When the baker (me) can't eat gluten, and doesn't care if she has cake or not, but the birthday girl very much wants her to...and one of the friends to the party can't have dairy...I decided that it was time to experiment with coconut oil. And, I went organic, cold pressed.
I started by tasting it. OK.... had sort of a buttery slick to it, though I expected more of an olive oil texture with a coconut flavour. I didn't really get either. It was very mild, and though it melted to the touch, it was pretty sure about staying solid at room temperature.
The cake first: I went gluten free with the recipe, just sourcing one from the net that sounded like it would make enough for the layer cake, and the cupcakes. I beat the coconut oil first, as for butter--but, it was so unwieldy that I decided rather than scooping it, or using the "cold fat displacement method", I would simply fill the measure as best I could, and then add olive oil to fill the void-because the recipe called for oil, and I wanted to try an in-between approach. It worked well, both for the 9x9 cake and the 11 cupcakes. Once the cupcakes were cooled, I used an apple corer to pull out holes to fill with lemon curd.
Next, the lemon curd: never made it before. I started with a vegan web version, and used a Thermomix set of directions. Again, the oil was unwieldy- as expected (see cake references above!). I thought that as long as measured it out accurately enough, it should all work. It did work; but as often happens when I go a'Thermomixing...it was so easy it felt like a cheat--in less than 10 minutes--and I wasn't standing like a zombie at the stove, stirring... Beautifully lemony, not too sweet, and it thickened well. I used it to fill the little cores I took out of the cupcakes, and it stayed nicely in place.
Third event was lemon icing: I didn't clean out the Thermomix, because I wanted to leave a little lemon curd in there to start off the frosting-thinking that perhaps the coconut oil wouldn't cream very well by itself. I whipped in the coconut oil, to smooth it, as it starts out in whatever shape in which the person cuts...I didn't really follow a procedure, save for using the Thermomix as a mixer... I added a wee bit of icing sugar to start the blending, and just added the lemon juice and coconut milk (as the liquid) as I went along, until I found the consistency that I thought would hold up as cupcake icing. It worked, but I refrigerated it a little too long and it was a little tough to work with, though, if I'd had enough time, I could have waited patiently for it to warm. Instead, I kneaded it in the bag I was going to use to decorate, and it came out, though it was so hardened that I sort of rolled it out between my palms to paste/fix/press to the sides of the cake. Next time? 5 minutes in the fridge, and out!
Turning now from the coconut oil, but staying in the same theme of being thrilled to have the little 'sous-chef' working again, I took less than four minutes to make a coleslaw, with dairy free dressing (olive oil, agave, and vinegar) that I buzzed together before adding in the rough chops of apple and cabbage to make coleslaw. Our guests liked it, and all the kids ate it too.
And finally, mashed potatoes, because the birthday girl got to set the party menu. I planned to use the Thermomix for that too, though I was truly skeptical of their mashed potato recipe. Every one I'd tried in the past had worked, so...on I went. The recipe included parmesan cheese, which I did not have, so I just added extra butter. The rough chopped potatoes went in, with the butter, and the milk, and the salt, and 25 minutes later, there were fluffy, rather perfect mashed potatoes.
And in the interest of menu disclosure, because it was a birthday pick, we also had sausages and bread, tortilla with hummus, cheese and pepperoni, green beans with garlic and feta cheese, and lemon pie and lemon tarts from the bakery- because birthday girl's dad though 4 kinds--4!!!--- different kinds of dessert was a funny request, and should be allowed as per "birthday person chooses menu". Or, he just wanted pie too.
Cheers and Chao!
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