Lemon Sponge Cake with Coconut Icing

Lemon Sponge Cake with Coconut Icing

This weekend I had some friends over to my new place. To welcome them, I baked this nice sponge with the ingredients I had lying around. It turned out really really well and everyone loved it, which is great due to its simplicity. I'm not an advanced level baker who is all that comfortable with recipes combining more than around 5 ingredients, so this is a good addition to my convenient-cake-arsenal. And yes, it would make a good birthday cake. I'll try to rattle this one off quickly as I need to leave for work soon.

Ingredients - Sponge

• 1 Cup Ground Almonds
• 1/4 Cup Whey Protein
• 1/4 Cup Erythritol Granules
• 1 Tsp Lemon Extract
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Tbsp Almond Milk
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder

Ingredients - Icing

• 2 Tbsp Creamed Coconut (The solid stuff)
• 2 Tbsp Erythritol Granules
• Some water

Combine all sponge ingredients a bowl, mixing well to produce a slightly-runny batter. Pour into a cake dish and place in the oven preheated to 150C for about 30 minutes or until the top is firm.

Next, add the creamed coconut and a couple of tablespoons of water to a pan on medium heat.

Stir the creamed coconut lump around the pan in an attempt to melt it into a thick custard-like consistency, adding small amounts of water gradually until this is achieved.

Add in the erythritol and continue to stir until completely incorporated.

Now remove from the heat and place in the refrigerator in some kind of container until the sponge is done cooking.

Spoon the 'icing' onto the top of the sponge, and spread evenly with a knife.

This is pretty simple, but I believe it to be 'just right', and a firm step in the right direction toward a keto Starbucks menu (A sort of goal of mine).

Moving House and An Experiment

Hello, again.

I begin writing this post from my phone, after getting on the train to from work.
I finished the day by paying the deposit for my new flat in Dundee - a nice two-bedroom on the third floor, a 20 minute walk from the city centre. I'm excited because this means that I no longer have to commute from my home in the wee hours of the morning; I'll have more time for training and generally doing my own thing, which I've been lacking over the last month or so.

Experiment
The experiment mentioned in the title is my attempt to figure out what exactly makes me feel ill when on carbs. I'm tired of it being an unknown.
For the next 4 days, I shall be eating everything I normally eat on a cheat-day, sans fructose. No sugar. No cakes. No fruit. No fruit juice. It's going to be lattes, pizza and potatoes all the way. I'll try to keep calories and quantities the same.
It may or may not be hell. If it is hell, I will repeat the experiment, but with gluten, at a later date.

I'm going to log my meals and symptoms as they happen below.

For science!

2014-05-14 16:50
1 Large Latte, Pumpkin
1 Ginsters Cheese Ploughmans

2014-05-14 17:10
Drowsy, Sweating

2014-05-14 18:30
8 Slices Large Italian Margherita, Pizza Hut

2014-05-14 19:30
Feeling Stuffed, Slight Stomach Pain

2014-05-14 20:30
3 Potato Scones

2014-05-14 21:00
1 Pint Ale

2014-05-15 06:00
Awake, Feeling Energetic
3 Potato Scones

2014-05-15 13:00
Giant Potato Scone

2014-05-15 16:00
Brain Hiccup, Stress, Stuttering

2014-05-15 17:35
1 Cheese Roll
1 Olive Roll
1 Tiger Roll

2014-05-15 18:11
Dark circles under eyes, worse than normal at this time of day.

2014-05-15 18:30
Drowsy, Headache

2014-05-15 19:30
Dazed, Weak Feeling
Start of GI Symptoms

2014-05-15 19:50
1 Chip Shop Chips and Macaroni Pie

2014-05-15 21:30
1 Low Carb Protein Shake
2 Bowls Homemade Rice Pudding, No Added Sugar

2014-05-16 05:10
2 Slices Cheese on Toast

Experiment Aborted
I'm done. Back on keto I go. There's a 10k run that I thought I wasn't going to be partaking in, but a place opened up and I took it. The race is on Sunday and I can't do it with my GI system messing up like it's beginning to. Starting to need the toilet quickly, and that's nooo good. Science has been done, I think. I'm reasonably confident that sucrose/fructose isn't responsible for my troubles.

That's all for now, time to get my keto on again. I think i'll have...eggs tonight :)

A Month In - How Am I Doing?

It's been a month since I started commuting to my new job in Dundee (A 1:15 train ride from my fixed abode). What I can say for certain is that it can't go on forever, even if I'm currently keeping up with it. Why not? My poor body, that's why not.

