Eggless Chocolate Cake

Today my daughter and I made an Eggless Chocolate Cake – now, we have nearly 50 chooks, and you wouldn’t think it possible to not have enough eggs to bake, but it is.

My husband is just managing to collect enough eggs to make Home-Made Goats’ Milk Ice-Cream, so today we went hunting on the internet for recipes without eggs.

The Eggless Chocolate Cake we found here, although we did modify it a little. We only put two dessertspoons of cocoa instead of four tablespoons, and we didn’t put any salt into it. This recipe only takes 15 minutes preparation time, and I think that it was quicker than that with my daughter helping.

The next recipe that we made was Gae’s Shortbread recipe, and also doesn’t need any eggs. This is a very easy recipe to make, too, but we doubled the recipe so that we could put it into a large baking pan. I am planning on freezing half of the shortbread for later – that is if I can get to it before my son eats it all!

Our chooks are moulting at the moment, so it could be a while before we have lots of eggs to bake with, again.  Does anyone have any favourite easy eggless recipes that they’d like to share?

All on Her Own

Today my daughter has had a baking spree, baking two Apple Cakes, two Carrot Cakes but best of all, two Boiled Chocolate Cakes. Now this is a major achievement, as she has never followed this recipe before, and she did it all on her own. The results – well, I think that they speak for themselves!

My daughter loves baking, and considering she hadn’t tackled this recipe before, I think that she has done an excellent job. After she had finished the Chocolate Cakes, she also made Sago for dessert – another first for her. I love the freedom of homeschooling, and that my daughter loves baking. ♥

Ganeida recently posted about a Home Economics course that Ditz was undertaking, and Ditz’s culinary skills are excellent, judging by the latest round of cooking, so we have just emailed the company to find out the cost of posting the curriculum to Australia. My daughter is very keen to start this course, and it sounds as if it is just what we are looking for. What about your daughters – do they like testing out their culinary expertise, or do you do all of the cooking in your home?

Choc-Chip Cookies

Today my daughter and I cooked a batch of Choc-Chip Cookies, and this recipe is absolutely delicious. It makes approximately five dozen cookies. We thought that seeing that the men were out cutting firewood that they might appreciate something sweet when they arrived home from woodcutting. We also cooked a Buffet Macaroni for dinner so that everything was ready when the men arrived home.

Ingredients

2½ cups rolled oats
2 cups plain flour
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup butter at room temperature
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ packet choc-chips

Method

Preheat oven to 185°C. Make a powder out of the rolled oats by putting small amounts into the food processor at a time. In a large bowl, combine powdered rolled oats, flour, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar.

In another large bowl blend butter and brown sugar until light and creamy. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Then add the flour mixture and stir until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Roll dough into golf-ball sized cookies and flatten out slightly. Place 50mm apart on baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until a light golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. Yields 60 cookies.

My Husband’s Shepherd’s Pie

Yesterday my husband made a Shepherd’s Pie, not just any Shepherd’s Pie mind you, but this one is absolutely delicious, and the recipe is:

Ingredients

1 kilogram of beef mince
3 grated carrots
3 cups grated zucchini
2 cups grated sweet potato
2 cups diced cabbage
2 cups diced cauliflower
2 cups diced broccoli
2 cups of cooked rice
2 tablespoons chutney
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
7 medium sized potatoes
400 grams of grated cheese to cover top

Method

Cook mince with Worcestershire sauce, and while that is cooking, cook the rice and the potatoes. Prepare all vegetables and place into an electric frypan with the mince. Add the cooked rice and chutney. Stir while cooking and add water as needed, as the rice soaks up the moisture. When it is all cooked, place contents of frypan into large roasting dish. Mash the potatoes and spread over mince, rice and vegetable mixture. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top. Place into oven at 180C (350F) for approximately 30 minutes or until cheese melts. Then place under griller to brown the cheese quickly.

If you look at our Shepherd’s Pie, there is one section that has no mashed potato, and that is because I can’t eat it. You could make it without mashed potato, with only the grated cheese, and it is just as delicious. This recipe is very frugal to make, and serves about 8 adults.

Roast Lamb Anyone?

Roast Lamb, anyone? While I’ve been sitting on the computer this afternoon, my husband has cooked such a delicious roast lamb with roast vegetables – roast carrot, zucchini (that we were given by a lovely friend from church), sweet potato, onion, and this was accompanied by broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower – he is such a good cook. Have you noticed what is missing from this plate? Did you guess – yes, it’s the humble potato. I can’t eat potato in any form, which makes for rather interesting meal planning. Dinner was absolutely delicious, and the roast lamb was so tender.

I praise God that my husband’s knee is well enough for him to continue to cook, as I really don’t like cooking a main meal, although I will cook something that doesn’t require me to stand at the stove while it’s cooking, such as Quiche, Buffet Macaroni, Tuna Mournay or Spaghetti. Guess what the children and I are living on when my husband is in hospital having his knee replacement?

What about you? Does your husband have any culinary expertise? If so, what does he cook?