Spooky Lime Loaf!

Are you looking for a fun and easy halloween themed gluten free bake to make, well this super easy loaf cake is the perfect thing to try! I made mine with these vibrant green and purple colours which are super variable based on your preferences and what you have!

This is a super fun halloween twist on the classic bake of vanilla and chocolate marbled loaf. This recipe can also be made to suite what you want, you could make the original loaf cake or you could turn this recipe into cupcakes, circular cakes or into a square cake! This one is also super easy to make, with an all in one method for the cake base, you can weigh out all your ingredients into one bowl and mix them together to get your perfect cake mixture. All you need to do to add a fun halloween twist is split the cake mixture into two and beat in your chosen halloween colours. Pour your colours into the same cake tin (or coloured spoonfuls into cupcake cases) and mix them together with a toothpick to make a super vibrant marbled pattern.

This is a perfect bake if you want to add a bit of halloween flair to party preparations or a cozy Sunday bake. You can even change the flavours to what best suites you and your preferences, you could switch the lime for lemon, or even oranges. Its also fully gluten free and celiac safe but don't worry no one will be able to tell, with its super fluffy rise and light and airy texture, there will be no complaints from your non gluten free friends.

As well as being gluten free, you can also make this cake dairy free and vegan if you wish to. To make it dairy free there are a few simple substitutions that you need to make:

• Replace the butter for a hard dairy free alternative

• Replace the milk for a dairy free milk like almond or coconut milk

And that's all you need to do to make the perfect gluten and dairy free loaf for this halloween season!

To make the cake vegan all you will need to do is make the dairy free substitutions as well as changing the three eggs for a substitution. You could use:

• Replace one egg with 1/4 cup of applesauce

• Replace one egg with 1/4 cup of yoghurt

• Replace one egg with one mashed banana

I haven't tried these substitutes myself so I would love to know how they turn out. If you try them make sure to comment and let me know on my instagram page @rubysgfkitchen!

You don't need any special equipment for this bake or hours of time, so its a perfect one to make with kids or friends as you can get super creative with the flavours, coolers and icings.

Anyway here's the recipe for this cake, if you try it let me know what you think on my instagram @rubysgfkitchen.

Ingredients

175g Gluten free self raising flour

175g Butter, softened

175g Caster suger

3 Large Eggs

3 tbsp Milk

1/2 tsp Zanthem Gum

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 Limes

2 Colour of your chosen food dye (Powder or gel would work best)

For the icing

1 limes worth of lime juice

125g icing suger

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 fan. Line one loaf pan (or one circular pan or cupcake tin) with greaseproof paper.

2. In a bowl grate and juice the limes using the zest and one limes worth of juice in the cake batter, leaving the other limes juice for the icing.

3. In a bowl beat together all the ingredients for the cake with an electric whisk until the batter is smooth.

4. Split the batter into two bowls and mix In one of your chosen dyes into each half.

5. Distribute the batter into your chosen tin (Spoon each colour into the time so that they alternate in the tin) and use a tooth pick to swirl the colours together (Be careful not to over swirl as the colours may over-mix.

6. Place them in the oven for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. (At around 20 minutes my loaf began to brown but was not cooked so I covered it in clingfilm so watch out for that as you don't want your cake to burn or dull in colour!)

7. Leave the cakes to cool in they're tin for 5 minutes and then take them out to put them on flat surfaces to completely cool.

8. Whilst the cakes Cool make the icing: Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and slowly mix in the lime juice until a thick pipeable consistency is made (If its to thick and you use all the lime juice add a dash of water to thin it out).

9. Once the cakes are completely cool pipe on your lime icing and decorate.

10. Slice and enjoy!

Thank you for reading. If you do bake this let me know by snapping a photo and tagging me on Instagram @rubysgfkitchen.

Happy Baking,

Ruby x

Gluten free in Hay on Wye...

