Grandma Ruth’s Gluten Free Spice Cake

Ok, Grandma Ruth wasn't baking Gluten Free Cakes in her day, but she did make a mean Spice Cake. The original recipe was made yearly for my Mom and my Aunts Birthdays and I adapted it years ago for a customers Birthday. I actually just made this cake for that same customers Anniversary. I'll never forget the panicked phone call I received that day asking if I had forgotten this cake needed to be gluten free because there was no way a gluten free cake could taste this good. It comes out so light, moist and grit free (no rice flour!) you won't believe its gluten free.

          

  Serves 8-10

¾ C Butter Softened

1 ¼ C Brown Sugar (I use Rapadura)

1 C. Unrefined Cane Sugar

3 Eggs

3 C. Bobs Red Mill GF Flour Blend

1 ½ tsp Xanathan Gum

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 ½ tsp Cinnamon

¾ tsp Cloves

¾ tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Sea Salt

1 ½ C. Whole Milk

1 Tbs Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 350. Grease either 3 rounds or one 9”x13” pan. In a large bowl beat together Butter and Sugars, add Eggs one at a time. Meanwhile add Lemon Juice to Milk to curdle, let sit 10 minutes. In a medium bowl mix together Flour Blend, Xanathan Gum, Baking Soda, Spices and Sea Salt. Add 1/3 of flour mixture to wet mixture, stir to combine then add 1/3 of Milk combine, continue mixing in the alternating flour mixture and milk.

 Divide Cake batter between 3 Rounds or pour all into 9x13 pan. Bake rounds 30-35 minutes or 9x13 45-50 minutes.

For Frosting

1lb Cream Cheese-softened

4 oz Butter-softened

1 tsp GF Vanilla

1 LB Powdered Sugar

In a large bowl beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Slowly add in powdered sugar until desired consistency and sweetness is achieved.

***Recipe may be halved if making the 9x13 pan***

Moist Chocolate Cake

I'm not above going for the sweet stuff when I'm really stressed out and recently I had to call in the big guns... Chocolate Cake. So after much inner conflict (if I bake this I will probably eat the whole thing, yada, yada, yada) I assembled my ingredients and realized I was out of sugar! But all was not lost, thank goodness I had some agave nectar! Forty-five minutes later I had the endorphin shot I needed. Sure I could have exercised, but sometimes a girl just needs chocolate cake.

1 1/3 C Agave Nectar

2 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 C Whole Milk

1/2 C Melted Butter

1 3/4 C Flour

1 C Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

2/3 C Hot Coffee  

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 13x9 pan with cooking spray (this is a chocolate emergency, there is no time for fancy round layers!). In a large bowl mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder, set aside. In another large bowl beat together egg, melted butter, agave nectar and vanilla. Mix milk into wet ingredients until thouroghly incorporated. Stir dry ingredient into wet until just incorporated then add hot coffee and mix until no lumps remain.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. This cake baked pretty quickly, great for a chocolate emergency! I did throw together a quick frosting of cream cheese, cocoa powder, powdered sugar and vanilla. 

Frosting:

8 oz Cream Cheese

1/2 C Cocoa Powder*

1C Powdered Sugar*

1 tsp vanilla

*ingredients are approximate 

In a large bowl beat together all ingredients with a mixer. I like frosting to not be so sickly sweet so I add a lot of cocoa powder to thicken it but you could reduce the amount of cocoa powder and add more sugar. This is just a simple eating frosting, not something you would decorate with.

Fruit Punch, Just like Grandma used to make!

Google "fruit punch recipe" and chances are you will find they all use Hawaiian Punch concentrate. I wanted a fruit punch for the Toddlers birthday that didn't include high fructose corn syrup but I couldn't find one. So I turned to my grandmothers Betty Crocker Cookbook from the 1930's and it had a recipe that actually used fruit juice! After tweaking it a bit, and removing the extra sugar it called for, we had a hit! A sweet fruity fruit punch without high fructose corn syrup, artificial color or flavors, just like grandma used to make!

Makes 2 Quarts

1 C Lemon Juice

1 C Cherry Juice

2 C Pineapple Juice

1 Qt Ginger Ale

Stir together first 3 ingredients in large pitcher. Add Ginger Ale and stir. Serve over ice.

Quail Egg Stuffed Mushrooms

Quail Egg Stuffed Mushrooms

Makes 12

12 Quail Eggs

12 Crimini Mushrooms, washed and stems removed

1/2 Piece of Bread

2 Tbs chopped Cheddar Cheese

1 Tbs sliced Green Onion or Spring Garlic

1 Slice Bacon, cooked and finely chopped (or 1 Tbs finely diced ham)

Cooking Spray

Preheat Oven to 375. Spray a mini muffin tin with Cooking Spray. In a small food processor or blender pulse bread and cheese until it becomes fine crumbs. Place mushrooms hollow side up in muffin tin, carefully break a quail egg into each mushroom. Top with a sprinkle of bread crumbs, onion and bacon or ham. Bake for 10 minutes, until egg whites are set but yolk is still soft. Serve immediately.