Tag: gluten free cake

Aunt Patty’s overflowing-with-goodness pound cake

by stephsimply, posted in Recipes

“Pound cake is so named because its original recipe called for a pound of each of its four ingredients: sugar, eggs, flour, and butter.”–Britannica 

Pounds of Appreciation 👩‍🏫

When I was a very young child, my mom would bake pound cakes for my siblings’ and my elementary teachers during the holidays.  I honestly do not remember for how long she kept this tradition going, since there were four of us kids.  What I do recall is carrying the cake into my classroom with great pride.  It was a family favorite recipe, so I felt like I was giving a grand prize to my teachers–a whole cake. 

sweet tooth cravings 🦷

As a young adult, I asked my mom for the recipe, which is when I discovered it came from my Aunt Patty, my mom’s oldest brother’s wife.  It was one of those recipes I made a couple of times before it became relegated to my recipe basket filled with index cards of recipes seldom used.  However, strangely enough this summer, I got a hankering for pound cake, and I dug out the recipe.

As soon as I read it, I realized that the recipe was back when I was ignorant to my celiac diagnosis.  Now I know why my stomach hurt every time I ate it!  I decided to try to create a gluten-free version of it.  It was NOT easy.

overflowing with love 🥮

My first adaptation overflowed into the oven.  It was a mess!  The good news was that the remaining batter that fully baked in the pan tasted good, so I was on the right track.  After spending a good hour, and then some, cleaning the oven, I was back to the drawing board.

I did more research and visited three sites for whom I have found reliable baking information in the past.  These sites helped with adapting the ingredient amounts of Aunt Patty’s original recipe to a gluten-free version. Mama Know Gluten Free confirmed my addition of vinegar to the original recipe.  King Arthur’s website inspired the idea of making the cake more decadent by adding a glaze to the top.  Finally, Land O Lakes helped me get clear on the correct cake pan size. 

The taste of sweet success 🍰

Cool on a rack first

Once success was attained, I knew I had to channel my former inner-child and share this gluten-free variation of Aunt Patty’s pound cake recipe. I’ve noted several adaptations/modifications that anyone can choose to bake a pound cake that meets dietary needs and/or taste preferences.  My mom often baked hers with cocoa powder, but for my gluten-free variation, I have not yet tried it, but I do plan to try that in the near future.

The gift of homemade goodness 👩‍🍳

Drizzle with glaze if desired.

In the meantime, as the holiday season is now upon us, give yourself, or someone special, the gift of decadent simplicity that can result when you mix and bake flour, eggs, sugar, butter, and few other simple ingredients!  From my home to yours, I wish a healthy and happy holiday season filled with “overflowing” homemade goodness from the kitchen!

Pounds of Saucy Goodness 🍯

Drizzling with good taste

Serve it up! 🥮

Add some extra sauce, like this strawberry sauce.

Aunt Patty’s Pound Cake, with optional Brown Butter Glaze

gluten-free and plant-based variations included

 Ingredients

1 cup milk, or non-dairy alternative

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 sticks (1 cup) room temperature butter, or non-dairy alternative

½ cup shortening

1 ½  cups sugar 

½ cup brown sugar

5 eggs, room temperature, or egg-free replacement 

3 cups of all purpose flour, or gluten-free alternative

(⅓ cup cocoa, optional if desiring a subtle chocolate flavor)

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp coconut extract 

(Can replace almond and coconut extract with 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

Brown Butter Glaze, optional

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup confectioner sugar

½  teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1-2 tablespoons milk

Directions

*Note:  It takes 3-5 hours for butter and eggs to come to room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Prepare 12” (14.5 cups) bundt or 10” (16 cups) angel cake (tube) pan

Add vinegar to milk, and set aside in fridge 

Cream together butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy

Add in eggs, one at a time mixing well between each addition

Gradually add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa (if using) alternately with milk

Mix in extract(s), but do not overmix batter

Pour batter into cake pan

Bake approximately 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Allow cake to cool in pan 15 minutes before turning onto cooling rack to completely cool

Serve as is or with desired toppings such as fruit or ice cream; or top with glaze (see below)

Directions to make glaze:

Place cut up butter in pan over medium heat

Continually stir butter until you begin to see brown bits

Remove from heat and whisk in brown sugar until incorporated

Whisk in confectioner sugar and vanilla extract

Gradually whisk in milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until glaze is smooth and sugar fully dissolves

Poke hole with toothpick in cracks and crevices of cake top, and drizzle glaze over top of cake.

