Category Archives: Cake & Cupcakes

Pound Cake (SCD & GFCF)

I know it looks more like a loaf of biscotti, but blame it on the size of my loaf pan. I think it’s meant for those breads that rise, with the aid of yeast and gluten and all that…size, though, doesn’t matter if it’s utterly delicious. In fact, I came to terms with the size, specifically width, of the slice today and found that if it’s cut thickly, it’s really just the right size.

This pound cake isn’t too sweet and it’s nicely rounded off by a hint of vanilla at the end. Plus, I’d say that if you doubled the recipe you could even have a decent white cake (baked in a round pan) for a birthday party, complete with candles, as suggested in the header of the original recipe.

And because no matter how thoroughly I try to mix the vanilla in, every time I’ve made this cake it ends up with an interior that looks vaguely marbled, with the slightly darker shade being where the vanilla was most absorbed. I’ve also found that the colour of the batter also depends on the egg yolks’ colour and subsequently the resulting cake. Standard yellow yolks make a slightly paler cake, while richer shades of yellow or orange creates a more golden-coloured cake.

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Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Icing (GFCF)

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When Diane of The W.H.O.L.E. Gang announced she was hosting Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free, with the theme Scared Silly: food that we were scared to try, but really had no reason to as soon as we tried it (and liked it), I wasn’t sure. To my knowledge, I’ve never been afraid to try anything; add to that, there’s hardly a food I don’t like. It’s effort to think of foods I don’t like. But when I started thinking of food that I like or love, in an unfamiliar context, then I started to think. The first thing that came to mind was avocado in chocolate: while I’ve expressed enthusiasm to try it many a time, warming to the idea of using it as a replacement for cream in recipes, I just didn’t do it. So far it was just all talk, but no walk – I decided to change that.

So, with an avocado in hand, I went out to make frosting for cupcakes that I had made the day before. My family loves these cupcakes – to me, they’re a good, gluten-free version of a standard vanilla cake or cupcake you could find anywhere. How did I do with the frosting? Well, everyone who has tried it so far has liked it – the only thing I don’t do is tell anyone there’s avocado in it until they try, unless I know they’re the adventurous type.

And with that said, make this my Halloween post for the year.

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Adopt a GF Blogger: Cinnamon Quill’s Chocolate Mochi Cake (GFCF)

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Chocolate cupcakes last week, chocolate mochi today. It’s chocolate on chocolate! I try not to post anything too similar close together, just for variety, but in this case it was inevitable just due to timings and my schedule – consequently you can expect some backlog here, but that’s alright – it just means more to spread over the course of October.

This month’s Adopt a GF Blogger was hosted by none other than the creator herself, Sea of Book of Yum – her site’s a wonderful plethora of recipes, all gluten-free and with a wide, international range, and you find yourself lingering there for quite a time, before leaving with armloads of recipes you want to try and ones you can make right now. (Who knows, maybe I’ll adopt her next time.)

This is my second time to participate in this event – I was giddy to participate: waiting in anticipation for that adoption sign-up sheet to pop up, and then the rush of everyone signing up, picking who they want to adopt – some trading off if more than one person picked the same blogger as is sometimes the case. When I signed up, I picked Jenn of Cinnamon Quill – in addition to her blog, she also runs the fantastic Gluten-Free Feed website: think of it as a gluten-free Tastespotting or Foodgawker, if you will, but much more open in several ways. Off the top of my head, I’ve submitted about two or three recipes of mine so far. Through Gluten Free Feed, I’ve also found several blogs I don’t think I would have otherwise or recipes from blogs that I do follow but that I missed the first time round!

For my adoption, I chose to make Jenn’s Dark Chocolate Infused Mochi Cake. Inspired by a blueberry mochi cake, this mochi cake uses cocoa powder. This is not the kind of mochi traditionally associated with Japanese New Year and other Japanese holidays (although it is also eaten year-round), which is sticky and made from pounding glutinous or sweet rice into a paste. This mochi is made from sweet rice flour, also known as mochiko, and this cannot be substituted or else it would not be mochi anymore, as well as most likely not possess the same characteristics – this second part here I’m only guessing as I have not attempted to make the mochi with any other rice flour.

One day I do want to make the sticky mochi, but not today.

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