low-sugar chocolate cake

Here it is, the low-sugar, wheat-free chocolate cake recipe:

125g butter, melted
1/2 to 1c xylitol, depending on how much sweetness you are used to
2 eggs
1c spelt flour
1 1/2tsp baking powder
1/4c cocoa
1/2 c milk

mix dry ingredients together/. Add eggs, milk and melted butter, and mix well.
Bake in a 7" round tin at 180deg c for about 40 minutes until a skewer pushed through the centre comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out.

Ganache

1x100g bar guylian 'no added sugar' milk chocolate, or other low-sugar chocolate of your choosing
80ml cream

Melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water. Stir in the cream. Leave to thicken slightly before pouring onto the cake.
Depending on the chocolate you use, you may need to adjust the amount of cream. This was a soft ganache, so use a little less cream, maybe 60ml, for a firmer one. You may need more cream if you are using dark chocolate.

Enjoy your guilt free chocolate cake with wanton abandon! .

what's cooking today?

With my freezer and pantry devoid of baked goods, I wondered what to bake for the coming week's lunch boxes. It was a tall order. It had to be low in sugar and milk free (although yoghurt was ok). I also only had half a block of butter left, and just one lonely egg in the egg-box. I refused the temptation to visit the supermarket for more ingredients, as past experience showed that I always walked out with an extra half-dozen items that I suddenly urgently needed!
A flick through Mrs B's, Mrs Smith's, and Mrs Lawson's dog-eared tomes gave no solution, and the cupboard contents were thoroughly un-inspiring.

So, after discovering the left-over cooked apples from yesterdays dinner (pork with cream and apples), I decided mini apple pies were in order.
All was going well until I started to cut out the pastry circles for the patty tins and realised that I had made my usual error of underestimating how much pastry I needed for 24 little pies. I barely had enough for 8! So, after a quick change of plan, I made a quick sponge in the processor using half spelt flour, half cornmeal, baking powder, quarter cup of sugar (I figured the apples were sweet enough), the sole egg, rice bran oil, a glug of lemon juice and some yoghurt.

It was a fairly runny mixture, which I expected, but as I was 'inventing', I wasn't too sure how it would turn out.
Thankfully, 20 minutes or so later, the oven turned out 14 well-risen sponge-topped apple pies. They were good! Better than I thought. The hard part now is to make sure they do actually make it to the lunch boxes!