Berry Pillow Cookies and Carrot Crumble Cake

Before I go into detail about these two recipes, I'd first like to thank Leslie from The Cake Life for pointing out to me that xanthum gum is really supposed to be xanthan gum :)! If I'm gonna continue with this gluten-free baking, I need to get the names of the ingredients right! Sheesh!

Alright, on with the recipes. I really had a tough time coming up with a name for this next dessert. Earlier in the week, Jose mentioned that he wanted cookies, but I was in the mood for cake! What to do?! Well, I made cakey cookies. It was an experiment that actually came out the way I hoped it would! I used powdered sugar, which gave it a dissolve-in-your-mouth texture. The cookie itself is citrusy and the filling is made with berries. As a kid, I was a huge fan of these Knott's Berry Farm Shortbread cookies. They were part of my inspiration for these cookies, but the pillow cookies also have the cakey element I was looking for. Here's the recipe:



So I'm planning on making the basil cupcakes again! Thanks to a few recipe ideas I received from a former classmate, I'll be baking a cupcake that includes lemon, and sugar, and gluten-free flour, and...you'll have to come back in a few days to find out what the rest of the ingredients are :). I thought I was going to be able to make them tonight, but I didn't make it to the grocery store in time. Of course, I still needed to make something to satisfy my sweet tooth tonight...



I purchased a box of Whole Foods gluten-free cake mix a few weeks ago, when I first started the GF diet. I bought it just in case I wasn't able to make my own mix. Thankfully, my flour mix worked, but I didn't want the Whole Foods cake mix to go to waste. Carrot cake sounded good to me, so with a few additions, I was able to make a carrot almond crumble cake. Cream cheese and I aren't friends, so, instead of making a cream cheese frosting, I made a crumble topping. I did add dairy to the actual cake, but I noticed (from personal experience) and a friend of mine also recently told me, that dairy is a lot easier to digest when its incorporated into batter and baked. The cooking/baking process breaks it down a bit. Though I didn't have the cake with a nice tall glass of milk, I was able to add it to the cake batter. I'm slowly starting to add more dairy into my baked goods because I need all the Calcium I can get, and don't we all!

The carrot crumble cake has the texture of a coffee cake and it's pretty difficult to tell that it's gluten-free. I think Whole Foods did a great job with its white cake mix (that's what I used)! I might actually buy the mix again, for lazy days :)! To be honest, though, this cake still required a bit of mixing and measuring, but it's definitely worth it!