Degustabox January 2015 review and a gluten free lemon cake

I know it's already halfway through February and this is the January Degustabox review but I received the box late in January and I just haven't gotten round to posting this. In case you have no idea what I'm on about, Degustabox is a no obligation monthly subscription which costs £12.99 including delivery. You get 9 to 14 surprise products and it's usually a good mixed selection of goodies. I have a special discount code for all my readers if you are interested in signing up a box for yourself or for a family memeber/friend. You get a £3.00 discount when registering by using this code F3TJ1 which makes it just under a tenner for a goodie box including delivery. 

It's a bit hit and miss what you get with the box. I was really pleased with my first box then less so with the next 2 boxes but am back to being impressed with this one again. The January healthy box has 2 versions, an alcoholic and a non alcoholic version but I received both drinks which was great! 

As usual I baked something from the contents of the box and it was a no brainer this month as there was a cake mix in the box. It's far from an ordinary cake mix as it's a sugar free, gluten free and wheat free cake mix. Just add water, eggs and vegetable oil and bake. It was extremely timely as I had to bake a gluten free cake for someone at work. I decided to use lemon as the flavour as she had mentioned that lemon drizzle cake is her favourite. The cake was really easy to bake and turned out beautifully. I added a simple lemon glaze and some lemon zest on top. The recipient was really pleased with the cake and said it tasted just like 'real' cake! I had a small slice and it was wonderfully moist and lemony. The sweetness was also perfect as I was slightly worried about the sour lemons. I was alittle sceptical that the cake would have a fake sweetener taste but it didn't! I was also impressed with the height of the cake as sometimes my gluten free cakes turn out a little flat. 

So what else was in the January Degustabox?

 A lovely selection of healthy-ish goodies 

 This is the non alcoholic drink. Simplee Aloe which is a natural Aloe Vera drink. It contains Aloe blended with fresh grape juice and lemon and it tastes a little sour but not overly so 

 Koko Dairy Free milk is a unique alternative to cow's milk made with freshly pressed coconut milk. It's allergen free and does not curdle when you add it to tea or coffee. It's great for drinking, baking or cooking. 

 Finn Crisp - these are great to accompany my soups at lunch which I am having quite frequently at the moment. They are light and crispy and I personally like the sourdough taste. 

 Haywards Piccalilli - pickled vegetables in a tangy mustard sauce. Brilliant with pork pies! 

 Special gift for this month is a box of Clipper Fairtrade Green Tea with Lemon. This is a really nice refreshing drink and I love the lemon zing which pairs well with the green tea. 

 Special for Chinese New Year - Kabuto Noodles. Just add water and you have a delicious ready meal. It had a good flavour and was quite filling. 

 Mornflake Top Porridge Pots - great for breakfast on the go and I love that it comes with a little packet of Nutella. 

 Mornflake Top Porridge Pots -this one with Lyle's Golden syrup. 

 Sukrin Cake mix - sugar free, gluten free, wheat free, egg free (but you can add eggs to the recipe if you wish) A great base for creating gluten free cake- just add whatever flavour you want. 

 Little Miracles organic energy drink which is a blend of organic tea, juice and ginseng. It's sweetened with agave and contains less than 90 calories per bottle. 

 Another Little miracles drink but with black tea and peach. 

 The alcoholic version for this month's box - a bottle of Magner's Light Orchard Berries cider which was a little too sweet for us. 

 Alfa One Rice Bran Oil which is high in natural antioxidants such as Vitamin E and Gamma Oryzanol, a naturally occuring plant sterol which has been shown to reduce cholesterol absoprtion.

 For the gluten free lemon cake 

 ready to bake 

 fresh from the oven 

 The cake had a good height to it 

 with a simple lemon glaze and lemon zest 

For the cake
1 pack of Sukrin ake Mix
3 eggs
150ml water
75ml vegetable oil
Juice and zest of 1 lemon

For the lemon glaze
Juice of 1/2 lemon
100g icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon for decoration (optional)

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Mix the eggs, water and oil in a large bowl. 
• Add in the cake mix and whisk until smooth.
• Add in the juice and zest of 1 lemon.
• Pour into a cake tin and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely.
• To make the glaze, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Slowly add the lemon juice and mix until you get the consistency required. 
• Pour glaze over the cooled cake and top with some lemon zest if you wish.

