primal cavewife

Every morning, my boyfriend and I bring greek yoghurt with cream, dried fruits and nuts to work for breakfast. It's delicious, but we've had it everyday for months now and I've been looking for alternatives in case I get sick and tired of my yoghurt mix.

I saw that they were selling Chia Cups at IGA. At $5 a pop, I could easily make one myself! And it's so easy!!! It is so naturally sweet that you could even have it as a dessert.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 medium sized banana, chopped
4 tbsp coconut cream
2 tbsp chia seeds

• Place the banana and coconut cream in a bowl and blend it with a stick blender.
• Once it is smooth, mix in the chia seeds
• Refrigerate for the next morning or serve immediately!

Summer's coming... you know what that means for me... More ice cream making before my freezer dies for the next few months!

I love creamy ice cream. If you are lacto paleo like us, then this is the recipe for you. You can have it without the hazelnut, but it's so good with it! I've made this recipe with just plain chocolate, but I didn't blog about it because I forgot to take a picture of it. Here it is now!

What you need
2 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp cacao powder
160g dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp stevia, optional (if you want dark chocolate ice cream, leave it, if not, add more)
pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup hazelnut, roasted and chopped/crushed

What to do

• Mix 1 cup of cream with cacao powder in a saucepan on medium heat. Whisk it until the cacao has blended. Keep whisking and bring the mix to boil and simmer for 30 seconds on low.
• Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate until well blended.
• Stir in the remaining 1 cup of cream, pour it into a bowl and set aside.
• Warm the milk, stevia and salt in the same saucepan on medium heat. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl and slowly pour the milk into it, whisking continuously.
• Transfer the mix back into the saucepan and stir it over medium heat until it thickens. Stir it into the chocolate mix. Add in the vanilla.
• Set the mixture aside and when it cools, pour it in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
• Once the mixture has thickened, add in the hazelnut.

Hint: Before you serve, let it sit in room temperature until it softens a bit.

• Roast macadamia nuts at 150 degrees for 30 minutes, flipping them every 10 minutes.
• Set the macadamia nuts aside once roasted.
• Puree coconut cream, dates, vanilla extract and cashews together until completely smooth.
• Place butter and honey in a saucepan over medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes and set aside.
• Add the coconut cream mix into the ice cream maker as per manufacturer's instructions.
• Once the ice cream begins to thicken, add the macadamia nuts.
• Drizzle the caramel into the ice cream mix and let stand in the freezer for a couple hours.

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Wash the blueberries and distribute between 2 small ramekin dishes
• Juice the lemon over each ramekin and toss blueberries to coat with lemon juice
• In a small bowl, mix together almond meal, stevia, melted butter or coconut oil, salt, cinnamon and chopped hazelnuts.
• Mix until everything is combined.
• Sprinkle each ramekin with a bit of the crumble
• Bake for 30-40 minutes until blueberry mix starts to bubble and topping is browned.
• Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream.

• Cut up the strawberries, bananas and kiwis in cubes and place them in the icy pole moulds.
• Juice the apples and pears together or separately and fill the moulds up with the juice!
• You can use whatever fruit you want as juice and as filling. This is what I had and this is what I made!

• In a pot, heat the milk with the cinnamon sticks in it and bring to simmer. Turn off the heat and leave it to infuse for several hours.
• Separate the yolks and the white and beat the white until it forms soft white peaks.
• Heat the butter with the milk and bring to simmer.
• Whip in the egg yolks.
• Mix the cornflour with the stevia, and whip it in the milk mix.
• Fold in the egg whites and whip the mix until it is fluffy.
• Pour the mix into a ramekin, sprinkle the cinnamon powder on top and bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

• Grind the hazelnuts in a food processor. I didn't grind them too much as I prefer them to be chunky.
• In a saucepan, combine the cacao powder, stevia, egg yolks, coconut cream, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, medjool dates and ground hazelnuts. Bring the mix to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Let it cool down before blending the mix in a blender. I made a mistake of placing all the ground hazelnuts in the pot so my chunky hazelnuts were mostly gone by the time they came out of the blender.
• Place it in your ice cream machine as per the manufacturer's instruction.

• Blend all the ingredients apart from the water in a blender until the mix is smooth and creamy.
• Add the water to the mix and blend.
• Pour the mix in the ice cream maker as per the manufacturer's guide.

