A ripe pear is notoriously difficult to purchase so we always seem to have a number, in various degrees of ripeness, sitting in our fruit bowl …. just in case. This week a few rapidly ripening offenders were put to very good use in our Pear, Ginger and Honey Cake which we topped with Pears Poached in Mead ....
Similar to the much-loved Lemon Delicious but with a more exotic flavour, this light and comforting gluten-free pudding is sure to please ….
The quinces and almonds in this cake make a wonderful marriage but it is the addition of pastry cream that gives it its fabulous texture and sticky crust ….
Easy to whip up and even easier to devour, our gluten-free, Pear, Chocolate and Vanilla Cake is as delicious eaten warm as it is at room temperature. But don’t be put off by its modest appearance. A slice will deliver wafts of vanilla, sweet and juicy slices of pear and bursts of chocolate all in a moist, sweet gluten-free cake ….
A Tarte Tatin was traditionally only made with caramelised apples and known as an upside-down apple tart but these days anything baked with the pastry on top, a good suntan, and turned up to serve, is referred to as a something-or-other Tatin, sweet or savoury ….
This ambrosial Fresh Date and Vanilla Tart is the genius of Sydney pâtissiere, Lorraine Godsmark, and she is deservedly famous for it. I have basked in her glory for the many years I have been making her wonderfully rich, sweet and aromatic concoction ….
Have a jar or two of Candied Quinces in your larder, some whipped cream or ice cream and you’ll have a delicious dessert on the table in an instant. Or use them, as we’ve done, in our Quince and Almond Cream Cake, or our Candied Quince and Ricotta Cake. Try replacing the rhubarb with Candied Quinces in our Rhubarb, Orange and Almond Tart ….
Our Valentine’s Day Lime and Rose Cheesecake is on the more delicate end of the scale and uses lime juice and zest to cut the richness a little. And to fit the occasion we’ve made it in a heart shape, decorated with dried rose buds ….
Where we live we happily enjoy our festive season in the hot summer months when chestnuts are not in season. However, like Santa Snow, they are still often thought of as a traditional Christmas component ….
A lighter dessert and a perfect way to finish an Asian meal, our Coconut Ice Cream with Soft Lychee and Lime Jelly will transport your tastebuds to tropical climes. Not planning as Asian meal? Simply replace the garnish of roasted peanuts with toasty almond flakes, pistachio slivers or roasted hazelnuts and the sky will be the limit for your travelling tastebuds ….
Most of our recipes for pastry - and we do have a few of them on the blog – are made with a blend of flours that work together to replicate the characteristics of wheat flour. This one is unusual because it uses only buckwheat flour, along with the usual butter, sugar, egg, etc. Whether it’s serendipity, chemistry or both, the buckwheat flour behaves beautifully, just like wheat ….
This pretty cake is pretty easily made. And that’s always a good thing. While the rose petals decoration is optional I highly recommend going that extra step for the beautiful perfume they impart to the cake …
It’s apple season in Australia and when we’re not simply enjoying crunching into a sweet, crisp new season Kanzi, Pink Lady, Jonathon, Royal Gala or Jazz we’re celebrating it with a gluten-free Apple and Poppy Seed Tart ….
We made this moist and delicious Gluten-free Rhubarb and White Chocolate Cake for a birthday recently, and because some of us are so keen on rhubarb we thought it should be a keeper. It’s an easy cake to make and it behaves itself very nicely ….
I’ve been making this cake for many years now and I can’t quite remember from where the recipe originated. What I do know is that it is very well liked and often ‘just another small slice, please’ is guiltily requested. To decorate, either go the full bling by applying some gold leaf to the ganache frosting or simply dust with icing sugar ….
This is a lovely make-ahead dessert to have stored in the freezer for a special occasion. It does require a bit of planning and time to make the sorbet and ice cream mixes, to chill and then churn them but we promise you it’ll be worth it. And there’s no last minute rush to make a dessert ….
Chocolate, roses, nuttiness, spice and of course sweetness make this cake perfect for Valentine’s Day or any other day you’re looking to win a few hearts with a delicious and easy cake ….