Disclaimer: I was sent a Degustabox for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review or to create a recipe. All opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post.

Mary Berry Lemon Cheesecake

Last week I had a craving for cheesecake. A lemon cheesecake to be precise. I remember watching Mary Berry demonstrate this cheesecake so I decided to look up the recipe. It's a really simple no bake recipe which took all of 10 minutes to put together. The longest wait is for the cheesecake to firm up and we were too impatient so it was still a little soft when we first tried it. It firmed up nicely in the fridge for the next day. I used Hobnobs for the base instead of ginger biscuits as I'm not a fan of ginger and used different berries to decorate. The result was divine. It's a really creamy, rich, lemony cheesecake and I loved the crunch of the hobnob base. This would be great for a dinner party and will be sure to impress.

 cheesecake base on left, cheese filling on right 

 I just couldn't wait for the cheesecake to set properly so it's a little soft but it tasted divine! 

Recipe is available on Mary Berry online

I made a few minor changes listed below

I used a large cake tin 23cm which resulted in a very flat cheesecake, I'd recommend using a 18cm or less cake tin.

200g hobnob biscuits, crushed
100g butter, melted
500g mascarpone cheese
325g jar luxury lemon curd
Juice of 1 small lemon
Fresh strawberries and blueberries, to decorate
Icing sugar, to dust

• Place the biscuits in a ziplock bag, seal and bash with a rolling pin.
• Melt the butter in a microwave.
• Add the melted butter to the biscuits and mix well.
• Press firmly into the base of your cake tin making sure not to go up the edges.
• In a large bowl, mix the mascarpone cheese, lemon curd and lemon juice until smooth.
• Pour over the biscuit base and smooth the top with a spatula.
• Chill in the fridge for 4 hours but preferably overnight.
• Decorate with fresh berries and a sprinkling of icing sugar before serving. 

Lemon and Poppyseed Cake

I had a craving for lemon cake the other day. I found the end of a bag of poppyseeds so I decided to add that in as well. I used my cake tin from Ikea and was really impressed by the pattern created by the icing after it cooled. It looks like a beautiful flower. The cake was moist and very lemony and received high praise at J's work. Fortunately, I managed to try a slice but I do wish I had more! Lemon cake is definitely one of my all time favourites. What's your favourite cake? 

 sorry the lighting is really poor this time of the year 

 adding lovely lemon zest and poppyseeds

 ready to bake 

 love the flower pattern 

Recipe adapted slightly from BBC Good Food

For the cake
175g butter
175g golden caster sugar
200g plain flour, sifted
Zest of 4 lemons
Juice of 2 lemons
3 eggs
2 tablespoons poppyseed
150mls sour cream

For the icing 
200g icing sugar
3-5 tablespoons lemon juice

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream butter and sugar until smooth.
• Add in the eggs, one at at time, mixing well between each addition. 
• Stir in the lemon zest and poppyseeds.
• Add the sour cream, lemon juice and flour. 
• Pour into a greased baking tin and bake for approximately 50-60 minutes (depending on size of tin) until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• As soon as the cake is out of the oven, use a fork to prick holes all over the cake. Pour 3-4 tablespoons of the icing (see below) on top of the cake and leave it to absorb. 
• Turn the cake out after about 10 minutes onto a serving plate.
• Thicken the icing slightly by adding more icing sugar and pour over the top of the cake. 
• to make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Slowly add the lemon juice and stir until smooth. Initially, make the icing a little runny to spread over the cake then thicken with icing sugar for the glaze.

