Sometimes, a swirl is all you need in a slice of cake – and hopefully a more elegant one than appeared in this one the first time I made it. But hey! Even when it’s a mess, it can taste fantastic (thank the Eton Mess for calling this out by name). Swiss rolls are definitely daunting baking endeavors (if you really want to feel the stress, watch the British Baking Show’s episode on Swiss rolls), but ultimately, they’re a fairly simple dessert, despite the nerve wracking presentation and actual rolling. The lightness of the sponge cake base is perfect for a gluten free dessert because it relies heavily on egg…
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Peach + Plum Crumble
Crumble, crisp, cobbler, a rose by any other name would smell (and taste) as sweet, and while crumbles and crisps and cobblers are actually quite different, they all celebrate the caramelized glory of fresh fruit and buttery toppings in all forms and flavors. This peach+plumb crumble is no exception. Honestly, this one may be toeing the line between crumble and cobbler, though cobbler does specifically distinguish its topping from all the rest as “biscuit” dough, so I think we’re safe here with crumble. While this is a great way to add one final hoorah to stone fruit season, it can be done year round with frozen (and thawed) fruit options.…
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Gluten Free Strawberry Ginger Snacking Cake
Dusky summer evenings or hazy summer afternoons are best enjoyed with friends. And by friends I mean wedges of cake – namely, this gluten free strawberry snacking cake. I realize I’m a bit late to the pool party (unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, in which case, get ready for a summer full of this ruby-studded dream, we’re jealous), but if you happen to pick up a pint or two of the season’s tail-end strawberries, by all means make this cake and enjoy it too. This baking endeavor was inspired by the ineffable genius of Bon Appetit mag, who made it their mission earlier this summer to create THE strawberry…
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Gluten Free Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Balsamic Cherries
I don’t know about you, but upon taking the first bite of any cheesecake, all brain and muscle function seems to slow to a cozy, foggy crawl as I wrap my tastebuds around the unbelievable richness. If you can relate, make sure you’re in a safe, comfortable space before digging into this heap of creamy calories. This is the kind of dessert you either make for a crowd when you’re not sure how the dinner conversation is going to go and you’ve got this up your sleeve to knock all your guests into an instant coma and render the evening a resounding success. Or, you make it ahead of time…
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Key Lime Pie Tartlets
Key Lime Pie is one of those mouth-wateringly-tart treats that simply melts you into a puddle of glee that summer is still here. Full disclosure: I’ve never actually made a real key lime pie, in fact, I didn’t even know that key limes were an entirely separate fruit than regular everyday limes until I was about 12. Upon learning this, though, I changed nothing and went on making key lime pies with all the regular lime juice I could squeeze. Because, in all honesty, who wants to search around for key limes or key lime juice when you’re one can of condensed milk and three limes away from creamy, tart,…
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Ricotta Tart with Figs and Rosemary Honey
Sometimes, you just want to make a pretty dessert. I mean, it’s ideal if it’s both pretty and tastes fantastic, so we’re gunning for the two, but pretty things are so lovely to place on a table for friends just for the satisfaction of watching everyone pull out their phones and happily snap away in competition for the best instagram photo. Remember when people just looked at food and then ate it without a single care to preserving the moment in filtered glory? Those were not the days, in our opinion – it’s actually quite wonderful to see so many folks with a newfound passion for photography simply because of…
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Summer Peach Upside Down Cake
Every summer in southern Oregon, our family would pile into the car in late July, trunk full of empty Costco boxes, crates, bags and coolers – any receptacle sturdy and large enough to carry home our precious, fragile cargo. The outing always seemed to land on one of the hottest, driest days of the deepest parts of summer, so seeking refuge in the leafy shade of acres of peach trees seemed the right thing to do. If any of you got the chance to go peach picking while you were growing up you may have the same sticky-sweet nostalgia that sinks you into a million summer moments when you bite…
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Gluten Fre Double Decker Banana Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
This gluten free banana chocolate cake celebrates those hard-to-eat chocolate-dipped frozen bananas that always seemed to appear at summer county fairs or your neighbor’s pool party treat trays, but it makes it way easier for you to enjoy the floral, soft appeal of bananas and the (of course) dreamy addition of chocolate of any kind. Plus, biting into a frozen banana now sounds like a dentally discomforting ordeal so why not eat a cake instead? The double-decker banana cake with chocolate cream cheese buttercream frosting is that cake and by golly it’s easy to make, just you wait and see how decadent something so simple can look. This recipe is…
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Gluten Free Lemoniest Lemon Bars
These are the least-stable of gluten free lemon bars, the ones that essentially come out as the butteriest, meltiest, most addictingly wonderful lemon goop but boy are they worth it. So much so that a dear friend and former roommate of mine, who happens to like moving to a different country quite frequently, won’t let oceans or national borders stand between her and her citrus fix from these delectable squares. In fact, when I recently visited her in Vienna, Austria, I made sure to prep the dry ingredients in a ziplock and stow it away in my checked bag to make our roomie reunion even sweeter (and tarter). If you’re…
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Gluten Free Dark Chocolate Cherry Cake with Buttercream Frosting
For years now, I’ve had one go-to gluten free chocolate cake (see Chocolate Zucchini Cake), and don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic, but chocolate cake is one of those desserts that can express multitudes of characteristics depending on the subtle notes of coffee, sour cream, cinnamon, and any other added complementary ingredients. So a goal of mine is to search for and develop a handful of favorite chocolate cake recipes, each of which will be best suited for a different flavor pairing (cherry and buttercream being one) and which allow me to show off new baking skills. This chocolate cake leans heavily on two ingredients to give it its elegant…
