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Gorgeous gluten free gifts online

Halloo,   got a bit of a shock visiting our local & very fabulous garden centre, Castle Gardens of Sherborne to find their reknowned Christmas display out in full bobbydazzler glory. How did the festive season creep up so stealthily upon us-

We’ve now been three times already – our little boys are fixated by the mega impressive train set. Whilst they watch the locomotives I ‘research’  the cakes in the Cafe. The lemon cake with cream cheese & lemon curd frosting is note worthy. The cake can be a little on the dry side but I think the frosting is utterly delicious.It’s not gluten free but they do offer GF brownie & fruit cake plus other specials. I can’t vouch for these as I’m stuck in a lemon cake loop- will try & break this habit on the 4th visit. www.thegardeneronline.co.uk/contact-castle.asp

Back to the kitchen, I was pondering how to create a versatile sweet & festive spread which can also work as a filling & topping  -. Here is a superlatively tasty mincemeat recipe conjured up over the weekend. Naturally it is vegetarian as well as gluten free.We had a few spare apples to use up & we’d surprisingly managed to not drink all of our Somerset Cider Brandy-

In a medium-large mixing bowl pop in the following- 150 g raisins, 75 g toasted Honeybuns Amondi crumbs, 1 x pinch nutmeg, 60 g gluten free & vegetarian suet, 1 pinch of cinnamon, 1 or 2 drops of pure orange oil- Boyajiaan is a good one, a festive slug of Cider brandy or calvados, 4 bits of chopped up crystallised ginger, 150 g roasted apple pieces, 1 pinch of ginger. Stir in well- I used a lot of booze but you can always opt for apple juice or cooks calvados with very little alcohol% content. I then briefly blitzed in the food processor- chiefly to break up the apple bits. It truly was lush.

Being gluten free is the added masterstroke. To roast the apples- simply core & chop them place on a baking tray- drizzle with honey & sprinkle with cinnamon- add a little lemon juice & pop in hot oven at 180 deg c for 25 mins. I was in a hurry & did this all in a morning but ideally you’d allow the mixture to steep in alcohol & add more (or more liquid say juice or even cold tea & feed the mix over a couple of days before blitzing & storing. It freezes really well but I’ve not finished a room temp shelf life trial yet as we ate it all-. very quickly. Scrumptious as a filling for baked apples, lovely with clotted cream & icecream & our splendid gluten free mincemeat turnover.

We use a brand of gluten free & vegetarian suet branded ‘Community’ and available from a lot of good health food stores.For our Amondi recipe it’s in our Honeybuns baking book & the crumb truly lends a fantastic crunchy element. Substitute for a gluten free granola if you prefer. To toast the Amondi cookies- whiz in the food processor & toast in oven on 180 deg c for 5-10 mins.

Our Amondi cookies as featured in the Honeybuns baking book

We’ve also been in a whirl getting our brand new gluten free range ready. We can reveal that we will be launching 3 gorgeous gluten free mixes that our innovative & utterly delicious. The packaging is fab too & designed by us. They’ll be available online from Honeybuns & also in selected stores after Christmas. Firstly we need to focus like lasers on getting all of your Christmas online gluten free orders fulfilled. Our mail order gift range is superlative this year- from Sally’s hand knitted ‘Honeycomb’ design mug snugs complete with vintage button to our bespoke Hug mugs made for us by Paul Jessop at Barrington Court pottery. Naturally you can also stock up on Honeybuns gluten free cakes online too. Plscall us if you need assistance. 01963 23597. We’re here & happy to help you.

Bespoke Honeybuns mugs

Do look out for Honeybuns recipes -vegetarian & gluten free in the Christmas Jamie Magazine, http://www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/  & also our recipes are being featured in Stella Magazine (Sunday Telegraph Magazine) on Nov 25th-

Lastly I’d not be doing my job properly if I didn’t mention our 5*rated Honeybuns Gluten free baking book. I’m biased obvs-but it really is a proper cracked filled to absolutely bursting with innovative, delicious & easy gluten free recipes.

Our Honeybuns Baking Book signing roadshow is underway

Speak soon, Em x