As a very small town in the midst of Wales I was dubious as to the gluten free options that I was going to have whilst staying there. Known for its near 28 book shops and related book festivals, the food in Hay on wye is not famous or very much talked about.

Despite this predetermined hesitation, I went in with an open mind and was pleasantly surprised to see so many more gluten free options that what I expected to fuel all the book shopping!

Lots of research went into choosing the dinner menu for the first night of our stay as whilst we had my gluten intolerance and pescatarian preferences to consider we were determined to find somewhere that my whole family would enjoy (Including pleasing some big meat and gluten lovers). We finally chose a place and went to try it...

The old black lion

This pub was super close to the town house we stayed in with lots of different gf options in both the starters, mains and desserts. The menu is also clearly sign posted with gf, df, vegan and vegetarian signs to. The staff was really understanding and acommdating being happy to change dishes to suit my dietary preferences. They had loads of delicious sounding gf options including having the option of a selection of breads, grilled chicken ceaser salad, soup of the day and smoked duck breast to start. The mains include chargrilled ribeye steak, roast lamb rump, and roast pork loin. To end the meal some possible desserts include Dark chocolate mousse, cheese and biscuits and a selection of ice creams and sorbets.

On the night that we went I decided to go for the seared sea bass fillet which was served with new potato and pancetta salad and a pepper salsa. As I am pescatarian I asked for the pancetta to be taken out which they did super easily without issue. I also ordered the roasted carrots and broccoli to go along with fish.The fish had a wonderfully crisp skin with some soft flavourful flesh, served with a salsa full of soft cooked peppers full of flavour topped with new potatoes. I was initially dubious about the potato as I usually don't like new potatoes nut these ones where soft and fluffy with a slightly crisp skin. The dish was drizzled with a olive oil and balsamic glaze which was the perfect dip to the dish.

The side of carrots and broccoli where really good too. The broccoli was quite a plain tender stem broccoli however the carrots where roasted perfectly with a slight char of the outside with a soft tender middle and were full of a well seasoned flavour. Overall the food was really lovely here perfect space for dinner. We did need to make a reservation as they were busy so if your eager to try them definitely call up before hand!

We weren't sure where to go for are second night dinner as we had loads of possible options open to use places like the swan and the three tuns or returning to the old black lion but in the end we decided to go to...

Tomatitos tapas bar

This tapas bar was super busy so whilst we did have to wait for a table it was defiantly worth it. The menu was clearly sign posted with gf, vegan and vegetarian signs and changes regularly. I tried loads of the different dishes:

1. Mushrooms in sherry

These mushrooms where one of my favourite things that I tried, soft and full of flavour with a wonderful garlic hint to them as the sauce was full garlic pieces.

2. Aubergine fries drizzled in honey

These where AMAZING! You definitely need to try these if your in this bar in hay on wye, they where gloriously crisp on the outside and soft in the middle with an amazing sweet and salty flavour from the crisp salty batter soaked in a lovely sweet honey.

3. Patas Bravas

These potatoes are little pockets of crispy heaven, they're light and crispy full of fluffy potato in the middle with a crispy exterior, they definitely gave me a great impression of paths braves trying it here for the first time.

4. Calamari

This bar was also my first time trying calamari. The harder texture of the squid took a while to get used to but it went amazingly with the crispy coating on the outside which made it really surprising to be gluten free.

5. Méditerranéen vegetables

This was a dish of roasted vegetables such as onion, pepper and tomatoes topped with a feta cheese crumble. This one had a strong vegetable flavour with soft vegetables in a well seasoned sauce.

6. Mixed dressed leaves

These leaves where a welcome accompaniment to the other cooked dishes that had more of a sauce or flavour the leaves added bursts of freshness into the dish.

This tapas bar is definitely a spot to try, they had loads of other gf options like beef stuffed peppers, fried fish and salsa verde and green beans with squash, hazelnut and parmesan.

