Alternative ingredients

While researching for my sister's wedding treats, I've come across a really interesting idea for a substitute for an often-used item in desserts: whipped cream.

Here in Australia the number of people with food allergies and intolerance is absurd! It's one of the highest prevalence rates in the whole world!

Why is it that in some countries kids can eat absolutely anything and over here childcare centres have to be, for example, "nut free" zones?

I wish I knew why that is, really.

Well, anyway, not going to get into that, but I'm here to talk about alternatives.

As you may have noticed, there is one common ingredient in a HUGE amount of desserts in Brazil (it's crazy when you stop to think about it), and that is: CONDENSED MILK.

Man, how we love cooking with condensed milk! - something else I need to research about. :)

Anyway, when I think about starting my business here in Aussie land, I wonder how I would substitute my dear condensed milk to reach out to those who can't have dairy, or any other ingredients I might need.

And what about whipped cream? Sure we can try making it with soy cream or something like that, but can we find a healthier option, an alternative to cream?

Well, for the condensed milk situation, I'm aware of some websites that sell the soy condensed milk from Brazil, it's quite expensive, but if you want to make an investment, that's something you need to think about.

But in a happier note, I saw a post on Low Carb Healthy Recipes'Facebook page talking about an alternative to whipped cream for our dear lactose-intolerant friends!

That is, coconut milk!

The idea is to chill the coconut milk overnight and then whip that adding a little bit of vanilla and cinnamon, which sounds pretty yummy.

I haven't tried that yet, still waiting for the opportunity, but it does seem like a good idea.

As soon as I prepare something with it, I'll make sure I tell you all about it.

I reckon it will be quite light and with a really nice texture to complement our desserts, don't you think?

So what about you, do you know any other great substitutes for baking ingredients?

I would love to hear from y'all.

Thank you for reading.

Cheers,
Dee.

The Rainbow Cake!

This is a very cool cake to make. If you have kids, they'll certainly love it.

But be warned, you will need some patience.

As I always do, before starting a new creation, I researched about it to know what other people were doing and how they'd made it work.

To make it easier, some people would rather use a plain cake mix and just add the food colouring. not me, though, I like to make everything from scratch. That said, I started with a simple white cake with a touch of vanilla to make it a bit more special.

Filling

The filling was a tricky thing. I knew I couldn't use a filling that was too soft, otherwise the cake would not be firm enough and when cut, one layer would stain the next one so, the effect - which is pretty awesome - of the seven different colours of the rainbow would be lost. I didn't want to use the "traditional" buttercream, I wanted something different.

Since I really (REALLY!!) like chocolate, my favourite filling is always chocolate truffle, it is creamy and delicious. However, white chocolate can be a bit “too buttery” so, a white chocolate truffle wouldn't be the right fit in both taste and texture for this cake.

After a while, I decided to give it a try with a traditional Brazilian sweet called: Beijinho.

Beijinho is a traditional sweet served usually in kids' parties but it can also be used for filling.

The texture of Beijinho is perfect to be used with the raibow cake as it acts like “glue” for each one of the layers and also provides a sweet (but not too sweet) coconut flavour.

Icing

With the icing, I wanted to keep it all white. I thought it would contrast well with the colours of the cake. I could use then meringue, whipped cream or beijinho itself. Beijinho icing wouldn't give the effect I was hoping, and the meringue would make the cake too sweet. Whipped cream seemed like the way to go, it is light in flavour and looks beautiful.

What is great about this recipe is that you can customize it as you please. Some folks are doing only six colours, others bake one batter with all colours combined. You can also add colour to the icing to make it more special.

Now I would love to hear from you:

Have you ever tried this recipe or a similar one?

What makes your cake shine?

Thank you for reading this.

Dee ;)