Spring is finally on its way. Every day is getting longer and the sun drops by through the windows. I am finally more energetic and eager to experiment a little bit in the kitchen. It is so much nicer to do so, without heavy jumpers on... :)

This cake is very simple. Again. I don't like complicated recipes. Also, as I have recently moved in to a new city and a new apartment, my kitchen equipment is rather poor. Although I am working on it:)

Simple, tasty and quickly disappearing. That's how I would summarise this cake. Everybody enjoyed it and by the look of how quickly it was gone, I think I was left with no doubt. 

Ingredients

800 g apples

1 cup of rice flour

2/3 cup of amaranth flour

1/3 cup potato flour

2/3 - 1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon of baking soda

2 teaspoons of baking powder (gluten free)

80 ml rice oil (could be olive oil too)

lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

juice from 1 lemon

125 g of natural yogurt (lactose free)

125 ml of milk (lactose free)

a pinch of salt

 Preparation

> Peel the apples, cut them into smaller pieces (squares) and put into a bowl

> Add the juice from a lemon together with the lemon zest to apples

> In another bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and after that add milk, yogurt and oil. Then mix again.

> Add the apples to the rest of the ingredients and stir them in.

> Put some baking paper in the form, oil it and strew some bread crumps (gluten free).

> Pour the dough into the baking form and cover with 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar

> Bake in 180 degrees, for around 60 - 70 minutes

Enjoy!

Warming soup for early spring days

Even though it's already spring (yes.. I know it's just been one day:) ), there still are these cold days when I can only dream of a warm tea and a blanket. Not only do I feel the need to stay cosy and warm, but also I am not eager to spend hours in the kitchen preparing dinner. This recipe is a real blessing. It takes just a moment to prepare and the result is just perfect. The soup will warm you up and give you the energy, which is so needed when the rain hits the windows and the temperature outside drops again.

Ingredients

3-4 carrots

2 parsleys

2 onions

1 cup of red lentils

1 kg of potatoes

3-3,5 liters of water

oil for frying

4 bay leaves

pimento

salt

pepper

oregano

dried parsley

marjoram

 Preparation

> Peel the onions, cut them into smaller pieces and mix with a blender

> Peel the carrots and parsleys and grate them

> Peel and cut the potatoes into small squares

> Pour some oil into the pot and fry the onion first. Then add carrots and parsleys and fry them together for around 10 minutes, until they get softer.

> Pour the water into the pot, add potatoes and lentils and salt and boil it for around 15 minutes.

> In the end, turn of the stove, add all spices and leave the soup resting for at least 10 minutes so that the tastes blend together. Serve hot and enjoy the warming taste!

(Optionally you can also add some bacon/ham. Simply cut it into small pieces and fry for a moment, then add to the soup and boil together so that the tastes mix. I believe all men will become fans of this particular version!)

Pancakes (Gluten Free + Lactose Free)

It was around 8 pm and as usually my thoughts wandered around food. I really needed to eat something nice and sweet. With the freezing wind blowing outside I wasn't very much tempted to go to a store.. so I looked into the fridge and my kitchen shelves. All ingredients were at home!

In the next few minutes I was already mixing the flours and preparing these delightful pancakes.
They are extremely tasty, but what is most important - super easy!
For the last month I have been doing them at least once a week. Fine, more than once a week. But you will understand why, once you try them...

(The photos are not very good, but taking them when it was dark all around was a challenge!)

Ingredients

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 cup  cornflour

1/2 cup potato flour

1 tsp baking powder (gluten free)

a pinch of salt

1 big apple

1.5 cup milk (lactose free)

1 tsp vanilla powder

coconut oil for frying

Preparation

> In a bowl mix all dry ingredients with a spoon.

> Peel the apple and either mix it with milk using a blender or just grate it quickly and add milk.

> Once the apple-milk mixture is ready, pour it into the bowl with flours and stir until it is smooth. Of course if the apple was grated, you will see that the mixture is not completely smooth, just make sure you mixed the flours and milk properly.

> Heat up the coconut oil on a frying pan. Using a spoon, create small pancakes and fry them for a moment. Once they have a lot of bubbles on their surface, turn them around and fry a bit more. Each time I finished frying one"set" I added some coconut oil to make sure the mixture will not stick to the frying pan.

Serve with maple syrup, fruit jam or simply powdered sugar.

The recipe is for quite a big amount of pancakes, enough for me and my super hungry boyfriend, and there are still some left for later.

Swedish Chocolate Cake (gluten free + lactose free)

Ingredients

250 g liquid margarine (without lactose)

250 g dark chocolate (70%)

1/3 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp strong coffee or espresso (or water)

4 large eggs, at room temperature

180 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar or 1/4 tsp vanilla powder

pinch of salt

Preparation

> Preheat the oven to 175 degrees, then grease the baking form and cover it with baking paper.

I used a 28 cm form, that's why the cake is so flat. With the use of a smaller form (22 - 25 cm) it should get thicker.

> Break the chocolate bars into smaller pieces and melt it slowly in a saucepan. Once the mixture is melted, add coffee and gently stir it in and set aside to cool it down.

> Using a mixer beat the eggs in a large bowl until they are soft and fluffy. Then, still mixing, slowly add sugar and vanilla powder.

> Stir the chocolate mixture into mixed eggs and sugar, add a pinch of salt and keep stirring until the batter is smooth.

> Pour the batter into the prepared baking form and bake for 40-45 minutes.

> Wait until the cake is cooled down before taking it out from the form.

The cake should be moist and very soft. It is not easy to cut it into nice, well shaped pieces, but as long as it tastes this good.. it's forgivable!

In my opinion it is perfect by itself, but you can put cream, fruit or simply powdered sugar on it.

The recipe is from 'Call me cupcake' - biggest inspiration of all!