Doves Farm Flour Iced Jam Sponge Slice

I have been baking for a local fair and as I wanted to include a few gluten free options I decided to buy some pre-blended flour. I will say right now I can’t eat these, but I wanted to share what can be done with this specific flour blend, your millage may vary as blends vary greatly. I’m still not a fan of these flours or their texture, but I understand how useful they can be. These recipes are in no way sponsored or endorsed by Doves Farm, considering I may run them down they might pay me to stop, and they aren’t regular recipes so please understand that I can’t offer much outside of the recipe here, but I wanted to put them up as an example usage of the flour that may be of benefit to a few of my Dear Readers.

Freshly slobbered with jam. These are rough recipes, Dear Reader.

This is similar to the other recipe, there’s more sponge, but no add-ins, it takes a lot of baking, but thankfully does gain a nice colour. There isn’t a whole lot to add that I have said already in the Chocolate Sponge Slice recipe, this is a dense sponge, really hard to call it a sponge, but it isn’t much of a cake either, I know, Dear Reader, I’m being harsh, but, eh, it’s fine. I wouldn’t share it if it weren’t. You can make half again of the icing if you want a really heavy top, the thicker the icing the easier it is to mound up. I used a spiced plum jam I made myself, the same one seen in the Pastry recipe, I slathered it on while the sponge was hot, but you’d be better to wait for it to cool because he sponge will tear and is slightly crumbly and moist, I don’t get it either, but it is, Dear Reader, but as it cools it’ll firm up. Do be careful moving it as it can crack easily while it’s still warm.

Sink adjacent sponge. Tasty!

These sponges will be sliced up, hence the name, and given away with tea for almost free, I wanted to include a few gluten free options because I know how hard it can be, I know not being able to eat them does put me at a disadvantage in describing them, but I’ve been baking so long I can read a recipe and know how it’ll taste and what texture it;’ll have so you can be sure hat same knowledge can be applied here. I think of these as cake for those who don’t want to learn to bake, as to why, well, mine is not to question why, mine is just to supply easy recipes. These were made in minutes of each other, all off the cuff based on a fairy cake recipe, they’re fine cakes, Dear Reader, but they’re not mine, they’re gluten free but they aren’t for me. Like most food these days. Still, I think of the children that will be excluded because someone couldn’t be bothered to make something to include them. I will never be someone who neglects or excludes, Dear Reader. Okay, that’s it for this flour blend. I’ll be back to normal after this, Dear Reader, until then, take care.

Ingredients

For The Sponge

350g Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain White Flour
250g Caster Sugar
250g Margarine, Softened
4 Eggs
2 Tsps Baking Powder
Water As Needed

For The Icing

200g Icing Sugar
30g Egg Whites, About 1 Egg
Dash Lemon Juice

Method

Sponge

1. Pre-heat oven to 200c (Fan) and grease and line a Square Tin.

2. Add everything to a bowl and beat all the ingredients together with an electric mixer until smooth.

3. Scoop mixture into prepared tin, about 3/4 full, and bake for about 20-30 minutes until firm to the touch. Cool in tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wirerack to cool completely.

Icing

1. In a clean bowl beat Egg Whites on a slow speed until soft peaks form.

2. Slowly add in the icing sugar 100g at a time and when the Icing starts to thicken increase the speed.

3. When the Sugar has been incorporated completely add in the lemon and beat until a stiff, slightly duller icing has formed.

4. Spread the Icing onto the cooled jam topped Sponge.

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Doves Farm Flour Chocolate Sponge Slice

I have been baking for a local fair and as I wanted to include a few gluten free options I decided to buy some pre-blended flour. I will say right now I can’t eat these, but I wanted to share what can be done with this specific flour blend, your millage may vary as blends vary greatly. I’m still not a fan of these flours or their texture, but I understand how useful they can be. These recipes are in no way sponsored or endorsed by Doves Farm, considering I may run them down they might pay me to stop, and they aren’t regular recipes so please understand that I can’t offer much outside of the recipe here, but I wanted to put them up as an example usage of the flour that may be of benefit to a few of my Dear Readers.

This was so impromptu I nearly forgot what went into it.

I don’t know about you, Dear Reader, but this was the standard way cakes and sponges were made when I was growing up, it’s a pretty lazy way to make a cake, but extremely useful as a fast alternative to making it all step by step. It’s not the greatest sponge, but it’s hardly the greatest flour, it’s hard to say what the sponge is, it’s nostalgic, I grew up on these kinds of “cakes” you used what you had and the idea of getting a better recipe or better ingredients was never mentioned. It’s great as a quick cake for an event where they’re being given away or for children that will be so hyper from the icing they won’t care what they’re eating, I didn’t say I disliked them growing up, now, did I, Dear Reader?

I just winged the entire cake.

