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,…
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Gluten Free Neapolitan Cupcakes
Anyone else remember getting giant tubs of cheap Neapolitan ice cream at the grocery store as a kid? Some were definitely better than others, and half the time I’m pretty sure I just scooped through the chocolate layer, leaving the less exciting vanilla to the right. But it was glorious – simply having the choice of not one, not two, but THREE ice cream flavors in one bucket? Incredible. And a good strawberry ice cream can’t be beat – the ones with threads of real strawberries throughout, heightened by the heaps of pink dye that made this seem like the perfect summer treat. Bowls or cones, whatever you chose, were…
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Gluten Free Piña Colada Cupcakes
The best piña colada I’ve ever had was also the most difficult to get to. Difficult in a good way – just lots of legs of transportation involved. It was also the best because I got to enjoy it on a tiny beach alongside my younger, taller, sister, Kendra, the other half of Sisters Sans Gluten. We started taking “Sister Trips” every year after our first trip together for Kendra’s 21st birthday, when we both flew down to LA, stayed in our first solo AirBnB, and spent the weekend in Universal Studios (Harry Potter world), around farmers markets and old bookstores and dining halls in downtown LA, and generally being…
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Gluten Free Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
It’s officially winter in San Francisco again – or, as we call it, “summer.” We seem to exist in a perpetual state of fog, sudden breezes that make a wool coat sound like a great idea in July, and brief, spotty, but glorious moments of sun and blue sky. In the midst of everything else going on this year, it’s key to take a moment to appreciate those sun-soaked moments, and then to plan for your next cozy night in in August with heaps of blankets and a good Netflix show (Dark, and Dear White People are fantastic). For those cooler days, these gluten free Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes give…
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Gluten Free Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Cupcakes
Now these cupcakes may have a very adult name, but they don’t have to be just for the adults! These gluten free chocolate bourbon pecan cupcakes are a Southerner’s daydream. Soft and moist chocolate cupcakes with bourbon added, so when they bake the alcohol cooks off but the bourbon flavor stays behind. I have to say, I’m not a bourbon girl myself, but these cupcakes have just the right amount of the flavor, and none of the bight! They’re topped with decadent and much too rich butter pecan buttercream frosting!Other than being sprinkled on top for decoration, the brown sugar roasted pecans are mixed with homemade caramel into this buttercream.…
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Gluten Free Fig and Rosemary Honey Cupcakes
Late summer droops like the slopes of so many purple, green, and yellow figs. I remember reading a book in 6th grade (11 years old) about a young boy in ancient Egypt who embarked on a terrifying adventure through a Pharaoh-dictated city, trying to find and then hide (I think?) a golden vase. Besides the very heat that radiated off the pages that described day after day in the desert, the one thing that stuck bizarrely in my mind from that book was a phrase about figs and how they were the fruit of the divine – something so sweet and sumptuous they were only good enough for the gods.…
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Gluten Free Guava Cheesecake Cupcakes
These gorgeously-pink fairy tale cupcakes are 100% in existence because of a dear friend who, when asked what new cupcake flavors she’d like to see us make, gave us this winning combo: guava cheesecake. What’s not to love? Guava? fantastic. Cheesecake? also fantastic. Cupcakes? awesome. Guava has a light flavor that seems to wrap itself around the cheesecake swirl in a dreamy summer flourish, making us wish we weren’t stuck in smoky San Francisco and instead out somewhere more-frequently sunny and preferably with a swimmable body of water. Thanks Clarissa for championing these incredible cupcakes that are a new favorite. And if you’re lamenting not being able to make these…
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Gluten Free Strawberry Cupcakes
Strawberries are a fruit loved the world round. You see strawberry images on clothing and accessories; and you see strawberry flavored everything in the grocery store. But just switching from strawberry flavoring to a real, fresh strawberry? Absolutely to die for. One of my first memories of my parent’s produce garden was picking the sun-warmed strawberries and biting into them, just for them to be gone in just one quick bite. These gluten free strawberry cupcakes really bring me back to those simpler summers. For the simplest and easiest of desserts, we have to look at strawberries and cream. Now these gluten free strawberry cupcakes are filled with fresh strawberries,…
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Gluten Free Caramel Latte Cupcakes
Caramel is always seen as a difficult thing to make; only trained chefs or your grandmother know how to make it. However, that’s simply not the case. Caramel is finicky and delicious as any other sauce or reduction, but as you know, well worth the effort. Coffee on the other hand, is as easy to make as putting a pod into a machine these days. I may not have experience as a barista, but I know exactly how to make coffee that I love. I started drinking coffee at the young age of ten, when I would steal quick sips of my mother’s coffee drinks from Costco. The rumor that…
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Gluten Free Pomegranate Cupcakes
A pomegranate is a challenge. Certainly if you’ve grown up cracking them open perfectly in Iran or Turkey or Israel, you’ll scoff at the absolute mess most of us in California make when we try to hack into the intricately-marbled honeycomb of garnet beads. The thin, gorgeously-cardinal skin poses both a hefty protection for the fruit inside and an impossibly-flimsy match for any kitchen knife. After years of trying, and looking up tips for getting into the tricky bulb without turning the kitchen into a bloodbath, I think I’ve got some sort of system down. Slicing a neat little square into the top and carefully peeling back the casing until…
