If you are like me and have watched the news today, you would be aware that reality TV star Kim Kardaishan has today claimed a dramatic weight loss to a GF diet!
No Kim is not suffering from Coeliac disease, or gluten intolerance, she has deemed like a small group of USA and UK celebrity's that going gluten free is the quickest way to weight loss.
Apart from my links to the diet and the postitive benefits of autism, I and most other GF Food bloggers that will not support the recent dietery claims by this branch of celebritys that a GF diet is the best way to loose weight.
Sure I lost a little bit of weight when I went on the diet, I thought mainly I lost the bloating that was happening from constantly eating gluten. Honestly I think that celebrity's putting light on such a serious diet and an autoimmunue disease make the general public take the disease and the diet less seriously.
There are lots of benefits in eating gluten, in the grain, in the fibre and other great dietary things that you benefit from while eating gluten. Not something that I would choose to remove from my diet.
Would I choose to sit hungry at parties as the finger food does not contain anything I can eat, whould I choose a diet, that makes me walk out of restaurants as there is nothing that I can eat.
I guess the benfeit these celebrities who choose a gf diet as a diet not due to a disease or intolerance, is they can honestly eat whatever they feel like eating, without suffering from a crippling reaction which can last up to days. At most they may feel a little bloated.
But as you can see this new diet fad has made me outraged, that such shallow people would put real diseases like coeliac disease and gluten intolerance as something that is not to be given any real stance, but a focus of a fad diet,not an autoimmune disease.
Grow up celebebrity dieters, think about the real people you are affecting, think that GF is related to an actually autoimmune diease
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Friday, 4 May 2012
GF Gran's Cinnamon Sponge Cake
My gran passed away from bowel and liver cancer in 2007 too quickly at 73, too young and with far too much life left in her.
I have many fond memories of baking with her, helping her bake, tasting her baking, it was always a treat. My grandparents were farmers and moved to a more suburban rural area in their retirement. They didn't have much money and for as long as I can remember birthday presents, where we got to pick our favourite cake that Gran made and that was our present, it was always delightful.
My last birthday that Gran was alive was my 25th and she made at my request her famous Cinnamon Sponge. It has taken me 5 years to even build up the courage to make this dish, my favourite, and it held so many memories, thus the reason why it's taken so long for me to even try and make this cake.
Since Gran had made my cake I had been diagnosed with Coeliac disease, and I changed the flour consistency in the original recipe, so I really had no idea how this recipe would turn out. I tried to get into my Gran's head when I was baking this cake, it was for my sister's birthday lunch. I had the eggs and butter at room temperature, I sifted the flour three times so they were in a fine consistency, not required in the recipe but something that I knew was common in that era.
There were tears when I was making this cake it held such important meaning to me, mum was helping me and we greased the tin and added flour, thinking that this would be enough for the cake. When we turned them out they stuck a little bit, there were tears, this cake meant so much too me, it had taken me five years to make this cake, to live in my Gran's big cooking footsteps. There were tears when it didn't turn out quite perfect. I highly recommend when baking any gluten free cake, particularly sponges, make sure you use baking paper. It saves any tears.
This is the height the butter and sugar should be
In the middle of the cake was mock cream. The first attempt was not a success, Gran had said to add the syrup, she forget to add gradually, knowing Gran she would have assumed that we just knew to add the syrup gradually. There was a curdled mess to start with, round two worked much better, I waited until the syrup really cooled and added very slowly. This time we had success.
Mock Cream consistency
Gran always had a chocolate icing to the top, after discussion with my sister and my mother we decided to add cinnamon to the icing. Gran did not write this down in her recipe but we decided she would have added it.
Cinnamon Cake after coming out of oven
The first bite was perfect, the mixture was an explosion of flavours of memories, it was as close to perfect as I could get. I got the approval from Grandpa, which meant so much too me, particularly when I spoke to my Aunty who he had already spoke to about the cake. I had obviously done a good job to make such an impression.
It gave me a new appreciation for Gran, this is a cake that you don't make every day it's a special occasion cake and I cherish each memory I have of her making this cake for me. I will make a pledge to continue on with this tradition of making this lovely cake on special occasions. It's not easy but well worth every effort. For the first time I have take pictures of the various steps in making this cake, I hope this helps you. Please email me on mmoagflife@gmail.com for any questions or help.
Do you have a family recipe that you would love to share, that it took you a while to make, for whatever reasons, I would love to share your story.
Without further ado here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
4 eggs (room temperature)
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup gf self raising flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup gf corn flour
6 tablespoons boiling milk
57g butter or 2ozs
2tps cinnamon
1 tsps cocoa
Mock Cream:
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup caster sugar
113g butter or 4ozs
1/2 tsps vanilla
Icing:
2 tbls butter
2 tbls milk
1 tbls cocoa
1tps cinnamon 1 cup icing sugar
Add more milk or icing sugar if needed.
