Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Donuts

My Aunt, Uncle & cousins on my Mom’s side got me a Babycake donut maker for my birthday this year and sadly this weekend was the first opportunity I had to try it out. (My birthday is in July… it is now October. I really need more donut making time in my life).

Sunday, still enjoying our lazy weekend I decided to finally break-out the donut maker and what better thing to make at the beginning of Fall then pumpkin spiced anything. I didn’t even have to go to the store because luckily we still had to cans of organic pumpkin for last year.


I was surprised at how great the consistency of these donuts were. They were similar to muffins, which I'm okay with because I feel like I'm eating something healthier.

Have you made any Fall foods yet?

7 Links

As you may have noticed I took a bit of a blogging break for a month (or so). It wasn’t intentional, but things got crazy at work and that, combined with finals, gave very little free time and energy to blog. I have to thank Amy at The Nifty Foodie for tagging me in her 7 links post. I gave me the kick in the rump I needed to blog again.

So here are 7 links to posts I’ve done that I think you should check out…

#1 Most Beautiful - The Birdie Details

I loved the way the details came together at our wedding. When I went flipping through all my old posts, for this post, I loved looking through our wedding posts again. It reminded me how pretty, without being to bird themed, our wedding day turned out.

#2 Most Popular – Margarita Cupcakes
 
This cupcake recipe is BY FAR the best, most moist, recipe I have found. I need to spend sometime trying to make these gluten free, because they are a HUGE hit. I get a least 50 hits a week from this recipe.

#3 Most Controversial - Tricking our Wedding Guests

This is actually a post a wrote for Weddingbee. The start time on our wedding invitations was 30 mins earlier than the time our wedding was actually going to begin. Several readers were upset that we would trick our guests like that and make them wait that long considering many people arrive to weddings early. I could (and still do) see where they were coming from, but knowing our friends and family, I stick by our decision to have people arrive 30 mins early.

#4 Most Helpful - How to Make an Inspiration Board
 
Also a post I wrote for Weddingbee, but helpful none the less. When I first started wedding planning and blogging, I saw all these awesome inspiration boards and wanted to badly to make my own. I didn’t (and still don’t) own Photoshop, or anything fancy like that, so needed a way to do it with the software I already owned or downloaded for free.

#5 A Post Whose Success Inspired Me  - Reverb - Prompt 1
The comments I got from this post inspired me to fully embrace Reverb. It also gave me confidence in myself.

#6 A Post I Didn’t Feel Got the Attention is Deserved – My Christmas Green Beans


This is where I toot my own horn, because you guys has no idea how good these beans are. They take longer than cooking green beans should, but OMGoodness they are tasty!

#7 Most Proud Of – Five for Friday Series
When I started the blogging about planning our wedding, way back when, I started Five for Friday posts – posting five things I love about (or reasons I love) Hubs, every Friday. I’m proud that for the most part I’ve kept this up for the past 2 years and counting. I’m most proud that I’ve inspired other bloggers, that I love, to do Five for Friday posts as well! Other bloggers like: Jesstagirl & c'est law vie!

Have you participated in the 7 things blog post series? If so, please share your link with me in the comments, I’d love to read yours. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? I’m tagging you!

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

If you follow some of the same board I do on Pinterest, chances are Sugar Derby’s Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries popped up on your feed. They popped up in mine a couple times, last week. As soon as I saw them I knew I had to make them AND since I was already thinking of making a strawberry centered dessert for Easter, it was really easy to switch from gluten free strawberry shortcake to these tasty treats. Especially, since I could tweak the recipe a bit and make them completely naturally gluten free. Meaning I wouldn’t have to buy any ingredients that normally had gluten in them specifically made to be gluten free. SCORE!

After researching cheesecake stuffed strawberries on the interwebs, I found several different recipes and based this recipe on those. However, I have to give Sugar Derby credit for giving me the idea.


Here’s how I made them…

(Click on recipe to enlarge)

And, because I stuck and forgot to take pictures as I was doing each step, I drew you some pictures...

Okay, I know this is a lot of steps, but trust me when I tell you it's totally worth it. As your hulling and coring 50 strawberries, know that this is delicious. Plus, as my friend Jeannie says, "Who doesn't like food stuffed inside other food?"

So, I ask you, what is your favorite food stuffed in other food?

