A very homey day

I am quite partial to spending the whole day at home in my PJ's, pottering around the house, do some cooking, some knitting or just reading books to the kids. On sunny days I tend to shoo the boys outside and enjoy the quiet half hour they give me (before some argument over a toy sends them both back in ....).

Today was such a day....a lovely sunny spring morning greeted us and everybody felt chirpy and upbeat (yes, including me, ha). I had a cake to bake for school so I set out my ingredients, sent big girl off to school and went to work. It has been ages since I spent the day in the kitchen. Lately I have been avoiding it, preferring to sit and knit....

But alas, duty called and as I was mixing and stirring for a Lumberjack Cake, I got into the groove again. I do love playing with food, I love watching the raw materials come together and turn into something delicious and beautiful....a bit like any form of art and craft I guess...

Like this.

Well, and here comes the twist.....

Today is day two of our wheat free and sugar free diet experiment. I am very new to this regime and while very enthusiastic, still in the experimental phase. So while I was baking this wicked cake, I decided to simultaneously whip up a gluten free/dairy free comparison cake. I used:

My special Gluten Free Flour mix
Organic Rapadura Sugar (for some interesting info on this Sugar read this article here)
Flora Plant Margarine

I tell you what, this being my first time using either Rapadura and the Flour mix, I was not sure what to expect. And as I was mixing it all together, I was not impressed...the batter looked rather greyish and tasted bitter....I did not even feel like licking the bowl. (Oh god. What silly experiment was I embarking on???) I was not looking forward eating a poor excuse of a cake....

So, the "real" cake came out oozing of butter and smelling delicious....then I pulled out "the other"..., broke off a bit, tasted, broke off some more.....THIS IS GOOD!!! The bitterness gone, the cake had a deep golden/brown color, tasted of dates and apples...I am sold. And so relieved that all the money spent yesterday on all the different flours and sugar was not a waste. Yeah.

As the oven was on, I proceeded to bake Gluten Free Flat bread.

I found the recipe here on this lovely blog called A Gluten-Free Day. I'll expect I'll be spending some time over there...

We had a lovely lunch of Hummus and Veggie sticks, Brown Rice Salad with Tamari Seeds and the Flat Bread....the boys didn't bat an eyelid and gobbled everything up and then ran off to play some more....

A very lovely homey day indeed...

Hope your day was lovely too...
Alex