Store cake at room temperature in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

Can also freeze for up to 6 months.

Each loaf makes approximately 10 slices

*Pound cake is great toasted in a skillet or oven with butter and sprinkled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and sugar.

*It is also excellent served warm with favorite toppings such as berries, cherries, sauces, whipped cream, and/or ice cream. 

Toast it up in oven with butter, Brown Sugar, and cinnamon

Cottage Pudding with Vanilla Sauce with gluten-free options

by stephsimply, posted in Uncategorized

“At home, my food is just sort of comfort food. It’s not super fancy, but it’s certainly tasty.”–Anne Burrell

Serve it up with strawberry sauce or any other fruit sauce.

When I read the above quote by TV celebrity chef Anne Burrell, I realized I do not know much about who she is or the type of foods she likes; her words simply resonated with me. Therefore, I am not sure if my idea of comfort food is the same as hers, but most of my favorite comfort foods are budget-friendly, including the recipe from my childhood I am sharing with you today.  I think this recipe is especially comforting on cool evenings like the ones we experience during the fall time of the year.

I grew up surrounded by women who knew how to cook, what I considered comfort food, and it was definitely low-cost.  Two of these women, my grandmothers, came of age during the depression and the World War 2 era that followed, so you know they had to learn to manage with few resources. And though my own mom did not grow up during such challenging circumstances, as the mother of four children, she definitely had to learn to cook as inexpensively as possible.

Don’t let the plain canvas fool you, the vanilla sauce is rich and thick!

Cooking on a budget does not have to equate with not eating well.  Some of the best and healthiest foods are quite often budget friendly–although I know this recipe is an exception with regards to “healthy.”.  In fact, this recipe uses common ingredients most of us have on hand if we bake with any regularity.  

As best as I can tell, based upon my limited research, this recipe originated in the mid-1800s in North America. “Cottage,” refers to the fact that the recipe was considered simple and affordable for common farmers and laborers of the time period.  “Pudding” is a word that dates back to England, and it was, and still sometimes is, used to refer to any dessert.  However, given this cake is served with a sauce, lending it somewhat mushy, perhaps the word pudding was intentional.

This shortbread-like cake lends itself to a wide-array of toppings, such as chocolate sauce.

Regardless of its history, I believe there is a time and place for celebratory, comfort food, and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to make it.  This simple dessert is one my mom used to make on rare, but special occasions for the family when I was younger.  In fact, it was often made in honor of birthdays or other special events.  

I remember feeling excited as a youth when this was served.  Perhaps, it was the warm syrup served on top of it that made it feel special as if we were eating a thick, dense pancake for dessert.  Then, again, maybe because with six of us eating–four of which were kids, and only nine servings–I knew I had better enjoy and savor the dessert on the day it was made. (There certainly weren’t any leftovers that I can recall.) Plus, there was that simple vanilla flavor that was warm, comforting, and oh-so-tasty.

Load this cake up with your favorite fruit; it can hold up to it because it has more of a shortbread consistency.

I was reflecting on my impending birthday when this recipe came to mind.  I rooted around my old recipe box and dug this oldie-but-goodie recipe card. Since I had not baked it since well before my diagnosis of celiac disease, it occurred to me that I should create a gluten-free variation to celebrate my birthday. 

(My celiac disease went undiagnosed until my late 40s, so my mom would not have known I needed a gluten-free variation.  Besides, celiac disease was not really well-known/understood in the era in which I was raised.)   

I hope you will give this simple recipe a try.  The cake is quite similar to shortbread, or an old-fashioned biscuit–so it lends itself to a wide-array of toppings.  It’s traditionally served with a glaze or custard sauce, but you could certainly use any fruit toppings, or other traditional sauces, such as brown butter, caramel, lemon, or chocolate.  I certainly came across several recipe variations for sauces.   

