Ceci's 4th Birthday Purple Velvet Cake

Today we celebrated my amazing daughter's 4th birthday!  About 11 months ago she started asking for a Rapunzel birthday party for her 4th birthday, so today we made that simple wish a reality.  I asked her a month ago what cake she wanted me to make and she simply shouted "purple!"  Well, I know that red velvet cake is one of her favorites, which I truly believe is because she loves the cream cheese frosting on top, so I hunted down purple food dye and made it happen.  A week or two ago I realized I could make a frying pan shaped cake so I could write a birthday message.  Yesterday I went on a dessert making rampage and created all sorts of treats, purple velvet mini cupcakes, purple velvet cake, cake pops, purple chocolate covered marshmallows, and purple chocolate dipped pretzels.  Today I dyed frosting, and myself, 3 different colors, and was pretty proud of my mess!  The smile on that sweet face made all of it worth it.

Here's to 4 years of sweet joy!  I love you my little kitten Ceci!

Ceci's dessert extravaganza!

Purple Velvet Cake with grey cream cheese frosting, made into the shape of a frying pan.

"Chocolate" covered marshmallows, and "chocolate" dipped pretzels

Purple velvet mini cupcakes with yellow cream cheese frosting, representing Rapunzel's purple dress, and yellow hair

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

At some point in the last year I attempted to make Red Velvet Cupcakes, well Green Velvet anyway (I'll explain in a second), and did not like them.  Recently I was inspired to try them again, and looked up a new recipe, I am currently obsessed with them, and so is Ceci!  She can't get enough of them, when we had them she asked to eat one constantly, I had to bargain with her so she wouldn't try to eat all of them at once.  I was really pleased with the taste and tenderness of the cake, and who doesn't love cream cheese frosting to top off everything??

It turns out that there were a lot of problems with my first attempt at Velvet Cupcakes and subbing green food dye for the red was the least of the issues.  My husband thought for years that he was allergic to red dye, from some incident back in his college years, and until he saw the allergist this year we just avoided all forms of red dye.  The Dr told him that it was a made up allergy and he had never heard of it in all his years of practice.  So now I can use all the red dye I want in cupcakes.  The other major issue with the first batch of cupcakes was the recipe used oil instead of butter, so they came out greasy and unappealing, even the cream cheese frosting couldn't save them.

You can understand why I was hesitant after that disaster to try Red Velvet again.  Like I said previously I was inspired, I had purchased buttermilk to use for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies and had left over so I thought hard about other recipes that use buttermilk and came up with Red Velvet Cupcakes.  After some research I found what looked like a good recipe and worked to convert it over to Gluten Free.

We took them to a 2nd Birthday/House Warming Party for some family friends, one of the other guests had brought lots of fancy mini cupcakes from the famous bakery in NYC, Crumbs.  He told me he preferred my cupcakes to the fancy store bought ones!!!  That makes my day!  Having people who can eat gluten tell me that my gluten free versions taste better than the regular ones, especially when they are saying it's better than expensive boutique cupcakes!

I hope you enjoy them as much as Ceci does!

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

1 1/4 Cup Sweet Rice Flour
1   Cup Tapioca Starch
1/4 Cup Soy Flour
1  tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2  tsp Salt
2  Tbs Coco Powder (Dutch Processed)
1/2  Cup Unsalted Butter at Room Temperature
1 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
2   Eggs
1  tsp Vanilla Extract
1  Cup Buttermilk
2  Tbs Red Food Coloring
1  tsp White Distilled Vinegar
1  tsp Baking Soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).  Line about 20-24 cupcake tins with paper liners and set aside

Mix flours, xanthan gum, salt, and coco powder in a mixing bowl and set aside.  Cream butter and sugar in stand mixer, add eggs and vanilla, and beat well to combine, scrape down the sides of the mixer after ingredients are well combined.  Measure buttermilk, and wisk red food dye directly into buttermilk.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately pour the flour mix and the buttermilk mix into the mixer, beginning and ending with the flour.
In a small cup, combine the vinegar and baking soda, allow it to foam, and then quickly mix it into the cake batter.
Quickly portion the cake batter into the prepared pans and move to the preheated oven.  Bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool for several hours before frosting them.  Use Cream Cheese Frosting to top them with.  You can cut the frosting recipe in 1/2 so you don't end up with a TON of frosting.

