Sometimes the simplest things will hit the spot. Don't get me wrong, the world would surely be a sad place without rich desserts or salty snacks... but sometimes (just sometimes ;) all I want is a bite of a simple and classic sweet treat. Angel food cake will usually hit the spot during these times, but who wants to wait an hour before enjoying a slice? That's why cupcakes were invented... (well, probably not, but it makes sense!)
I can't even remember the last time I had a piece of angel food cake before going gluten-free. It seems there are plenty of cookie options out there, even cake mixes, but I've yet to find one for gluten-free angel food cake (if you've found one that you love, let me know! :).
Sure, angel food cake usually doesn't come with frosting, but that's the beauty of making things at home... you can make them however you want! So feel free to experiment with these little angel food cake cupcakes. Frost them or enjoy them commando; cupcakes with out the frosting = commando cupcakes :D.
I like to use this frosting recipe, it reminds me of cream cheese frosting, minus the cream cheese ;).
...Taking a quick break from preparing tonight's mini Easter dinner to share a few recipes. The first is for a quinoa salad that is so so good! I found this recipe and changed it up just a bit to end up with a date and cranberry quinoa side dish that is flavorful and puts plain old rice to shame (who gets tired of having rice as a side every day? I DO!)
Date and Cranberry Quinoa: 1 cup quinoa 1 2/3 cup water 1 tsp garam masala 3/4 tsp sea salt 1/2 cup cranberries 1 1/2 celery stalks, chopped to 1/4 in. pieces 1/2 large bell pepper, chopped to 1/4 in. pieces 1 1/2 large dates, chopped 1/3 cup finely chopped white sweet onion 2 1/2 TBSP olive oil 1 TBSp canola oil
First make sure you rinse the quinoa well, to remove the bitter saponins. I usually spend about 3 minutes rinsing it, just to make sure they're all gone.
Next, add the quinoa to a small pot with the water, salt, dates and garam masala. Cook over a medium flame, stir occasionally and keep covered until water is evaporated and quinoa is somewhat translucent (cooked).
When the quinoa is done, remove it from the pot. Now add the remaining olive oil and canola oil to the pot.
Allow the oil to get hot, when the oil is hot (check by sprinkling with a bit of water, it should sizzle), put the flame on high and add the onion, caramelize the onions but keep stirring.
When the onions just begin to darken, put the flame on medium and add the chopped celery and bell pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add the cranberries. Cook covered on low for about 3-5 minutes.
Lastly, mix in the quinoa while the flame is still on low and then turn off.
And how about cupcakes for dessert? Here are 2 dozen mini gluten-free yellow cupcakes that are topped off with a NATURAL pink frosting. No food coloring here! I've seen a few of you cleverly incorporate jello into your strawberry cake recipes. I basically took that idea and applied it to frosting. I used an all-natural strawberry jello that I purchased from Whole Foods awhile ago; that pink color you're seeing is from beets! Watch out, though, the frosting is super sweet, which is why I just made enough of it to coat the cupcakes with a very thin layer of it. Double the frosting recipe if you like a thick, sweet frosting. (Click here to see the 'jell dessert' I used in this frosting; it is also gluten free/vegan.)
I'm in the middle of giving my apartment a very mini makeover and finishing up a project for work, so I'm pretty busy these days! I did want to share this recipe with you all, though. It was inspired by the Devil's Food Cake recipe in 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes by Carol Fenster. I didn't have most of the ingredients needed to make her cake, so I made these cupcakes. I also made them 'darker' and created a somewhat lowfat frosting that doesn't use a whole stick o' butter!
If you're wondering why I didn't add more frosting, I actually don't care for frosting much...it takes away from my favorite part, the cakey center!
I think chocolate and salt go hand in hand, so I sprinkled a little sea salt on top of these delicious dark chocolate cupcakes that remind me of the ones Hostess makes! Except, these are gluten-free :P...and preservative-free, and lower in sugar...
The pics were taken with my new camera; I'm still getting familiar with Lumi (short for Lumix, the brand ha!), so the pics came out a little rough! Bear with me :).
Alright, gotta go make dinner and finish up the million and one other things on my to-do list for the weekend!
This Gluten-Free Cranberry Carrot Cider Cupcakes with Gingerbread Frosting recipe is my November Cupcake Hero submission! I love cranberries, so I was happy to see that these colorful and festive jaw-locking berries were this month's spotlight ingredient. The tartness of the cranberries really pops and gives the cupcakes a refreshing burst of flavor.
