The BEST gluten free birthday (cup)cake.

For the last two weekends, I have been baking up a storm. My mission? Find the right recipe for non-chocolate birthday cake. Besides tasting fantastic, I wanted a cake that had a fluffy texture AND can hold up to the heavy frosting involved in making a themed birthday cake.

After 2 weekends of my house smelling like a bakery, a couple pounds added to the scale from "taste testing", and more flour than I've used in a LONG time...BAM. I did it!

For one cake, I began with a champagne cake recipe- kind of just using this mission as a chance to recreate a champagne cupcake I had at a wedding a year ago and still dream about. Since I AM trying to find a cake for a kid's party (and I don't think an alochol based dessert will make me a favorite at PTA meetings) I decided to change it up.

So, here it is:

The Best Gluten Free Birthday Cupcakes*, EVER.

2 cups gluten free flour mix **
1 Tbsp. nonfat milk powder
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup room temp. unsalted butter
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 1/2 cup baker's sugar
5 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup Cherry 7-Up

Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pans with liners OR grease and flour cake pans*.

In a large bowl, combine baking mix, milk powder, baking powder and sea salt. Mix and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine butter and coconut oil. Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes, until white and fluffy. Add sugar in small batches, scraping sides of bowl and mixing well. Add egg whites in 2-3 batches, then add vanilla.

Alternate adding baking mix and soda into the mixer, while mixing and scraping the sides of the bowl. Do not overmix at this stage!

Pour batter in to cupcake liners or pans. Bake cupcakes for 15-18 minutes for small cupcakes, 25-28 for large cupcakes. When batter is baked, cupcakes will have beautiful golden edges and a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean.

I frosted these cupcakes with Wilton's buttercream. Next weekend's mission is to find the perfect frosting- for Sky and I, buttercream is too sweet! But it DOES do a good job when it comes to decorating and making frosting fast.

*I used this mix for cupcakes. I have every reason to believe it will be perfect for a cake- the crust of the batter will lend itself well to a shaped cake and whatever frosting I want to pile on it. I simply don't know the baking time for this, though, if it is used in a cake. If you want to use this in a cake, 350 is a great temp for it- you'd just have to keep the oven light on and line up testing toothpicks rather than setting a timer and walking off.

**You *could* use a store bought gluten free flour subsititute. But the truth is, in the almost 3 years that Sky has been off gluten, I've just never found a store bought mix that is better than this homemade (less expensive) mix. Honestly- stop wasting your money buying expensive mixes. Buy these ingredients, mix this up, keep it in the freezer, and use it in any "regular" recipe, any time flour is called for.

Well, Harry, it's been a great ride.

Endings are sad, aren't they?

Tomorrow we head to the theater to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. This is big. HUGE. Exciting. And sad. While I can't wait to see such a fantastic part of the book brought to life on screen, I can't help feeling- this is it. It's over. There will be no more movies, no more books...no more Hogwarts.

See? There I go, getting all emotional. Skyler is emotional in a different way: Skyler is bouncing off the walls with excitement. By tomorrow noon, I'll probably need to repair some holes in the ceiling. My little wizard can't wait!

In an effort to make this even more special for Skyler (and to indulge my geeky side while blaming it on my child), I decided to make more cake pops. Cake pops are like a bad boyfriend. They make you angry, cause weight gain and emotional outbursts and generally drive you insane. But at the end of the day, you just can't help giving them another try because maybe THIS TIME will be easier. And if it really goes how you want it to, all the hassle will be worth it...

So here there are, folks. My Mad Eye Moody Cake Pops:



Goodbye, Harry. I'll miss you. Hello, sugar high. You're a poor replacement, but I suppose you'll do!

Food, Party, Food & a FIVE year old! Oh- and food!

Probably if I spend too much time awake without purpose tonight, I'll cry. Why will I cry? Because Alex will wake up tomorrow a 5 year old. FIVE?!?! What? I am not ready. I am not ready for Alex to be a Kindergartener. I am not ready for training wheel free bikes or "r" sounds that sound like "r". (I AM ready for accident free nights, but that is a whole other post...) And yet, here we are- 5 years old. Alex has gone from this:



To this:



This transformation has me thinking all kinds of sappy things- including, but not limited to, Trace Atkin's "You're Gonna Miss This" and the words of a poem on the wall in my Mom's kitchen (Cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'till tomorrow, for babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.). In short, I'm an emotional wreck. I'm happy that Alex has made it here, and I'm excited for all the new and exciting things to come in his world. But I'm not quite ready to start viewing him as anything but the Barney obsessed toddler in my memory.

