Simple Gluten Free Chocolate & Apple Cake

One day I post about green smoothies and then I post about cake. I'm like that. This cake is amazing. As someone who counts herself 'not a cake eater' since childhood, amazing is a big call on a cake. But having made this one twice with slightly different ingredients both times I feel at liberty say - winner!

It's so moist that it's almost not cake (maybe that's why I love it?!).

It's gluten free so doesn't give you the brain fog (and other nasties we try to avoid) that comes with gluten.

It only has 5 easily found ingredients which is not something I have discovered gluten free cakes are known for.

It doesn't require hours of time or complicated skills. Just basic cake making knowledge.

A big thank you to Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella for sharing this recipe with the world!

Recipe for Vanessa's Chocolate & Apple Gluten Free Cake:

4 eggs, separated

115g/4.06oz castor/superfine sugar (I actually used raw sugar the 2nd time and it was fine)

115g/4.06oz chocolate, melted (I used 70% dark because it's delicious & I find milk too sweet)

1 medium apple, grated (I used a Granny Smith the 1st time and a Jonathan the 2nd. Both were good. Lorraine says to peel before grating. I didn't read that and it was fine!)

125g/4.4oz almond meal

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F

2. Lightly grease and line a 20cm cake tin. (Definitely line it. The first time around I didn't and it gets a bit stuck to the bottom.)

3. Beat egg yolks with sugar until pale and creamy. Stir in melted chocolate,grated apple and almond meal.

4. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into apple & chocolate mixture. (I was fairly careful to not over stir at this stage and wreak all my nice egg white bubbles. I don't know if it makes a difference or not but I didn't need stir hard or much to mix it through)

5. Pour into tin and bake for 45minutes. (Roughly. Just keep an eye on it. I am terrible at following exact instructions in cooking. I think instinct counts for a lot. As does experimentation!)

6. Dust with icing sugar and serve however you like your cake.

Surprise Mail

Yesterday I received these gorgeous clips from my dear friend Anna. She ordered them from a lovely little etsy store and had them posted straight to me. How lovely to receive surprise birthday mail. Thank you Anna for taking time out of your busy life to think of me! You remind me to stop doing 'important' things and make time for people I love. x

Green Smoothies

Mmm!! Delicious! I miss mangos. And banana's too now that Yasi made them too rare and expensive. But that was a good smoothie up there in the picture. A big, set up for the camera, not the actual amount of fruit/spinach/water I use, smoothie. Just so you know. But it's a good picture.

I've had a few people ask me about the green smoothies we have for breakfast. So this is the post about them.

We first heard about green smoothies at the evening seminar we went to in October last year. We learnt about Victoria Boutenko - the mother of Green Smoothies, and how she had discovered that to be truly healthy we need a fairly large amount of green leafy vegetables each day. She realised that she couldn't sit down and eat her way through the amount of lettuce/spinach/kale etc that she needed each day so she started putting it in her blender with some fruit and water to make it tastier. She tested her theory on a a whole lot of different people and discovered that in just 30 days of adding a green smoothie to your diet and not changing anything else more than 60% of people had a measurable difference in their health and nearly 100% of people 'felt better'. When combined with healthier eating habits overall the positive changes in health, emotion and general wellbeing are nothing short of drastic. (Links to great sites with more info at the bottom of this post)

Sounded pretty good to us! To start with Joel and I would both have the same thins in our smoothies but as we got used to them we learnt more about what we liked and what we didn't. Now we have quite different smoothies to each other every day.

Joel's Smoothie Today:

500ml (1/2 quart) filtered water in the blender.

Chunks of watermelon until it reaches the 1Litre (1 Quart) mark.

2 big hands of Endive.

Blend it & blend it good. Drink and smile knowing you are doing your body a world of good.

My Smoothie of the Week:

300-400ml filtered water in the blender (I can't drink as much as Joel).

1 Pear

1 yellow nectarine

a few giant handfuls of baby spinach to take the level just below 1 Litre.

Blend and enjoy.

There are so many ways you can do this. The point is to get your fresh, raw greens into you at a time of day when you need them.

I could say a whole lot more but I'll just say this and then leave you with some links to do your own reading (partly because they say things better than I do as the experts): it makes a difference! It really does. If you don't believe me just give it a try for 30 days. Replace your breakfast with a green smoothie every day for a month and tell me what you think at the end. I dare you!

Links:

The Green Smoothie Revolution

Victoria Boutenko

Green for Life - An amazing book to give you answers.

Green Smoothie Girl

T-Shirts for the Boarders

Just working out some designs so they can move away from embroidered polo shirts and into something a bit more teen appropriate. And yes, there are options other than blue!

