Ekadasi Recipe: Apricot-Ginger Cake

As my Ekadasi cake recipe always seems to get lots of hits on Ekadasis, I thought I would add another recipe, this time without the coconut and with more of a gingery flavour (the addition of chopped crystallised ginger would make it even tastier!). You could make it vegan but still suitable for Ekadasi by substituting the cows’ milk for almond milk and the butter for coconut/peanut/sunflower oil.
Cake on Ekadasi? I hear you cry — well why not? It is quick and easy, and could form the basis of a meal with fruit and yogurt, so you won’t be spending too much time in the kitchen.

400g buckwheat flour
200g light brown (demerara) sugar
70g (approx.) chopped dried apricots
4 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (not baking powder)
6 teaspoons powdered ginger
400ml cows’ milk
150ml melted unsalted butter
100ml lemon juice

• First combine all the dry ingredients, tossing the apricot pieces in the flour first to stop them sticking together.
• Next mix the milk and butter together
• Stir the lemon juice into the dry mixture, followed by the milk and the butter.
• Beat well for about a minute — you will probably notice air pockets forming as the bicarb. and lemon juice combo starts to work.
• Put the mixture into a prepared 10″ or med. rectangular/ square cake tin.
• Bake for about 30 minutes (or until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean) in an oven pre-heated to 180C.
• Cut into squares and serve with fresh fruit and/or yoghurt.

Cheese might not make you fat

Cheese might not make you fat

    Here’s the perfect excuse to gorge on a grilled cheese sandwich at breakfast – researchers have found that cheese may not be as bad for cholesterol levels as other types of fat. Doctors and nutritionists have warned those on low-carbohydrate diets against eating animal fats for years. But a new study by Danish researchers says that cheese should not be placed in the same category as butter.
    According to the University of Copenhagen study, people who ate daily servings of cheese at six-week intervals had lower LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol, than when they ate a comparable amount of butter. The cheese eaters also had the same level of LDL during the experiment as they did when they ate a normal diet. The group surveyed about 50 people and wrote about their findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
    Each person was put on a controlled diet and added a measured amount of cheese or butter daily. Throughout, each participant was compared against his or her self, to follow changes in the body caused by the foods. The researchers gave each person cheese or butter, both made from cows’ milk, equal to 13% of their daily energy consumption from fat.
    So, be it cheese toasts or pizzas, you can eat it all guiltfree. Yummy!