Gluten Free Chocolate Honey Cake

Dusted with powdered sugar and coco powder

We were invited to a Rosh Hashana celebration for dinner tonight, and I asked if I could bring a dessert.  This will be our family's first Rosh Hashana dinner so I did a little research about traditional desserts and quickly found that Honey Cake is the most obvious choice.  After looking over so many recipes this morning I finally found one that I liked and had most of the ingredients for.  I made my exchanges for gluten free flours, and adjusted for the one or two items I didn't have in the house and away we went.  It was really easy to make, and baked up nicely too.  I did sneak a crumb off the bottom of the cake before I turned it out on to the drying rack, and it tasted pretty delicious, hopefully our hosts will think so tonight.  Below you will find the recipe I adapted from the original Chocolate Velvet Honey Cake by Marcy Goldman

After dinner we cut into the cake, and it was amazing!  Ceci had been waiting ALL day to have a few bites of that delicious, moist, chocolate, sweet, treat.  Everyone enjoyed it and was raving about it, in fact I was told that this could be my new passover assignment next year.  I was so pleased that it came out so sweet and moist, and everyone truly liked it.  Hope your family and friends enjoy it too!

GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE  HONEY CAKE 1/4 cup Soy flour 1/2 cup Brown Rice flour 1 cup Tapioca Starch 1 cup Sweet Rice flour 1 1/2 teaspoons Xanthan Gum 1/2 cup cocoa 1 tablespoon baking powder 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon cloves 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup honey 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 3 eggs 2 teaspoons pure vanilla 1 cup Strong Coffee 1/2 cup coarsely chopped semi-sweet chocolate Garnish: confectioner's sugar, cocoa, drizzled melted semi-sweet chocolate,  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Generously spray a nine- or 10-inch tube pan or angel food cake pan with cooking spray. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. In a stand mixer, add in the oil, honey, white sugar, brown sugar. Blend well about 1 minute. Add in the eggs, vanilla, and Coffee. Blend well for another minute. Fold in the dry ingredients and blend for about two minutes, until smooth, stopping the machine once or twice to ensure that ingredients are all blended and not stuck at the bottom. Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon or pour batter into prepared pan. Place cake on baking sheet and bake until done, about 60-75 minutes, until cake springs back when gently pressed with fingertips. Cool 10 minutes before unmolding from pan. Dust cake with confectioner's sugar, or cocoa. Or, drizzle on melted, semi-sweet chocolate.

Gluten Free Italian Cheesecake

Baked Italian Cheesecake

The other night we were invited to friends for dinner and told it was an Italian theme, and since most of the other courses of food were covered I sat and thought for days about what kind of dessert was "Italian".  I could only come up with Tiramisu for a long time, and then Gelato, but wasn't inspired to make either one, finally I came up with Italian Cheesecake!  It's been a million years since I've eaten an Italian cheesecake, and I have NEVER made one, let alone a NY style cheesecake.  I contemplated for a while about whether or not I wanted to really take on this challenge and how crazy I was willing to make myself.  I also received a request to bring GF Italian Bread, so now my work load was up, but I was feeling like a challenge.  The bread did not turn out well so I won't be posting that debacle anytime soon.  But the Cheesecake was a fabulous success!  I nearly had to abandon the idea midway after realizing one friend seriously dislikes ricotta cheese, the main ingredient in Italian cheesecake, after a quick strategy session with his wife I decided to go ahead with the plan.

