My son is going into first grade, and he is still of the age when cupcakes are really the coolest thing ever. Well, I guess half the world is still "of that age," when you get right down to it. Cupcakes have gotten much more fancy and dare I say, even sexy, over the past few years. Although we can't just pop into our local cupcake boutique, we can still make them at home. I should be able to post for you my homemade fancy (even sexy) cupcake recipe, but I'm really not that brave as of yet. Instead, I buy the box cake mix. Betty Crocker, the angel that she is, now makes a GF cake mix, and I buy the yellow cake variety.
Anytime there is a bake sale, class party, or family dinner thing at my son's school, I make sure to send a big box of GF cupcakes, just so he won't feel left out. I was actually complimented by a friend on my tasty cupcakes, when she accidentally ate a GF one, so I guess they're pretty good. However, I thought that they were just okay. I think that the cupcakes taste a little too strongly of vanilla, and I think the texture is a little dense. So I started tweaking the box recipe a little, and this is what works for us.
The box recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. I only use one (1) teaspoon instead of two. The box recipe calls for 2/3 of a cup of water. I use 1/3 cup water, and 1/3 cup orange juice. I also add just shy of one tablespoon of baking POWDER. Any more than that is too much. The only other thing that I might do in the future is possibly add a little orange zest, if I happen to have an orange around that day.
Little kids seem to have cupcake parties every time you turn around. I got caught unprepared once last year, when there was a surprise birthday party in my son's kindergarten class, and I vowed that it wouldn't happen again. Now we have a freezer full of these little gems. And as a bonus, I picked up a travel cupcake container (plastic) at BB&B, so I can put it in his lunchbox and not worry that it will get smashed. Or thrown. Or slung around.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Best Pancakes Ever
So my son loves pancakes. He does. I can count on one hand the number of times he has NOT eaten them for breakfast. I spent hours and hours perfecting the batter in our pre-celiac days, and they were lovely, they really were.
The day we were forced to dive into the GF world, head first, I of course bought him every kind of GF pancakes and waffles that Whole Foods carried. Well, he hated them. Every last one of them. Some tasted like sweetened sheet rock, others had no real taste, yet resembled some type of spongy plastic. Breakfast became quite a challenge for us.
Thankfully, I had discovered a flour blend that is used cup-for-cup in recipes, just like regular flour. It's a rice flour/tapioca flour/potato starch blend that I'm sure I could blend myself for a whole lot less money, but I'm really not in the mood. I know that people buy prepackaged pancake mixes and such, but I prefer not to.
So for those of you who would like it, here is my kickass pancake recipe:
3 large eggs (I prefer farm-fresh.)
1 large spoonful (about 1/4 cup) of yogurt or sour cream (I use dairy-free sour cream.)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
3-4 generous shakes of cinnamon
1/2 c. oil (canola, coconut... your choice)
4 teaspoons of baking POWDER
Get all of that in a big bowl, and whisk it. Whisk it up.
Now here comes the tricky part..
2 cups of flour (I use Tom Sawyer GF Flour blend.)
1 1/3 cup of milk (I use rice milk.)
4 or so tablespoons of ground flax seed
*optional: 1/4 cup of shredded coconut
Whisk again, and let it sit for a couple of minutes.
In the meantime, I have a ceramic skillet (nonstick-ish), sprayed with canola oil heating up on just-hotter-than-low (#3). Pour or ladle out the pancakes (my son prefers minis), and flip when bubbles form.
The best thing about this batter is its longevity. I make it on Sunday or Monday, pour it into a cupcake pen, (BB&B, you're welcome.) and it lasts in the fridge all week.
If you're really feeling frisky, you can add any fruit to this... mashed bananas, pumpkin, blueberries, go crazy!
Enjoy,
Whip
The day we were forced to dive into the GF world, head first, I of course bought him every kind of GF pancakes and waffles that Whole Foods carried. Well, he hated them. Every last one of them. Some tasted like sweetened sheet rock, others had no real taste, yet resembled some type of spongy plastic. Breakfast became quite a challenge for us.
Thankfully, I had discovered a flour blend that is used cup-for-cup in recipes, just like regular flour. It's a rice flour/tapioca flour/potato starch blend that I'm sure I could blend myself for a whole lot less money, but I'm really not in the mood. I know that people buy prepackaged pancake mixes and such, but I prefer not to.
So for those of you who would like it, here is my kickass pancake recipe:
3 large eggs (I prefer farm-fresh.)
1 large spoonful (about 1/4 cup) of yogurt or sour cream (I use dairy-free sour cream.)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
3-4 generous shakes of cinnamon
1/2 c. oil (canola, coconut... your choice)
4 teaspoons of baking POWDER
Get all of that in a big bowl, and whisk it. Whisk it up.
Now here comes the tricky part..
2 cups of flour (I use Tom Sawyer GF Flour blend.)
1 1/3 cup of milk (I use rice milk.)
4 or so tablespoons of ground flax seed
*optional: 1/4 cup of shredded coconut
Whisk again, and let it sit for a couple of minutes.
In the meantime, I have a ceramic skillet (nonstick-ish), sprayed with canola oil heating up on just-hotter-than-low (#3). Pour or ladle out the pancakes (my son prefers minis), and flip when bubbles form.
The best thing about this batter is its longevity. I make it on Sunday or Monday, pour it into a cupcake pen, (BB&B, you're welcome.) and it lasts in the fridge all week.
If you're really feeling frisky, you can add any fruit to this... mashed bananas, pumpkin, blueberries, go crazy!
Enjoy,
Whip
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