These cupcakes remind me of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why? Well, they have the pumpkin pie spice, they've even got a bit of cider, and let's not forget about the gingerbread frosting! I was so happy that the frosting ended up tasting like gingerbread, just like I'd hoped!
When my husband tried them out he asked, "Are these gluten-free?!" as if I'd suddenly thrown him a curve ball and started cooking with AP flour again :). Nope, haven't done that, these cupcakes are as gluten-free as cupcakes can get! But the great thing is that they don't taste gluten-free at all; serve these at your holiday party and no one will know that they're not eating any gluten! These cupcakes are really tasty, try 'em!
I'm not a fan of giving up, but when it's to pursue something better, then it can be viewed as something positive. That's exactly how I feel about the basil cupcake experience. I tried, really did, then decided to move on to the September Cupcake Hero Challenge.
We could choose 2 of the cupcake hero themes they've had so far. I chose coffee and coca. This recipe isn't complicated at all. But after submitting fancier cupcake recipes in the past, I decided to go with something simple. This flavor combo is always a winner, but I wanted to spice up the cupcakes with cinnamon. The brown sugar 'tofutti' cream cheese frosting actually adds a toffee flavor to the mini cupcakes, at least that's what Jose thinks.
As for Thingies Thursday, I just found out about it. You can click here to read more about the fun weekly event. I'm participating so that I can share my fascination with antiques and old objects with you all! One thing I love about where I live is that I'm a very short bus ride away from a huge, 4 story antique market! I dropped by a few weeks ago and purchased an old Pillsbury Cookbook that I happily added to my vintage cookbook collection. Here are a few photos from that cookbook and a recipe. I've yet to try it out :).
I need to hand out a few awards! There are 3 I have on hand, some for months! I'll be giving those away soon, be sure to drop by some time within the next week to see who I've passed them along to :).
I decided to pass up this month's Daring Baker's Challenge because I'm not a fan of eclairs. It's true...but I love cupcakes and cake! I'm happy to share that my first batch of gluten-free cupcakes came out lemony and tasty. In fact, I can't even tell that they're not 'glutened' :D. Who do I have to thank for my success? Gluten-Free Baking Classics, an awesome book that anyone on a gluten-free diet should own.
The first few pages include 'recipes' for flour mixes. I was inspired by the brown rice flour mix and Pamela's mix, a pre-made flour mix that I purchased the first week I was on the diet. I like the texture of Pamela's baking mix; the almond flour has a lot to do with it. So I slightly tweaked the brown rice flour mix in Gluten-Free Baking Classics to match Pamela's by adding in a bit of almond meal. This is the almondy brown rice flour mix that resulted (it can be used for cakes and cookies too)...
Almond Meal Brown Rice Flour Mix 2 cups brown rice flour 1/3 cup tapioca flour 1/2 cup potato starch 1/2 cup almond meal
As for the cupcakes, I used the basic measurements for the yellow cake recipe in my new, nifty cookbook and tweaked it. I divided the recipe in half, added less sugar, added less oil and a bit of butter, substituted the milk for rice milk, and added a few lemony ingredients (lemon peel, extract, and lemon juice)...because I was craving lemony cupcakes, after all :). This cookbook is awesome for folks who love experimenting with their own from-scratch recipes. Every recipe is like a template that can be easily altered a little (or a whole lot :) here and there.
The frosting is from a recipe I came up with after many unsuccessful experiments working with frostings that either melted too quickly at room temperature or were too buttery (and contained too much shortening). I basically just substituted a good amount of butter for two tablespoons of rice milk and lemon juice (I wanted these cupcakes to be really lemony :). I also added a 1/4 tsp of pure lemon extract. The result? A frosting that is thick, rich, and looks like fluffy clouds :). It'll keep its shape on a warm and humid day, it won't get all over the place. Because it somewhat hardens at room temperature, it's best to keep it covered with a damp cloth when frosting the cupcakes, so that it doesn't dry too quickly.
Ok...so I could really use a break from all the packing. I'm on the verge of entering that overwhelmed phase in the packing process...the one where running away from the cardboard boxes and hiding under the bed until the Monster of Mess leaves the house sounds like a reasonable option! (This is why I've decided to take a break and post my July Cupcake Hero Challenge entry. :)
Speaking of monsters, all these cupcakes need is a pair of googly eyes and they're set -- they're practically alive! Don't they look like they belong on the set of a Jim Henson show? But they're not alive :), thank goodness. They're definitely edible and rich, rich, rich in flavor! They're dense too.