I have indeed been getting leaner, which is something I've been meaning to do. However, I have been losing out from not attending the gym as often and also not getting a huge amount of sleep.
My mind is fine with the lack of sleep, but my body aches and complains and is weaker than before. I eagerly anticipate weekends, not as a chance for fun, but a chance to repair; this is surely not the way to carry on.
Fortunately, I won't be carrying on for much longer and will hopefully be getting back on track in about a month's time.
I showed up at the Gym yesterday for a session to ease myself back in after a week of walking and running, and my numbers weren't terrible. In deadlifts, I managed 8 reps of 70kg, 3 reps of 90kg and 1 good rep of 110kg. I managed a few chinups, too. Overall, nothing spectacular, but things could have been worse.

I don't feel like I've fallen off the wagon, though; there's no sense of guilt, nor any fear that I won't get back into it now. Perhaps a sign that my confidence is growing in general.

One area that's showing improvement is my running. I haven't really run for months and have started attending the weekly 5k I used to frequent, and it turns out I haven't lost too much in terms of aerobic fitness. I think it'll be a while before I beat my 22:40 PB, though.

TL;DR, I'm doing good. There are challenges, I'm meeting them and learning things. It's a bit mundane, really...

Keto Oreos!

I set myself this challenge a few days back and today am ready to share what I came up with.
There's a fair bit of work involved, but I'm really pleased with  the results and would take one of these over a real Oreo any day. Seriously.
Also, I use the Cadbury's Bournville Cocoa Powder as it seems to have about 1/2 the carb content of the others I've seen so far (just 10g per 100g).

   

Ingredients - Biscuit

• 3/4 Cup Ground Almonds 
• 2 Tbsp Cocoa Butter
• 1.5 Tbsp Truvia
• 4 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Egg White

 

Ingredients - Filling

• 150ml Coconut Cream 
• 1 Tbsp Truvia
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 Tsp Xanthan Gum

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (320 F).

First, the filling: Mix all filling ingredients apart from the Xanthan Gum, using an electric hand mixer on the slowest setting, then begin adding in the Xanthan Gum until a toothpaste-like consistency is achieved.
Place the result in the fridge.

Next, evenly mix all dry biscuit ingredients in a mixing bowl. Completely melt the Cocoa Butter (I used a ramekin and a microwave for around a minute), and add it to the mixture along with the Vanilla and Egg White. Press the mixture together with your hands, or a large spoon, until you end up with something which moves a bit like fudge, and looks like Oreo biscuit dough.
Spoon out the dough onto a sheet of baking paper, cover with another sheet of baking paper, and roll out to about 0.5 cm.

Now the hard part, take your time here...
Use a cookie cutter to cut out the dough out into circles, carefully moving them onto a third sheet of baking paper on top of an oven-able flat thing, like a metal baking sheet.
It's difficult, because the dough really doesn't want to hold together. It sometimes flakes, sticks a bit, and generally refuses to cooperate.

Once you've got all the circles you can, recombine the remnants into one lump, repeat the rolling out process and start again; I managed to get about 12 circles in total.
Now carefully place the baking sheet with paper and circles on into the oven, and cook for about 8 minutes.

Once the time's up, pull the circles out of the oven, carefully remove the baking sheet from underneath the paper to help them cool faster and WAIT. They will be squidgy, they will want to break. Have faith and patience and leave them alone for about 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, they will be slightly more amenable to handling, though still quite brittle. Use a spatula to, again carefully, move them onto something like a plate and stick them in the fridge for a good 30 minutes at least.

Almost done now, I promise ;) . They should be reasonably solid and biscuit-like. (If they aren't, leave them longer in the fridge). Begin sandwiching blobs of filling between the biscuits until you have around 6 'Oreos'. Back in the fridge, and half an hour later they'll be perfect.

Phew, got there in the end, eh?

I ended up with a surplus of filling, but it's pretty versatile stuff; you don't need a huge imagination to figure out where else you can put it - Berries, cheesecake, some kind of muffin. You could also just eat it straight out of the bowl with a spoon; I would recommend this approach :) .

Again suggestions, insults, comments welcome below.

Lemon Keto Muffins

Easter - Urgh

My family likes to celebrate easter with chocolate and, taking my standard approach to such things, I ate a lot of chocolate. Far too much chocolate. After at least two big lindt chocolate bunnies and countless eggs, mini-eggs, cakes and other things, I ended up not only crashing, but feverish. My girlfriend seemed genuinely concerned at one point as I crawled into bed, barely able to even speak.

Now, I'm not going to launch into an onslaught against sugar, citing this experience as proof that it should be eliminated; this was not a normal amount of sugar by standard-western-diet numbers - this was hundreds of grams of simple sugar over the space of a couple of hours.

