Grown up tea parties are the best. Something so simple but so out of the ordinary (at least here in the States it is – we’re jealous of the normalcy high tea and tea in general enjoy across the pond). High tea is particularly fun because of the veritable tower of treats that usually accompanies a good cream tea or pot of other varieties of hot beverage. We’ve gotten lucky enough to sample gluten free high teas on three continents now – here in the US, around London of course, and one of the best ones yet was at the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa. If…
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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 Almond and White Chocolate Sprinkles Cookies
These are the happiest cookies I’ve ever made. It’s amazing how gleeful you can get tossing cookie dough into heaps of rainbow sprinkles. Sprinkles! They’re such a great invention! These cookies are an homage to the incredible Liz of Cup of Ambition – another stellar baking blog that you should absolutely check out right now. It’s not all gluten free but it’s super inspirational and has some great gluten free options! She has an awesome Sprinkles Cookies recipe over there and after staring at her photos and wishing I had one of those pockets-of-sunshine on my brief lunch break (here’s to working from home and having a “home office” right…
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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…
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Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Anyone else remember the old Bananas in Pajamas routine? I have a vague memory of the “Bananas, in pyjamas, are coming down the stairs…” theme song and the animated intro, but after looking it up just now to refresh my memory, it seems I completely missed the actual show. Human-sized teddy bears and bananas have every-day adventures in brightly-lit homes and sunny backyards. The episode I happened upon was “Pink Spots,” a rather timely short about one of the teddy bears coming down with a case of, you guessed it, pink spots. Alarmingly, neither teddy bear was wearing a mask, and even after proclaiming “you must be sick, Morgan!” the…
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Gluten Free Browned Butter Blueberry Cupcakes
Food can be a small, or a big, comfort. There’s something about warm bread or flavors of childhood favorites or family recipes that envelope us in something akin to a culinary hug – holding us in the realm of blurry nostalgia or in a space where no harm can befall us. There are so many families hurting right now – from the effects of police brutality or the unrelenting COVID or other loss, or just day to day struggles. To any and all of you who are hurting now, we send our support and love, and hope that tomorrow feels a little lighter, or holds you a bit tighter than…
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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 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 Irish Soda Bread
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In uncertain times, traditions (at least ones that still allow for responsible social distancing) are often my go-to to stay comforted. Chiefly among those various traditions is food: in all forms, from family, from holidays past or from more recent gatherings of roommates or coworkers or long-distance friends. Maybe now is even the time to create some new traditions that stabilize the uncertainty or ground us in delicious and memorable moments. One of the more holidays long-past traditions for my family is a big ol’ feast on St Paddy’s day, complete with hunks of corned beef, buttery cabbage, perfectly-roasted carrots, and even more buttery potatoes. For…
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Gluten Free Roasted Hazelnut and Chocolate Snow Cookies
One of my dearest friends now lives a million miles away in the fairy-tale land of Vienna, Austria. Her moving was terrible news, until I considered the fact that this undisputedly meant that I had to travel to said fairy-tale land to visit her at least once a year. Not a bad deal. The first time I visited it was the second week of December, and Vienna, let alone us, was entirely frozen. Nevertheless, the city has a marvelous way of distracting you from the bone-chilling cold by decking itself in heaps of holiday lights and decorations, and by constructing myriad Christmas markets (or Adventmarkt/Weihnachtsmarkt) that seem to magically appear…