I did some research on the internet about Italian cheesecakes and found that the recipes are not at all consistent with one another, some had crusts, most didn't, some used whole eggs, some only yolks, and on and on.  With that in mind I figured I would just go ahead and make my own recipe, and cross all my fingers that it would come out okay.  

I got tons of approval from everyone, even the ricotta hater!  He said it was the best cheesecake he had ever had because it was so light and fluffy, not like those other ones that are so heavy and dense.  Don't worry, no one let on that it was full of ricotta, it was pretty funny though.    I loved it too, soft, tender, light, fluffy, not overly sweet, and just a touch of lemon to balance out the flavor.  Hopefully I'll have another reason to make it again soon because it was fantastic.

Now to add to the vast array of Italian cheesecake recipes on the internet, here is mine.

Gluten Free Italian Cheesecake

1/2  Cup GF Graham Crackers, ground up
2 lbs of Ricotta
1   Cup Sugar (granulated)
2   Tbs  Tapioca Starch
4   Whole Eggs
1    tsp Vanilla Extract
Zest of a whole lemon
Juice of half a lemon

Drain Ricotta by placing layers of cheesecloth into a colander, and pouring ricotta into the cheesecloth.  Let the ricotta sit for a while, be sure to place the colander in a larger bowl to catch the drippings so that you don't end up with a sloppy mess on the counter.  (If you don't have cheesecloth, I used paper towels and a mesh sieve pretty successfully.)

While Ricotta drains, smash up GF Graham crackers and spread in bottom of 9 inch cake pan, or spring form pan.  Set aside.

Once the Ricotta is drained, place it in a stand mixer, and blend in sugar, and Tapioca starch.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing each one into batter.  Finally add extract, lemon zest, and lemon juice, mix until everything is fully incorporated.

Pour the batter into a 9 inch cake pan (I don't own a spring form, if you do, you can use that instead.)  Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 50-60 min, until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Gluten Free Coffee Cake

Perfect Brunch for the start of a snow storm

This weekend I started craving Cinnamon Rolls, but couldn't get up the motivation to make them, that whole proofing/rising process didn't sound fun while I'm suffering from some kind of cold or sinus infection.  So I considered how to get my sugary cinnamon fill without waiting hours on end, COFFEE CAKE!  We were having friends over for brunch and I love providing warm baked goods to indulge in, since Sheri was bringing everything else.  I quickly searched the web for a recipe, since the few I found in books around the house involved yeast, I was trying to avoid the rising process, not just find a new form of it.  I found one on the celiac.com page that was exactly what I wanted, yellow cake with a crumb topping, and super easy to make!  The Coffee Cake called for GF All Purpose flour, which I don't keep on hand.  You may have noticed I have a few flours I prefer, and use repeatedly, so after some quick math I came up with my own rendition.  Leaving the nuts out of the topping of course since we are now working toward a nut free home.

It came out perfect, first the entire house smelled of delicious warm cinnamon, and tricked our friends into thinking there might have been cinnamon rolls in the oven.  They told us they were not disappointed though, the cake was delicate, and fluffy, while the topping was sweet and crunchy, in perfect contrast.  Exactly what I had wanted from a coffee cake.  It was so good the 9x9 inch pan was nearly empty when brunch was over, and the tiny piece that was left, was my late lunch later.

Coffee Cake

Cake Recipe

1/4   Cup Soy Flour
1/4   Cup Brown Rice Flour
1/2   Cup Tapioca Starch
1/2   Cup Sweet Rice Flour
1 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
3/4   Cup Sugar
  2    tsp Baking Powder
1/2   tsp Salt

1/4   Cup Canola Oil
  1    Egg (Beaten)
1/2   Cup Milk

Spicy Topping


1/2   Cup Brown Sugar
  2    Tbs Tapioca Starch
  2    tsp Cinnamon
  2    Tbs Butter (melted)


Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F), and grease a 9x9x2 inch baking pan.

Sift together dry ingredients for cake in a large mixing bowl and set aside.  Combine wet cake ingredients in a separate small bowl, and add to dry cake ingredients.  Mix together until smooth, pour into prepared pan.

