Spicy Za’atar, Carrot Soup (GF, Vegan)

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This month, it has been really chilly here in the UK with some snow, so I have really appreciated being able to make easy, hot lunches with my soup maker (Tefal BL841140 Easy Soup and Smoothie Maker).  This soup uses Za’atar, a Middle Eastern spice blend containing sesame seeds, sumac, oregano, cumin, and marjoram.


  • 1 Eschalion shallot, peeled and chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
  • 500g carrots, peeled or scrubbed, and chopped
  • 1 Knorr vegetable stock pot or stock of your choice
  • 1 tin of butter beans, drained
  • 1 tbsp. Za’atar spices (plus extra for serving)
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice


1. Chop and peel the shallots, garlic and carrots. Drain the butter beans.
2. Put all the ingredients in your soup maker.
3. Add water up to the minimum liquid level
4. Choose the “blended soup” option, and enjoy the amazing smell of spices filling your kitchen.
5. Serve with a sprinkling of Za’atar spices.


Salted Chocolate Bubbly Caramels


Cooking oil or spray

125g liquid glucose*

360g caster sugar

3tbsp honey

15g bicarbonate of soda

250g dark chocolate


  1. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.  Lightly oil the baking parchment.
  2. Place the glucose, sugar, honey and 75ml water in a saucepan over a medium heat.  Keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved then allow the mixture to boil until it is a dark caramel colour.20171212_124350
  3. Take the saucepan off the heat and leave it to stand for 2 mins.  Quickly whisk in the bicarbonate of soda.
  4. Pour the mixture into the tray.  Cool down the mixture; I used some convenient snow!20171212_124449
  5. When it has set, break the caramel into pieces.
  6. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water.  Cover one side of the caramels with the chocolate .
  7. Sprinkle the chocolate with salt, and then allow that to set.20171211_100720
  8. Store the salted chocolate bubbly caramels in the freezer, and eat whenever you need a burst of energy to get you through the holiday season!20171211_133023

*Why is there liquid glucose in this recipe?  Liquid glucose controls the formation of sugar crystals so you get nice, smooth caramels.

New, improved “I still want to do it myself” Chocolate Cake

I am not quite sure how this happened, but the Allergy Brothers initiated Cake Friday.  This means I bake them a cake every Friday!  This has meant that I have had the opportunity to tweak my chocolate cake recipe (the original is here; you can also see that the Allergy Brothers’ cake decorating skills are improving!).  It is still a very forgiving recipe that is easy to make.

200g gram flour

40g chestnut flour

3 tsp baking powder

200g sugar

25g cocoa powder

9 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

340ml water

  1. Preheat oven to 180C.
  2. Line cake tin with greaseproof paper.
  3. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.
  4. Add oil and vanilla essence to the dry mixture.
  5. Gradually add water and mix well until a smooth and runny consistency.
  6. Pour cake batter into the lined tin.
  7. Bake on middle shelf of the oven for 20 minutes.
  8. Check the cake with a skewer, if it comes out wet then bake for a further 10 minutes.

Rhubarb, apple and ginger crumble

A really lovely, warming crumble for Autumn.


For the crumble topping:

25g margarine

60g gram flour

30g sugar

30g polenta

For the fruit filling:

400g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 2.5cm pieces

2 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

100g caster sugar

30g piece of ginger, peeled


To make the crumble topping

  1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5.  Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
  2. Rub the gram flour into the margarine until it resembles bread crumbs.  Stir in the sugar and polenta.
  3. Spread the mixture out on the baking tray, and put it in the oven.  After 10 minutes, give it a stir and then return to the oven.  Keep an eye on it and remove from the oven when the mixture is golden, but not brown.ToppingFor the fruit filling
  4. Mix together the rhubarb, apples and sugar.  Finely grate the ginger into the fruit and mix well.  Transfer to a dish for the oven.  Add enough water to cover the base of the dish so it doesn’t catch.
  5. The oven should still be at 190C/Gas Mark 5 so put the fruit in the oven for about 15 minutes.  Very carefully, remove from the oven and spoon the crumble topping over the fruit.  Return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is nicely browned.

Child’s Play Chocolate Bark

We have all been ill here at Allergy Towers, but now we are back and eager to blog again.  We needed a simple idea that Allergy Little and Allergy Niece could do together so we decided to make chocolate bark.


Chocolate (we used dark chocolate that is free of the boys’ allergens)

Sprinkles (please check carefully for your allergens; some of these have very weird ingredients)

That’s it!


  1. Break the chocolate into small pieces.  This might be a good opportunity to taste test the chocolate.20160301_112558-1
  2. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie or in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water.20160301_113012-1
  3. Lay some baking parchment on a tray.  Pour the melted chocolate on the baking parchment and use a spatula or palette knife to spread the chocolate out.
  4. Cover the chocolate with sprinkles.  You might want to spread them out a little bit more evenly than we managed!20160301_114030-1
  5. Put the tray, baking parchment, and chocolate in the fridge to set.20160301_114109-1.jpg
  6. Then break the chocolate bark up into smaller pieces.  Eat and enjoy.20160301_161823-1

Christmas Eve

It’s Christmas Eve, and the Allergy Brothers have got it all set up: a carrot for the reindeer, and a glass of soya milk and allergen-free cupcake for Santa!


We saw the Reindeer cupcakes on  Red Velvet Snow’s blog.  We had some gluten free pretzels by Barkat in the cupboard so we decided to make these on Christmas Eve.  We used the same cake batter as we used for this recipe, but we left out the cocoa powder.


Now, all we have to do is wait for Santa.  I hope you all have the Christmas that you need: peaceful, busy, sociable, quiet, big parties, or family time.  Happy Christmas from the Allergy Brothers and their family.