OperationLayla Bake Sale

If you read my blog (thank you) you probably like food about as much as I do… specifically baked goods. Am I right? Well, here is a chance to get freshly baked, baked goods delivered right to your front door. #OperationLayla is hosting a bake sale right now!

Please check out “Bake Sale Info” for a detailed description of how this Bake Sale works.


Each item below starts with a minimum bid of $15, and to officially bid on any particular item, you must leave a comment with at least a $1 (one dollar) raise in price. All buyers have until 11 pm EST to submit their bid.


Thank you very much for your generous contributions and support. We will try our best to moderate the comments throughout the day. If you would like to comment anonymously or have any questions or concerns, please email OperationBakeSale@gmail.com. Happy bidding!

I’m donating Chocolate Covered Rice Cereal Bars, gluten free - of course. However, since I’m in the middle of finals right now, I wasn’t able to make them this weekend and take a picture for the website… so I drew one.


Mmmmm, don’t THOSE look tasty? The upside is these will be extra fresh when I mail them out :)

HAPPY BIDDING!!

Easy Peasy: S.O.S. Dessert

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Sadly, I have class tonight so Hubs & I won’t be doing much for Valentine’s Day this year. (I can’t wait to graduate). However, I did whip him up a one of our new favorite desserts last night while we were hanging out on the sofa last night. My Bestie, Felicia, made this for her husband’s birthday a few weeks ago and we’ve been making them at home for the last couple weeks. It’s really easy and might be a fun thing to surprise your honey with tonight… you know, if you don’t already have Valentine’s dessert plans.


Basically it’s a cookie with ice cream on top, but here’s how to make it…

(Click recipe to enlarge)

I hope you all have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Flourless Chocolate Torte

Remember this picture?
It was taken the night I made this cake/torte, at the event I made the cake/torte for… Christmas Eve. Flourless chocolate tortes were one of my favorite restaurant desserts before I went gluten free. Thank goodness, I can still eat one of my favorite desserts without having to modify it in anyway – Yay! As much as I like them, however, I’d never baked one myself before. So, when Jane’s mom, Sandy, asked me to bring a dessert for Christmas Eve, my choice was easy.

My first step, of course, was to Google “Flourless Chocolate Cake”. Naturally, this resulted in hundred, if not, thousands of results. Ultimately, I decided on this recipe from Macrina Bakery , found on Gluten Free Girl.

(Click recipe to enlarge)

You guys, this cake is TO.DIE.FOR! DELICIOUS! and it look pretty, if I do say so myself. The only problem – I don’t think it was supposed the cave in like it did. Do you see the sides? They’re all caved in and the top is too.


I should probably do a little research to see if I did something wrong. Perhaps I mix things too much… or baked it too long. Oh, well! We all ate and enjoyed it :)

Sundae (A Sunday Short)

I saw this on Pinterest and I cannot wait to make it! I’m thinking it will be fun to serve at our cocktail party.


The recipe (and this picture) can be found on (Never Home) Maker.

4th of July Flag Cake

I mentioned on the last Five for Friday that Hubs offered to help me make this flag cake.

Source

Last week my friend Laura of Happy Hour With a Housewife, posted this flag cake on her Facebook wall. I showed it to Hubs and there was no 'bringing guacamole instead'. The deal, however, was that I needed him to help me, because, HELLO, this looks involved Kids! (I totally overused commas in that last sentence huh? All my readers with English majors just hit ‘unsubscribe’… although, if you’re still here after all the other messed up sentences I’ve posted before, you must be used to it by now).

So, anywhoodle, Sunday morning (because why not wait until the last minute) I went to the store to buy 2 boxes of white cake mix. If you’ve been following my blog for awhile you know that I like to make things from scratch, when I can, box cake wasn’t my first choice. I just knew it would be easier and make to correct amount of cake I needed. Guess what? I wasn’t the only one who wanted white cake mix for the 4th of July. Crazy huh? That was when I decided to bake the cake from scratch and that was also when I decided to spend the entire morning baking and decorating a cake, that later NO ONE WOULD EAT!* But I’ll get there…

For the best directions on how to construct the cake So Wonderful, So Marvelous and read this post. Here is the diagram she, and her friend Stephanie, made to show how the cake is constructed.