In a small bowl stir together spicy topping ingredients, and sprinkle over top of cake.

Bake at 375 degrees (F) for 25 min.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Fruit Cobbler

This summer we were invited to a friend's block party and of course I offered to bring a dessert, partly to make sure there was a gluten free dessert for me to eat, and obviously because I love to bake.  Bonnie told me it was a southern theme so I was inspired by a peach cobbler recipe I found using bourbon.  I quickly converted the recipe, and set to work.  It uses a ton of butter and tastes fabulously velvety and moist, also I traded the granulated sugar for brown sugar giving it a more caramel taste.

I recently made an apple version of the same cobbler recipe, since my husband was unable to eat the peach cobbler (he is allergic to peaches, I'd rather have celiac).  The cinnamon, brown sugar, and bourbon made the apples amazing!  We also happened to have some caramel ice cream in the freezer that day, ohhhh my goodness!  If I had been home alone I would have dumped out the container of ice cream over the entire pan of cobbler and eaten all of it by myself.  I should also note that I ate a huge portion of it for breakfast one morning and it was delicious!!

Bourbon Fruit Cobbler

Fruit Compote

1/4   Cup of Butter
6-8   Cups of Fruit or Berries
1/4   Cup Bourbon (there is a special place in my heart for Jack Daniels)
1/4   Cup Brown Sugar
2      Tbs Cornstarch
1      tsp ground Cinnamon

Melt Butter in large sauce pan, add Fruit, Bourbon and Brown Sugar,  allow to warm through and sugar to dissolve, add in Cornstarch and Cinnamon.  Simmer on low heat until juice thickens, then transfer to a large casserole pan, set aside and begin work on the delicious biscuit topping.

Cobbler Breading

1/4   Cup Soy Flour
1/4   Sweet Rice Flour
1/2   Cup Brown Rice Flour
1/2   Cup Tapioca Starch
1/2   tsp Xanthum Gum
2      tsp Baking Powder
1/2   Cup Brown Sugar
1/2   tsp Kosher Salt
1 1/2  Sticks cold Butter
3/4   Cup Whole Milk

Blend flours, xanthum gum, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Cut  in Butter into small pieces and add to flour mix, using a pastry cutter or fork, blend together until butter and flours resembles pea gravel.  Pour in milk and mix until dough comes together, should be very wet and sticky.  Drop dough over pan of fruit by the tablespoon full.  This doesn't have to look pretty, gaps are fine, the dough will rise and puff together.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake in a 375 degree (F) oven for 40-45 min.  Serve warm with vanilla or caramel ice cream.


A big Thank you to Bonnie this summer for inspiring me to find this recipe because now we have another delicious dessert to bring to dinner parties with us.  I can't wait to try all sorts of other yummy fruits in this, maybe next summer we will try some sort of mixed berry application.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bars

Fall has been trying to arrive here in NY, for the last couple of weeks, today was not it's best attempt.  But there has been a gladware of pumpkin in my freezer for a while now calling to me, and there is only one great way to start off my pumpkin baking season, PUMPKIN BARS!!!

I started baking them in college, for my roommates, and then for my coworkers in the Athletic Training room.  They were an instant hit, and never lasted more than 15 minutes when set down and uncovered.  I still receive requests for them, or the recipe.  For some reason I can't bring myself to make them during the spring or summer, so I wait for the fall to arrive, the temperatures to drop and the true craving for pumpkin products to surface.

I really love this recipe because it is moist and delicious and lends itself well to the use of gluten free flours.  It uses cinnamon and cloves to give it a little kick of spice, with the cream cheese frosting  I think these are darn near divine!  But that is just my little humble opinion.

