Cake Angels: Amazing gluten, wheat and dairy free cakes

Take a moment to close your eyes and imagine that wonderfully evocative smell of a freshly baked cake, and then imagine slowly sinking your teeth into all its glorious, gorgeous gooeyness – bliss. There really isn’t anything more satisfyingly indulgent than baking your very own cake, something just for you (and perhaps a friend or two). However, many people have been missing out on this pleasure in the belief that dairy-, wheat- and gluten-free cakes are difficult to make successfully. I don’t know why because as I have discovered over the past few years, this is so far from the truth. Baking without dairy, wheat and gluten really is straightforward and in this book I hope to show you how to bake really delicious and beautiful cakes. And all my recipes work equally well using butter and normal plain and self-raising flours; just remember to remove the xanthan gum from your list of ingredients.

Little did I imagine as a child standing on a stool, helping my mother bake one of her delicious cakes, that one day I would be an award-winning artisan baker, baking on television for Michelin-starred chefs and princesses, both real and self-appointed! My journey from child enthusiast to bespoke baker has not been a conventional one, but if you dream of yummy cakes like I do, it’s amazing where your dreams can take you. I have always loved cake: light delicate sponges, rich moist fruit cakes, spicy carrot cakes and dense chocolaty delights. In fact, any cake is guaranteed to put a twinkle in my eye and a huge smile on my face. The wonderful smell of a baking cake can still take me back to that happy and carefree time with my mother and now when I bake, my young son stands next to me, determined to help and even more determined to lick the bowl!

In early 2004, whilst pregnant with my first longed-for child, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer that had already spread to my lymph nodes. I had to make the mental shift from excited mum-to-be to anxiously discussing life-saving treatment options with my surgeon and oncologist. I won’t pretend it was easy because it wasn’t. My oncologist was brilliant and came up with a plan of action to work around my pregnancy. I couldn’t have the standard cocktail of drugs because no one knew what effect they could have on my baby, so a special regime was designed for me. I underwent four courses of chemotherapy before giving birth to my son and a further four immediately after the birth. Two weeks after finishing my chemotherapy, I had the first of 17 radiotherapy sessions, which once completed were immediately replaced with a year’s course of the drug Herceptin. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally, but luckily Charlie was a really good baby and my husband was amazingly supportive. Everyone has their own way of coping with a life-threatening diagnosis and mine was to try and help myself by looking at alternative ways of treating cancer which would complement the conventional treatments I was having. So after hours of research and lengthy discussions with a nutritionist, I made a life-changing decision to radically change my diet and eliminate all dairy products, milk, cheese, butter and yoghurt. Whilst I never doubted changing my diet was worth it, I was devastated that I couldn’t just pop to the bakers to cheer myself up with a delicious cake. After all, when you are miserable, treating yourself to something yummy is usually a good way of lifting your spirits.

In desperation, I scoured bakeries, supermarkets and upmarket health food shops for suitably delicious dairy-free cakes. Whilst I found a few, none of them satisfied my need for something wickedly sinful, beautiful to look at and tasting like normal cake. Some people would gracefully accept the situation and resign themselves to a life without, but not me. As far as I’m concerned, ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’ and I thought, why not bake my own, so I did. Nothing was too complicated or too daunting. If I felt like eating it, I baked it, and it was brilliant. I experimented with dairy-free alternatives and adapted many of my mother’s recipes, most of which were successful. I can’t begin to tell you how good it felt to sink my teeth into something sweet, sticky and totally delicious, but it was very close to heavenly! From that point on, I always took my own cakes with me wherever I went. After all, I didn’t want to miss out, and it wasn’t long before people were waiting for me to arrive! A friend then asked if I would consider baking wheat- and gluten-free cakes, as her young son was intolerant of both. Loving a challenge, I said I would give it a go. I was so pleased with the results that wheat and gluten joined dairy in being banished from my kitchen forever.