Love Cake March 2014 round up

I'm so pleased so many of you have decided not to give up eating cake for Lent and instead just went with giving up at least one of the four basic cake making ingredients of wheat flour, butter, sugar and eggs.

First in was this lovely moist combination of Coy Carrots and Opulent Oranges from Spicy, Quirky and Serendipitous. After some planning with her son and a bit of a pep talk they came up with this butter-free cake. To replace the butter they used olive oil. I have to admit carrot and orange is a favourite pairing of mine therefore this recipe is definitely on my 'bookmarked' list!

Can these naughty looking Chocolate S'mores Cupcakes from Funkilicious Food really be gluten and dairy-free? Becky shows us how a few clever swaps of ingredients can make the difference. Check out the rest of Becky's recipes as she guides children through their Duke of Edinburgh Award and gain independence in the kitchen.

It's all gone a bit upside down at Caroline Makes...this month. Caroline and Ros are the co-hosts of Alpha Bakes and it has finally reached it's last letter and it is 'U'. While other 'U' based bakes are perfectly acceptable anything upside down is of course the most obvious choice. So the challenge is to find a twist on the traditional upside cake. Caroline has achieved this not only by going small but also by leaving out eggs and butter for her Vegan Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes.

Linzi at Lancashire Food has recently gone gluten-free so her lovely blog is now filling up with lots of gluten-free recipes. Her Date sweetened gluten-free brownies though are particularly suited to this month's Love Cake challenge as they also contain no added sugar and the butter is replaced with coconut oil. Three out of four on my banned list eliminated and they are still full of chocolate!

I've always fancied the idea of making a teapot cake as what else goes better with a slice of cake than a cup of tea? Caroline from Caroline Makes... is back again with her vegan baking and a Teapot Birthday Cake – Strawberry Tea Flavour. By using a set of ball-shaped tins she was able to achieve the teapot and then shaped the icing for the handle, spout and lid. Yet again Caroline made this as a present. She is one very generous lady!

I love a good slab of tea loaf and it's always nice to find some variations on the recipe. Becky at Beesteas has made her Dairy-free Old Fashioned Tea Loaf fatless but added some juicy glacé cherries as well as some flaked almonds and a nice selection of spice. Her tea of choice for this cake was Earl Grey.

Just like Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog I've never really seen the point of cake pops – why would you bake a cake just to mash it up and put it on a stick? Choclette has seen the light though with a dedicated cake pops tray which means you actually bake the recipe as cake pops. Her Coconut and Ginger Cake Pops are a celebration of all things coconut with coconut flour, oil and sugar. A very impressive three out of four for Choclette as well. However, she did use a duck's egg instead of the usual hen's egg. Should I award her four out of four?!

I have to admit there was one entry I was waiting for this month. By stipulating no standard wheat flour I hoped Kate at Gluten Free Alchemist would come up with a special treat for us. I wasn't disappointed. To celebrate her birthday and the blog's first anniversary she came up with her Coconut Cake with Lime Butter Frosting and Marshmallow Flowers. The sponge base for this delightfully pretty cake is entirely dairy-free and uses a combination of coconut cream, rice or almond milk and coconut oil. Here's to many more years of your blog, Kate!

The very first recipe on JibberJabberUK was for a malt loaf and it's fair to say it still remains one of my favourite bakes. How can you go wrong with a cake that you can legitimately eat for breakfast? Staying true to the malt loaf's humble origins Sarah at Tales From The Kitchen Shed has made her Malt Loaf fatless. As a clever alternative she has also devised a method which uses honey instead of sugar. If you don't fancy the honey version Sarah has listed the method that uses sugar as well.

I always find it very handy to have a selection of baking recipes that don't contain eggs. I love eggs but there are times when I don't have any in the house and then find my cake making plans scuppered. Helen over at Family Friends Food has found a cunning solution to this problem with her Egg and dairy free spiced apple and raisin cupcakes. They are completely dairy-free as Helen has also replaced the butter with sunflower oil.

For my entry this month I went for a tried and tested favourite but gave it a little twist. Inspired by the herbs in my garden I made a Gluten-free lemon and rosemary cake. Instead of flour I used polenta. I chopped fresh rosemary and stirred it into the cake mix and also infused some rosemary with the lemon syrup that was drizzled on top. As I only managed to 'give up' one of the four basics I guess that's me at the bottom of the class this month.

Thank you to everyone who contributed this month. I was amazed by the variety of cakes that were baked and the amount of effort everybody put in. It's been a pleasure reading through all the blogs and pages to see how the theme was embraced. I'll be back in a complete of days to announce April's theme. Until then – keep baking!