The chocolate I used is a very sweet salted caramel, now ubiquitous, Dear Reader, unsalted is unheard of, chocolate drink, but the cocoa powder is rather good quality, so there’s no need to add melted chocolate and since I was using up when making this it’d be silly to go too far. As I say you can add whatever you like, this is a leftover ingredient cake, even the icing was made for another sponge, I just added the Cocoa at the end. This one baked faster than the other as it was smaller and because of he extras it has a different texture, it’s a firm sponge, I can’t say anything about the taste, but it’ll be sweet. This is pretty much the standard of blended flour baking, I’ve always been apart from that sphere, Dear Reader, I had to be better to eat, never mind anything else. If you need a quickie cake, this is useful, there are better recipes here, but this will be the fastest. I’m not running the recipe down, I’m just laying it out here without any pretense. I’m not a fan of he flour, but hat doesn’t make it bad. The cake will become more dense as it cools and will be easier to cut, let it cool completely, overnight even, if you need to slice it, Dear Reader, it may crack otherwise. Okay, I’ll be back again soon, these are delayed posts so any discontinuity with he flow of the blog is due to that.

Ingredients

For The Sponge

260g Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain White Flour
180g Caster Sugar
180g Margarine, Softened
2 Eggs
50g Blanched Almonds, Smashed
50g Desiccated Coconut
2 Tbsps Sweetened Cocoa Powder or Drinking Chocolate Mix
1 and 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

For The Icing

200g Icing Sugar
2 Tbsps Sweetened Cocoa Powder or Drinking Chocolate Mix
30g Egg Whites, About 1 Egg
Dash Lemon Juice
Milk Chocolate for Grating

Method

Sponge

1. Pre-heat oven to 200c (Fan) and grease and line a Square Tin.

2. Add everything to a bowl and beat all the ingredients together with an electric mixer until smooth.

3. Scoop mixture into prepared tin, about 3/4 full, and bake for about 20-30 minutes until firm to the touch. Cool in tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire-rack to cool completely.

Icing

1. In a clean bowl beat Egg Whites on a slow speed until soft peaks form.

2. Slowly add in the icing sugar 100g at a time and when the Icing starts to thicken increase the speed.

3. When the Sugar has been incorporated completely add in the lemon and beat until a stiff, slightly duller icing has formed. Finally add in the Sweetened Cocoa Powder and mix until completely combined.

4. Spread the Icing onto the cooled sponge and finally grate some Milk Chocolate a top.

Doves Farm Flour Blend Pastry

I have been baking for a local fair and as I wanted to include a few gluten free options I decided to buy some pre-blended flour. I will say right now I can’t eat these, but I wanted to share what can be done with this specific flour blend, your millage may vary as blends vary greatly. I’m still not a fan of these flours or their texture, but I understand how useful they can be. These recipes are in no way sponsored or endorsed by Doves Farm, considering I may run them down they might pay me to stop, and they aren’t regular recipes so please understand that I can’t offer much outside of the recipe here, but I wanted to put them up as an example usage of the flour that may be of benefit to a few of my Dear Readers.

Yes, Dear Reader, you know honest Jack can’t lie, or won’t rather, I can only tell you about how I feel you might have a completely different reaction to these, a few people tried them and loved them, they fine as far as a pastry hat takes all of fifteen minutes to make with only two, three if you count the water, ingredients to make. They’re convenience and I understand that people enjoy that, not that many understand some of us just don’t have the luxury or convenience when it comes to food.

This is just your garden variety, unsweetened pastry, but I’ll try to help you as best I can. The preparation is the same as usual, from flour and marg to breadcrumbs, to a dough, to an, honestly, weak dough. It rips really easily, Dear Reader, you can see how thick I made it and even then when inserting it into the cases it tore. I warned you I would be honest, despite all the starches this is still an extremely weak flour, you might find that ground chia made into an egg may make it more durable, but I won’t be returning o this, this was a way to use it rather than waste it. It bakes fine, holding its shape well enough, but it has a sickly pallor that I had to disguise as it looked almost raw. I make a buckwheat chia pastry that is far closer to gluten based flour pastry than this ever could hope to be. If you use the flour then fine, I’m not saying you should change that, but I just want to point out hat there are other options. I will have two more recipes using this flour that are better, they’re heavily iced and flavoured to help mask the heaviness  of the flour. I did say it’d be a different kind of post, Dear Reader and I can only be honest. I’ll be back soon, see you then.

I had to coat them in watery honey to get any colour, the bottom is the original colour after a long bake time.

Yes, that is way too much jam, thank you. The kids loved them.

Ingredients

400g Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain White Flour
200g Margarine, Very Cold, Cut Into Cubes
Cold Water as Needed

Method

1. Add the Flour into a bowl. Add the Butter and mash together with your hands until it forms a dry, breadcrumb like mixture.

3. Add a Tbsp of Cold Water and knead together. Keep adding Water and kneading until the Dough holds its shape when pinched together.

4. Form into a flat disc and place in fridge for 15 minutes.

5. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out pastry. If it cracks then it’s too thin, if pastry cracks when inserting into a greased pie dish then cover the cracks with leftover pastry.

6. Bake at 180c (Fan) for about fifteen minutes, until dry to the touch, pastry will still be pale. Brush with Egg or Honey if a browner finish is required.