This is how to stuff 'em!
And the title for the red velvet-inspired cupcakes? These cupcakes are dedicated to good times in Austin, TX. If you love it here, but you're a little sad about leaving (like me..so many good memories here!), they'll help you beet the blues ;) (the hubby came up with the cool title, btw). So there are beets in here? Yes! I used beet juice as part of the coloring for the cupcakes. My initial plan was to just use beet juice, but after adding the cocoa powder, I knew they were gonna need a little bit of help, so I added a little under a tablespoon of food coloring to the batter. I'm not proud to admit this :(, I don't like using artificial colors...next time around, I hope to get ahold of more beet juice and try tweaking the recipe to include it. Thankfully, the folks at work liked them and they couldn't taste the beet juice! Guess what else? I only needed about 1/8 cup of canola oil to make the batter! But the topping totally takes away from any 'lightness' of the actual cupcake :P...but if these cupcakes want to taste the sweetness of a cupcake hero victory, they're gonna need a little bit of the 'good stuff'. After all, I've never seen a puny cupcake hero :)!
Alright, my next post will be for this month's Daring Bakers Challenge (I did it way ahead of time, there's no way I'm baking right now! :). Next time I'm bakin' anything, I'll be in Boston!
Wow...that's a long title for cupcakes that took an even longer time to make ;)! I enjoyed coming up with this fun recipe for ice cream cupcakes. It was kind of exciting trying to figure out how I'd convert a sticky toffee pudding recipe into a sticky toffee pudding cupcake recipe. Initially, I was a little worried that the cupcakes would come out a bit gooey, but with some recipe-improvising, I was able to figure out a way to give the gooey pudding a cupcakey texture. I used one less egg and substituted the butter with canola oil.
The tricky thing about making these cupcakes was the dairy free part...so when it came time to make the 'caramel cream cheese frosting', I ran into a few problems that led to unexpected discoveries! Normally I'd use heavy cream to make caramel sauce, but this time I used soy creamer. I was hoping it'd be a tad bit thicker than soy milk, and possibly serve as a nice alternative to heavy cream, but I was wrong. The soy creamer pretty much dissolved as soon as it hit the caramel colored, burnt sugar; it's almost like it took on the form of water. Strange. Anyone have any tips on how to make dairy free caramel? I could sure use 'em!
On to the unexpected discoveries... Since the caramel sauce was watery, I decided it'd have a richer taste if it was combined with something like tofutti cream cheese frosting (I've made caramel sauce in the past, but for some reason, it really wasn't working out for me this time -- I had to re-do it 3 times!). I also had some issues with the tofutti cream cheese frosting (probably because I've never made any kind of cream cheese frosting before ;) -- it turned out a little on the watery side, but all was not lost! The end result was a lightly flavored, creamy and syrupy caramel sauce that nicely complemented the rich pudding-based cupcakes and crunchy soy ice cream.
Next time I make these cupcakes, I'd like to make the soy ice cream. I don't have an ice cream maker at the moment, so I wasn't able to do it this time around. I do think I experimented enough with the cupcakes and topping, though. But I wonder how the ice cream would've turned out if I tried making that dairy free?!
I'd now like to take the time to applaud each and everytalented dairy-free baker/bloggerwho effortlessly creates delicious treats...how do you all do it?!
I had so many of these cupcakes, and I knew my husband and I wouldn't be able to finish even half of the batch, so I thought I'd have him take another version of them to work. I knew it'd be too messy to transport the cupcakes with an entire scoop of ice cream on top, so I packed them up in a container and covered them in the caramel cream cheese sauce, instead. I then used a teaspoon to scoop a tiny serving of ice cream on top of the saucy frosting. To give them a somewhat cute look, I threw an almond on top of the dab of ice cream. They ended up resembling a big sticky mess by the time his coworkers got to them, but I love sharing baked goods with folks. Who doesn't love getting an unexpected treat at work -- doesn't it make the day go by a little faster :)? Below is a picture of the cupcakes Jose took to work, version 2 of the sticky toffee pudding cupcakes.
