I could not wait for someone to request this pairing as a commissioned cake, and it finally happened! A friend recalled the chocolate hazelnut cupcakes I had made earlier this year (because sharing cupcakes during tough times is always a good thing) and asked it I could make it as a giant birthday cake. Answer: of course. So here it is in all its glory: four layers of the most heavenly, moist, cloud-like hazelnut cake (made with heaps of finely ground, freshly-roasted hazelnuts because that’s truly the only way to eat these perfumed little beauties), enrobed in the silkiest chocolate hazelnut buttercream, topped with dark chocolate ganache, and then decorated…
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Gluten Free Chocolate Coffee Walnut Layer Cake
Walnuts are the ones that are always left out. They don’t have a whole pie dedicated to them at Thanksgiving, they don’t supply millions of school children (and children at heart) with America’s favorite sandwich, they don’t even make milk (apparently even cashews do now!)! But they are one of my favorite nuts. Arguably the most delicate nut, buttery, with a light crunch and a hint of bitterness that rounds out any treat. I used to add them to my morning bowl of yogurt and berries every day, and still have a strong affinity for their papery skins and carefully-folded contours. So, when we visited friends in Paso Robles a…
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Gluten Free Chocolate Mousse Cake
Chocolate mousse. That lighter-than-air, seemingly miraculous dessert that’s the stuff of high-end restaurants and single-serve custard cups of sublime chocolatey goodness. I’d always balked at the idea of making it at home – intimidated by the technique or what I thought I needed to do to make it. But there are many ways to make a mousse! (feels like that should be a saying…) and this one is gosh darn easy as pie (or cake). In times of isolation and social distancing, tracking those “safe” friends/folks in your bubble and making plans to get gussied up and cook a fancy meal add a bit more excitement to the COVID life.…
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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…
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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),…
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Gluten Free Raspberry Vanilla Bean Layer Cake
Over thirty fires have cropped up across California in the past five days, due to late summer heat waves, high winds, and unexpected lightning and thunder storms. Situated in down-town San Francisco, we’re usually safely far from the path of any wildfires, and only have to worry about smoke-tinged air cloaking the peninsula, blown across the state. But this time they’re even closer to home. There’s a strange cognitive dissonance when fire season starts – while admiring the nectarine-orange sunrises and movie-filter sunsets we’re worried about friends and family around the state and wary of the flash-fire devastation that tore so many from their homes in years past. If our…
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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 Birthday Cake Funfetti Cupcakes
I’ll tell you what, this was one of the most fun recipes I’ve gotten to develop and bake – there’s something about thousands of little tiny sticks of colored sugar that just exude child-like glee (even though we never really made funfetti cake consistently for birthdays when I was a kid). And who knows, with all of the days blending together being stuck inside 24/7 it might as well be my birthday, or yours! or your cat’s! or the dude’s who lives next door! Let’s just say to heck with it all and celebrate our birthdays whenever we want, thank you very much, while we’re all stuck in this amorphous…
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Chocolate Birthday Cake Truffles
If you’ve ever looked longingly at the far-too-adorable-to-eat cake pops that adorn the pastry displays in most Starbucks, hoping one day that the international caffeine empire might realize that making them gluten free wouldn’t actually be that hard (hint hint), you’re not alone. Despite my (albeit tiny) share in Starbucks stock, they still haven’t answered my pleas for decent gluten free options in the sweets department, and so I am forced to make my own way in this cruel world. And thus, these nearly-as-adorable birthday cake truffles were born, and boy are they perfect for your next special-day shindig. Plus, one 9-inch cake makes over three dozen of these bad…