Blackberry, Lemon and Vanilla Cheesecake

J's favourite fruit is blackberries and he is always asking for a blackberry dessert. Luckily I had a large box of blackberries from my colleague's garden in the freezer. I've made numerous crumbles with them but this time I wanted to make something a little special. J also loves cheesecake hence this blackberry, lemon and vanilla cheesecake. The inspiration for this recipe was a lovely two layer cheesecake but unfortunately mine looks nothing like that! However, it tasted heavenly and that's what really counts. I made a vanilla layer using vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste and a blackberry & lemon layer. The blackberry layer was a little tart and paired perfectly with the sweeter vanilla layer. 

I'm sending this to  Four Seasons Food hosted by Louisa from Eat Your Veg and co hosted by Anneli from Delicieux. The theme this month is "getting fruity".

It also fits in to Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This challenge was created to highlight produce from local sources. The blackberres in this recipe came from a colleague's garden. 

 digestive biscuit base 

  blackberry mix on the left and vanilla mix on the right 

 ready to go in the oven 

 after baking for about 25 minutes 

 adding vanilla mix on top which mostly sunk to the middle, pushing the blackberry layer to the outside 

 

Recipe adapted from ivillage.com
40g butter
300mls sour cream
18-20 digestive biscuits
900g cream cheese
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
220g caster sugar
180mls milk
4 eggs
360g frozen blackberries
zest and juice of 1 lemon

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Melt the butter in the microwave or in a small saucepan.
• Blitz the digestive biscuits in a food processor and stir in the melted butter. 
• Press into the bottom of a lined 23cm springform tin making sure that the biscuits also go partway up the sides of the tin.
• Place in the fridge to chill whilst you make the filling. 
• Beat the cream cheese and sugar until combined. 
• Add in the milk then beat in the eggs, one at a time.
• Add in the sour cream and continue mixing until smooth.
• Divide the mixture evenly between 2 large bowls. 
• In a food processor, puree approximately 300g of the blackberries with the zest and juice of 1 lemon. Pour into 1 of the cream cheese mix and stir in the whole blackberries.
• In the 2nd cream cheese mix, add the vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste and mix well.
• Pour the blackberry filling on to the biscuit base and bake for approximately 25 minutes  (recipe said 10 minutes but even 25 minutes was not enough for me - it probably needs 35-40 minutes) 
• Remove the cheesecake from the oven and pour the vanilla filling on top.
• Return to the oven and continue baking for another hour or until the top is set.
• Chill in the fridge before serving. 

Zesty Lemon and Summer Fruit Roulade

This Spring Dr. Oetker has teamed up with Kimberley Wilson as part of the Even Better Baking Team to create an exclusive and delicious low fat Zesty Lemon and Summer fruit Roulade recipe. It's a light and refreshing cake which is fairly healthy and quite simple to make.  The full recipe and instructions can be viewed in the video below.

One of my colleagues said that this is her second favourite cake that I've ever baked, the first being Nigella's Olive Oil Cake. I have to say it barely lasted an hour as it was wolfed down with gusto and I have no doubt that I will be making this again. I've not made many swiss rolls but was excited to use my new swiss roll tin which worked beautifully. I actually made this recipe twice as the first was a bit disastrous. You need to be patient and whisk the eggs and sugar for at least 5 minutes - I was in too much of a hurry the first time and it didn't turn out well. 

This is my first time using the Dr Oetker Sicilian Lemon Natural Extract and I was pleasantly surprised. It smells like fresh lemons and just 1/2 teaspoon as stated in the recipe is enough to give a deep lemon flavour. The sponge was light and lemony and the yoghurt berry filling was absolutely delicious. The lemon curd worked really well with the yoghurt and berries and is definitely an idea I will be repeating for future bakes. 

 

 whisk the eggs and sugar until the 'ribbon stage' 

 filling my swiss roll tin 

 fresh from the oven 

 stir lemon curd into the yoghurt 

 spread lemon curd/yoghurt over the cake and sprinkle chopped berries on top 

 zesty lemon and summer fruit roulade 

Disclaimer: I was sent Dr Oetker products used in this recipe by Dr Oetker. A positive review was not required and all opinions are my own.