Chocolate may be able to stand on its own two legs just fine without any flavorings, but you’ve got to hand it to the Olmec, Aztecs, and Mayans for unlocking not only the fact that chocolate is, well, great, but producing the first fermented chocolate drinks and adding in complimentary notes like cinnamon, nutmeg, and chili. According to the good ol’ wikipedia, the Olmec were the first to turn the strangely-fruity cocoa beans (surrounded by a white fleshy pulp – which actually tastes great) into alcoholic drinks (good idea, Olmec) as early as 1750 BCE (a hell of a long time ago) around present-day Veracruz, Mexico. From that pivotal moment…
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Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
We may be late to the banana bread train (so many amazing loaves out there that we’ve seen during shelter in place), but it’s never too late for a good ol’ fashioned slice of this stuff. While I do adore traditional banana bread (who first thought “hey, I have a bunch of near-mush brown bananas, let’s put them in a quick bread!) and its roots in deeply homey, practical, and penny-wise baking, but there are a few twists that, for me, make some very excellent banana bread/cake. This particular recipe leans more towards cake than quick-bread (hence the nifty bundt pan instead of the loaf pan), and it’s hands down…
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Gluten Free Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes
There is nothing quite like chocolate. The sensory flourish that envelopes you when taking a bite of chocolate ice cream, or the incredible nuance of the unfolding flavor in a snap of a thin dark chocolate bar. Or the other-worldly dreaminess of a truffle. If you’re already nodding in agreement, check out these other recipes too in addition to making these gluten free chocolate truffle cupcakes! Our German Chocolate cupcakes, or jammy strawberry brownies, or coffee chocolate cupcakes, or this criminally-easy magic chocolate pudding cake. Chocolate is a favorite of nearly everyone in my family – but perhaps most-notable is my Grandma Avis’s penchant for keeping cupboards and freezers well-stocked…
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Gluten Free Strawberry Lemonade Tiered Cake
Summers are for lemonade and sunblock and big, cloudless skies that seem to expose more of the world than in any other season. If you’re still stuck inside (or if you also live in San Francisco or various areas up in the PNW) then those big skies might still be a little out of reach, depending on your windows. But lemonade and sunblock are totally in-season, and anything that involves the two sounds like a plan for a great sun-soaked day. One positive adjustment that many folks seem to be making during shelter in place is a newfound love of parks. Now, it’s arguable whether your neighborhood 2×2 block green…
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Gluten Free Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes
A cinnamon roll is like a warm, buttery, sugary, comforting hug. For your mouth. Honestly, what a flavor combo: brown sugar, butter, cinnamon – just a bowl of that alone can instantaneously turn off all of the stress of another work-from-home-during-a-pandemic morning and transport you to a cozy, blanketed couch next to a roaring fire with a few dozen kittens napping peacefully at your side. The down side is the prep time and baking time for cinnamon rolls – when you’re already late to the 5th zoom call in a row, baking a cozy breakfast is the last thing on your to-do list. So, these gluten free cinnamon roll cupcakes…
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Gluten Free Pistachio Raspberry Rose Cupcakes
As we continue shelter in place ordinances, I’ve been reminiscing about travel from last year, or even from the first two months of 2020. While it’s actually been quite fun to re-discover our own neighborhood and take time to just enjoy San Francisco and its many (way more than I thought) local parks, there’s something nebulous and intangibly lovely about international travel that, once you’ve tasted it, remains as an ache or a longing at the back of your head and your heart. If you’re fortunate enough to have had the chance to travel, even just a bit, beyond your national borders, may you treasure those memories and experiences forever.…
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Gluten Free Matcha Latte Cupcakes
When I got to travel to Japan just after my senior year of university I was more than a bit excited to find anything and everything matcha-flavored at the corner convenience stores. Matcha is one of those love or strongly-dislike flavors that is at once earthy and light, teasingly sweet but also pleasantly savory. If you love it, then of course Japan is the place to be to indulge in both the best straight matcha you can find, and explore a whole new world of culinary delights like matcha pudding cups or matcha pastries or matcha milk bread (the latter two I definitely could not partake in but at least…
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Gluten Free German Chocolate Cupcakes
I distinctly remember scooping giant spoonfuls of Betty Crocker German Chocolate Frosting out of the plastic tub it comes in, and eating it gleefully when I was maybe eight or nine. Prying off the red plastic top to find perfectly-solidified caramel custard, pecan and coconut goop was like finding buried treasure. How I got my hands on the tub of frosting in the first place is the real question – either very impressive childhood sneaking into the kitchen and up into the baking cupboards, or maybe we all just indulged after making a cake or cupcakes or something more reasonable. Overall, this penchant for German Chocolate topping aligns with what…
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Gluten Free Banoffee Pie Cupcakes
After a year in the “real world” – post undergrad – three of my dearest friends and I were living in a 525 square foot, 2-bedroom apartment in Mountain View, figuring out what we wanted the next phase of life to be. In all honesty, I do not know how four girls managed to live in the tiniest of apartments with about as much space to move around as a shoebox. Miraculously, we all still like each other today and somehow managed to never need the one-bathroom at the same time. It was a time of cheese parties with heaps of European gems picked up at the local Milk Pail…