Wedding

Whilst I was in Wales I also attended a wedding where I had this tofu burger full of hummus, spinach and tomato. With a bun that tasted not like cardboard and that didn't fall apart I suprinsigly enjoyed it. The tofu was grilled and thick with a lovely fresh accent from the spinach and tomato with a creaminess from the hummus. While this was a simple one it was defiantly enjoyed and has inspired me to start experimenting with these ingredients and different burger fillings.

Thank you so much for reading and if you have visited hay on wye and have any other recommendations please let me know over on my Instagram @rubysgfkitchen!

Thank you for reading,

Ruby X

What is a tea muffin?

In short a tea muffin is exactly what it sounds like- A muffin flavoured with tea. Now I know it sounds weird, I mean a tea flavoured muffin really? But you would be surprised to know how well this familiar flavour works in muffin form. This recipe could not be easier and leaves room for your own changes to make these muffins perfect for you and your tastebuds.

The idea for a tea flavoured muffin came about quite randomly after I was set a project in food tech to make an ultimate version of your chosen recipe. So I chose muffins and as I thought about different flavours that I could do, having cycled though a savoury muffin trial (Very very unsuccessful will not be attempted again) I thought why not combine a cup of tea with the sweet treat that lots of people enjoy with it! Once I made them my apprehensive family became obsessed so I thought that I would share the recipe.

AND these muffins are gluten free and can easily be made dairy free to and nobody will be able to tell. This makes them perfect for lots of different occasions obviously they are great for afternoon tea, but they could also be a great quick breakfast option or easy snack or dessert to!

To make them dairy free all you have to do is ensure that you use either oil or dairy free butter and ensure that you use a dairy free milk. To make this vegan you would need to do the dairy free substitutes as well as change the two eggs for a vegan substitute. You could change the eggs to something like:

• 2 Tbsp Ground flaxseed and 6 Tbsp Water

• 1/2 Cup of Applesauce

• 1/2 Cup Pumpkin puree

• 2 Tbsp Chia seeds and 6 Tbsp Water

• Artificial egg replacer from a supermarket

• 2 Mashed bananas

I haven't tried these egg substitutes so if you do let me know how it goes as I would love to know!

Theres lots of changes and additions that you could do with these muffins, so I thought that I would suggest a few ideas in case you want to try any of them:

• You could add a filling to the muffin such as Jam or creme pat

• You could add an icing to the muffin for example a creme cheese icing

• You could experiment with topping the muffins with different things such as different fruits or chocolates

• You could add fruit or chocolate into the batter

• You could use different flavoured tea bags like chamomile, mint, earl grey, Jasmine etc

Let me know if you make these and what you thought and if you made any fun changes to the muffins. Anyway here's the recipe...

Ingredients

• 2 Medium eggs

• 125ml Oil or Melted butter

• 250ml Your chosen milk

• 250g Caster sugar

• 400g Gluten free self raising flour

• 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder

• 4 Tea bags

• Fruit to top (Optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 Fan and Line 2 muffin trays with muffin cases (This recipe will make around 13 large muffins or more smaller ones depending on how big you want to make them).

2. Put the milk and tea bags in a pan on a low medium heat and heat for 15-20 minutes. Once heated pour into a bowl and leave to cool.

3. Whisk the eggs in a bowl with an electric beater. Add the oil and milk and beat again until combined.

4. Beat in the sugar to the liquid mix until combined.

5. Sift into the mix the flour and baking powder and beat until just combined.(Be cautious not to over mix as this will make rubbery muffins!)

6. Distribute the batter into the muffins cases (I use an ice cream scoop to make this distribution even but this makes quite large muffins so if you'd like smaller ones then use a smaller utensil like a tablespoon or a few teaspoons).

7. If decorating with fruit add to the top of each muffin before baking.

8. Bake the muffins for around 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of them comes out clean (Cooking time will depend on the size of the muffin).

9. Let them cool a little bit and then take them out the pan and enjoy!

Thank you for reading,

Ruby xxx