Gluten Free Construction Cake

DIY Homemade Gluten Free Birthday Cake for Kids

Gluten free kids don't need to miss out on fun birthday cakes. My son's first birthday cake request ever was a couple of years ago for his fourth birthday. He wanted a construction cake, which turned out to be far easier to make than you might think. And while my kid has no problems with gluten and I could have bought him a regular cake for his birthday, I decided to make my own GF one instead. Because gosh darn it, sometimes I want a fun cake too!!

And with a cake as simple as this one, you don't need to be a pro to make it look good. 

These photos were quick snaps on my old cell phone, so I apologize for the quality. But I'm lucky to have gotten any shots at all since my son and nephew turned this cake into an ACTUAL construction zone before we could cut proper slices!! 

Gluten Free Christmas Sugar Cookies - 4 Ways from 1 Recipe!

 

 

It's not always easy baking with kids, but I these gluten free spritz cookies are fast and simple enough that you can whip up a few dozen in enough time to keep a preschooler engaged. If you're doing this alone, it will go even faster! 

A good, basic sugar cookie recipe can go a long way to making a variety of colours and styles of sugar cookies, and really create that wow factor for holiday gift giving. My basic spritz cookie recipe is simply divided into four and decorated differently.

 

My newly turned 4 year old helped me squeeze the cookie press and decorate. Granted, there was some licking of icing and devouring of sprinkles in the process, and he wandered off a couple of times, but over all, it was a successful baking venture. 

Read on to find out how we did it! 

Vegan and Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcakes with Sunflower Icing (and natural food coloring)

Following quickly on the heels of my Bunny Pull Apart Cupcake Cake, I just had to share these gorgeous (and easy!) gluten free and vegan sunflower cupcakes. I think of these bright little cupcakes as little bombs of sunshine. They make me stupidly happy to see them when I open the fridge (which is where you'll want to store them).

I'm confident that if you show up at Easter dinner with these, the recipients will reward you with big smiles.

And don't let the icing daunt you! Though the buttercream sunflowers look complex, I only had to do one tester cupcake before I felt confident enough to work more quickly. In the end, I couldn't tell which was the tester.

Even if the petals don't seem perfect as you're piping them, never fear. Nature isn't always perfect and symmetrical either!

Vegan and Gluten Free Bunny Pull Apart Cake

I just have to share this latest baking adventure with you all!! This little experiment made me so happy, and I love opening my fridge right now, as there is a smiling bunny face looking up at me.

And I thought you all might like to know how you can turn these gluten free and vegan cupcakes into an easy pull apart cake just in time for Easter. Seriously, the cake is super easy, and I say this as someone who generally sucks at decorating. That's why I did this all as a trial the week before Easter. Turns out it's not hard at all!

Gluten Free Lavender Sugar Cookies with Lemon and Lavender Icing

Hi everyone!! I've missed you all enormously. I'm sorry for dropping off this past few weeks, but life has been rather hectic.

We were back in Wisconsin for a bit this fall while my husband finished up his PhD, during which time my poor old back, damaged in a bad car accident a few years back, flared up and left me with excruciating pain, and then my dear old grandmother passed away - peacefully after a good long life, but sad for me nevertheless. I'm also frantically trying to finish my fourth novel. So blogging has been a little low on the totem pole of priorities.

But I'm here now, with a lovely little recipe I've been meaning to share for a while - delicately flavoured lavender shortbread / sugar cookies, made with lavender from my own little deck pot.

I suppose I ought to apologize for sharing them, since I suspect you'll find it hard not to gobble them up, but they're too good to keep all for myself!

Vegan, Gluten Free Slow Cooker French Toast Bites (+MeatlessMonday)

Whoa Nelly! Hold the phones, stop the music... whatever you need to do so that I have your full attention here! This vegan and gluten free French toast is so easy, and so flexible. You could pop this in the crock-pot on Sunday afternoon and eat French toast for breakfast on Monday. I used several slices of my Gluten Free Vegan Cinnamon Raisin Bread, and then jazzed it up with apples and coconut flakes and cashews. But you could use any vegan and gluten free bread you like and add other things like bananas, sweet potatoes, dates, cranberries, etc.

I ate this every morning for four days straight, and didn't tire of it, it's that good!  I also added some of the chunks into a chocolate chili I made, and it was fantastic (also, stay tuned for that recipe for Chocolate Chili ;p )

For those of you without crockpots - I have yet to try and make this as a French toast casserole in the oven, but I'm pretty sure you could bake it in a casserole dish for 45min - 1 hr instead if you don't have a slow cooker.

