Baking From The Heart – Recipes With Love

Baking From The Heart – Recipes With Love

After years of adapting recipes to suit her family’s dietary needs, Soraya Quigley decided to create her own cookbook full of tried and tested, and delicious, gluten-free recipes that her whole family could enjoy. And now your family can enjoy them too.

It seems like most of the country released their inner bakers in the first few months of lockdown. Shelves were stripped bare of flour and social media was awash with photos of people’s sourdough and banana bread attempts.

Baking is known to be relaxing and stress-reducing. It can bring about a sense of calm and control, even when it feels like the world around us is falling apart. 

Soraya Quigley knows the powers of culinary-arts therapy. When her daughter Christine died in 2011, Soraya retreated to the kitchen to mix, sift, roll and whisk the pain away. She baked for her friends and neighbours and her husband and two sons. She was nurturing people through food, something she says she desperately needed to provide.

For Soraya, baking took her back to her childhood where at the tender age of 13 she was already making a name for herself in the neighbourhood as a skilful baker. She would regularly be asked to provide desserts for dinner parties not just for her own family, but for her neighbours too.

When Soraya got married and started a family, the everyday baking that she grew up with took a back seat to running a busy household. Baking became more of a special occasion treat. But a husband with coeliac disease, a son with gluten intolerance, another son with dairy intolerance and a daughter with a variety of special dietary requirements, Soraya couldn’t just whip up the usual bakes and cakes found in most cookbooks. She had to get inventive and adapt recipes to her family’s needs.

With over three decades of experience making gluten-free meals and her love of baking rekindled, Soraya’s sons Alex and Karl gave her the nudge she needed to take her bakes to social media. She set up her CozeBakes Facebook Group to share her wealth of baking knowledge, tips and recipes and she soon built up a loyal following.

Over the years, many people in the group, and her friends and family, all told her that she should write a book to share her easy, straightforward recipes with a wider audience. During the lockdown, she finally found the time to give the people what they want. Soraya wrote, photographed and produced ‘Baking From The Heart’.

‘Baking From The Heart’ is a 148-page gluten-free cookbook brimming with tried and tested recipes. The book is also packed with useful, practical tips and tricks which go a long way to making readers more confident and competent in the kitchen. 

As Soraya says: “I want to show that gluten-free baking is not complicated or difficult – all ingredients used in my book are readily available in supermarkets.”

Inside the cookbook, you’ll find recipes for small bakes, large bakes, tray bakes, cookies, no-bakes, special occasions, savoury bakes and firm family favourites. Even though all the recipes are gluten-free and suitable for coeliacs, the bakes are truly delicious and everyone will enjoy them. We particularly love the fudgy brownies and the scrumptious tea brack, the recipe for which you’ll find below. 

If you’d like to buy a copy of Baking From The Heart by Soraya Quigley you can do so from her CozeBakes website. €2 from every book sold will go to LauraLynn, Ireland’s Children’s Hospice.

CozeBakes – Gluten-Free Rooibos Tea Loaf 

A deliciously moist, fruit-packed loaf cake infused with the aromatic flavours of rooibos tea. You can opt to use your favourite tea such as chai, green tea, Earl Grey etc. if you like.

Delicious enough to enjoy on its own with your favourite cup of tea or coffee but equally, will sing when enjoyed with a covering of good Irish butter.

If you want to make this vegan friendly, replace the egg with one tablespoon of chia seeds. Place them in a cup and add 3 tablespoons of water and let sit for 5 minutes until it becomes like a gel. Use as you would use the eggs in the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 rooibos organic tea bags
• 200ml boiling water
• 300g mixed sultanas, cranberries, cherries, dates, apricots
• 200g gluten-free plain white flour
• 1 tsp ground all spice
• 2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• ½ tsp xanthan gum
• 75g soft brown sugar (use coconut sugar if preferred) 
• 1 egg * see above
• 4 tbsp oil (vegetable or sunflower)
• 1/2 orange, grated rind and juice (approx. 1 tbsp)

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C / 350°F / 160°C fan assisted and grease ad line a 2lb loaf tin with parchment paper. Leave a little overhang for easy removal later.
2. Put the tea bags into a jug, add the boiling water and leave to stand for 15 minutes.
3. Place the dried fruit into a bowl. If there are larger pieces, chop them up. Pour the tea into the bowl and leave until completely cold.
4. Sieve the flour, all spice, baking powder and xanthan gum into a smaller bowl, add the sugar and mix.
5. Add the egg (or chia seeds + water), oil, grated orange rind and juice and beat well.
6. Remove the tea bags and stir the soaked fruit and liquid into the bowl. 
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Make a little indent along the centre for an even rise.
8. Bake for 70-75 minutes. If the top begins to brown too much, cover with a piece of foil for the last 10 minutes.
9. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then gently turn it out onto a wire rack and let it cool completely before slicing. 

It will be even better the next day and toasts beautifully.