Tonight we went to our wonderful friends the Lockhart's for dinner so I offered to make dessert, knowing I had frozen pumpkin and a brick of cream cheese in the house.  Being very inspired I dug out the two recipes and got to work.  I did have a little trouble with the cream cheese frosting, which I assume was because I used low fat cream cheese.  I'll have to experiment with that again later, I promise.
Ceci, my queen of savory food, who rarely eats any sweets even had three bites, I was impressed, and took it as a high compliment.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bars

1/4   Cup Soy Flour
1/4   Cup Brown Rice Flour
3/4   Cup Sweet Rice Flour
3/4   Cup Tapioca Starch
2      tsp Baking Powder
2      tsp Cinnamon
1      tsp Baking Soda
1/4   tsp salt
1/4   tsp ground Cloves

4   beaten Eggs
1 1/2  Cup Sugar
1   16 oz can of pureed pumpkin
1   Cup Canola Oil

In a large mixing bowl, blend dry ingredients until well mixed.  Place Eggs in a stand mixer and mix until beaten, add sugar, pumpkin puree and oil and blend on medium speed for 1 min.  Pour in dry ingredient mix into wet 1 cup at a time, mixing gently between additions.  Blend until fully mixed.  Spread batter in an ungreased 15"x10"x1" pan (jelly roll pan).  Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 25-30 min, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool for 2 hours and spread with Cream Cheese Frosting.


Mom E's Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz  Cream Cheese, softened
1/4    Cup Butter, softened
3 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
2    tsp Vanilla Extract

Blend Cream Cheese and Butter in mixer, add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, and run mixer slowly after each addition.  Add Vanilla Extract at end and mix in.   Spread over cooled cake or bars, and try not to take to many samples, like I do.

My sweet girl helping to model the dessert

Mommy, making pumpkin bars is tiring!

Gluten Free Devil's Food Cupcakes: Ceci's Birthday Treats

Gluten Free Devil's Food Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting, in shape of Mickey Mouse symbol

Ceci doesn't love sweet things, so I decided to make a cake that my husband and I prefer to eat.  I think Ceci would have been happy if I had served chips and pretzels with a candle in it.  We love chocolate in this house so it made perfect sense to have devil's food cupcakes with a rich chocolate frosting, and let me tell you!!!  Oh man!  I particularly enjoyed them out of the fridge when the frosting was nice and stiff.  I'm drooling just thinking about them, maybe next time I will freeze some left overs for just such a craving.

Gluten Free Devil's Food Cupcakes

1/4   Cup Soy (or Chickpea) flour

1      Cup Sweet Rice Flour

1      Cup Tapioca Starch

1      tsp Xanthum Gum

1/2  Cup Unsweetened Cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4  tsp Salt

1/2  Cup Butter

1 3/4 Cup Sugar

1    tsp Vanilla

3    Eggs

1 1/3 Cups Cold Water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).  Line 22-24 cupcake pans with paper liners and set aside.  Mix flours, xanthum gum, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl and set aside.  In a stand mixer beat butter on high for 30 seconds, add sugar and vanilla and beat until well combined.  Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each.  Add dry ingredients and water alternating and beating on low speed after each addition until just combined.  Be careful not to over mix the batter it will make the cupcakes tough.  Pour batter into cupcake papers, fill cups 2/3 full leaving room for the batter to rise.  Drop pans flatly onto counter to force out any air bubbles left in batter.  Bake in 350 degree (F) oven for 17-20 minutes until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Coll on a wire rack completely before icing.  Makes 22-24 cupcakes

Chocolate Frosting

1/2    Cup Butter
1/2    Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/3    Cup Milk
4       Cups of Powdered Sugar
1       tsp Vanilla

Microwave butter on high until melted (about 1 min.)  Stir in Cocoa until smooth; microwave on high until mixture boils (30 sec-1 min.)  Add milk and sugar and using a hand mixer or transfer to a stand mixer beat together.  Beat slowly while adding sugar so as not to throw it around the whole kitchen.  When sugar is fully incorporated add vanilla and beat on high until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.  I placed this frosting in a piping tube and my wonderful friend Sheri swirled it on top of each cupcake for me.

Enjoy!