• Preheat the oven to 150C.
• Mix the almond meal, coconut and most of the flake almond together.
• In a pot, heat up the honey and butter.
• Mix the bicarb soda with water and mix with the honey mix until it gets frothy.
• Remove the honey mix from the heat and mix it with the dry ingredients until combined.
• Add water if needed to make it more dough-y
• Form small balls with the dough and press down lightly on the baking pan.
• Press some leftover flakes on top.
• Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a bowl, mash the bananas. Mix in the almond meal, whey protein, coconut oil and egg.
• In a pan, melt the milk chocolate buttons over low heat.
• Once the chocolate has melted, pour it into the banana mix and gently mix the two together. If you want swirls, don't mix the two completely.
• Grease the loan pan and pour the mix into it.
• Sprinkle some cinnamon powder on the top and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease the loaf pan with some butter or coconut oil.
• Mash the bananas and set aside.
• In a food processor, grind the hazelnuts. How fine you want it depends on the texture you want the bread to be. Mine was a little coarse because I wanted the bread to have a little texture to it.
• Mix the banana, ground hazelnut, almond meal, egg and coconut oil until well-blended.
• Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle the cinnamon powder on top.
• Bake for 45 minutes.
• Serve warm, with or without butter!

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease the loaf pan with coconut oil or butter.
• Mash the bananas and mix in all the ingredients.
• Pour the mix into the pan and bake for 35 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean.
• Serve warm with butter!

I baked this cricket ball cake for a friend a while ago. It was the first ever novelty cake I have ever made. I baked a chocolate mud cake in a round pyrex bowl and then rolled out some fondant and laid it over the cake and decorated it with an icing pen I found in woolies.

This cake was made of chocolate mud cake with flour, so it was much easier to bake than the paleo chocolate mud cake. Besides, it did not require and cutting or carving. So if you have a cricket fan, this would be the perfect cake to bake them!

If you are not gluten-intolerant and you feel a bit naughty and a little bit bored this weekend, indulge yourself in this beautiful rich Oreo Cheesecake! A friend gave me this recipe. Not sure where the original is from.

Here is a great Paleo cheesecake recipe that doesn’t use cheese at all!

Ingredients:
2 cups oreo crumbs
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
900g cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups oreo crumbs
450g sour cream
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract

• Combine 2 cups cookie crumbs, melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Firmly press mix evenly onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of a 10-inch pan. Bake at 175 degrees for 5 minutes. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually mix in 1 1/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup whipping cream, flour and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
• Pour 1/3 of batter into pan. Top with 1 1/2 cup cookie pieces. Pour in remaining batter.
• Bake at 175 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove cake from oven. Combine sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla, spread evenly on cheesecake. Continue baking for 7 minutes. Turn off and leave in oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake and cool completely.
• Combine 1 cup whipping cream and chocolate chips in saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Pour mix over cheesecake while still warm. Refrigerate until serving time (at least 8 hours).

I made this cake a couple years ago for a friend’s birthday. This is one of the recipes I’ve missed most, another one a friend sent me. Too bad it would kill my boyfriend. It is the best chocolate mud cake I have ever had. Don’t believe me? Give it a go.

Note: If you are after a Paleo Chocolate Mud Cake recipe, this may be more suitable for you! I promise this is just as good, if not better, not to mention a healthier recipe too! I have also baked a novelty cake out of this recipe, a cricket ball.

Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
2 1/2 cups sugar
250g dark chocolate, chopped
250g butter
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp oil
4 eggs

icing:
200g dark chocolate, chopped
200g butter

• Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Brush a deep, 23cm square tin with melted butter or oil. Line base and sides with baking paper, extending at least 2cm above the rim.
• Mix flours, cocoa and bicarbonate soda in a large bowl. Stir in sugar and make a well in the centre.
• Put the chocolate and butter in a pan. Add water and stir over low heat until butter and chocolate melt together. Using large metal spoon, gradually stir chocolate mix into the dry ingredients.
• Whisk together the buttermilk, oil and eggs in a large jug and add to the cake mix. Stir until ingredients are well-combined and smooth. Pour mix in the baking tin and bake for approximately 1hour and 40 minutes. Leave cake in the tin to cool completely.

Icing:

• Combine Chocolate and butter in a small pan and stir over low heat until smooth. Cool to room temperature, stirring often, until the mix is thick enough to spread (you may put it in the fridge to speed it up a little). Turn the cake upside down so that the top is flat and spread icing completely over the cake, allowing the icing to set slightly before serving.

This is my guilty pleasure. I like to make at night and have it for dessert, and then put the leftovers in the fridge and then microwave it and have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day. It’s an excuse for me to eat lots of ice cream and cream because it’s mostly fruits and I tell myself it’s all good… it’s mostly apples and berries… can’t be that bad… 

Click here if you have come to the wrong place and are after a paleo apple crumble pie. I promise this is even better!