One of the best things about being an adult is getting to eat dessert before dinner without having to worry about anyone saying I'm going to spoil my appetite :P! So I'm posting the dessert before the meal ;). I found this recipe in a cheap cupcake cookbook I purchased at the pharmacy last weekend. It had such cute, delicious pictures, I assumed the recipes would be just as pleasing. Well, the mini cupcakes I made didn't turn out badly, I was just disappointed that they lacked flavor and spice. I followed the recipe for apple streusel cupcakes, but I was bummed when the crumbly part melted into the cupcake batter while it baked. I'm sure I didn't measure the topping properly, I can't imagine it was entirely the recipe's fault. When I discovered that the crumble had dissolved into the batter, I'd only used a little less than half of the topping. I didn't want to throw the rest away, so I figured I'd go ahead and make an interesting frosting with the remaining crumble. These are the ingredients that went into the crumble, followed by the ingredients I used to turn it into a frosting! I should call these Frankenstein cupcakes, because I used so many strange ingredients to make a frosting that would bring these tiny desserts to life!
Topping 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp nutmeg 2 1/2 TBSP butter
To end up with the frosting I made, you'll need to divide that recipe in half then add the following ingredients to the mix. I didn't measure, I just kept adding things until I ended up with something frosting-like in texture :) <---I know it sounds really silly, but somehow it worked and folks at work even said they were delicious! Sometimes I remind myself of Amelia-Bedelia in the kitchen! (I was a big fan of hers as a kiddo, in all honesty, I could never be as fabulous as she is :D):
Frosting with Topping 1 -2 TBSP heavy cream a few tablespoons brown sugar 1-2 TBSP maple syrup a few more sprinkles of cinnamon about a cup of powdered sugar
and as for the cupcake recipe (you might want to add a few extra spices, I think I should've used apple pie spice with these) 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 1/4 cup apple sauce 4 TBSP butter 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 1/4 cup self-rising flour 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg
bake at 350 for about 12 minutes (for mini cupcakes)
As you can see, these cupcakes aren't exactly healthy. Just staring at the list of ingredients is making one of my molars hurt, can you feel a cavity developing ;)? Now that we've all had our sugar rush for the day, let's move on to dinner...
So my new friend Michele said it was ok to post the yummy Caponatina recipe she shared with me! I made this hearty Italian dish to go along with the chicken picatta I made for dinner this past weekend. It was the first time I tried both eggplant and caponatina. I was so happy to discover that it wasn't too difficult to make, despite its complex flavor. I divided the following recipe in half and didn't bother storing it in a jar because I had a feeling my husband and I would devour it in just two days -- I was right!
oops, I forgot to unpeel the eggplant! Can you believe I just noticed?! :D
Grandma Rose’s Caponatina Sicilian Style 2 lb unpeeled eggplant, cut into 1” cubes ½ cup olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 1 cup chopped celery 3 ½ oz. tomato paste 1 cup water 1 lb green olives, salted and pitted 2 oz jar of capers, unsalted and drained salt and pepper to taste 1 heaping tsp. sugar ¼ cup wine vinegar
I found the chicken picattarecipe in a magazine I received in the mail last week! It's called Cuisine At Home, it isn't sold in stores yet; it was a free gift I received most likely for subscribing to 3 other foodie magazines. It's really great because it offers pictures along with step-by-step instructions, and some other fun cooking tips. The recipe called for 4 chicken cutlets, but I only had 5 drumsticks so I improvised a little :).
Instructions: Well, they say you should sprinkle the cutlets with salt and pepper then lightly cover them in flour. But just a few pages away from this recipe in the same magazine was a short article that convinced me I needed to first dip the chicken in a mix of egg whites and corn starch THEN roll them in flour(I used whole-grain, it gave it a heartier flavor)seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, and a bit of parsley. It was something new I wanted to try, so I went ahead and tried it on the chicken. I was happy with the results.
So here are the rest of the instructions: Sautee in 2 TBSP oil (they suggest veg oil, I used olive) then once the chicken pieces are browned on all sides, set them aside. In the same pan that you used to lightly fry the chicken, add 1/4-1/2 cup white wine (depending on how much chicken you're using) and 2 minced garlic cloves. Then add 1/2 cup chicken broth, 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice, 2 TBSP butter, and 1 TBSP fresh capers. I wanted a thicker sauce, so I added a bit of flour to the mix. Since I used chicken drumsticks instead of cutlets, I went ahead and placed a few lemon slices in an oven-safe platter, then set the drumsticks on top of the slices. I then poured the "sauce" on top of each lightly fried chicken drumstick. Because I accidentally got a little more caper juice in the sauce than I wanted :D, I drizzled a bit of honey on top of the chicken before placing it in the oven to bake at 350 for about 45-50 minutes. If you're using cutlets, you can go ahead and continue cooking the chicken in the pan with the sauce until it's no longer pink. Though pink is one of my favorite colors, it's not very flattering on chicken ;).