Method:
Once the cakes are cool spread the mock cream onto one of the cakes and spread evenly then place the other cake on top. Now it's time to make your icing. Mix all the ingredients for the icing together, ensure the butter is soft, even if you zap it in the microwave for 10 seconds, start with a cup of icing and if you need more milk or icing sugar add it. Once it is made up and all lumps have been mixed out, spread evenly over the top of the cake. You sponge cake is now complete. Don't worry if the texture of the cake becomes a little firmer around the cream, I think it's just the reaction.
I hope that this cake will become as special to you as it has to me and my family. I encourage you if there is a special dish that your mother, grandmother or aunty made and they are no longer with us, do build up that courage to make it. The memories that first mouthful brought back almost made me cry. It wasn't Gran's cake but it was a close gluten free effort that made me proud and I know that she was there in spirit helping me.
Don't forget you still have a few days to vote for my blog in the People's Choice Awards, I would really appreciate all your votes. Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter @MMOAGFL where I'm running a competition to get 1.5k followers, there are 3 pieces of custom made and designed jewelry to win, to enter follow me on twitter, follow me on my blog, Re tweet daily. I also appreciate you to like us on Facebook, that's extra bonus points.
I hope you enjoy this GF Cinnamon Sponge Cake as much as we did, if you don't need to make this cake GF just use 1 1/4 cups SR flour instead of the flour combination I have used.
Please share your stories of beloved recipes with me, I can't wait to hear from you.
I have many fond memories of baking with her, helping her bake, tasting her baking, it was always a treat. My grandparents were farmers and moved to a more suburban rural area in their retirement. They didn't have much money and for as long as I can remember birthday presents, where we got to pick our favourite cake that Gran made and that was our present, it was always delightful.
My last birthday that Gran was alive was my 25th and she made at my request her famous Cinnamon Sponge. It has taken me 5 years to even build up the courage to make this dish, my favourite, and it held so many memories, thus the reason why it's taken so long for me to even try and make this cake.
Since Gran had made my cake I had been diagnosed with Coeliac disease, and I changed the flour consistency in the original recipe, so I really had no idea how this recipe would turn out. I tried to get into my Gran's head when I was baking this cake, it was for my sister's birthday lunch. I had the eggs and butter at room temperature, I sifted the flour three times so they were in a fine consistency, not required in the recipe but something that I knew was common in that era.
There were tears when I was making this cake it held such important meaning to me, mum was helping me and we greased the tin and added flour, thinking that this would be enough for the cake. When we turned them out they stuck a little bit, there were tears, this cake meant so much too me, it had taken me five years to make this cake, to live in my Gran's big cooking footsteps. There were tears when it didn't turn out quite perfect. I highly recommend when baking any gluten free cake, particularly sponges, make sure you use baking paper. It saves any tears.
This is the height the butter and sugar should be
In the middle of the cake was mock cream. The first attempt was not a success, Gran had said to add the syrup, she forget to add gradually, knowing Gran she would have assumed that we just knew to add the syrup gradually. There was a curdled mess to start with, round two worked much better, I waited until the syrup really cooled and added very slowly. This time we had success.
Mock Cream consistency
Gran always had a chocolate icing to the top, after discussion with my sister and my mother we decided to add cinnamon to the icing. Gran did not write this down in her recipe but we decided she would have added it.
Cinnamon Cake after coming out of oven
The first bite was perfect, the mixture was an explosion of flavours of memories, it was as close to perfect as I could get. I got the approval from Grandpa, which meant so much too me, particularly when I spoke to my Aunty who he had already spoke to about the cake. I had obviously done a good job to make such an impression.
It gave me a new appreciation for Gran, this is a cake that you don't make every day it's a special occasion cake and I cherish each memory I have of her making this cake for me. I will make a pledge to continue on with this tradition of making this lovely cake on special occasions. It's not easy but well worth every effort. For the first time I have take pictures of the various steps in making this cake, I hope this helps you. Please email me on mmoagflife@gmail.com for any questions or help.
Do you have a family recipe that you would love to share, that it took you a while to make, for whatever reasons, I would love to share your story.
Without further ado here is the recipe:
GF Cinnamon Sponge Cake
Ingredients:
4 eggs (room temperature)
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup gf self raising flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup gf corn flour
6 tablespoons boiling milk
57g butter or 2ozs
2tps cinnamon
1 tsps cocoa
Mock Cream:
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup caster sugar
113g butter or 4ozs
1/2 tsps vanilla
Icing:
2 tbls butter
2 tbls milk
1 tbls cocoa
1tps cinnamon 1 cup icing sugar
Add more milk or icing sugar if needed.
