I’m a tea drinker – any coffee and my heart thinks it’s part of a horse race and my brain bounces off ALL of the mental walls faster than tonight’s debate dissolved into absolute carnivalistic absurdity. So the coffee in the photo shoot for these cupcakes was, I’m sure, absolutely terrible, made from instant coffee granules (GREAT for baking) and promptly tossed out after the winning shots were captured. But! I do love a good coffee-infuse/flavored/enrobed baked good. Or coffee ice cream – I’ll take that any day before 6pm. These gorgeously indulgent cupcakes have not only a luxurious chocolate cupcake (with Irish Cream Liqueur), but they’re filled with –…
-
-
Black Lives Matter Glazed Gluten Free Chocolate Shortbread with Cacao Nibs
Black Lives Matter. Breonna Taylor was 26 when she was murdered. If any of you are parents, let me ask you – if your child was killed by police, what would you do? How would you feel? While she was sleeping. I’d hope you’d want your child, presumably one of the people you hold most dear in this world, to sleep safely every night of their lives. What explanation would placate you if you were told your child was now dead, having been shot to death by people (police – those meant to “protect and serve”) entering her home while she slept and firing into her sleeping body? Would there…
-
Gluten Free Lemon Basil Cupcakes
I remember the day I first tried this lemon+basil combo in something sweet. I’d always been a huge lemon and a huge basil fan – topping fix with squeezes of lemon wedges and adding in ad much fresh basil as I possibly could to bolognese or tossing fresh sprigs on a platter of sliced tomatoes and burrata. But together? It was deep summer back in Ashland, Oregon, I think while I was still in high school. Maybe a weekend since we were wandering around in the plaza downtown in the early, hot afternoon. We ducked into Mix, our favorite tiny coffee+sweets shop on the edge of the line of shops,…
-
Gluten Free Tahini Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ever heard of pan-baking cookies? It might sound like they’re so good you just can’t help smacking the pan of right-out-of-the-oven beauties on the counter. It might be a little bit of that, but it’s a tried and true baking ‘technique’ that creates little ripples around the edge of your cookies as the center, still-gooey dough settles in. These are our first take on those – a bit stiffer because they’re tahini-packed, so they don’t have the most destinct ripples like the famous pan-banging chocolate chip cookies by Sarah Kieffer (we REALLY want to try out recipes in her book, “100 Cookies”) but they’re a start! What these cookies do…
-
Gluten Free Vanilla Lavender Trans Pride Layer Cake
The great thing about baking, and any food really, is that it can carry messages. We’ve gotten the chance to bake for movements and missions that are so much bigger than ourselves this year, and that chance is worth so much. This cake is another one of those chances: Trans rights are human rights, end of story. Aside from the fact that some of our longest, most wonderful friends are trans women, men, and people, every human being deserves the right to express themselves and be who they are meant to be in the most honest, real way they can, and it’s not any of our place to “correct” them…
-
Mini Gluten Free Fruit-Topped Cheesecakes
Sometimes you have to improvise. Or, better yet, you’re given the opportunity to. Like when you make mini cinnamon roll pavlovas and have a MASSIVE amount of cream cheese custard (aka pretty much the same as cheesecake filling) leftover and some extra time in the day. So, with waning light for a photoshoot, I set to work adding a few extra things to the giant bowl of custard, and tossing together a quick, nut-based crust. I really had to get creative with the toppings for these, seeing as I hadn’t been to the store in a week and the fruit I had left in the fridge was…a bit sad. Thankfully,…
-
Mini Gluten Free Cinnamon Roll Pavlovas
These were definitely one of the messiest desserts I’ve ever made. So much so that I nearly thought the photoshoot was going to be one giant, dripping disaster. But they’re decent! And they taste fantastic. I’d never made cinnamon meringue before so was worried how it was going to turn out, flavor wise, but with a light cinnamon touch in the pavlovas themselves, and a heavier cinnamon glaze, it balances out. The cream cheese custard is perfectly satisfying – much heavier and creamier than the airy, marshmallowy pavlova, and creamier than the heavily-spiced glaze. They’re a bit of work, but worth it for a messy treat. And! They’re part of…
-
Gluten Free Quinoa Almond Flax Waffles with Pistachio Cream and Strawberry Rhubarb Rose Compote
Ever have one of those weekend mornings when you wake up and think, I’m not just going to eat that little container or leftovers or a mug of tea for breakfast? No, this morning, none of those grab-and-go week-morning breakfasts will cut it. You need a proper prepared, leveled-up, arrives on a silver platter breakfasts and gosh darn it you’re going to make it yourself because going out for a brunch that costs 10X what the ingredients worth is not going to agree with your bank account (and, in my case, it’s hella smoky and COVID is still a thing so staying home has its perks). This breakfast is for…
-
Gluten Free Kiwi Lime Tart
Are you a kiwi skin on or skin off type of person? I was always a skin off, slice in half short ways, around the equator of the fuzzy brown fruit, and scoop out the electric-green kaleidoscope with a spoon type of person. It wasn’t until I got the chance to travel to Australia when I was 13 that I first encountered a faction of skin-on folks. What a world this is. The trip was with People to People Student Ambassador program, started by Eisenhower in hopes of promoting cultural exchange and friendship through sending teenagers in delegations abroad to learn and meet people and generally foster greater awareness of…
-
Gluten Free Chocolate Raspberry Birthday Cake
In Harry Potter, Professor Lupin gives Harry, Hermione, and Ron chocolate after the first bizarre and harrowing encounter with dementors, and you’ve got to hand it to him, he knows how to cure a case of the willies. For any anti-chocolaters out there, apologies in advance for this post, but you’re probably not reading it anyway after seeing the gargantuan photo of an ALL CHOCOLATE cake, so, oh well. My sister and I have always loved chocolate. When we were little, we’d frequently have chocolate ice cream rings around our mouths, or would choose the flourless chocolate cake (often times the only gluten free dessert option but we’re not complaining),…