Source

There are also a couple of pictures posted on the process. I, of course, didn’t take any pictures of my process. I should have though because at my house there were many different sized bowl, a scale and math involved… FAR TOO MUCH MATH! and in the end, I didn’t bake enough blue.


See I don’t have 2 layers (1-red, 1-white) next to my blue, because my blue was too small. However, it still looks like a flag and no one at the party knew it was supposed to look better. So, GO US! Also, Hubs, who isn’t a big ‘cake person’ raved about how tasty it was – so I’m pretty proud of that. Take THAT, box cake :)

Which cake recipe did I use? I very very slightly altered this one and made 3 batches, although I would recommend making 4.

Click Recipe to Enlarge

Which frosting recipe did I use? I very very slightly altered this one.

Click Recipe to Enlarge

This was by far the best Cream Cheese Frosting I’ve every made. I credit the Crisco. Since, I can’t use butter because of the Hubs tummy, I had been using margarine. The Crisco makes it much fluffier and tastier.

I added some fresh (local and organic) fruit to make it a bit prettier and more festive.


You can see the mess I made of the counter behind. I loaded the cake onto my Wilton Cake Caddy just in time to change into my Red, White & Blue and head out the door.

* Okay, I mentioned no one ate our cake… which isn’t entirely true, but mostly. Our good friends invited us to their friends party in San Diego. Don’t get me wrong here, we had a lot of fun and the Hosts were awesome to have us and their friends were great. But, really how great can they be if they don’t like a flag cake? The more popular cakes present included a store bought hamburger cake, chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles, and chocolate chip cookies. Someone did cut my cake to show off how awesome the inside was, but didn’t eat the slice they cut out. Jane (my Bestie), me and the girl Jane talked into eating my cake where the only people that had a slice at the party. Hubs had to slices yesterday (1 for breakfast and 1 for dinner). I have half this cake left… I’m thinking of bringing it to work tomorrow.

Did you make anything festive for the 4th of July?

Easy Peasy: Fruit Pizza

Last Friday Hubs and I went to dinner at our friends house. The same couple we used to have LOST night with, so we’re used to splitting up the dinner responsibilities. We used to trade off who made the main course, and the other would make the salad or a veggie, etc. This Friday we brought a salad and a dessert.

I totally volunteered for this dessert thinking I would just make another blueberry crumble, but we still have half a blueberry crumble in our fridge and I felt super guilty wasting all that fruit making another one…. also felt I could just take over our leftovers haha.

I couldn’t think of anything else to make that didn’t involve fruit and crumble or baking a cake (which I did NOT have time for). So, I asked put the question out on Twitter and got a couple great suggestions. My favorite was from Amy at Dandelion Paperweight…


I was already kinda thinking of making a galette*, but all the recipes for the crust seemed too time consuming. Pizza? Pizza, I could cheat and buy premade dough for and call it a night! Thank. You. Amy!

I’m not gonna lie, I’m sort of proud of this recipe because I didn’t use a recipe, it’s super easy and UBER tasty!


How to make it…

Click Recipe to Enlarge

* I don't technically know what a galette is, so this could very well be one.

Blueberry Crumble

It’s berry season, just in case you haven’t noticed. Berry Season is one of my favorite seasons… it’s probably one of the tastiest! For the past few weeks I’ve been adding strawberries, blueberries and blackberries to pretty much everything I can. French toast? Check. Salad? Check. Pie? Check. Cereal? Of course!

Earlier this week Hubs was eyeing a blueberry crumble pie at Trader Joes. I get a little miffed when we wants to buy store bought pie (and such) because HELLO I can totally make that! So I promised him I’d make him crumble sometime.

Well, “sometime” was last night. I really wanted to cook something new and Hubs already had Trader Joe’s salmon burger for dinner. Best not to waste food we already had, so I decided to make the crumble. I went to my favorite go-to recipe site, Cooking Light, and found a recipe for Rainier Cherry Crumble. I decided I would substitute berries for the cherries since I wasn’t in the mood to pit 3 pounds of cherries.


How do you make this gooey crumbly berry goodness?

Click Recipe to Enlarge

For the berries I used 2 of those plastic things of blueberries and a bunch of leftover blackberries and strawberries. You can probably use any fruit you want. I think next time I'm going to do peaches and blueberries... YUM!

Do you ever get miffed when your husband/wife wants to buy something at the store you can make at home 10 times better? Am I the only weirdo?

