Rowie Dillon bakes a gluten-free morning tea

December 16th, 2011

Ovens & Cooking

Last week Appliances Online had the pleasure of welcoming the gorgeous Rowie Dillon – founder of Rowie’s Cakes and author of Indulge – to our staff kitchen.

Rowie Dillon is Australia’s queen of gluten-free baking, proving with her business and her new cookbook that gluten-free food need never be bland.

Here she is explaining the science of flours:

One in three children and one in five adults suffer from food intolerances, but up until recently there haven’t been many options available for people who can’t eat wheat or gluten. Rowie’s aim is to create delicious and indulgent food that is also 100% wheat, yeast, dairy and gluten free, and to spread the message that being diagnosed with gluten intolerance needn’t be a bad thing.

It was a real privilege to watch Rowie in action as she whipped up her special Chocolate Sponge Cakes using quinoa flour and organic gluten-free cocoa powder (recipe below). See how it’s done:

And in this video Rowie shows us how to make the dairy-free icing, while our favourite Appliances Online blogger gets to sample the results (yum)!

Appliances Online is currently giving away a copy of Indulge with every oven sold (while stocks last).

You can also buy Rowie’s book in Dymocks stores, or online through SeekBooks or Booktopia.

Cocoa Sponge Cakes
Ingredients

195g (1 ½ cups) quinoa flour
40g (1/3 cup) gluten-free cocoa powder
1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
230g (1 cup) caster sugar
125ml (½ cup) vegetable oil
250ml (1 cup) coffee, chilled
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons white vinegar

Icing

125g dairy-free margarine
155g (1 ¼ cups) pure icing sugar
½ tablespoon gluten-free cocoa powder

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Grease and line six mini loaf tins (10 x 6.5cm) or line a 12-hole standard muffin tin with paper cases.

Mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl

Combine the oil, coffee and vanilla in a separate bowl, then add to the dry ingredients and stir well. Add the vinegar and quickly stir to combine (this will help the mixture to rise when baked). Don’t let the mixture sit, pour immediately into the loaf tins or paper cases. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin and turn out onto a wire rack for icing.

To make the icing, beat the margarine and sugar in a small bowl with electric beaters until well combined. Add the cocoa powder and beat until well combined and the icing is smooth and thick. Using a palette knife, spread the icing generously over the cakes, creating lines and patterns if you like.