Kingdom of Knuffel

If the flour you are using is one of the more high-gluten flours, which binds together better, then you can just leave out the eggs without needing any substitute at all! (any wheat flour should hold itself together just fine, or if you can actually get powdered gluten on its own then you could add it to any other type of flour and it would work, too)
:)

I pretty much just threw in a couple of eggs because the flours I was using weren't wheat flours and I knew they would fall apart without some help, and I didn't want to use that chewy, gluey-texture from working up the starches too much.

If you were doing it in muffin cups or small loaf pans or something else confined, you also wouldn't need it to hold itself together as much, and could leave it out without worrying about flours.



Maybe you can make a deal with your mom where every time you cook with her, you cook one traditional dish and one thing you're interested in trying? Then you can slowly be expanding her repertoire at the same time you are learning how to cook, and if you happen to be practicing on dishes that you aren't so very fond of....
well....
when you're first starting, the first dishes don't tend to turn out anyhow! "Small loss", as they say. Since you didn't like them to begin with it won't matter if they don't turn out perfectly while you're still learning

whole wheat flour would absolutely be fine. If you discover it's too crumbly, yeah, flaxseed in water (or chia seed in water, or basil seed in water, or a number of options like that) would also help. :)
Millets plus the flaxseed would work, if you wanted!

ha ha ha, I've done the same thing! There's just something about hot-from-the-oven food, I almost always don't wait long enough. >.<
Actually you were part right on the parchment paper thing, though. Many recipes aren't quite so "sticky" and so you don't actually need to grease the parchment paper at all, and it will peel off just fine. It's only on the recipes that have stickier dough that you have to do the whole, "grease well, and ALSO dust flour, and be GENEROUS with both, and maybe ALSO parchment paper first" thing. Even with all the precautions my treacle cakes tend to want to hang on to the pans....
Carrot cake sounds good, though, and it sounds like you at least got to eat the top part okay? Was that part at least good?

Hey guys :)

I hope you're all well!

I can't help it, but when I read "Treacle cake" I had to think about Harry Potter

There's treacle cake in Harry Potter? Well, why wouldn't there be, it's good stuff, after all. I mostly think about impatiently waiting for the fig harvest every year to have treacle cake with fresh figs in it.
And then overeating it because it is just too delicious to resist and having tummy-aches and having to finish the harvest while trying to stay curled up, and then not being able to resist making and eating more treacle-cake anyhow, despite the tummy-aches.
I love treacle-cake sooooo much

They speak of treacle tarts (I think?) in the first Harry Potter book :)

I love figs! I discovered my liking for them just last year... I want more of them >.<

I can totally relate to that, I always do that xD

aaah, I should be asleep already!

I'm not sure about easy recipe, at least partly because I rarely work from actual recipes.
But here's what I usually do...

I start by washing the citrus fruit (usually orange, but sometimes I do lemon instead or in addition, as a mix), cut it in half, take out the seeds, and slice it into half-circles. I try and let the juice run off into the pot I'm going to use, every so often, while I do that. The pulp part goes into the pot, but if possible I fish out the harder stringy membranes.
The rind I cut further, then that goes into the pot, too.
Then I make a sugar syrup, about 1:1 (sugar:orange juice; but if you do it separate and then add to the pot, make it more like 2:1, because you should have a fair bit of liquid in the pot already), in the same pot and enough to cover it, and bring it up to a brisk boil and then reduce and simmer until the rinds turn translucent, and then stop!. Citrus in general will become bitter if you cook it too long.

Now, some people just add gelatin or pectin at that point and that's all they're doing, they're done. Maybe they fancy it up with a tiny hint of grated allspice or a teaspoon of bitters, whatever.

Those people tend NOT to use the whole rind of the fruit, because that's too much rind for the juice. Either they add more juices/sugar syrup, or they don't use all the rind.

The proportions I gave you are more for making candied orange peels.

Me, I actually make my "marmalade" to be about half and half this, with all the orange peel and no extra juice, and apricot jam. Apricot-orange marmalade is my favorite! So once I have the candied orange rinds part, I just do the regular apricot jam, and mix the two together.


*note: I tend to like my jams on the not-as-sweet side, which means they don't keep as well, so I always have to keep it cool and it won't last as long, but then we tend to eat them pretty quick anyhow. If you eat your marmalade slower, then do some research first because I don't think this will work very well for you.



I tend to only make it once or twice a year, honestly.

I've been telling myself all day to set up my art contest thread but god I'm so tired X.x

today has been super productive and I feel like my systems are crashing now xD