Speaking of all this emotional overload, let's talk food. That IS how it works, right? Emotions=food? If you disagree, you've probably never needed to attend a Weight Watchers meeting. Which, by the way, I should probably attend next week- thanks to the food I'm going to blog about.

First up: Cake Pops!!!
I know everyone in the world (mine, at least) is sick of hearing about cake pops. I fully accept it- I get obsessed. I have been thinking about cake pops to the point of insanity for two weeks now. And it paid off:



I may never have the nerve to even LOOK at a cake pop EVER again- but there they are. Al B.'s beloved, requested cake pops with sprinkles. Party ready. A few things, for those of you crazy enough to consider making these little headaches-on-sticks:

-When dipping cake pops into chocolate, use a small crock pot. Someone told me this might work better, and I swear I owe that woman a lifetime's supply of cake pops (alas, I'm swearing them off, so that isn't possible).

-Use melting chocolate. Even if it is a pain in the butt to find some that fits your needs (in my case, gluten and peanut free)- find it. It is SOOOO much better than chocolate chips with oil.

-Pony up and buy a stryofoam block. There is really no way around this. The End.

Ok. That is the end of the cake pops. I think. For now.


Now I move on to tonight's dinner:



(Gluten free) Penne with Smoked Salmon Vodka Sauce

If you like low fat meals, you should stop here. This is NOT Weight Watchers friendly. And yet, it is SOOOOO good!

1 small white onion, sliced
1/2 lb. smoked salmon (I made my own, but Trader Joe's sells it too!)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
zest from 1 lemon
1 tsp. dried basil (but fresh would taste better probably!)
1 1/2 shots citrus vodka (I used Smirnoff Citrus Twist)

1 package penne noodles- cook as directed

Sautee the onion in a small amount of olive oil on medium high heat. When onions are transparent, add lemon zest, salmon, cream and basil. Stir constantly and keep at medium high heat until sauce begins to boil. Reduce heat to medium/medium low, add vodka, and simmer (stirring frequently) for 5-10 minutes. Add to pasta, and toss in some steamed veggies if desired.

This was one of those I-know-this-will-increase-my-waistline-but-I-don't-care-it-tastes-so-good type dishes. I got the original recipe from a class at Hipcooks (which you really should try, by the way!). The hipcooks recipe was an amazing blend of fresh herbs, hand made pasta and incredible enthusiasm. When I made this dish, I was tired from my battle with cake pops, had no fresh herbs but an abundance of smoked salmon and abslutely zero enthusiasm for making my own pasta. So I made do. Either way was great, though I'll give it to Hipcooks- mine was yummy. Theirs was to die for.

And since I'm all about food tonight, I have to show off a meal that Dusty and I really made together. But his part was better.



Broiled Rockfish and Moroccan Lentils with grilled sweet peppers and asparagus.

If you haven't had a chance to check out Crockpot 365 , you need to. Besides just being a genius with the crock pot- which is a great thing to be, since life gets so busy- the author of this blog is also a gluten free cook. To me, this combination is perfect.

When Dusty called me at work and offered to make dinner if only I'd give him a hint on where to begin, I sent him a link to Crockpot 365's Moroccan Lentils. As it turned out, we only had about half the requested ingredients. We DID have fresh basil and sweet peppers, though, and those went in the pot. So technically, we don't know what the original recipe tastes like. We DO know that what Dusty did was pure lentil genius.

On top of the lentils came rock fish, which was supposed to have been baked in white wine with garlic and peppers. Since I didn't have the patience to wait for baked fish, it quickly became broiled rock fish. This was my fist time cooking such a fish and I was impressed! It will now be added to my list of things to make.