The cake is a versatile canvas–welcoming all flavors and types of sauces.

Cut this cake into nine pieces.  Serve the cake warm and then drizzle plenty of sauce over it. Feel free to poke holes in the top of each piece before drizzling with syrup, as we used to do as kids, to soak up the maximum amount of syrup. It’s perfect with a cup of hot coffee, tea, hot cocoa, or even milk–if that’s your thing. 

From my home to yours, I wish you stories and memories filled with comfort food.

The original recipe written down for me by my mom. Notice there are three difference variations for the sauce.

Cottage Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups flour, gluten free if needed

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup soft shortening

¾ cup sugar

1 egg or plant–based egg substitute

1 tablespoon vinegar

¾ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch (ensure it’s from a gluten free facility it needed)

2 cups water

2 teaspoon vanilla 

¼ cup butter, can be vegan 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Prepare 9×9 baking with nonstick cooking spray

Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl

In a mixing bowl, cream together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy

Beat in egg and vinegar until mixture is creamed together

Measure milk into cup and stir vanilla extract into it

Mixing slowly, add in about ⅓ flour mixture and ½ milk mixture

Once incorporated, add in another ⅓ flour mixture and rest of milk mixture

Add in remaining flour mixture until batter is smooth and well blended

Spread into prepared pan

Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean

Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving with warm sauce

Makes 9 servings

To make the sauce:

Meanwhile, mix sugar and cornstarch together in a pan over medium heat

Gradually stir in water

Bring to a rolling boil for one minute, stirring constantly

Stir in butter and vanilla extract

Once butter has melted and all ingredients are blended, sauce is ready to serve

Save leftover in airtight container in refrigerator

Warm sauce to serve over cake whenever eating leftovers

This sauce makes great syrup for pancake, waffle, or french toast  

Sweet Summer Strawberry Cake

Featured by stephsimply, posted in Recipes

“Every cake has a story to tell.”–unknown

Sweet treat, strawberry cake

Family traditions🧑‍🍳

When I married into my husband’s family some thirty years ago, it was the merging of two families who enjoyed cooking, tried-and-true recipes, handed down from one generation to the next, typically accompanied by a story or two.  On my husband’s side, there were several excellent cooks, especially his mother, his sister, and her husband.  Whereas, in my own extended family, I grew up around three women–my grandmother, my mamaw, and my mom–who were great cooks in their own right.  Therefore, between the two families, there was a wealth of inspiration, ideas, and sources for recipes.  

To this day, many of those family recipes remain favorites.  However, since being diagnosed with celiac disease over ten years ago, I have been on a culinary quest to adapt many of those beloved recipes so that I can, forgive the pun, “have my cake and eat it too”! 

When I first saw my mother-in-law’s version of this recipe, I could help but notice the how thick and creamy the icing looked.

But First . . .🍰

The original Strawberry Cake recipe came from my mother-in-law, Colleen.  She and my grandmother were very similar when it came to their approach to cooking.  They both believed in the right to serve large portions, and both embraced the notion of going their own way instead of following recipes, step-by-step.  Therefore, when my grandmother, or Colleen, would share a written recipe, there was sure to be additional verbal directions and advice for best preparing the recipe.

Dressing it up with sprinkles and blueberries if desired.

Never shy away from making a recipe your own🥣

It is that familial cooking spirit of never shying away from the right to make a recipe uniquely your own that continues to inspire me. Gluten-free baking wasn’t a “thing” when Grandmother and Colleen were living, so if I want to still enjoy those cooking stories from my past, I have to forge my own cooking path.  Nonetheless, I think they would have enjoyed many of my modified recipes, including this one. 

Add some pomegranate arils, for a bit more color contrast!

The eyes have it first👀

I recall the first time I ate this cake at Colleen’s house.  It was a Sunday family dinner, and I immediately noticed this beautiful, thickly frosted pink cake.  Now, my grandmother taught, “Your eyes eat things before your mouth,” and from the first look at that cake until the last bite, my eyes and mouth were in agreement: the cake was every bit the tasty confection it looked to be.  