New Job

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been getting to grips with my new job in a neighbouring city. I don't drive, so the only way to get there is by two hours of train and two hours of walking every day.
It's working out; the job is good, and I've even been able to retain some kind of social life. Keto has made this possible, as it requires I get by on between 4 and 6 hours of sleep per night - something I can't do on a standard diet whilst still being functional throughout the day.

Before long, I'll be able to move to the city and end this 04:40-to-? waking schedule, giving me more time to focus on training and enjoying myself.

Recipe - Lemon Keto Muffins

So back on the keto train I go; I'm feeling better already after a couple of these:

This recipe originally made 5 muffins.

Filling

• 150ml Double Cream
• 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
• 2 tbsp Truvia/Erythritol
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Lemon Extract
• 1 tsp Yellow Food Colouring

Mix everything together except for the xanthan gum, with a hand mixer.
Add in the xanthan gum very slowly, stopping when the mixture starts to form stiff peaks, a bit like toothpaste. 1/4 tsp may be too much, stop when the consistency is correct.

Put it in the fridge.

Muffin Part

• 1 Cup Ground Almonds
• 1 Tbsp Unflavoured Whey Protein
• 1 Tbsp Flax Meal
• 1 Tbsp Truvia/Erythritol
• 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tsp Vanilla extract
• 3 Tbsp Unsweetened Almond Milk

Preheat the oven and muffin tray to 160 degrees C (320 F).
Whisk everything together except for the almond milk, adding it in slowly afterwards until a thick, yet flowing 'goop' is achieved (the kind that will run into a muffin pan, but needs some scooping to get the last out of the mixing bowl).

As with the xanthan gum, 3 tbsp of almond milk is a guide, and you may need slightly less/more.

Split the mixture evenly between the muffin tray holes (I made five).

Bake in the oven until the top is slightly browned and a knife can be stabbed through the middle of the biggest muffin and pulled out with no goop left on the blade. This took around 15 minutes in my oven.

Pull the tray out of the oven, cut into halves and leave to cool on a wire rack.

After about 10 minutes, you should be able sandwich a big lump of filling between the two muffin-halves. If the filling starts to run, scrape it back into the bowl and mix it again with a tiny(TINY) bit more xanthan gum to get it thicker.

And that's it. I personally think they're better after an hour sitting in the fridge.

Suggestions or stories all welcome in the comments section.

Ciao.

An Update and a Recipe

Since my last post I've probably spent around 85% of my time in Ketosis. I've largely switched running out for weights in the gym, and have been trying to get strong.
It seems to be working pretty well - I'm definitely stronger (and heavier, at around 88kg) now, than I've ever been.

Now I've never been much of a cook/recipe-person, but sometimes you've just got to try stuff if you are to be a successful mad keto vegetarian; Quorn cooked in double cream is delicious, but I'll probably get tired of it if it's all I ever have.

So I tried something, and surprisingly it worked pretty well:

 

Keto Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cheesecake
Makes 2 x 3-inch-diameter cheesecakes

Base Ingredients

• 3/4 cup almond meal
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp truvia

Filling Ingredients

• 180g soft/spreadable cheese
• 2 tbsp almond milk
• 1 large egg
• Few drops of vanilla essence
• 1/2 tbsp truvia
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Method

• Soften the butter and combine with the other ingredients, pressing together until uniform
• Line two 3-inch cake tins with the resulting mixture and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes at 160 degrees C
• Mix all filling ingredients together thoroughly to produce something which looks like a chocolate mousse
• Take the tins out of the oven and reduce temperature to 120 degrees
• Spoon the filling onto the bases and place back in the oven until set (mine took roughly 30 minutes)
• Put in the fridge to chill for a few hours

Cycle #2

Hi peeps,

a couple of weeks after the events of my last post, I find myself in a similar situation. Very similar, in fact; I'm a few days into a carb-oriented week after another 2 weeks of keto (up to 20g carbohydrate/day).

I'm getting pretty skinny and probably going to be hitting the gym soon to see what kind of results I can get. I had a 5km personal best of 24:04 last week, which I'm quite proud of, but I feel it's time to balance my focus on running with some attention to other things.

It's not easy for everyone

My other half gave LCHF a try this week and, after a couple of sleepy days, started throwing up and had to switch back to normal. My guess is that we took for granted the sheer quantity of food I tend to eat, which she has never been able to match. Being a meat-eater, she took full advantage of the LCHF ratios and started having breakfasts of 3/4 eggs combined with a couple of rashers of bacon and a couple of hundred g of cheese.

In the words of Cypher: (s)He's gonna pop.

Ill

This week I've managed to contract some kind of pesky flu-like illness, basically removing my ability to perform aerobically, and visit the gym. Today it seems to finally be letting up, as will be tested tomorrow at the weekly 5km I take part in. I doubt I'll be getting any PB, but after this week, I'll be happy enough to just finish.