Tag: baking

Easy Homemade Toffee

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Ingredients:

  • 1.5 cups of Almonds
  • 1 pound of unsalted butter (4 sticks)
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 cups of sugar
  • 1 bag (12 oz) of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt flakes

Directions:

  1. Chop up almonds by pulsing them in a food processor.
  2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone pad.
  3. Sprinkle half of the almonds onto the baking sheet.
  4. In a large saucepan, over low heat add the butter, salt and sugar.
  5. Turn heat up to medium/high, stir occasionally, to melt the mixture and bring it to a boil. It is ready when it turns an almond brown color, about 10 minutes.
  6. Pour the mixture over the almonds on the cookie sheet.
  7. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top and use a spatula to spread the chocolate around.
  8. Sprinkle the remaining chopped almonds over the top of the chocolate layer.
  9. Sprinkle sea salt flakes over the top.
  10. Let it cool completely and then cut into squares.

– PIN THIS –Homemade Toffee

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Chocolate Caramel Rice Krispy Treats

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I can’t believe this is my 50th video! Thank you to everyone for your love and support over the last year. It’s been such a fun ride and can’t wait to see what the next 50 videos hold! Don’t forget to let me know what videos you want to see by leaving a comment below, on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

This dessert is sure to be a crowd pleaser. An easy, no bake recipe if you need a last minute treat to bring to a party this weekend.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

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About a month ago I had the pleasure of baking for my friend’s wedding. Baking is a hobby but this was my first time of doing it for almost 200 people at one event. My friend suffers from celiac disease so we worked on plan to make all the desserts gluten free.  It was a big undertaking and I definitely put a few miles on my KitchenAid mixer.

The dessert menu for the night:

  • Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
  • Cake Pops
  • Coconut Macaroons
  • Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
  • Chocolate Caramel Rice Krispy Treats (check the blog next week for this recipe!)

Red Velvet Cake Ingredients:

  • 2.5 cups of all purpose gluten free flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
  • 2 hefty tablespoons unsweetened coca powder
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 1 cup almond milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1.5 cups of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon of red food coloring gel
  • 1.5 cups vegetable oil

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

  • 1 bar of cream cheese (8oz)
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 2-3 cups of confection sugar

Cake Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill muffin pan with liners.
  2. In a small bowl pour in almond milk and apple cider vinegar. Do not stir, set aside in order for it to develop into “buttermilk.”
  3. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, coca powder, salt, baking soda and xanthan gum.
  4. In a mixer on medium speed, beat together the eggs, vegetable oil and sugar until blended together.
  5. Add vanilla and food color to mixer and blend together.
  6. In 3 batches mix in flour mixture, alternating with 2 batches of the “buttermilk” mixture.
  7. Bake for about 15 minutes (for mini muffin pan) or until toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting Directions:

  1. In a mixer beat together cream cheese and butter.
  2. Add one cup of confection sugar at a time, mixing in between. The amount of sugar you add depends on your taste level of sweetness.
  3. The frosting can be made up to 3 days in advance and stored in the fridge.

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Pumpkin Muffins

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Every year my parents host Thanksgiving, it’s always a huge crowd of friends (since our family is on the east coast) with an abundance of food & drinks. Our one family friend always brings these delicious pumpkin muffins and I’m always dying for the recipe. This year, they were so gracious to share the recipe since we decided to travel to North Carolina where my parents recently got a house and do Thanksgiving on the beach. It was my duty to make the muffins and I hope I did them justice (with just a few little tweaks to make them gluten free). Let’s just say I had to hide them because I’m worried there won’t be any left for Thanksgiving tomorrow! Enjoy!

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Makes 24 muffins

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all purpose gluten free flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cans of pumpkin puree
  • ¾ cup butter at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup Walnuts (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 325°. Prepare muffin tins with liners.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground cloves & nutmeg.  Set aside.
  3. In the mixer, beat together sugar with butter on medium speed until just blended.
  4. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is very light and fluffy.
  5. Beat in pumpkin puree.
  6. On low speed, beat in flour mixture until combined.
  7. Stir in nuts.
  8. Pour batter into muffins tins.
  9. Bake muffins for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

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This no bake dessert packs so much goodness in one little bite. I prefer to make these mini because they are so rich, especially if you are using dark chocolate. I have a lot of pregnant friends right now and this dessert seems to be satisfying those sweet tooth cravings.

Makes 24 mini cups

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup of butter
  • 3/4 cup of chunky peanut (or almond) butter
  • 3/4 cup of gluten free graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/4 cup of sugar
  • 1 cup dark (or semisweet) chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup of milk (I use almond milk)
  • Sea Salt

Steps:

  1. Line muffin tin with papers.
  2. In microwave safe bowl, melt the butter and peanut butter together for 45 seconds. Stir until smooth. Add graham crackers crumbs and sugar, mix to combine.
  3. Distribute mixture evenly between prepared muffin cups (using an ice cream scoop helps this process). Tap muffin pan on counter to help settle the mixture in the tins. Freeze for 5 minutes to set peanut butter layer.
  4. Combine chocolate chips and milk in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 25 second intervals until chocolate is melted. Stir until smooth.
  5. Distribute evenly over top of peanut butter layer. Tap muffin pan on counter to help settle the chocolate in the tins.
  6. Wait 2 minutes for chocolate to cool a little, then sprinkle with sea salt. Chill until firm. Store covered in fridge or freezer.