We know that lots of people love a cheesecake so here we’re offering a baked Cherry Mascarpone Cheesecake for you to try. With the use of a food processor it’s very simple to make so maybe this is one to try with your enthusiastic little cooks. They’ll just have to wait overnight until it chills in the fridge ….
We at the Coeliac’s Revenge love a party and a wedding offers the opportunity for a really big one! Luckily for us then, after 32 years of a very happy union, Jan’s beloved dropped to his knee recently and proposed ….
Made entirely in the food processor, our Quince and Vanilla Cake has two texturally different layers sandwiching vanilla-poached quinces in between. No quinces? No problem. Our Quince and Vanilla Cake can be made with any poached fruit or even your favourite jam ….
Roast almond meal gives a lovely nutty contrast to the lemon flavour of our Lemon, Roast Almond and Ricotta Cake. And the ricotta guarantees a moist texture which will last for a few days making it ideal to bake in advance ….
Khoshaf is a great Middle Eastern favourite in which the fruit is not stewed but macerated and our Caramel Mousse makes delicious company ….
If, like us, you handily keep some pastry in the fridge or freezer then the task from thought to table is quite a bit quicker. For this pretty Vanilla Persimmon Tart we used our Revenge Almond Shortcrust Pastry that provided a nutty, crisp case ….
Would you have guessed that beetroot, cardamom, blackberries and raspberries would go together so well? Well, we did, and we backed our hunch to come up with this lovely cake ….
The visual delight of this dessert – borrowed in part from a cookbook called Dinner with Jackson Pollock (via Gourmet Traveller) – is that poaching the pears in a raspberry syrup, otherwise known as a Melba sauce, turns them an amazing, almost electric pink ….
It’s walnut season in our wintry climes and we’re taking full advantage of their sweet freshness by showcasing them in this delicious Walnut and Apricot Jam Tart ….
Plums and hazelnuts seem to have been made for each other. Certainly in this pudding they make a great team, providing a juicy, fruity base and a crisp friand-like topping. And with a dollop of something creamy it’s delicious ….
Three ripe pears in the fruit bowl, a flan tin lined with our Revenge Almond Shortcrust Pastry sitting handily in the freezer and pretty soon I had a golden-brown Pear and Almond Tart cooling on the kitchen bench ….
Our Chocolate, Date and Orange Marmalade Cake uses meringue as its base and is enriched with dates and chocolate and flavoured with orange marmalade. Sounding a bit unusual? Not really, chocolate and orange make a great marriage and the dates …. well they add texture and a complex sweetness ….
Sometimes a creamy dessert, like the Raspberry Mousse we have here, is all the better for a little company - which is where these crunchy Almond Lace Wafers come in. While not dissimilar to classic Brandy Snaps, these Almond Lace Wafers are, of course, gluten-free ….
This fabulous recipe requires a couple of spoonsful of a lemon soufflé mixture spooned onto gluten-free crepes which are folded, sugared and baked. The soufflé mixture rises within the crepes creating delicious pillow-like puffs with crispy edges and ambrosial interiors …
Greetings from The Coeliac’s Revenge, for the last time this year! We hope you’ve been enjoying the various Christmas blogs we’ve been posting recently, and that we’ve been able to provide you with ideas and inspiration for the celebrations ahead. We also want to send you our best wishes and hope it’s a holiday season filled with good food and good cheer all round.
In planning our blogs for Christmas this year we thought that the traditional European Yule log might be nice for the dessert. Often referred to as a Bûche de Noël, after the French version, it is a fun cake to make and loved by all who like chocolate (everybody). ….
Berries, coconut and almond are three ingredients that most people seem to like. Combine them as we have done in our Berry, Almond and Coconut Cake and you have a sure winner on your hands ….
The universally loved lemon tart can have many variations but the most well-known version, containing lemon curd in some sort of guise, may not necessarily be the most delicious ….
Our light and not-too-sweet Hazelnut, Honey and Cocoa Nib Cakes make the perfect finale to a heavy meal. The subtle flavours marry well with most types of fruit and were particularly delicious with the poached quinces pictured. Lashings of cream mandatory of course ….