The peppers and asparagus were cooked together at high heat with a very small amount of olive oil. Why were they cooked together? Because I was lazy and didn't want to dirty another pan. There really is no better reason. Whatever the reason, though- it was great. Dusty says it was the best aspargaus he's ever had. To be fair, Dusty could have been saying that because he wanted to make me feel better. In this meal, Dusty was the star. Those lentils were awesome. And the leftovers made a fabulous bean dip for chips, which means one less thing for me to make tomorrow for Alex's 5th birthday party.

Goodnight, world. Goodnight, 4. Five...I'll see you tomorrow.

Today was a day of "Well, now I know".

Today, I tried something new. Lots of new somethings, actually. I gave in to Alex's pleading and tried my hand at cake pops. I borrowed my mother in law's smoker and smoked the salmon my Dad bought me. I made a pot roast. I woke up at 6am. On a Saturday.

Most people would think this is too much "new" in one day. Most people, however, are more or less sane. I don't think I've ever made that claim.

We were up early because Dusty had to get to his test- which he passed with flying colors by the way! (I knew he would- my dream said so.) This left Alex and I in a strange state of mind. By 7:30am, we felt like we should do something. But it was too early to play outside and, frankly, too early to do much of anything. So I cleaned the fish tank while Alex yelled at the Wii about how "UNFAAAAIIIIIRRRRR" that last play was. At this point, the fish was the only member of our household grateful for the early rising.

Finally we got dressed and headed for the farmer's market and the library. We decided to do the library first, because Alex said so. You should have seen the look on Alex's face and mine when we realized that the library wasn't open yet. WE made it to the library BEFORE it opened? On a SATURDAY? Clearly, the stars were not aligned.

To kill some time- because Alex was determined to go to the library before the market, even though the market was in full swing just 1/2 block away- we went in search of cake pop sticks. We went to the fabric store and the craft store. If you've ever been in one of these stores, you probably know the general attitude that seems to be required of craft store employees: screw you. At least in my experience, "Hi! Can I help you?" is out of the question. Probably eye contact is as well. And if you have the nerve to walk up to an employee and politely inquire about the location of whatever you're looking for, you will likely get a look that says "If you have to ask, clearly you aren't crafty enough to know", accompanied by a finger pointing vaguely at the other end of the store. Needless to say, we didn't find the Wilton brand paper pop sticks that I wanted. I settled for some wooden dowels, assumed Dusty would cut them, and hoped for the best.

After a morning that passed by v e r y s l o w l y, we were back at home and ready to tackle projects. Isn't "projects" just the general term for "stuff that will make you wonder what you're thinking"? Here are some very important things I learned today:

-Too much frosting when making cake balls is bad. It makes them mushy. If they are mushy, they don't hold up on the stick, which means they will become "cake balls speared with a wooden dowel". Not cute "cake pops".

-For smoking salmon, you need a meat thermometer. I won't mention why I don't own a functioning meat thermometer anymore. *cough* (Dusty) *cough*

-Wood chips only last for about an hour. I learned this approximately 3 hours into the smoking process.

-Those cute, perfectly rounded cake pops on Bakerella's blog? Yeah...they aren't easy. I started out intending to make cute globe-shaped cakes on paper sticks. What did I end up with? Haystack shaped lumps on wooden dowels. That could sink to the bottom of the dowel at any moment, just to keep you on your toes.

-I also learned that the above lesson bugs the crap out of me, to the point where I may need to reevaluate my life's priorities. Somehow it seems that over the course of one day, "Perfect Cake Pops" has become Priority #1. I understand this isn't logical. I'm working on it.

-Pot roast needs way more spices than I put in it. And even then, it'll probably never taste as good as my Mom's. Probably I should shelf that dish and invite myself over to dinner at her place more often. (For the record, she'll tell you I'm a better cook than she is. She lies.)

-My Dad is way too nice to just come out and say "Your pot roast sucks, Brianna".

-Alex is way too nice to say "the cake pops aren't working, Mommy." He waited all day (because they were so screwed up that they took about 9 HOURS!) with an optimism that could literally insipre a nation to end hunger.

-When it comes down to optimism vs. exhaustion, sometimes you fall asleep. See pictures for proof.