Ingredients:
3 granny smith apples, peeled and diced
1 cup berries, optional
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup of oats
cinnamon
2-3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour

• Preheat the oven at 160 degrees.
• Place apples berries and brown sugar in a cake tin or a casserole dish. In a bowl, rub oats with cinnamon, butter and flour and then sprinkle the mix over the fruits.
• Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
• Serve with ice cream and cream.

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Line muffin tray baking paper.
• Mix almond meal, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together.
• In separate bowl, whisk oil, honey and eggs. Mix almond meal mix in the wet ingredients.
• Fold in sweet potatoes, walnuts and bananas.
• Pour batter in muffin tray and bake for 25-30 minutes.

‘Why don’t you make a Paleo Sticky Date Pudding?’ This is the first time my boyfriend ever asked me to make him dessert. He has a sweet tooth so of course I immediately went online to look up a recipe for him. This recipe was jackpot. It smells so good and tastes so delicious that you don’t even realise it is Paleo!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup pitted dates
1/3 cup boiling water
100g butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
3 eggs
1/3 cup yoghurt
2 1/2 cup almond flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Caramel sauce:
200g butter
1 cup honey

• Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Place cupcake liners in muffin tray.
• Place dates and boiling water in food processor and pulse until dates are chopped and mushy.
• In a bowl, mix the butter and honey until creamy. Add eggs gradually and beat well. Pour mix into dates with yoghurt and blend.
• Mix almond flour and baking soda together and combine with date mix.
• Pour mix into cupcake liners and bake for 40-45 minutes or until cake feels spongy.
• Place butter and honey in saucepan and over medium heat simmer for 10 minutes. Serve pudding warm with cream, strawberries and caramel sauce.

Note: Caramel sauce will harden when refrigerated. Heat it up in the microwave before serving.

satay sticks for entree, a big scotch fillet and this novelty cake for dessert! I found a recipe online and decided to try it.

The cake was easy enough to bake, but building it was a lot harder than I expected… because it is a paleo cake and has no flour or anything to hold it together, it comes out much smaller and deflates when it cools down. It is nevertheless a very good paleo chocolate mud cake.
The initial idea was to build a skyline, but it ended up looking like a ute instead and now he won’t stop calling it his ute cake. 

Here is a recipe for a normal chocolate mud cake if you want the cake to stand properly. I have made a novelty cake out of this recipe as well – a cricket ball.

Building this car was not easy, luckily there are many youtube videos out there. Here is one that I chose to help guide me. I baked a chocolate mud cake to form the inside of the car, mixed up an avocado chocolate mousse to use as icing to help glue the car together and finally a simple marshmallow fondant to make it look pretty and turn it into a purple car because purple is his favourite colour. 

Chocolate Mud Cake
Ingredients:
200g butter
250 dark chocolate, in pieces
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup honey

• Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
• Melt butter and dark chocolate over low heat in a saucepan and stir until smooth. Set aside.
• Whisk egg yolks with half of the honey until thick and creamy.
• In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the rest of the honey.
• Add chocolate mix to the egg yolk mix and mix together with a spoon.
• Fold through egg white gently. Once mixed together, pour batter into cake pan.
• Bake for 40-50 minutes.

Avocado Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients:
2 avocados
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup honey

• Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until the mixture is smooth.

Marshmallow Fondant
Ingredients:
125g marshmallows
250g icing sugar
Food Colouring

• Place marshmallows in a microwaveable bowl and microwave them for about 30 seconds or until marshmallows have melted.
• Slowly mix the icing sugar with marshmallows with a fork. It will get very sticky and very messy. I would recommend not touching the mixture until you have enough icing sugar in it for it to be less messy. Add in your desired colour of food colouring in the mix while you are stirring.
• Once you have enough icing sugar, the mix should not be too sticky and you can roll out your fondant and design your novelty cake.

Note: I used normal white marshmallows without food colouring for the windows, blue food colouring for the wheels and mixed red and blue food colouring to get purple.

This one of the first desserts I made my boyfriend when I first found out that he’s gluten-intolerant. It is so delicious you won’t even realise that it is flourless!

Ingredients:
300g milk or dark chocolate
125g unsalted butter, chopped
2 tsp vanilla essence
6 eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
200g hazelnut meal
1 tbsp caster sugar

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
• Break the chocolate into pieces and place them in a saucepan with butter and vanilla essence. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
• Beat egg yolks and sugar together with electric beater until mixture is pale, thick and creamy. Gradually add chocolate mix, beating on low speed until just combined. Stir in hazelnut meal and set aside.
• Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add extra sugar and beat for a minute. Add a large spoonful of the egg white to chocolate mix and fold through until well combined. Add remaining egg white and fold through gently.
• Transfer mix to a cake tin or muffin tray, smoothing top. Bake for 45 minutes (20 minutes for muffin tray) until centre is moist but not sticky.