This gluten-free Chocolate Buttermilk Cake is fabulous, even if we do say so ourselves, and it’s pretty straightforward to make. The couverture chocolate and cocoa give it a rich, very chocolatey flavour and the buttermilk creates a wonderful texture …
I love a sweet and salty combination. Bacon caramelised with honey and sprinkled over a salad; sweet, butternut pumpkin and olives or feta in a savoury tart; salted caramel ice cream; salted chocolate crème brulee - and the list goes on ….
This is my kind of cake. And Rosie’s and Jan’s too. We love the nutty bite, the combination of three varieties of nuts, the aromatics of cardamom and cinnamon, the icing perfumed with orange blossom and, most importantly, that it’s easy to make ….
Our Gluten-Free Ricotta Souffle Cake is the perfect treat with which to spoil your mother on Mothers’ Day and just like our mothers, it’s not too sweet but just perfectly sweet enough ….
Wanting a seasonal tart to end an Italian meal we came up with this delicious combination. Fig, frangipane and Frangelico. We nicknamed it the 3F Tart ….
At home on a summery Saturday evening. Husband proposed a deal. A cake for a cocktail. Done I said ….
There are many stories about how the heart came to represent love, and of course Valentine’s Day. One suggests it came from an illustrated verse, written in the 13th century, that depicts a poetic lover handing his beating heart to his beloved. The image shows his thumb making an indentation in the top of the heart, thus creating the symbol we all know today ….
Take a watermelon. Cut in in half. Scoop out the flesh and mix it with some sweet stuff. Put it back into the melon shell. Add some chocolate-coated pumpkin seeds to trick the eye. Freeze. And before you know it you will have a visually intriguing and refreshingly tasty Christmas dessert ….
Christmas means summer to us here in Australia, and in perfect accord with the hot holiday weather is the abundance of fresh summer fruit that accompanies it: mangoes, pineapples and papaya, cherries and raspberries, grapes and guavas, peaches and nectarines, and many more exotic fruits too ….
Trekking in Peru, everything was amazing. The people, the views, the ancient culture, the altitude, the incredible and mysterious stone work everywhere, even the barbecued guinea pig. Their national liquor, pisco, was pretty amazing when made into a Pisco Sour and a dessert, the Tres Leches Cake, of which I became particularly fond ….
I love the flavour of bergamot in Earl Grey tea but had never seen a bergamot orange until recently, when they were amongst a selection of citrus fruits on a grower’s stall at a produce market ….
Ever since I sampled a tiny, yuzu scented chocolate in the glorious food hall of Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo I’ve gone a little mad for the mysterious, aromatic, citrus flavour. I seek it here, I seek it there ….
Wanting to create a cake with a bit of French flair for a Bastille Day dinner last month, I adapted this lovely recipe from Helen Goh and made it gluten-free, of course ….
Most of us love ice cream and, judging by the crowds in my local ice cream shop at this chilly time of year, it seems that it’s never too cold to indulge ….
A simple, unadorned lemon tart is one of my favourite desserts. Try your hand at our silky version using our Revenge Gluten-free Shortcrust Pastry and it may well become your preferred dessert too ….
I wasn’t a Girl Scout so I’m not very good at tying knots or starting fires without a match but I am very good at being prepared and these individual tarts are designed with that preparedness in mind …
This classic apple tart is another fairly easy recipe for your repertoire and will be well liked by all. Who doesn’t like apple? Who doesn’t like pastry? No one we know. And besides, this one not only looks pretty, it smells wonderful ....
Nonya cuisine is probably the world’s first true fusion food. It really is a fusion of cultures using Malay, Indonesian, Thai and Chinese flavours and spices and is also well known for a wide variety of delicious and sometimes unusual (to me) traditional cakes and sweets. I went crazy for their delicate Pineapple Tarts ...
This is fusion food. I’ve taken a favourite Japanese flavour, a traditional English-style pudding and a modern method to produce this lovely, easy dessert ....
This Quark and Ricotta Cream is denser than a panna cotta, richer than a bavarois and nothing like a caramel cream. It is delicious though and easy to make ....
