Make it YUM!
Recipes of family favourites
ONE OF THE BEST feelings you can have as a parent is when your child gobbles up a meal you’ve cooked for them, especially when you know it’s chockfull of good stuff.
But any parent knows that this doesn’t happen every time. Getting your child to love food (good, wholesome food that is) is not always easy.
With fellow mum and cook Annabel Inglis, Nadia Lim has put together a collection of favourite meals, snacks and ideas for feeding the family from babies starting solids to older school kids, and even teens leaving home.
With over 100 parent and child-tested recipes, and practical, down-to-earth tips and discussions about starting solids, fussy eating, food allergies and more, YUM! will become the go-to for families.
EASY ALLERGYFRIENDLY CHOCOLATE CAKE
Makes 10-12 serves, Prep time 10 minutes, Cook time 30-35 minutes
Ingredients
21⁄2 cups self-raising flour
cup cacao powder or goodquality dark cocoa powder 11⁄2 cups brown or white sugar 1 tsp baking soda 500ml (2 cups) milk (of any kind)
2 tsp vanilla essence or extract 1 Tbsp vinegar (eg. white wine, red wine, apple cider, white, balsamic)
cup neutral oil (eg. grapeseed, canola or rice bran)
Method
This super quick, no-fuss cake recipe is easy to adjust to make it allergy-friendly (for eggs, nut, dairy and gluten allergies) so that all kids can enjoy it at a birthday party. It doesn’t require any eggs but is still very light and moist — the magic is thanks to the combination of baking soda and vinegar which creates incredible rising action (but don’t worry, you don’t taste any vinegar). Make either a chocolate ganache or a chocolate icing to spread over the cake, or just have it as is. It makes one large cake and it keeps well in a sealed container for up to five days — so you can make it well in advance.
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a large, round (23cm) cake tin with baking paper.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cacao/cocoa, sugar, baking soda and a pinch of salt together until well combined, making sure there are no lumps of sugar.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla, vinegar and oil.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid mixture. Whisk until smooth.
Pour mixture into prepared cake tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into
the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool before icing (see opposite page).
Chocolate ganache
Break or chop 200-250g dark eating chocolate up into a heatproof bowl. Heat 1 cup cream or coconut cream (for dairyfree) in a small pot on the stovetop, then pour over chocolate. Stir until chocolate has melted and ganache is dark and smooth. Allow to cool before spreading over cake. or, Classic chocolate icing Combine 11⁄2 cups icing sugar and 1⁄4 cup cocoa in a bowl. Add 50g softened butter and 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Mix until smooth, adding a little more water, one teaspoon at a time, until a smooth, spreadable consistency.
or, Chocolate yoghurt ganache
Melt 200-250g chopped dark eating chocolate either in the microwave or in a double boiler or a bowl set above a small pot of simmering water. Allow it to cool to room temperature, then whisk in 1 cup thick fruitflavoured or natural yoghurt, or coconut yoghurt.
Tips
Ideally, use dark or Dutch cocoa powder (or cacao powder) as it has a better flavour and colour for this cake.
Iced, this cake will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week and stay nice and moist.