Happy Birthday: Gluten Free Cake

I love birthdays. And weddings. And really anything that will allow me to have or attend a party and eat delicious food and more importantly; dessert.

This past weekend we all headed to Calgary to celebrate my sister-in-laws birthday. This made me so happy because:

#1: it was just family and I'm still revelling in all of our family being so close

#2: my kids are the only kids (for a few more months) that were there so they get lots of love and kisses and attention from everyone but me (which means I get to actually sit back and enjoy myself)

#3: we only had to drive 1.5 hours to attend instead of having to drive 1.5 hours, fly 4 then drive another 30 minutes to get there.

Being home is so great.

But anyway, back to the party. It was a lot of fun and because though it was a party for a beautiful and successful and mature adult it was still filled with fun treats (aka homemade chocolates), fancy drinks (punch with puree'd fruit), and lots of pink (lots).

I wanted to do something special for the birthday girl so I offered to make her cake. Now, I'm no cake decorator; I spent hours trying to figure out which icing recipe to use, but this birthday girl eats Gluten-Free so I thought tackling a GF birthday cake would be a nice little treat for her since everyone is still sort of adjusting to her diet.

Making the cake was easy.

Decorating the cake was easy (surprise!).

But finding all of the ingredients in a new city without my favourite store near by (Bulk Barn where are you???) was a bit tricky.

I had to premix my own gluten free flour (though I could have bought pre-mixed I was going for the true 'baked from scratch' approach). Then add all of the other ingredients like a usual cake.

It turned out awesome. It wasn't too heavy, not too dry and overall great.

I got some great response from the birthday girl, another gluten-free party goer, and everyone else. The cake was a hit.

So, though this recipe was tricky for me to find the ingredients I blame that on me not knowing my new city well enough and the lack of my favourite store. No big deal. Once you have what you need this cake is fast and easy to make and I'd be happy to make another one next year.

Happy Birthday Toot.

Gluten Free Birthday Cake

Flour Mix

(I'm assuming you can use this flour mix in any recipe...I'm going to try to use it to make some muffins, I will let you know if it works)

1 cup corn starch

½ cup brown rice flour

½ cup white rice flour

1 cup potato starch

½ cup corn flour

½ cup tapioca starch

4 tsp xantham gum (I used Guam Gum since it was so much cheaper. So much)

Recipe

2 cups of above mix

4 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 ¾ cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/3 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350. In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and set aside. In large bowl cream sugar and butter on medium high speed with mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add vanilla and eggs one at a time. Add flour and milk. Mix until smooth. Pour into cake pans and cook until bakes through.

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Smoky Peppers on the BBQ

I love peppers. They are so delicious and crunchy and good. So good. And this recipe made them taste AMAZING.

My brother and his fiancée came to stay one night last week and we had a blast. We drove them around and showed them our new city and where Aaron works, played some intense Cranium and ate an awesome meal (yup, I'm talking about the one I prepared).

It was so fun for us to have our first visitors come and stay and I had been wanting to try this recipe out so I thought that it would be appropriate to make it for them. They loved it. Or they said they did. Either way Aaron and I loved it and it was even so good the next day as left overs.

The only problem? I forgot to take any pictures. I know, I know but at least I'm starting to get back on the blogging and eating real food wagon.

This recipe was fast, easy and good. A perfect side to any dish or good on lots of things - rice, pasta, tofu (we may have eaten in on chicken).

So although I am photo challenged try this recipe because I said so.

Smoky Peppers

• 3 peppers, preferably 1 red, 1 yellow & 1 orange (pretty)
• 3 tbsp (45 mL) olive oil
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) red-wine vinegar (I didn't have this so I just skipped it. It wasn't missed)
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) honey or granulated sugar (I used a squirt of Honey Dijon mustard)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 plum tomatoes

Turn on your bbq to medium. While it is heating up slice your peppers in half and core. Lightly brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. (make sure you don't skip the salt, it is what makes the peppers so flavourful and juicy)

Place peppers on the bbq and close lid. Let the peppers cook for approx 6 min. on each side.

While your peppers are cooking find a large bowl and whisk 3 Tbsp of olive oil with vinegar (If you have it), honey, garlic and 1 tsp of thyme. Coarsely chop your tomatoes and stir in.

When your peppers are done, coarsly chop and add to the above. Serve as a side or over anything you want!

YUM!

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I'm Back!

I'm Back!!

ok, so I'm back, but I want you all to know that as of right now I'm completely useless on the recipe front. So why am I back? Well...

I tried! I really did!

We have been in our new house for just over 2 weeks now. In those couple of weeks I have jumped full swing back into real life. I have been meal planning and so I'm sure that you think that that would mean I would have a delicious summer vegetarian recipe to post. But,

I lost it.

Seriously. I made this meal last week. It was so so yummy. It has tons of veggies and pasta and cheese and goodness. But I can't find the recipe ANYWHERE. I don't have a clue where it came from at all. I'm sorry.

Wanna see a picture at least?

So, what else have I been up to? Playing, decorating, organizing and also buying so amazing local honey.

I've been looking for some local honey since I found out where we were going to be living. My spring allergies have gotten worse and worse every year and so I'm on my way to fighting back, starting with honey. Because bees collect pollen from local plants and flowers; local honey contains local pollens. My plan is to eat a tsp of honey at least a day and in a couple of months also add straight local pollen to my daily snacks in order to build up an immunity for the plants that normally cause me so much sniffling, sneezing and grumpiness in the spring. Hopefully I can get my immunities strong enough that this spring I will be allergy free. Or at least not living on allergy meds.

Where did I get this local honey? Nixon Honey Farm

These beekeepers were some of the nicest people I have met ever. They have 7000 hives and run quite the production. They are also having a sale of sorts for the month of August:

Bring any container you want to the farm and fill it for $2.5o/lbs.

The honey that came of out the tap at the farm was beautiful and gold. My kids have been eating it by the spoonful. It is sweet and delicious and pretty to look at.

So, if you are looking for local honey, or honey at (great food storage people) head out to the Nixon Farm and when you get back I'll finally be ready to share some food ideas with you.