I found Gluten Freedom

Well I finally did it, and it really was no easy feat, what with having no car in SF and needing a handful of random ingredients.

I convinced my friend from out of town to drive me to Rainbow Grocery by talking up what a totally awesome meat-free co-op it is. She even shopped with me and hung around while I searched their extensive bulk food section for the five different flours I needed to bake the "vanilla" cupcakes (they tasted a bit like corn cakes, but with enough frosting the cake flavor was harder to pin down.) Dear Ashley did at least walk out with some type of vegan breakfast burrito. Laiden with a very heavy bag of groceries she even drove me back to my place before taking off on her journey back home.

Then began the real adventure- baking gluten-free, which is actually a breeze once you have all of the ingredients gathered and have an awesome recipe (courtesy of Isa and Terry). Exciting things are happening in the world of gluten-free baking. This time a year ago, it was near impossible to find a decent gluten-free baked good. But now bakers are beginning to figure out which alternative flours (like quinoa, almond, rice, etc.) bake well together to create great flavor and texture.

ground flax seeds are used to replace egg in many recipes

Later I added more frosting...

Check out this recent article from the NY Times about gluten-free baking and a link to recipes.

Vegan Cherry Bourbon Brownie Cupcakes

Last weekend I made vegan brownies, or what I thought where going to be vegan brownies. It turned out to be more like a loaf of chocolate bread. ... Pretty disappointing.

A week later, after gathering all of the ingredients I was finally ready to make Isa and Terry's Brooklyn Brownie cupcakes, hoping to get my vegan brownie.  But first I had to pick up black cherry preserves, whiskey (a bit unusual I was out of this one) and soy yogurt (harder to find in my area of SF then I thought).

I wish you could smell this! (Melted Ghirardelli chocolate, cherry bourbon wet ingredients and chocolatey dry ingredients)

The batter tasted kind of like whiskey :)

The cupcakes were moist and sweet and the hints of cherry and whiskey were a flavorful surprise nestled in the middle of the cupcake. But still not at resembling the amazing cakey/fudgy texture of my uber chocolatey brownies. The next challenge is to take my recipe and turn it vegan while trying to keep the brownie's texture- Can it be done?!

Epicurious Red Velvet Cake

It seems like everyone loves red velvet cake, but for the longest time I didn't know why it was called red velvet cake and it turns out I wasn't the only one that wondered; what's in it that gives red velvet cake its distinctive flavor and color?

Red velvet cake is like a rich white cake with buttermilk and a little bit of unsweetened cocoa powder- that's how the cake gets its distinctive flavor. In the baking process, the alkali in the cocoa powder reacts with the acid (in the teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar), and turns the batter slightly red (like a light brownish/red tinge). So to really get it red, not one but two teaspoons of red food coloring are added to the batter. I definitely want to try making the recipe without any food coloring and see how the cake turns out.

I don't actually have a picture of the finished cupcakes with frosting and I even bought a new frosting piping tip so that the frosting comes out big and fluffy :( They got eaten at the party before I had the chance to find a camera.

Red Velvet Cake

Epicurious
Makes 2 layers of a 9-inch cake or 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

    •    2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (sifted, then measured; 9oz)
    •    2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (0.5oz)
    •    1 tsp baking powder
    •    1 tsp baking soda
    •    1/2 tsp salt
    •    1 cup buttermilk (8 oz)
    •    1 tbsp red food coloring
    •    1 tsp distilled white vinegar or lemon juice
    •    1 tsp vanilla extract
    •    1 1/2 cups sugar (10.5oz)
    •    1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature (2oz)
    •    2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a two 9-inch-diameter cake pans or put paper liners in a 12-cup muffin tin.  Sift the sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl.

Whisk buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla in small bowl until blended.

Using electric mixer or Kitchenaid, beat sugar and butter until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Mix in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk mixture in three additions. * Always begin and end with the dry ingredients.

Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 27 minutes (Cupcakes baked for about 18 minutes)

Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks; cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I used only about 2 cups)

Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in vanilla.

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over top of cake. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. This cake can be made one day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.

Birthday Cupcakes

These little cakes of fluffy love are inspired by the birthday cake my mom made for me and my brother every birthday. But now that we're grown, my brother doesn't get a cake and I apparently, make my own! And I was just as excited to make "birthday cake" for my friends and me as I used to be for mom's birthday cake. Her cake was a classic white cake with fudgy Hershey's cocoa frosting with fabulous "Happy Birthday Joanna" colored lettering. These cupcakes use the same white cake with a fluffy vanilla cream filling and chocolate ganache. This recipe is from the 975 edition of The Joy of Cooking. My mom has the original 1964 edition-and it's so wonderful to flip through the batter-stained pages.

White Cake

Preheat oven to 375. Have all ingredients at room temp. (70 degrees)

Sift before measuring:

   2 1/4 cups cake flour

Resift it twice with:

   2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

   1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream well:

   1/2 butter

Add gradually and cream until very light:

   2 1/4 cups sifted sugar

In a separate measuring cup combine:

   1 cup milk

   1 teaspoon vanilla

Add the sifted ingredients to the butter mixture in three parts, alternating with the liquid combination. Stir the batter until smooth after each addition.

Whip until stiff, but not dry: 

    4 egg whites

You want the egg whites to make peaks like this!

Fold them lightly into the batter and bake in: two 9-inch round pans or in cupcake tins. Cake pans should be greased with butter and a bit of flour. If you bake cupcakes, turn the heat down 25 degrees. Both will bake for about 25 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cake cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Cream Filling

(from Baking Bites blog)

3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk- any percent fat will work

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour and milk and cook in a small saucepan over medium/low heat until thick (a few minutes) Stir continuously to prevent the mixture from clumping and do not bring to a boil. Once thick (like custard consistency), strain with a mesh strainer into a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool completely to room temperature.

When the milk mixture is cool, cream the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl until light. Add in the  milk mixture and vanilla and beat at high speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about seven minutes).

Scrape into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, or a large ziplock bag with the corner cut off, and set aside until ready to fill your cupcakes.
 

For maximum filling, cut a funnel-shaped hole with a very sharp knife

After the filling is added, the top fits back on concealing the filling

Chocolate Ganache

(from Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten)

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

sprinkles for decoration (optional)

Melt the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and instant coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring constantly . Dip the top of each cupcake in the ganache. Decorate with sprinkles. Do not refrigerate.

Yum