Cinco de Mayo: Margarita Cupcakes

This past Saturday Hubs and I went to an “Uno de Mayo Fiesta”. I’d seen a recipe for Margarita Cupcakes on Confessions of a Foodie Bride and thought this was the perfect opportunity to make them. I mean really, is there a better time for Margarita Cupcakes than a Cinco de Mayo party? I think not.

This was my best pic :( I'm definitely asking for a new camera for my 30th Birthday!

Her recipes if based on Martha Stewart’s lemon cupcake recipe, just swapping the lemon for lime. I used a different icing recipe based on Sprinkle’s Cupcakes’ Lemon Buttercream Frosting, only I substituted tequila for the vanilla to make them more Margarita like… Olé!

(Click recipe to enlarge)

What is your favorite Cinco de Mayo Recipe?

Dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

The first thing to bake, on my lists of things to do in my free time, were theses Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars I saw, last week, on Bake at 350.

Source

Hubs two favorite desserts are chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake, how could I not make these?

Anywhoodle, we were relaxing last night on the couch and I got antsy to do something with my free time, so I decided to just go ahead and make them. I had almost all the ingredients, so why not? And by almost, I mean I was 2oz shy on the cream cheese and about 1 Tbsp shy on the chocolate chips... Oh, and I don't have shortening.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
slightly adapted from Bake at 350 (who adapted them from cookies and cups & The Essential Chocolate Chips Cookbook)

Ingredients...
Crust:
1 & 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
5 TBSP margarine, melted (remember Hubs is lactose intolerant, but yes he can have cheese... it's weird, it's with pills, moving on)
2/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cookie Dough:
5 TBPS margarine (I like to use I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, baking sticks)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 TBSP sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling:
10 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, room temp. [or 8oz if that's what you have ;-)]
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
1/3 cups dark chocolate (or you can just use more chocolate chips, if that's what you've got)

Directions...
Preheat oven to 325

Crust:
1 - Grease a 8x8 pan with margarine, line pan with parchment paper and butter the paper, leaving enough to extend over the sides.
2 - Crush graham crackers into 1 & 1/2 cups of crumbs.

3 - Melt butter and add to crumbs are moistened.
4 - Stir in chocolate chips.

5 - Press crust mixture into bottom of pan.
6 - Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool.

Cookie Dough:
1- Mix butter(ish stuff), brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth.
2 - Adjust mixer speed to low and add flour. Mix just until incorporated.
3 - Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.

Cheesecake:
1 - Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

2 - Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended.

Topping:
1 - Microwave chocolate at 50% for intervals for a minute, stirring in between, until melted.

The whole she-bang:
1 - Pour cheesecake batter into cooled, baked crust.

2 - Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over the top of the filling.

3 - Bake (at 325) for 30mins, or until set.
4 - Place back on wire rack.
5 - Drizzle melted chocolate over top.

6 - Place in fridge to chill.

I know I should wait for a better picture, when they're cooled and cut, and pretty, but I'm just so excited to be blogging again :) Perhaps tomorrow I will have a better picture.

Bananas Foster

This weekend my bestie and her husband came over for dinner. I knew I wanted to have a dessert, but had no clue what to make. You see, she's a baker and a darn good one and you don't bake a baker a cake! Do you? So, the Hubs came up with Bananas Foster and boy was that a yummy idea :)

We decided to stick with the original recipe from the restaurant that invented Bananas Foster, Brennan's.

BANANAS FOSTER
recipe from Brennan's found here

¼ cup (½ stick) butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup banana liqueur
4 bananas, cut in half
lengthwise, then halved
¼ cup dark rum
4 scoops vanilla ice cream

Directions
1 - Combine the butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a flambé pan or skillet.

2 - Place the pan over low heat either on an alcohol burner or on top of the stove, and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.

3 - Stir in the banana liqueur, then place the bananas in the pan.

4 - When the banana sections soften and begin to brown, carefully add the rum.

5 - Continue to cook the sauce until the rum is hot, then tip the pan slightly to ignite the rum. (P.S. We could not get our rum to catch fire, I Googled the cwrap out of all the things we were doing wrong and got nothing... no flambé for this Birdie).

6 - When the flames subside, (or when you've grown tired of trying to make it catch on fire) lift the bananas out of the pan and place four pieces over each portion of ice cream.