Husband’s birthday. Cake needed. But what to make? Something new. He’s had all our recipes of course. Birthday getting closer ..... Chatting with a friend just back from Europe who, on a train to Brussels, consumed several pieces of what she described as the most delicious cake she’d ever had - a Medovik, a Czechosolvakian Honey Cake. Bingo! ....
This dessert brings together the old-fashioned comfort foods of rice pudding and stewed apricots and then brings things up to date with some gentle, aromatic spicing ....
I had been gifted an enormous bag of limes by a friend from a tree on his property so this week I decided to go all-tropical in chilly Sydney and made a Lime and Coconut Tart ....
Over the years Rosie, Caren and I, between us, have accumulated lots of wonderful gluten-free cake recipes, many of which are already included in the Sweet Baking category here on our blog. A chance conversation we had recently highlighted the fact that it’s often nut flours that make the best substitute for wheat flour in cake-baking. But what if you want to avoid gluten and nuts? Well, this one’s for you. Or anyone else who doesn’t mind a moist, citrusy cake with a nice texture and a moreish flavour. Anyone? ....
Mango, coconut, passionfruit – all words that evoke a flood of sensory memories: eating my first mango and juice is running down my chin; picking abundant passionfruit from the vine growing wild in the vacant block next door ....
It’s late summer and plum season. Queen Garnets, Bloods, Amber Jewels, Santa Rosas and Tegan Blues to mention just a few. Lovely names all and lovely to eat as well ....
The hot and humid weather here in Sydney and the abundance of tropical fruit steered our choice of dessert for a celebratory dinner last week. Our combination of Roast Coconut Ice Cream with Tropical Sorbet and a Coconut Wafer made a particularly delicious marriage ....
Recipes come from everywhere – from new ingredients sometimes, new ways of doing things, new combinations or new twists on classics. While we do like to develop our own ideas every now and then someone else’s recipe is just too hard to resist, particularly when it includes a damn good shortcut ....
Here in the southern hemisphere, summer fruit is everywhere and we’re loving it. And just to ease ourselves out of our celebratory holiday mode and back into the working year, we’ve combined a refreshing summer tipple with the abundance of berry fruit to make a simple, delicious and pretty healthy dessert to kick off our blogging year ....
We love a grand finale and the more spectacular the better. But not everyone is such a dessert extrovert. If that sounds like you, then we have some easy options ....
Funny how one thing leads to another. I recently needed only a couple of stalks of rhubarb, to pickle, to top some delicious sticky rice cakes for a pre-dinner nibble. As our rhubarb pickle loses its vibrant colour after a week or two, I only pickle what I need. What to do with the rest? A bit of poaching with some star anise, orange juice and zest produced a cup full of delicious pulpy sweet rhubarb.
What to do with that ...
We’ve posted a few citrus-based recipes recently but given that lemons, oranges and grapefruits are in season right now we know you’ll allow us to post one more. After all, it is winter in the southern hemisphere and vitamin C is supposed to be good to ward off colds and the flu.
So here is a classic lemon delicious pudding with a touch of lime ....
My beautiful grandmother, Dot, had a lovely tradition of always noting the name of the person who passed a recipe on to her. I still have her old hand written recipe book with its solid wooden cover. It is full of recipes with lovely names like Chocolate Cake Rene and Aunty Nellie Lambert’s Rock Cakes, Muriel’s Caramel Marlow and Elsie T’s Coffee Crystal Biscuits as well as many of Dot’s own recipes ....
Semi freddo (the Italian for half cold) is considered a half frozen dessert and is made from egg yolks, cream, sugar and any flavouring you fancy. It is a good alternative to home made ice cream, if you don’t have an ice cream machine, as you don’t have to churn the semi freddo mixture. You can freeze it in individual moulds or in one piece as we’ve done here to serve as a birthday cake ....
Ever since seeing the movie ‘Amadeus’ many years ago, I have lusted after the large and rather provocative looking chocolates which were offerred to Mozart’s wife by the composer, Salieri. My memory is that he tells her in a rather seductive way that these delicious looking morsels are called Nipples of Venus and that she promptly wraps her plump lips around one of these generously proportioned items, wide eyed and giggly ....