Cheap & Easy Vegan, Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread (+MeatlessMonday)

Free of gluten, eggs, dairy, nuts, soy, corn, xanthan gum
 

A couple of weeks ago I posted a recipe for a Vegan, Gluten Free Multi-grain, Multi-seed Brown Bread. It's a great bread, and super healthy. But I was so excited about having successfully converted one of my old favourite bread recipes to being vegan as well as GF that I though, why not push my luck and try for a simple cinnamon bread while I'm at it?

And it totally worked! And because I got most of my flours from the local Asian-run veggie store, it cost me about $1.50 for the gluten free flour. I'm guessing the whole loaf came in under $4, probably less if I actually did the math...

Anyway, the thing is it's a super flexible, sturdy, yet light sandwich bread that's FANTASTIC for vegan French toast (yeah, stay tuned, 'cuz that recipe is coming soon to a blog near you!!)

Easy Gluten Free Rolled Fruit Dumpling Biscuit Thingies +Meatless Monday

Free of gluten, eggs, nuts, soy, with dairy free / vegan option

I've made this recipe three times in the last couple of weeks, and yesterday was the first time I was able to photograph them before they all got eaten. And that's only because I made them early in the day just so I would have time to photograph them before anyone came over and ate them all!

I don't know what to call these things, really, since the original recipe that I used as the model called them fruit dumplings. But really, they're more like a baked fruit biscuit roll-up type thingy. They're also not as sickly-sweet as a lot of other dumplings.

Whatever you want to call them, these gluten free baked fruit biscuit roll-up dumpling fruit log thingies are so very quick and easy (easy enough that I've made them 3 times to take dinner parties). They're also pretty healthy, since I cut back on the butter and sugar and used sorghum flour. And of course, they're loaded with fruit, so they make a fabulous healthy dessert.

They're so good, I took them to a dinner party where I was the only GF person. I had someone ask me if I was sure they were gluten free because they said the texture was too good to be gluten free.

Gluten Free Braided Easter (or anytime!) Bread

Free of gluten, nuts, soy, corn, with dairy free option

I just got back three days ago from Europe, where my husband and I spent a month traveling by plane, train, car, and bus across four geophysical zones. Twelve days of the trip were spent in Greece, a country I've visited twice now. Since Easter is coming up and Greece is on my mind, I wanted to create a Greece-themed Easter dish to share on the blog.

While researching, I discovered a beautiful, sweet, braided bread known as Tsoureki. Looking over the recipes I found, I realized that they were very similar to the gluten free German Easter bread I posted last Easter (a.k.a. Osterkranz)

Delving a little deeper, I discovered that many different European countries make yeasted, sweet braided bread decorated with coloured eggs for Easter. There are a few common denominators, which I've shared below. I've also, of course, shared a new version of gluten free Easter bread, a little different from the one I made last year.

Of course, this bread is fantastic ANY time of year, so don't confine yourself to just eating it at Easter ;)

Accidental Vegan, Gluten Free Chocolate Beet Cake Balls (+MeatlessMonday)

Free of gluten, soy, nuts, dairy, eggs

I never set out to make these gluten free beet chocolate cake balls. They started out as an attempt as a Swiss jelly roll. Which, obviously, failed. Because I'm crazy and even though I've never made a Swiss roll cake, I decided my first attempt should be a GF, vegan, chocolate beet flavoured one that I completely pulled out of thin air. Because yeah... that's not insane or anything...

So the cake broke apart when I tried to roll it (even though it was warm, I think it needed more moisture). But it was still fairly tasty and I wanted to try and salvage the ingredients. I HATE throwing away gluten free ingredients, or any food for that matter.

So with some quick finagling, I mixed up some beet tinted frosting, mashed some in with the cake, rolled it up, smothered the balls in some more beet frosting and KA-POW!

Crazy vegan, gluten free chocolate beet cake balls. I dare you to try and say that ten times fast...

Vegan, Gluten Free Apple and Parsnip Cake + #MeatlessMonday

Free of gluten, dairy, nuts, soy, eggs

 

This was supposed to be a carrot cake. But as it turns out, I was out of carrots. We were at the end of our shopping budget and, regardless, I didn't feel like running out to the store just for carrots.

But we had parsnips. And parsnips can actually be kind of sweet when they're baked or cooked. So why the heck not make a parsnip cake?

And you know what? It was really, really good. Surprisingly good. Shockingly good. And I would totally make it again. In fact, my husband had a friend over when it finished baking (who is neither vegan or gluten intolerant) and he had two pieces. I think that says something, right?

