Happy Birthday, Cavell!

For almost a full year Cavell has been telling us that his next birthday will be his "Go Diego" birthday. Thanks to a lucky find at Hastings and a little dedication from his Mama, Cavell did indeed have his Go Diego birthday.

Some cupcake toppers for his playdate with a friend.  Only one friend (Happy birthday to you too JackJack!) and the siblings, but they were too cute not to use all of the toppers.

Lex thought Cavell NEEDED a Diego doll.  I think he was right!

Almost all of his Diego gifts were interactive, as Go Diego should be.

The Finale was the Go Diego cake.  When asked what flavour he wanted, Cavell would always answer, "Go Diego"  We decided on chocolate cake with a dulce de leche ice-cream layer.  I made the top using a frozen buttercream transfer.

Thanksgiving Dessert

I know, most people have pie, pie and more pie for dessert on Thanksgiving.  We are the Jensen Family.  There are only four of us eating.  We can't eat a lot of dessert, so we pick one dessert to have after our Thanksgiving Feast. The Head Baker of the Family is not a big pie fan.  We can't even buy a ready made pie to satisfy the big pie fan of the family.  Instead, we have adhered to an Onines Family Tradition and indulged in Pumpkin Cheesecake every year.  I now admit to adapting the recipe  many years ago, and not just to be gluten free.  But wait!  This year, The Head Baker of the Family cannot consume such large amounts of dairy (thanks to the beloved, new addition to the family).  Why would I spend the time and energy making a delicious treat that I cannot enjoy?

During Family Home Evening a few weeks ago, the whole family helped to make the menu for our Thanksgiving Feast.  Alayna requested carrot cupcakes.  The Head Baker of the Family is not a big fan of carrot cake either.  We have a recipe; I've made it; the family has enjoyed it.  I didn't want that as the finale to our Thanksgiving meal.  Luckily for Alayna, I had just read about a Brazilian carrot cake the day before.  She just needed to accept that it would not be in cupcake form.  When she saw the Bundt pan we would be using instead, she stopped pouting.

Bolo de cenoura
(from Glutenfearless)

Ingredients
Cake
1-1/3 C  Rice Flour
6 Tbs + 2 tsp Potato Starch
3 Tbs + 1 tsp Tapioca Starch
1Tbs + 1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
1½ tsp Xanthan Gum
½ t. Cinnamon (optional)

3 C Carrots, grated (rougly 4 medium or 8 slender carrots)
3 Eggs
1 3/4 C Sugar
½ C Oil
1 tsp Vanilla

Glaze
2T cocoa powder
2T butter
5T milk
8T sugar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350° grease and flour a 10" Bundt pan
• In a bowl combine flours, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, and cinnamon.
• In your blender purée remaining 5 ingredients until smooth.
• Pour the blender concoction into the dry ingredients and stir together until everything is well mixed and very orange.
• Pour cake batter into prepared Bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 40-50 minutes.
• While still warm, invert the cake onto the serving platter.
• While stirring, gradually heat glaze ingredients in a small saucepan.  When the icing bubbles, keep stirring for another minute.  Pour hot glaze over the cake while the cake is warm.

Notes/Verdict  Boy, did we all enjoy this cake!  Moist, fluffy, sweet . . . and the glaze, Wow!  Not only is it yummy, it is fun to make . . . in the blender.  It went from layers of ingredients to this bright orange slurry.  It became a lovely orange batter when mixed into the flours.

Original Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate Cake

We made German Chocolate cake, gluten free. It was delicious!

We used the recipe from the Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate bar, but subbed in our gluten free flours*.

We did "cheat" and used Betty Crocker's Coconut Pecan frosting.

Gluten Free flour substitution
*2 cups flour =
1 1/4 c Rice Flour
6 Tbs + 2 tsp Potato Starch
3 Tbs + 1 tsp Tapioca Starch
2 tsp Xanthum Gum

Original Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate Cake

1 pkg. (4 oz.) BAKER'S GERMAN'S Sweet Chocolate

1/2 cup  Water

4 Eggs, separated

***2 cups  Flour

1 tsp. Baking soda

1/4 tsp.  Salt

1 cup Butter, softened

2 cups  Sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 cup  Buttermilk

Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting

 

HEAT oven to 350°F.
COVER bottoms of 3 (9-inch) round pans with waxed paper; spray sides with cooking spray. Microwave chocolate and water in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after 1 min. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
BEAT egg whites in small bowl with mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form; set aside. Mix flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Blend in melted chocolate and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating until well blended after each addition.
ADD egg whites; stir gently until well blended. Pour into prepared pans.
BAKE 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Immediately run small spatula around cakes in pans. Cool cakes in pans 15 min.; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Spread Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting between cake layers and onto top of cake.

Birthday Girl!

Oh my, she is 6!!

In the morning she received some little gifts and cards from us. A little Rainbow Dash pony, Tinkerbell socks, and a flower headband (the one in the picture). In the afternoon she collected the mail and opened her cards from her grandmas and grandpas. This included money that she plans to use to purchase a doctor's kit.

Alayna and Cavell talked about her cake all day. There was much excitement for the cool whip frosting. We added a little strawberry juice with the milk.

We used Bette Hagman's gluten free lemon cake recipe, but subbed all lemon juice and lemon-lime soda with strawberry nectar, and the vanilla with strawberry extract. Simple strawberry preserves for the filling, and 6 strawberries on top. Very yummy. Paul, Cavell and I each had a little more. Alayna's piece was so BIG she couldn't finish hers.

We surprised her with a few more gifts after the cake. Her "real" presents.

The Princess and the Frog movie from Mama and the big Rainbow Dash from Cavell. Look at the joy and excitement in her face over these gifts. Only to be completely trumped by her Papa's gift a moment later.

"EEP!!!"

My little girl has her on mp3 player. We loaded it up with Playhouse Disney, Disney Princesses, old school songs from Disney movies, Disney songs in Spanish, Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lavato, Jonas Brothers, and Taylor Swift. She loves it.

Her birthday celebration continues throughout this Spring Break week. Each day she is having a playdate with a different friend. She is very excited to have strawberry shortcake for snack, using the leftover frosting and a super yummy gluten free pound cake.

A Treat

Recently, I have been thinking about cakes. Particularly Gluten-Free Cakes. I realized that as our children get older they will not be able to pick a cake from the store that is fun and just right for them. At some point, they may not want cupcakes with sprinkles on them for their birthday parties.

On our date the other night, Paul and I spent some time browsing in the bookstore. I flipped thru the cake decorating books. I liked Betty Crocker Decorating Cakes and Cupcakes. It had relatively simple designs that looked fun, for cupcakes and cakes. Before I dive into shapes, I wanted to see if I could even make a regular cake look nice.

Following this tutorial at CakeCentral, I gave Marshmallow Fondant a try. I made a half batch since we only do single round cakes (and still toss half of it away after a week). Alayna helped me measure the marshmallows, sift and add the powdered sugar.

The first layer looked good enough, and I had a lot of fondant left over. Both kids helped me cut out shapes from the coloured fondant. We only used the daisies, so they got to eat the tulips right away.

The final resut:

I think our first try went very well. For the next attempt I will be cutting our single round in half to stack for a two layer cake.