Method:
Once the cakes are cool spread the mock cream onto one of the cakes and spread evenly then place the other cake on top. Now it's time to make your icing. Mix all the ingredients for the icing together, ensure the butter is soft, even if you zap it in the microwave for 10 seconds, start with a cup of icing and if you need more milk or icing sugar add it. Once it is made up and all lumps have been mixed out, spread evenly over the top of the cake. You sponge cake is now complete. Don't worry if the texture of the cake becomes a little firmer around the cream, I think it's just the reaction.
I hope that this cake will become as special to you as it has to me and my family. I encourage you if there is a special dish that your mother, grandmother or aunty made and they are no longer with us, do build up that courage to make it. The memories that first mouthful brought back almost made me cry. It wasn't Gran's cake but it was a close gluten free effort that made me proud and I know that she was there in spirit helping me.
Don't forget you still have a few days to vote for my blog in the People's Choice Awards, I would really appreciate all your votes. Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter @MMOAGFL where I'm running a competition to get 1.5k followers, there are 3 pieces of custom made and designed jewelry to win, to enter follow me on twitter, follow me on my blog, Re tweet daily. I also appreciate you to like us on Facebook, that's extra bonus points.
I hope you enjoy this GF Cinnamon Sponge Cake as much as we did, if you don't need to make this cake GF just use 1 1/4 cups SR flour instead of the flour combination I have used.
Please share your stories of beloved recipes with me, I can't wait to hear from you.
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
The meaning of ANZAC DAy
This post has nothing to do with food, gluten free or autism in any way, sorry to my regular readers it has something to do with a national event of remembrance, of commemoration of our army, navy and airforce men and women. It's about ANZAC Day 25th April 1915, Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
Every country matter what side of the war your country fought on has a national day of remembrance. I'm writing this post to create awareness of what happened why we still remember and why it's important to me.
I had 2 great grandfathers and a great uncle fight in WW1, 1 for Australia, the other for Britain. Australia was a young country we had only just become a federation in 1901, WW1 was the first time the world and Australia saw the country as a nation, not just states! Young men, some as young as 15 changed their age to follow the war propaganda and fight for the mother country, they weren't trained soldiers and had no idea what awaited for them on the other side!
The war at Anzac cove was to fight for the Dardnelle Straights, a great shipping source for the Turks and the British and allied forces wanted to gain this for themselves. There was a massive mistake made by British generals in getting the correct coordinates for the Australian and New Zealand Forces to begin their dawn attack. It was only when they landed and were showered by machine gun fire did they realise something was a miss. These young men landed on that beach facing soaring cliffs with the Turks sitting on top of the hill heavily armed. The British generals were unwilling to admit a mistake had been made and the men fought on side by side being fired on, digging trenches, to gain some form of protection. The powers to be kept on ordering these men to go over the top to gain more enemy ground, the odds of returning after going over the top were very low! This campaign continued for many months!
This is where the Australian spirit was born, in times of adversity we stand beside our brother, we hold him up, we keep on going, we become each others family. News started to get back home about the horrendous conditions that the ANZAC men were enduring. Australian women began making care packages to send to the soldiers, including a Biscuits made of oats that would last a long time, too still be resonably fresh by the time it reached the shores of Gallipoli. This is where the ANZAZ biscuit was born (in the next week I'll made gf ANZAC using quinoa flakes). These biscuits still remain a very popular biscuit nearly 100 years on.
The ANZACS had a game they played, a gambling game called two up. Two men would play for an agreed price another would call and judge, they would toss a coin and call either heads up or tails up, the winner won the money. In Australia after ANZAC services people generally flock to pubs and Returned Servicemens Clubs to have a drink, catch up with mates and play two up. It's the only time of the year the game is permitted. Yet another tradition nearly 100 years old that still continues today!
Today is not about glorifying war, it is about remembering the sacrifice that put ancestors gave for the freedom we have today. Australian men and women are still fighting today for our freedom for peace. I would like to acknowledge all the massive sacrifices of life on both sides. If these men would have meant in different circumstances they would probably be sitting down over a beer and a chat. Loss is felt on both sides and we acknowledge those losses too!
So if your children are from year 1 about 7 explain to them about ANZAC day, about Galliopoli and the coming of a nation, the international acknowledgment of Australians and why it is important to remember what happened and not let history repeat itself!
At the going down of the sun
and in the morning
We will remember them
Lest we forget.
Please share with me the date of your countries national day of rememberance and why it is so important. It would be amazing if we could create an international list of days of remberance.
Thankyou to all the servicemen men, women and dogs who continue to do an amazing job in all your postings over the world.
Enjoy your ANZAC day
Xx
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