GLUTEN-FREE VEGAN BLACKBERRY AND APPLE CAKE WITH KITCHENAID (AD)
Disclosure: This is a paid partnership with KitchenAid. All opinions expressed in this blog post are my own and I was in no way influenced by the company.
If you had to name a brand that creates gorgeous, stylist kitchen gadgets, what brand would come to mind? For me, without a speckle of a doubt, it would be KitchenAid! Their kitchen appliances are SO elegant, iconic and timeless, I could stare at them all day. But the question is, are they as functional as they are beautiful? Well, I’ll be giving you my verdict in today’s blog post as I got to put the KitchenAid Artisan K400 Blender to the test.
Before I got stuck in, I already suspected that the KitchenAid Artisan K400 Blender could probably do a mean smoothie or creamy soup, but - in line with KitchenAid’s #UnexpectedBlends campaign - what I really wanted to know was whether the blender was able to go over and beyond and cope with the demands of a busy plant-based kitchen like my own. Here we make our own EVERYTHING and I was hence super keen to see if the KitchenAid Artisan K400 Blender could help me make gluten-free flour. Want to find out what I discovered?
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE KITCHENAID ARTISAN K400 BLENDER
POWERFUL
The KitchenAid K400 Blender promises to tackle all types of food especially ingredients rich in quality protein, nutrients and fibre which can often be tough to prepare; even though I didn’t try all the things (yet), I can assure you that it did handle the oats I used to create gluten-free oat flour with ease! The result was a soft, powdery flour, which it whizzed up in no time due to its powerful motor and sharp stainless steel blade.
QUALITY
Part of the reason why the KitchenAid K400 Blender looks so gorgeous and works so extremely well is because every part of the machine is made from such high quality materials. For example, the oat flour came out perfectly because the glass jar is shaped to assist the blending process and sturdy enough to cope well with tough fruits, grains and so on. The die-cast metal base is durable and stable, I mean, what more could you want?
UNIQUE
The KitchenAid K400 Artisan Blender has an adaptive intelli-speed motor which senses the blender content and maintains the optimal speed to power through whatever ingredients it encounters. You can choose from different speed settings to get the consistency you want, ensuring you can give each and every recipe your own unique twist. Also, the KitchenAid K400 artisan Blender comes in 11 different colours to fit each kitchen and personality. I was torn between the candy apple and pistachio, but all of them will allow you to give your kitchen counter a unique look.
ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE KITCHENAID K400 ARTISAN BLENDER?
Honestly, no! I can wholeheartedly highly recommend it! I would note however that if like me, you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking up a storm, you may want to look into buying a few more of the optional accessories including the small batch jar or the BPA free tamper, which would come at an additional cost. However, I can assure you, they’d be worth it.
WHERE CAN I GET THE KITCHENAID K400 ARTISAN BLENDER?
Right here.
WANT TO KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THE OAT FLOUR YOU’LL CREATE?
Thanks for asking! You’ll find the recipe for this gluten-free vegan blackberry and apple cake below. Just scroll down and you’ll find what you’re after.
GLUTEN-FREE VEGAN BLACKBERRY AND APPLE CAKE RECIPE
Preparation time: 35 minutes
Baking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 8
INGREDIENTS FOR THE GLUTEN-FREE VEGAN BLACKBERRY AND APPLE CAKE:
DRY INGREDIENTS:
90g oats, grind down using the KitchenAid K400 Blender into 90g oat flour
160g rice flour
2tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground cardamom
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
WET INGREDIENTS:
1tbs ground flax seeds + 2 tbs water
150g (unsweetened) apple sauce
90ml maple syrup
3tbs olive oil
120ml plant-based mylk (I used unsweetened oat mylk, but almond mylk should work well too)
150g washed fruit (I used 75g apple, thinly sliced, cored and stem removed and 75g blackberries)
INGREDIENTS FOR THE CRUNCHY ALMOND TOPPING:
50g vegan butter/margarine, melted
50g brown sugar
80g almond flakes
15g oat flour (made at the same time as the oat flour for the cake itself, see above)
WHAT ELSE YOU’LL NEED:
A 20cm high rimmed, loose based cake tin
Non-stick grease proof baking paper
coconut oil for greasing the inside edges of the tin
aluminium foil
cake strip (optional)
Recipe instructions below…
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 180C and line your cake tin with grease proof non-stick paper. Grease the sides with coconut oil and set aside.
In your KitchenAid K400 Blender, grind down the oats into a fine flour and in a large bowl, combine with the other dry ingredients. Set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together the ground flax seeds and water. Set aside and allow the mixture to gel together for 10 minutes. In another small bowl mix together the rest of the wet ingredients, set aside, adding the flax mixture when it’s ready.
In another small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the crunchy almond topping. Set aside.
Now pour the wet cake ingredients (including the flax mixture if you haven’t added that already) into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Pour into your prepared cake tin. Sprinkle over the crunchy topping, attach the cake strip to the cake tin if using and place in the oven.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven, cover tightly with aluminium foil to stop the topping from browning further, but allowing the heat to get trapped so that the inside of the cake continues to bake through. Return to the oven and bake for another 25 minutes. Do the toothpick test to ensure the centre of the cake is based through (if not return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes) and allow the cake to cool completely (for about 1 hour) before serving. Enjoy.
Tip 1: When grinding the oats down to a flour for the cake and topping, take more than you need, so that you’ve got some oat flour ready when you need it next time.
Tip 2: Know that you can make your own rice flour using the KitchenAid K400 Blender. It’s a little labour intensive, but absolutely doable.
Tip 3: You can keep the cake nut free by using a nut-free vegan milk alternative and using sunflower seeds in place of almond flakes as the topping.
Tip 4: I used large ripe blackberries cut into smaller bits, to ensure they lend the cake a tart sweetness. I’d recommend going steering clear from underripe fruit to achieve the same effect.
Tip 5: Cake strips are used to ensure even distribution of moisture so that the cake rises without a doomed top and is moist throughout. In this case, its use is purely for aesthetics and not essential, seeing that this cake is quite moist already.