Gluten Free Valentine’s Heart Cakesfeatured

I’ve never been an excellent baker. I usually end up messing up at some point or forgetting what time I put them in the oven. But seeing as it’s Valentine’s Day and poor Jake is working all weekend I thought I’d do a bit of baking as a surprise.

Many of you may read this and think “Pah! What an amateur!” as the cakes I’ve made this afternoon are pretty basic. But you’ve gotta start somewhere, haven’t you?

Seeing as I’m one of those unlucky coeliac folks, these cakes were made with a gluten free mix that I get on prescription. (I know! How special am I!) But there’s no reason why you can’t replace this mix with another type of gluten free flour or regular flour.

Ingredients

200g (8oz) Juvela Gluten-Free White Mix

200g (8oz) caster sugar

200g (8oz) soft margarine or butter

4 medium eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp baking powder

Cream

Strawberries

Heart shaped baking tray thing. (This one was from Aldi)

(Jam, cherries, raisins, chocolate chips optional)

How to

Before you start, pre-heat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5.

1. First I broke 4 eggs into a bowl, mixed them together and then added them to my mixing bowl along with 200g of butter, 200g of caster sugar and 200g of Juvela Gluten Free White Mix. If you don’t have the Juvela mix, don’t worry, simply add another type of gluten free flour (or if you’re lucky enough to not need gluten free, regular gluten filled flour will do).

2. Next we used a food mixer to mix all the ingredients together. If you don’t have one, a wooden spoon and a bit of elbow grease will be okay.

3. Then, we lined our heart shaped muffin tray thingy with butter to stop the cakes from sticking to the sides.

4. I scooped the mixture into the baking tray thing

5. And after cooking the cakes for 10-15 minutes, hey presto!

6. But I wasn’t finished there. I poured some cream into a jug and used the mixer again until it was thick.

7. Armed with cream, strawberries and jam, I couldn’t decide exactly what to do next. First, I took one cake, cut a small heart shape out of the top, and filled it with cream. I then tried to fashion a slice of strawberry into a heart shape and placed that over the cream before adding a dusting of icing sugar.

8. Next, I cut the cakes in half and filled the centre with variations of cream and strawberries and jam. My favourite ones were the ones with just cream and strawberries as I felt that jam made them a bit too sickly. If you like your cakes really moist though, jam is for you

Other options you could consider:

• You could cut out a heart shape from the top, add cream, and use the heart shape to make a butterfly cake
• If you like things fruity, throw blueberries or cherries in
• You could also add raisins, sultanas or chocolate chips to the original mix