Our Chocolate Chestnut Cake with Chocolate Frosting is a soft, moist, rich but light cake smothered in a dreamy, creamy, real chocolate frosting, just like the ones the perfect mothers used to make on those old family sitcoms of the sixties. I used to dream of a cake with such luscious icing ....
This is a really quick and easy recipe, making a good all-purpose cake, delicious for the gluten-tolerant as well as intolerant. It can be served plain or iced, topped or bottomed with whatever takes your fancy, split and filled, studded with fresh berries in summer or topped with poached quinces in winter ...
Our Ricotta, Chocolate and Pistachio Christmas tree cake can be made up to 3 days ahead of time and quickly topped with whipped cream and Christmas tree biscuits at the last minute ....
This layered ice cream cake can be prepared up to a week beforehand as can the muscatels to garnish. Un-mould the cake before your guests arrive and return it to the freezer ready to whip out and top with the muscatels before serving.
Christmas pudding is a traditional favourite for most of us, even at the end of a big Christmas meal and even in the heat of a Sydney summer. In our house it’s smothered with our ‘Best Ever’ brandy sauce. Jan recommends it served with homemade vanilla ice cream as well. Real diehards may want to add custard to the list ....
As our seasons here in Sydney are not absolutely defined, we segue from cool to warm to hot and back again before a new season is in full swing. To be able to declare the change we take our cue from the appearance of new season’s fruit and vegetables in the market. We now know that spring has sprung and summer’s nearly here because our markets and shops are filling up with delicious stone and berry fruits ....
These not too sweet, slightly chewy and very delicious, chocolatey bites are great to have on hand for a mouthwatering hit any time. They're also easy to make in a large batch, perfect for a Christmas or holiday gathering ....
Most cooks, I’m sure, will always put their leftovers to good use, reinventing them in surprising and imaginative ways but Massimo Bottura, whose restaurant Osteria Francescana in Italy is currently number 1 on The World’s Best 50 Restaurants list, lifted the world of leftovers out of the garbage bins and into true, heart-felt philanthropy ....
Pears and chocolate are a delicious combination. The pears, standing like little soldiers to attention, are embedded in this cake which makes for a pretty stunning presentation.
I find it’s always worth a wander around the fruit market when I’m at a loss for a dessert idea. There will always be a fresh ingredient which catches my eye and starts the taste buds tingling and the grey matter groaning to a start. Recently it was a robust looking pineapple.....
We use honey in a myriad of ways – in our baths, on our skin, in our tea, on our toast, to sooth, to sweeten, to heal. We even pen homilies about it. ‘Honey catches the bees’ is an excellent retort to a sharp comment. However, I prefer to eat it ....
It seems that when it comes to cake everyone has something to say. Of course, we all know what Marie Antoinette said. Apparently George Harrison observed “All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.” And I admire the tipster who suggested that to keep a cake moist just eat it in one sitting....
I recently read an article on the School of Life website entitled ‘Food as Therapy' which asserts that what we eat and cook has benefits far beyond just nutrition. We all know this of course but food, it seems, is an interesting tool when analysing our emotional needs. It has psychological value......
Nothing quite beats a piece of cake. The go-to food for celebration, commiseration and comfort; for morning and afternoon tea, dessert and, if you are really into it, for breakfast the next day. (I admit to early morning bites, just to see if it still tastes okay, of course.) .....
Frangipane, most commonly used as a filling for tarts, is rich with almonds, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. It is an essential component in many delicious cakes and desserts and has been a staple in the pastry kitchens of the European world for centuries....
This almond cake is very quick to throw together and is a different way to use up an accumulation of egg whites in the freezer especially if you’d like a change from using them to make meringue based cakes and desserts....
Brazilian weddings are traditionally big, lavish, showy affairs: hairdos, frocks, make up, family jewels, and their desserts do not let them down. They actually serve hundreds of cakes, little ones, called Bem Casados....
Many religious and cultural traditions abound when it comes to Easter, especially in terms of festive food, and in Australia we can follow our own family habits or happily borrow from the diverse customs of our fellow countrymen...
Visiting family in South Australia recently we found ourselves in Sam’s sensational rose garden. It was mid-afternoon and the roses were wilting a little in the heat, as we all were, but the perfume was amazing...