18 Healthy Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Recipes (for National Chocolate Cake Day!) + vegan cakes

January 27 is National Chocolate Cake Day! In honour of that, I've put together a roundup of 18 awesome, reasonably healthy gluten free chocolate cakes, many of which are grain and sugar free, and are vegan.

I hope that amongst all this chocolate scrumptiousness, you'll find at least one to tempt your palate!!

Cooking and Baking with Gluten Free Beer

 

It's here it's here!! My latest cookbook, Cooking and Baking with Gluten Free Beer, is available NOW for Kindle and in print from Amazon. Hopefully within a week's time you'll also be able to get the eBook on other reading devices (formatting issues pending approval!).

Beer is such a fantastic addition to gluten free food, I've found it incredible for giving GF goods that "lift" and lightness that can be so hard to get sometimes with GF baked goods. It's also awesome with chocolate and even vegan stews and chilis. 

I can promise you that, amongst others, my husband (a non-GF beer drinker), has sampled ALL the recipes and approved them for taste and texture.

And not only that, but the book includes a foreword from Brian Kolodzinski, who runs Gluten Free Home Brewing, a website and store dedicated to gluten free brewing. 

So read on for a sampling of recipes  and bio of Brian Kolodzinski!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with a dairy free / vegan option for #Meatless Monday

Free of gluten, eggs, nuts, soy, corn, with dairy free / vegan options

The season of pumpkin is upon us. I had half a large can of pumpkin puree leftover from making my Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie for Canadian Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago. So I modified my old recipe for Gluten Free Herb Rolls to use up leftover pumpkin puree, and added some cinnamon spice mix. (I have also made a similar version in the past using sweet potato puree instead of pumpkin, so you could use sweet potato instead if you like)

These rolls are simple, tasty, pretty healthy, and versatile. I've had them for breakfast, served them with dinner to guests, and drizzled them with a bit of icing sugar mixed with milk as cinnamon rolls for dessert. 

They also freeze well, so make up a batch and sock them away for later! 

Vegan, Gluten Free Matcha Mug Cake (#Meatless Monday) & a Review of Kiss Me Organic's Matcha Green Tea Powder

Free of gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, corn

Ok, can I brag for a minute? I mean I really do try to be humble. I even share my failures with you - like my epic no-oats granola bar fail or the sugar-free lemon meringue pie that looked so wonderful but tasted so yucky.

But I have to say that I'm quite pleased with my latest experiment.

This vegan, gluten free mug cake is light, has a distinct green tea flavour, is quite healthy, and takes about 5 minutes to make.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cranberry Bread {Healthified and Dairy Free}

Recipe is free of gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, and corn

My husband has, periodically, reminisced about a chocolate cherry bread he used to love when he was a kid. He would go with his parents to Granville Island (a picturesque place by the water in Vancouver, BC popular with tourists and locals for its fish and produce market and funky shops) to get the bread.

Of course I've searched around online for both the bakery and the recipe. But the bakery has long since closed, and all the recipes I could find for chocolate cherry bread were far more cake-like than bread. They're loaded with sugar and oil or butter. 

Well I recently found myself with two bags worth of fresh cranberries (bought on sale) and I thought, "what the heck? Why not try and make a chocolate cranberry bread like the chocolate cherry one, but make it gluten free and healthy?"

So I concocted a recipe, and the first time I tried it I absentmindedly forgot to add xanthan gum. "Doh." It came out crumbly and drier than a witches teet (what an awful, visual term, eh?). I thought it would be terrible, BUT, my husband put the crumbs in a bowl and ate half of it in one go with a spoon anyway, so I knew I was on to something. So I tried it again and this is what I've come up with.

For those of you with cranberries left over from Thanksgiving, this is a great way to use them up! 

Gluten Free Bread and Baked Goods

Sprouted Lentil Bread / GF Ezekiel Bread

In an effort to clean up and organize the Poor and Gluten Free recipe page, I've decided to put all my bread and baked recipes on one page.  Whether you're looking for Gluten Free Pizza Crust,  or something like Chocolate Carrot Scones, there's a little something for everyone. All of the recipes here are wheat and gluten free.  Most are also vegetarian, free of eggs, soy, nuts, sugar and with dairy free alternatives. 

I have tried, whenever possible and to the best of my ability, to include information on Oral Allergy Syndrome related ingredients.  However, it's always a good idea to check with your doctor before trying something you might be allergic to.

Updated October 17, 2013