The icing is thick and rich

Make it Gluten-free if you want🥮

I am not sure if my recipe adaptation is on-par with Colleen’s, but I do know that my own family loved it.  In fact, my adult daughter, one who typically, and quickly, discerns if I have made something gluten-free, asked if the cake was really gluten-free because she could not taste the difference.  Even more telling was the fact that she told me she thought that it was my best gluten-free recipe to date, and I could “bake it for her anytime.”  

Homemade strawberry reduction takes a bit more time, but it is so worth the effort! And, the leftovers of this reduction can used as you would any other fruit sauce or jelly.

Strawberry Reduction🍓

In addition to making the recipe gluten-free, I eliminated strawberry gelatin as a main ingredient, and instead, I made a strawberry reduction with double the amount of strawberries the original recipe called for.  My variation is also dairy-free, as I used non-dairy milk and butter; however, I did use real eggs.  That said, if you need this recipe to be egg-free, there are plenty of egg-replacement products available.  

The cake is light and spongy.

Cupcake Crazy?🧁

I’ve included directions for baking cupcakes and several cake variations, so the recipe can be baked and assembled in a variety ways.  Additionally, any leftover strawberry reduction tastes terrific spread over toast, stirred into oatmeal, or added to a smoothie.  

From my Family to Yours🏠

From my home to yours, I hope this recipe allows you to create your own cake story and recipe lineage.  Who knows, maybe one day, your grandkids will make their own version of Strawberry Cake! 

Any way you slice it up, this strawberry cake is sure to please!

Strawberry Cake (or Cupcakes) 🍰

Ingredients

½  cup milk (plant-based, if desired)

2 teaspoons white or apple cider vinegar

1 package white or yellow cake mix (gluten free, if needed)

3 tablespoons all purpose flour (gluten free, if needed)

3 eggs or equivalent egg-replacement

⅓ cup oil, melted butter, or applesauce

½ water

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 ½ cup strawberry reduction, completely cooled (see below)

*Strawberry Reduction

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh or frozen strawberries (If frozen, be sure to thaw for at least 20 minutes)

4 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

1 stick butter, softened (plant-based, if desired)

¼-½ cup strawberry reduction, depending upon how much flavor you want

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

⅛ teaspoon salt

4-6 cups confectioners sugar

Up to 4 tablespoons milk, if needed for creaminess

Directions

*Make Strawberry Reduction 12-24 hours+ in advance

Thaw and/or remove stems from strawberries, then cut in half

Puree strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice in food processor or blender

Pour into medium saucepan and bring to low boil over medium heat

Reduce heat, but continue to simmer over low heat for 30 or so minutes, stirring occasionally

Allow strawberries to reduce to texture similar to that of tomato sauce

Allow to cool, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until completely cooled and/or ready to use.

Make Cake or cupcakes

Add vinegar to milk, set in fridge for five minutes (making “buttermilk”)

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees

Coat cake pan(s) with nonstick cooking spray or line muffin tins with parchment paper

In a large mixing bowl, stir together cake mix and flour

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Then, stir in “buttermilk,” water, oil (or butter or applesauce), and vanilla extract.

Next, fold in strawberry reduction, scraping down the sides as needed

For cupcakes:  divide batter among cupcakes, using a greased ice cream scoop, if desired, filling cup ½ – ⅔  full

For cake:  pour batter into one 9 x 13 cake pan, a 10-cup bundt pan, or divide between two 8” or 9” inch round pans

Baking time:  Cupcakes = 20-25 minutes; 9 x 13 pan = 30-35 minutes; Bundt pan = 45-48 minutes; Two round pans = 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean

Allow cake or cupcakes to cool completely before frosting (I even put mine in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before frosting.)

Make the Frosting

In a large bowl, cream butter, strawberry reduction, vanilla extract and salt

Add in confectioner sugar, one cup at a time, until icing is firm

Then, add in milk, one tablespoon at a time, whipping in between each addition until desired consistency is reached.

Pipe or spread over cake or cupcakes.

Decorate tops of cake or cupcakes with red, white, or pink sugar sprinkles or freshly sliced strawberries

Store in airtight container and refrigerate

Makes 24 cupcakes or 1 cake of your choosing