I added 6 tablespoons of Cool Mint Green Tea, to ensure the cake was moist and not dry, like alot of gluten free cakes.

The consistency of the cake was like a thick fudge, don't worry this is how it is meant to be. The cake takes 20 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius, I made sure that I took the cake out when some of the crumbs were clinging to the skewer, this ensured that the cake was moist and stayed moist for more than one day.

I have to be honest and say that this was the most moist gluten free cake I have made since I have been baking gluten free! This is definitely a cake I recommend that you make, if you don't have access to the tea, I'm sure peppermint tea would make a nice mix.

GF Chocolate Mint Tea Infused Cake

Ingredients:
125g butter (softened)
1/2 cup caster
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup gf self raising flour
1/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup gf cornflour
1 1/2 teaspoons gf baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa
6 tablespoons Cool Mint Green Tea

Method:
Preheat over to 180 degree Celsius. With electric mixer cream butter and sugar until smooth and light. Add eggs individually and beat well. Sift the flours, cocoa and baking powder into the butter mixture and mix, add tea to make a thick batter (the consistency of brownies, fairly thick). Spoon the mixture into a greased and lined 20cm tin. Bake for 20 minutes, until skewer comes out with cake clinging onto it, this means that it will be moist and delicious. Place on a wire rack, cool and ice.

Icing:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon sifted cocoa
2 tablespoons milk

Method:
With butter softened mix all the ingredients in a bowl, add icing sugar or milk if needed. Using a spoon and knife ice over the top and side of the cake. Leave to set and eat.

The lovely Jennifer at Delicieux is running a great comp to win a free stand mixer valued at $749, see her blog for details.

I am very excited to announce that in the next few days I will be running my 1st Birthday competition. Thanks to some amazing GF Food companies including Mammee, Basco, Bounce Bars, Florida's Natural Fruit Nuggets, Amaranth and Quinoa The Lost Cereal, and more I have a mammoth amount of food to give away. Unfortunately as it is food and due to custom laws it will only be available to my Australian readers, sorry to all my international readers. I wish that I was a reader of my blog so I could enter, it has taken temptation not to eat all the wonderful food that I have in my house for some very lucky readers!