My heart breaks when time and time again my dear friend is left with few options when dining.  No bread, pasta, pie crusts, cakes… the things most of us require in large quantities.  On a regular basis.  Yes, yes, there are gluten-free varieties of all of those.  But have you ever had corn pasta?  Or rice bread?  They are sad substitutions.  Hence, my heartbreak.

Tasked at making a dessert for a dinner party chez Celiac bestie, I scoured the internet for something that would not be crumbly or too dense.  I wanted to find something that could fool us flour lovers.  No mousses or puddings or custards to avoid the issue.  She deserved a cake and I was going to try and make it.

The magic ingredient I would try was quinoa.  I found a recipe that would result in a cake without having to search for things like gums (xantham and guar) or strange flours (sorghum).  The original recipe called for sautéed apples, but with summer’s bounty still available, I switched gears and went with B.C. peaches and plums.

It all came together well.  It looked like a cake (sort of), smelled like a cake while baking and when pulled out of the oven, it even had a spring in its step like a cake does.

But did it taste like a cake?

Well, dear reader, it tasted very good.  Especially with a good dollop of freshly whipped cream.  Moist like a good brownie and cobbler-like with its fruit filling, the dinner party guests gave it rave reviews.  But… it was no cake.  (Obviously) another way to describe its flavour would be “gluten free.”  No breaks in my heart, but some fractures, for sure.  The quinoa gave it depth and body (no crumbles) but it also made it grainy.

Would I make it again?  Absolutely — if a gluten-free dessert was required.

Would I make it for a dinner party for flour lovers?  Perhaps not.

In any case, I made it for someone who has to manoeuvre menus and grocery aisles with creativity and great care.  This was for her to enjoy having what everyone else was having.  No substitutions, no omissions.  Extra cream, however, just for her.

Gluten-Free Quinoa Cake with Peaches and Plums

Adapted from Lucullian Delights

2-2.5 cups chopped peaches (peeled*) and plums
0.25 cup sugar**
1 teaspoon cinnamon
0.5 cup water

4 eggs
0.5 cup salted butter, melted
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup sugar**
1 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
1 3/4 cup cup rice flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Simmer the peaches and plums with the water, 0.25 cup sugar and cinnamon until the fruit is cooked and almost all the liquid has evaporated.

Whisk egg, vanilla and sugar. Add the melted butter. Stir well.

Add the quinoa , mix well and then add flour and baking powder, always stirring well.

Pour half of the batter into a greased cake tin. I used a 10-inch springform pan.  Flatten out the batter and spread the peaches and plums evenly over it. Then cover with the rest of the batter.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

*How to peel a peach:  Score the bottom of a fresh peach with an X.  Drop in boiling water for about 1 minute (you don’t want to cook the peach), ensuring the whole peach gets exposed.  Move peach to an ice bath.  When cool to the touch, simply peel, starting at the X for ease.

** I had no white sugar and used golden.  This added a more caramel flavour to the cake.

Oh wait, you can if that brunch is homemade.  Check.

And you can if that brunch is made by Sugar.  Check.

When your plate looks like the following, there’s nothing left to do but smile, pick up your knife and fork, and dig in.

The bliss that comes from eating such food confirms why breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

A high from sugar, white flour, cheese, pork, butter, pork and butter fat, alcohol, and caffeine is the stuff of legend.

So, what’s that red stuff on the plate?

Overheard:  Fruit at breakfast is like green vegetables at Thanksgiving.

An unnecessary reminder that you’re not being as good as you could be in the health department.

That’s where the Barefoot Contessa comes in.  Like many contemporary chefs, she’s not shy of adding a little richness to her fruit and veg.

For Easter brunch, I made our fruit fat (read: delicious) by making her mascarpone fruit dip.  It was like melted vanilla ice cream.  Rich, but not crazy-rich like whipped cream.  Not too sweet.  Just perfect.

Mascarpone Fruit Dip

1 small tub (around 250 g) of mascarpone cheese

2 tablespoons of honey

Half a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Seeds from one vanilla bean

Mix—you can thin with cream if you like.

Then, serve.

Lastly, enjoy.

Jewels in the culinary crown of Vietnam, the fruits native to the South are… better than chocolate.  Their sweet juices, soft flesh, and heavenly perfumes reference the sun and all the glory that it brings.

The sun bursts from passion fruit, jackfruit, and pommelos.

Can you get much prettier than a mangosteen?

Its thick case is almost sponge-like.  You can push on the bottom to crack it and reveal the edible segments.  Soft and delicate, they burst with intense sweetness.

In a place where you “don’t drink the water,” the plethora of peel-able fruit is extraordinary.  The milk apple requires you only to scoop out the soft middles of the halves or quarters you cut.  Doing so releases it’s milky juice that should also be lapped up.

My new favourite fruit is the custard apple.  It’s slightly fibrous flesh is dense with tropical sugar (and apparently calories).  It is contained within a thick, bumpy skin that could camouflage it as an artichoke from afar.  Its custard flesh is dotted with shiny and black kidney-shaped seeds. 

I’m not sure how to describe it except to say that it’s heavenly.  Perhaps more apt—it’s worth spending 18 hours in a plane to get one.