7 - Generously spoon warm sauce over the top of the ice cream and serve immediately.

P.S. We now have a very large bottle of Banana Liqueur, because BevMo only had one kind and it was BIG. So don't be surprised if you see more recipes with Banana Liqueur ;-)

Dark Chocolate Red Wine Cupcakes with Mascarpone Icing

The last time Hubs and I went to my parent's house for dinner, we were supposed to bring a dessert... to be honest it didn't seem like it was mandatory, but when we decided we had eaten enough crap over the holidays and we didn't think we needed dessert... let's just say we haven't heard the end of it.

For Super Bowl were told to bring an appetizer and a dessert. I wanted to make something fabulous, to hopefully, make up for the last time. I thought I'd seen a recipe in my reader for something with mascarpone icing, but it turned out to be for Italian meringue icing... Oops. I had my heart set on making something with mascarpone icing and thought for sure there had to be a way to make mascarpone into icing... I mean, you can do it with cream cheese, right? So, I Googled and found this recipe by Silvana Nardone on Rachel Ray's website.

Dark Chocolate Red Wine Cupcakes w/ Mascarpone Icing

very, very, very slightly adapted from this recipe by Silvana Nardone on Rachel Ray's website

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1/2 cup boiling water
2 sticks (8 ounces) butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1-1/4 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup medium- to full-bodied red wine
Two 8-ounce containers mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners' sugar
Red grapes, halved, for garnish

DIRECTIONS:
1- Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 2 muffin pans with baking liners.

2 - In a medium, metal bowl, combine the cocoa powder and chocolate pieces. Whisk in the boiling water until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is combined.

3 - In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until blended.

4 - Mix flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl.

5 - Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined.

6 - Alternating, add the chocolate mixture and wine in batches, mixing well between each addition, until the batter is smooth.

7 - Divide among the muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan.

8 - Lightly beat the mascarpone, then add the confectioners' sugar and beat until creamy. Remove the cooled cupcakes from the pan, spread each with icing and top with a grape half.

P.S. This is DELISH!! The icing is the perfect light mascarpone topping to the rich chocolaty cakes.

Monkey Bread!

I wish I could describe to you, interwebs, the way I sing Monkey Bread... it's like do, da, dooooo, which makes sense to me, but probably makes no sense to you. Oh, well it makes me smile.

Monkey Bread is another recipe Hubs had been bugging me to make. Geez this weekend was awesome for him! Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars AANNDD Monkey Bread? SCORE!

I had looked all over the internet for a Monkey Bread recipe where I could make my own biscuits instead of just buying the pre-made stuff in the can, and I was fully prepared to go all Martha Stewart and make her recipe, found here, but then a friend told me Hungry Girl had a recipe and I decided to make those instead. As much as I like to make things from scratch as much as possible, with in reason... I chose calories.

Less Monkey Business Monkey Bread
adapted very slightly from this Hungry Girl recipe

Ingredients
3 tbsp. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated), divided
2 tsp. cinnamon, divided
2 tbsp. light whipped butter or light buttery spread (like Brummel & Brown)
2 tbsp. sugar-free pancake syrup
2 tbsp. Splenda brown sugar mix (not packed)
1 package Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Directions
1 - Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 - Mix 1 tbsp. Splenda and 1 tsp. cinnamon in a large bowl or container. Set aside. Spray six cups of a muffin pan with nonstick spray, and set pan aside as well.

3 - Place a small pot on the stove, but do not heat it. Add butter, syrup, Splenda brown sugar mix, 2 tbsp. Splenda, and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Leave this on the unheated stove, to be melted and mixed later on.

4 - Roll out the dough on a clean dry surface, and sprinkle evenly with baking powder. Gently smooth baking powder into the sheet with your fingers.

5 - Cut dough sheet widthwise into six strips equal in size. Cut each strip into four squares. Roll each square into a ball, for a total of 24 dough balls.

6 - Place 12 dough balls in the bowl with the Splenda-cinnamon mixture. Lightly toss to coat.

7 - Place them gently in the muffin pan, with four dough balls in each of the 6 cups.

8 - Bring the small pot on the stove to medium heat. Stirring frequently, heat just until butter has melted and contents are mixed well.

9 - Evenly spoon the butter mixture over the dough balls.

10 - Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes, or until puffy and firm. Allow to cool slightly, and then plate and enjoy!