Another One White

Today I painted a bedroom. 2 coats. That's one less room that's pink And only 2 bedrooms, the library and the hallway to go.... oh, and the wet rooms...

Let's just focus on the - One room done in a day - bit.

I well and truly earned my lemon sorbet and Glee on the couch.

What did you do today?

Love: This Pendant

This gorgeously delicate pendant was on Etsy's front page just now and I can't stop looking at it! I'm really tempted to buy it before someone else and at only $42US I probably could but... I'm not even a little bit an impulse shopper...

It was designed and made by Lorena Martinez whose shop is called 'Gemagenta' and well worth a visit. Her blog shows her work process and is amazing to check to out. So inspiring. I'll definitely be back later in the week!

Update: I did! Now just waiting patiently...

29 Things I am Grateful for Today

1. My Saviour & His Grace
2. Joel - Second only to number 1
3. Family. The half who grew me and the half who had me grafted in. They all know me and still love me!
4. Friends. The family I'm not related to.
5. Morgan. That critter... love him!
6. Green Smoothies.
7. Creativeness
8. Our House
9. My art room (even though right now it's all packed up)
10. The people in our church
11. Albury
12. The internet
13. Good health
14. Time
15. Godchildren
16. New challenges
17. Fresh food
18. Awesome hair (mine! & Joel's!)
19. Being mistaken for a 15 year old
20. Financial stability
21. Mad skillz
22. Soft sunlight
23. Books
24. Glee. Really. That show makes me laugh so hard!
25. Eyes to see the beauty in the world
26. Being fitter and thinner than I was this time last year
27. Knowing how to say 'yes' with enthusiasm and, and 'no' with understanding and conviction
28. Thoughtfulness
29. Another fabulous year of life.

Happy birthday me!

My Mr Bean

On Thursday night, in front of a room full of people I have only ever spent 12 hours with over 4 weeks, I did the most amazing Mr Bean dance impersonation of my life. I also vomited (pretend!), crashed into an iceberg and drowned (also pretend).

The dancing was real.

Real Awesome!

For those not familiar with the Mr Bean dance... where have you BEAN?!! Too funny.

Check it out:

And thus continues my week of being so far out of my comfort zone I don't know if I can find my way back.

If you want to know why on earth I was doing this and what else I have been up to outside of my comfort zone... you'll just have to come back later to find out!

That's just not Cricket

Actually, it was.

For the first time in nearly 29 years (6 sleeps away!) I can almost understand how playing cricket could be fun. I mean, I wouldn't say the serious stuff is fun, but the fun stuff - well, it was fun!

I was emotionally blackmailed into playing in the staff vs senior student match at school today. I gave fair warning that I have limited to zero sporting skill and will quite possibly get hurt. But he said he just needed the numbers or it would would be a forfeit. No way could I let the students get that glory!

Staff fielded first. I was put where the ball was least likely to go. That also happened to be facing the sun - hello sunburn. I collected a few that were pelting along the ground and even had to chase a few. Passable. It was my throwing that leaves a lot to be desired! I could get away with it just throwing back to the bowler. But then I had to take my turn as bowler!

You have never seen such a disastrous attempt!! I was allowed to step a few metres past the line and still struggled to get it all the way down the pitch. If I could actually keep it on the pitch. And not just roll it. Oh my! At one point I just said - 'I am an artist! Not a sportsperson!' Although I was quite comforted to see the sport teacher didn't quite have the knack for it either, even though she was leagues better than me. If you could've been there - you would've laughed along with me at the comedy! And enjoyed my particularly girly refrain of 'oops!'

The kids were so sweet about it. They were very encouraging and accommodating. It was one of the kids umpiring who coached me through most of my barely passable, legal bowls. Thanks you lovely young people! You are a credit to your generation.

I thought I'd get off of batting but I was put on first with the captain of our team, the guy who organised the competition. I figured I couldn't be a worse batsman than I was a bowler (I really was very, very bad!) and I'd survived that so I geared up and marched out. My batting partner had me running up and down quite a few times but guess what?! I got 4 runs all by myself!!!! FOUR! People. I am so darn proud of myself. And I don't care if you think I'm crazy, but I have never played cricket and these are my first 4 runs ever and quite possibly my last so let's just enjoy them!

FOUR.

4 Runs.

Just saying.

Non sporting me, afraid of every ball, rubbish at most sports, was denied my prayer of a washed out game, challenged to try something new and... got 4 runs! Ha!

There you go - try something new today and you might surprise yourself like I did.

Oh, and the staff won. By 15 runs.