So, the good news is I learned a lot today. I may have made haystack shaped, falling down and generally not Birthday Party Quality cake pops- but I think I know how to fix them next time. And I made a crappy pot roast, but...well, forget that one. I wasn't kidding about just going to Mom's next time. And the salmon may have taken hours and left me only *mostly* sure that it's edible, but now I know to buy a meat thermometer and change the wood chips.

After all, knowing is half the battle.

Our family's quiche. Gluten free and WW friendly!

So, here is a recipe that began as something from The Gluten Free Gourmet cookbook (by Bette Hagman, a gluten free genius). Then on top of gluten free considerations, we added my Weight Watchers needs. And my family's preferences. Here is the super yummy, gluten free, 7 Points Plus per serving quiche:

Crust:

Potaotes, 3 cups (sliced very thin- I use a food king with a madolin setting)
1-2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Slice the potatoes very thin and line a large pie pan with them. Then I drizzle the olive oil over the potatoes, and stick in the oven at 425 to bake for 30 minutes.

Filling:

4 oz. Pancetta
2 eggs
4 egg whites
1 leek, chopped
1/2 cup chopped, fresh basil
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/8 cup gouda, shredded (if you don't have gouda, you can sub more parmesean here)
1/8 cup parmesean, grated
3/4 cup fat free milk
Sea Salt to taste
Freshly cracked pepper to taste


Brown pancetta with leek in a pan sprayed with olive oil spray. Mix all ingredients in large bowl (I use my KitchenAid mixer, because I'm too lazy to stir it myself :-). Pour in the crust once it's done the 30 minutes in the oven. Put the whole thing back in the oven at 350 for 40-45 minutes. I'd suggest wrapping the edges in aluminum foil for the first 30 minutes, so the outer rim of the potaoes don't burn!

This is a super yummy, make everyone happy, breakfast-for-dinner dish. Served with a green veggie side, it has all you need!

Serves 6.

Really, really good zucchini bread! (And it is gluten free!)

I wasn't going to post this, since they are not my recipes at all...but it is so good that I cannot help it.

I figure, seeing as how nobody really reads this and I certainly don't make money off of it, I'm ok, right?

So here is the zucchini bread recipe I used. I am in love!

From Better Homes and Garden's cook book (you know, the red checked one that takes you back to the days of high heels and aprons and apple pies made from scratch!).

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used a gluten free flour mix)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon (I probably used at least 2 tsp., I'm a cinnamon freak!)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 beaten egg

1 cup sugar (see my note on this!)

1 cup finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini

1/4 cup cooking oil (I used EVOO and it tastes great)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted (I skip the nuts, but that's just me)

(I shortened the directions- look in the book for the longer ones!)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease the sides and bottom of a bread pan- set aside.

In one medium bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and nutmeg. Set aside. In another medium bowl (or mixer) combine egg, sugar, zucchini and oil. Combine dry and wet mix, fold in nuts if desired. Pour in to bread pans.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Now here are MY notes:

About the sugar- I started using baker's sugar a few months back. At first I bought it because a recipe called for it and I didn't realize that it was just a finer version of regular sugar (LOL...I'm new to this cooking stuff!). But, wow! It makes a huge difference, if you ask me, in the texture of baked goods. It gives the food a much smoother texture. So if you're all about taste, use regular sugar. If you want the extra wow factor, get yourself some baker's sugar!

About the gluten free flour mix- At first I was using Pamela's baking mix as a flour substitute. Then a helpful New Seasons employee explained that they sell everything I'd need to make my own mix, and it is much less expensive. So Dusty googled a recipe for me and I am really happy with my savings AND the finished result. Here is the recipe:

http://www.landolakes.com/mealIdeas/ViewRecipe.cfm?RecipeID=13589

New Seasons had both brown rice flour and tapioca flour in the bulk section, and the other ingredients are made by Bob's Red Mill. *Just a reminder that we are gluten free for ADD management- if you were going to bake for a person with Celiac, you wouldn't want to get stuff out of the bulk section because of the possibility of cross-contamination!*

And lastly- The bread came out pretty crumbly. To avoid this, I could have added a little more xanthan gum. But I don't want to! The crumbly texture made it even better to my taste buds! But if you're going for cleanliness and making this gluten free, it is something to consider.

Go ahead and double the recipe- it's THAT good!