Recipe adapted from Blue Eyed Bakers

How to Make Cake Pops

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These delicious cake pops are much easier to make than they look. I promise you no one will have just one. I figured about 4 cake pops equal 1 cupcake, so don’t feel so bad when you go for seconds, or thirds….right!?!

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Gluten Free Zucchini Bread

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My mom has this recipe book that is older than I am. The cover is burnt off, the pages are torn and spilled on but it contains some of the best tasting recipes. I have been craving the Zucchini bread that she always made when I was younger, so I got the recipe and altered it for my gluten free lifestyle (plus I cut out some of the sugar and oil as well).

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 cup sugar
  • 2 cups (about 3 medium sized) shredded zucchini
  • 3 cups gluten free flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Using a food processor, shred the zucchini.
  3. Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer and then evenly distribute into loaf pan. Bake 1 hour.

Mom’s recipe book!

Wedding DIY: Takeout Boxes

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I got some requests to do more wedding DIY tutorials and I was super happy to comply!

I’m a big advocate on trying to make weddings greener and not have as much waste. For this week’s video, I saw these biodegradable kraft takeout boxes and thought they were a great way to send guests home with leftover wedding cake. How many times have you seen uneaten slices just sitting on the tables!?!

These takeout boxes are not only for weddings, use them at dinner parties to send guests home with leftovers so that you never have to worry about getting your Tupperware returned to you.

I’ve also included a recipe for my signature Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies that you can use to fill your boxes and turn them into wedding favors.

Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel, so close to the 1,000 goal!

Materials:

  • Tags – Michaels
  • “Thanks” Stamp  -Target

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20130509-220148.jpgUse at Thanksgiving and other dinner parties to send home leftovers with your guests

20130509-220203.jpgAdd your wedding monogram

Gluten Free Banana Bread

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This post is way overdo, things have been a little busy lately!

Whenever I have bananas that have ripened too much I throw them in the freezer to use in smoothies or in this banana bread recipe (just let them thaw before baking). This is my mom’s classic banana bread recipe which I converted to be gluten free. It will yield about 18 cupcakes or 1 loaf of bread. Enjoy!

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Ingredients:

  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 cups gluten free flour
  • 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
  • pinch of salt
  • 3 mashed bananas

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Using a mixer, beat egg and sugar together.
  3. Beat in butter to egg and sugar mixture.
  4. Add flour, baking soda, bananas and salt to mixture.
  5. Bake muffins for about 15 minutes.

Gluten Free Vanilla Cake w/ Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

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Smash cakes seem to be the new thing for a youngster’s birthday, a small round cake that the kid can dive into and get messy with.  I had a request this past weekend to bake a smash cake and cupcakes for my favorite 1 year old’s birthday. I went with a classic vanilla cake with fresh strawberry icing, recipe below.

In addition, I made a number “1” topper for the cake. Cut out the number 1 on card stock paper, paint with Mod Podge Glue and sprinkle with gold glitter. Once that dries make sure you do a coat of Mod Podge over the glitter, this seals the glitter so that it doesn’t fall onto the cake. Then hot glue the number to a toothpick.

If you live in the Phoenix area and like to bake I highly suggest you check out ABC Cake Baking Supply Store. They have everything you need from baking pans, decorations, cookie cutters, boxes, etc. Last week was my first time to the store and I was memorized by all the stuff they had.

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Addie enjoying her smash cake

Gluten Free Classic Vanilla Cake (original recipe from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten free baking flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup low-fat buttermilk

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 5-by-3-inch cake pan, tapping out excess flour. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined.
  3. Fill pan 3/4 full with batter; smooth top. Bake until cakes pull away from sides of pans, 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.

Baker’s Note: This recipe makes enough for the smash cake and about a dozen cupcakes. Also, when it came to the cake I did the toothpick rule when testing to see if it is ready.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing (original recipe from Food.com)

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup butter, room temp (1 stick)
  • 1/2 cup pureed fresh strawberries
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, room temp
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups confectioners’ sugar (powder sugar)

Directions:

  1. Using a mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until nice and smooth.
  2. Add the vanilla extract and pureed strawberries.
  3. Gradually add the powder sugar until it has the consistency and sweetness you desire. You can alter this to your liking. If you make it a bit too sweet, add just a little bit of lemon juice. This will help balance out the sweetness.

Baker’s Note: I realized after making this that it is a icing rather than a frosting, the consistency isn’t as thick as traditional frosting.