My mom developed an autoimmune disorder called Myasthenia Gravis almost 20 years ago. It was difficult for her to manage for the first few years, but she eventually found out that a gluten-free diet helps her manage her symptoms almost as well as her medication. It was a little devastating at first as my mom and I are huge bakers. Gluten-free flour is different from regular flour. It changes the texture and the shelf-life. Baked products have a tendency to get hard within a day or so and can also become quite crumbly. We were so cautious about baking with it to the point where we never actually tried. Since…
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Black Forest Inspired Cake
Ah, October. A fine fall month complete with Halloween. It’s a time for pumpkins and apples, for sweaters and golden leaves ripe for crunching underfoot. So, uh, why have I chosen to post a ratio recipe for a Black Forest Cake? October is also the month for Oktoberfest. Since I grew up in Southern California, crunchy leaves were rare and the sweater was ditched before nine in the morning. It was kind of hard to get into fall. Fall in Southern California means cold mornings and nights and sweltering in between. Pumpkins and apples were kind of meh to my family and me. But I took German in high school.…
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Funfetti Cake
Why have a plain yellow cake if you can have a funfetti cake? That’s the question my family asks. I don’t know why, but sprinkles always make things better. Or maybe my kids just like dumping sprinkles into the cake batter. But I must admit, as a chocolate cake lover, even sprinkles will make me excited to eat a yellow cake. Though, if you prefer a plain yellow cake, just omit the sprinkles. Just like last week’s recipe, this one is a ratio recipe. Feel free to play around with the ingredients (as long as you still use some kind of flour, sugar, fat, and eggs) and how much of…
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Knock You Over the Head with Lemon Cupcakes
The basic ingredients for a high ratio cake include flour, sugar, butter (fat), eggs, a liquid, and baking powder. Most of the time, I use milk as my liquid. A couple of times I’ve used some of the liquid that comes with maraschino cherries. One day I had a lemon, and wondered how lemony it would be if I used lemon juice as my liquid. Well, I am calling these cupcakes Knock You Over the Head with Lemon for a reason! And maybe my husband should buy fewer lemons. I can’t help it; I have a bad habit of walking into the kitchen on Mondays and wondering what we have that I…
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Adventures in Ratio Baking: Chocolate Cake With Whipped Cream Frosting
I like to think I’ve finally mastered ratio baking a chocolate cake. A high ratio chocolate cake, that is. At least, one that I enjoy because my husband won’t eat chocolate cake, my son only likes to decorate, and my daughter is partial to the whipped cream. And my cat should absolutely keep her distance. Oh, well. More cake for me. Anyways, I thought that perhaps the pinnacle of my chocolate cake journey should be a recipe. So I set out to convert my ratios into measurements. Twice. The first time was a disaster, and even I didn’t want to eat it. The second time, thankfully, was a success. But…
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Milkshake in a Jar
My husband looked at me like I was crazy. I prefer to think I was being creative. As a mom of two toddlers, every day is an exercise in creativity. My 4 year old has a strange problem with sounds. Alarms scare him. He refuses to flush the toilet because the sound scares him, but is fine under certain circumstances. He locks himself in his room when we use the blender. The blender. That magical piece of kitchen equipment that gives us milkshakes. We live in Southern California. It’s hot most of the year. Ice cream is kind of a way of life for my family. I grew up with…
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Banana Bread
Growing up, we always had bananas on hand. I loved watching them ripen and then eagerly peel one open once it reached that beautiful yellow color with no green in sight. But, in college, the dining hall usually had bananas that weren’t quite ripe. Sometimes they were just green. But I had to have my daily banana, and came to adore not quite ripe bananas. Years later, I still prefer somewhat green bananas. Once they become too yellow, I toss them in the freezer to make banana bread later on. Often, later on doesn’t happen and I end up with a freezer full of bananas. My husband has asked more…
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Berry Yogurt Tart
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had to go in every week for a progesterone shot. Most days were fairly routine: get my son into the car, drive over, get shot. But, on Wednesdays, it was: get my son into the car, drive over, walk through a farmer’s market, get shot, walk out back through the farmer’s market. In all honesty, during that time I was so tired and not weathering pregnancy very well that we hardly ever stopped to browse. Besides, my son had more fun running over those non-slip strips with their little yellow bumps that always had him giggling. He referred to our weekly visits…
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Cooking Bone-In NY Strip
I enjoy having steak! So I thought this week I’d share a nice recipe with you! There is a small story that goes along with this recipe. Many years ago, I was running at night. While completing my run, with two friends, I noticed Gordon Ramsay was also running that evening. At first I was not sure, so I walked over to introduce myself, and to see if it was him. It was! I shook his hand and said it was a pleasure and sheer luck to meet him. And then I was on my merry way home. This is a true story. My friends were in disbelief, but…
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Recipe Review: Chocolate and Hazelnut Mug Cake from Mother of Girls
Last week I tried the Birthday Cake Surprise mug cake from Mother of Girls, because I thought my son would try it so I let him pick which one I made. Turns out I was wrong; he did not want to try it. It was delicious, but I’m a chocoholic, so I wished I had made the Chocolate and Hazelnut mug cake instead. So I did. And it was as good as I expected based on how good the birthday cake one was! My son wasn’t as interested in helping me this time, so I held my daughter and she got to watch me add all the ingredients and give…
