GF MOIST Carrot Cake

Oh boy do I love a good slice of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! It's really too good to be true. I searched and searched online for a recipe that had ingredients I had already had; besides the fresh carrots and cream cheese, I didn't really want to shop much. And it turned out more than fabulous! The coconut isn't inside the cake, just on the outside for looks. I doubled the recipe so I could layer the cake, then was still able to make about 14 cupcakes. See below.

Cake: 
2 cups GF All Purpose Flour (I used Namaste)
3 teasp baking powder
1 3/4 teasp baking soda
1 teasp salt
1 teasp cinnamon
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons corn oil
4 eggs slightly beaten
1 tablspmayo
2 cups grated carrots (1 small bag of baby carrots worked good)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
(1) 8.5 ounce can crushed pinapple with juice

Cream Cheese Frosting: (if frosting is too thick, add drops of milk)
1/2 cup butter softened
8 ounces cream cheese softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

How to make:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease pan.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt & cinnamon.
3. Add sugar, corn oil, eggs & mayo
4. Stir well.
5. Sir in the carrots, nuts & pineapple.
6. Spread the greased pan & bake for 30 minutes

Baby CakesNYC in Los Angeles, CA

Since my Jan 2010 diagnosis of Celiac Disease, I have been wanting to go to this famous bakery. Although the cupcakes are to DIE FOR, there wasn't much of a variety of selections. I did however enjoy a carrot cake, red velvet, and a chocolate topper. All of these shared with my husband of course. But I could have easily eaten them all on my own! Yay for Gluten Free bakeries!

GF Sugar Cookies

SO DELICIOUS guys!

Ingredients: 

3/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp pure vanilla

5 cups GF flour (I used Namaste) 

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

Instructions:

Cream the shortening, sugar and butter together. After it is light and fluffy, add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating after each egg is added to the sugar mixture. Add the vanilla and beat. Sift together 5 cups of flour with 2 tsp baking powder and 2 tsp of salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly so the flour doesn't fly everywhere.

Chill dough for 1 hour. Divide the dough into 3 or 4 balls and then roll them out, one at a time on a floured surface to the thickness you desire. I like them about 1/4" thick. Cut the cookies out with cookie cutters and lift with a flexible spatula to the cookie sheets. Bake them at 400 degrees for about 6-8 minutes, be careful not to let them brown. Cool, frost and decorate.

This recipe is my brother's- sister-in law's Brittany Devine's. I had these when I wasn't GF, they were amazing, so I was hesitant to try them GF because they might not hold up to those expectations... but man they were SO DELICIOUS!

In the cookies shown above, I used cream cheese frosting because I had some left over.

GF Flourless Cake; Gourmandise; SLC, UT

I've been going to this marvelous place (Gourmandise Bakery) for a year now, since they carry this amazing cake. It's a decadence cake, and quite the dessert. So go treat yourself.

GF flourless (easy) Peanut Butter Cookies

While at home over Christmas break, my sis Bree made the yummiest, easiest cookies ever. See below if you want in on the secrets.

Recipe: 

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 cup PB (not crunchy, duh)

1 large egg

Small bag of mini Reese's PB cups (cut in half)

Makes about 20 cookies.

The smaller the cookie, the better. You'll realize that later when you eat a big one that it is so rich, it will take you forever to finish just one! So small is best. Oh and don't grease the pan unless you have to.

 Heat in oven for 6-9 minutes at 350. I cut the Reeses in half before I started to cook because you want to be prepared to stick them on the cookie while they're still warm.

Let cool with tin foil over them (not in fridge) and serve when the Reese's are hardened again. I like to eat them the day after because they're not as rich. The first day, it's sorta overwhelming. But the second day is just right and they become very addicting.

GF Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcake

You guys, these cupcakes are too good to be true. Serious. MOIST is the key word (even though most people hate reading and saying this word, I had to say it because it's the best word to describe the texture.) I've made them 3 times now and each time, I have never been anything but satisfied. I've paid a lot of money for GF cupcakes and never have felt that any amount of money was worth it. You know how sometimes living on an allergy diet will make you suddenly impulsive when it comes to things that typically are not gluten free? Ya not store-bought cupcakes. You gotta just make these and if they make more than you wanted, just stick them in your freezer and take them out when you want a treat. You'll never want to eat anyone else's cupcakes again! So beware. It's a big commitment.

SERVINGS

16 Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)

1 package Bob's Red Mill gluten-free chocolate cake mix

2/3 cup applesauce (you can make you own, if you wish)

1/3 cup milk (this works with soy or rice milk too)

1 tablespoon lemon juice (however, we were out, and used apple cider vinegar)

2 large eggs

1/3 cup hot water (110°)

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

PREPARATIONS

1.Preparing for baking. Preheat the oven to 350°. Bring all the ingredients to room temperature. Line a muffin tin with muffin liners (I don't line them just because they won't be messy to eat later.)

2. Making the batter. In the bowl of the stand mixer, start beating the butter until it is creamy. Add the cake mix, the applesauce, the milk, the lemon juice, and the eggs. Beat at low speed for 30 seconds, scraping down the sides when necessary. Raise the speed to low-medium and let it run for another moment. Add the hot water and the vanilla extract. Run the mixer for one more minute, scraping down the sides.

3. Baking the cupcakes. Carefully spoon the cupcake batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the cupcakes or your oven. Allow them to cool in the cupcake tin for 10 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack and let them sit for another 20 minutes before eating.

Cream Cheese Frosting anyone? Yes please!

Ingredients: 

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 stick of butter, softened

3 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted (I never sift and it turns out awesome!)

1/8 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. With a mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter.

2. Add salt & vanilla

3. Slowly pour in powdered sugar. Mix until the frosting is creamy; be careful not to overmix.

I got the cupcake recipe from here.

Don't we love flour{less} anything??

Here is a recipe of flourless chocolate cake. I always try to find recipes that call for ingredients that can be found in my pantry on any given day.

Betty Crocker's GF Brownies

I hope you guys have all become aware of Betty's GF line. They have cookies, cakes and brownies. So far I have tried the cookies, baked the brownies and love them both! I can't wait to try the cake sometime soon. What I love about her recipes & mixes are how moist they are (sorry for using that word, I know it's a universally hated term) but it's very true and quite hard to avoid the dry, grainy taste of GF food & treats. I took them to a dinner party the other night, and some people didn't even know they were GF ! They seriously taste identical.

ps. My first own brownie mix encounter was with Red Mill company and seriously died I hated it so much. I had to eat it with tons of ice cream & even added chocolate chips after trying the raw mix.

ps2. I have heard that sometimes on Amazon.com, they have promotions for GF products or maybe just Betty's entire line all together. But if you sign up for something, you get 30% off whatever you order, and I think what you order is 4 of one of the above (4 boxes of the GF chocolate chip cookies). So if you have GF friends/neighbors/family/church friends, maybe you can do a trade and have them all go in on it, so it's like you get 4 boxes, 1 of each instead of 4 of the same mix.