going to make a cake

[harma]

During Gabes stay in France, one of her French co-workers baked a cake for her. This has inspired me to give it try too. Today I was amazed that I've found a gluten, milk, yeast, egg, soy and also corn free cake mix. It only contains Rice Flower, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla and some chemical additives (but also free of everything). The brand is Lhian's Kitchen, a Thai friend.

Will report about the results later.


harma

[Rosie]

That's great, Harma! Finding ways to enjoy baked goods has made such a difference to my mental outlook.....makes me feel more "normal". And like Gabes with her cake, I often get great comments from those who had thought that gluten-free meant good taste-free!

I don't know if you've found this, but Dee has posted some suggestions for ways to improve the texture of baked goods, and I've found them very helpful. I see that you are avoiding eggs, so some of her suggestions may not be applicable to you. Her suggestions of adding some sort of pectin-containing fruit/vegetables has worked well for me and also adds nice flavor. I also love to throw in some gluten/dairy/soy free chocolate chips, as chocolate can improve anything, as long as you can tolerate it.

Reduce liquid by about 1/3 and add applesauce, banana, pureed pumpkin or sweet potato, to make up the difference. These fruits/veggies contain natural pectin which helps with binding and also adds moisture, while improving texture.

Add one or two extra egg whites (really helps with binding and texture!).

Mix wet ingredients together on a high speed for about a minute, before mixing into well blended dry ingredients ... this process helps to trap air, especially with the extra egg whites (think meringue), which in turn creates a lighter texture.

Bon apetite!

Rosie

[JLH]

That's the rub, Rosie, tolerating chocolate....Wish I could.

Good to "see" you again.

[Joefnh]

Harma that's great news. While my grilling skills are superb (Texas trained) my kitchen skills are only about a year in development, I'm not sure how I would do baking something... One of these days I am just going to have to try.

--Joe

[wonderwoman]

Joe, the GF mixes are so easy to make and good also. I thought the Betty Crocker GF Brownie mix was the best. I make a batch, cut, wrap, and freeze. I still have some in the freezer but haven't had any in over 6 weeks due to a set back I experienced.

[Joefnh]

Thanks Charlotte I will have to give the baking a try one day as I dearly miss some type of good snack cake or brownie its been 3 months since I've tasted one. For the moment though I am sticking to a fairly strict paleo like diet that Gabes listed here a while back that has been helping quite a bit.

I did experience a setback this week in trying to taper off of the entocort after 2 months. After day 4 of a reduced dose D and pain was back in a big way. My GI feels that dealing with both crohns and CC makes this harder to control and while diet will be quite important he has warned me that the meds may be necessary.

Thanks again Charlotte

--Joe

[Gloria]

Joe,

You might try reducing the dosage every other day. It's not as drastic and yet reduces the overall amount in you. I've begun to reduce to 6 mg. Entocort every other day and am taking 9 mg. the other days. So far, so good.

Gloria

[Joefnh]

Gloria I was wondering that but for the moment my GI due to the bleeding and fever wanted to stay at the 9mg level for another month and then try again. I am looking forward to being able to stop the meds though

--Joe

[tex]

Joe,

Definitely keep the clinical symptoms under control - don't take chances. Most of the damage from MC is reversible, but Crohn's can cause serious, irreversible damage. Remember, it can affect the entire profile of the intestinal wall, not just the epithelia, as is the case with MC. As I'm sure you're aware, the bleeding and fever are almost surely symptoms of active Crohn's disease. Bleeding does not occur with MC, and fever, while possible, is fairly rare.

Tex

[harma]

It worked, it was very easy to make. Only the taste, was not so great. I used oil instead of butter and used a little to much (those stupid explanation on the package talk about half a cup, what do I know about half a cup, I need grams or ml's to know how much I have to add) and of course I didn't use eggs. Instead of that I used two banana's.

The brand I have been using also has a chocolate version I am going to try that one next time.

Also I don't want to get in a habit to eat to often to much cake. Actually it is something I don't really miss. Most important thing for me was to know, that yes there is a cake mix I can use and tolerate and yes I can make an eatable cake out of it. So for special occasions I can make myself (and for others of course) a cake, like a birthday, x-mas dinner, parties. Also another step in diet journey to find alternatives for things.

Rosie thanks for your suggestions to improve the cake.

Next project will be ice-cream. I hope my mother will lend me her ice maker. I had a bad experience this week with ice cream. I was fruit based ice, they even showed me to package where the ice cream was made of (only fruit and sugar). Result gassy and rumbling bowels. I am sure there was milk added to it.

[Gabes-Apg]

Harma
congratulations on making the cake

in Dee's kitchen there is a great section about substituions for oil and butter etc
I grabbed this information and passed it onto anne-laure for her to be able to prepare my cake

be careful of eating 'sorbet' that is meant to be fruit and ice and sugar. i have seen some that have pea protein as a filler for texture, some have soy proteins in them, and then i think some have tapioca type ingredient to make them glossy.

depending on your tolerance level of digesting fruit, be careful of using fruits that have seeds (strawberries, raspberries etc)

i got a GF/DF/SF creme caramel mix whilst i was in france, i was lucky enough that australian customs did not confiscate it. I plan on making this with rice milk next weekend as a treat.

if you need any measurement conversions let me know - i can type up a list of cups versus mls versus ozs etc and send it to you