Enjoy Life Crunchy Cookies

My brother Chris is getting married this year!  I'm a very proud big sister and am excited to be a bridesmaid in his wedding alongside my sister.  We recently celebrated his wedding shower with my dad's side of the family.  My step-mom coordinated my menu with the staff in advance and I promised to bring some dessert for myself with some to share.

Enjoy Life recently sent me their crispy handcrafted cookies to try.  They would fit in perfectly with the shower!  The day of the shower, I made a small batch of frosting (Crisco, powdered sugar, water, vanilla) and dyed it fuchsia in honor of their wedding color.  I used only a Wilton star tip to decorate the cookies - they were simple yet surprisingly elegant and fast to make.  The Enjoy Life cookies are fantastic to work with from a decorating perspective - their large flat surface makes a great canvas - especially the Sugar Crisp cookie.

The cookies tasted great.  My brother said they reminded him of the almond cookies we would get at Chinese restaurants - but these were better.  (Normally we only got a bite or two into those dried out cookies of our childhood before cutting our losses.)  After sitting out for a few hours, they still had a great crispy bite and tasted very fresh.  I recommend trying them...and falling in love!  These are the delicious way that sugar cookies should taste!

I am a huge fan of Enjoy Life products.  All of their products are gluten free and free of the top eight allergens (I'm in heaven) AND they are local (way to represent Chicago and the surrounding area!).  Their products are free of artificial ingredients, trans fats, and genetically modified (GMO) ingredients.  Let's just say I felt guilty adding frosting with food coloring to such a healthy cookie...

Have you decorated store-bought cookies and brought them to a party before?  What are your favorite cookies to use?

Better Batter Yellow Cake

Looking for a tasty yellow cake mix?  Look no further than Better Batter's certified gluten free Yellow Cake Mix.  Better Batter was kind enough to send me a box to sample.  The baking couldn't be simpler: mix plus 1 cup water or milk (I used Pacific Natural Food's hemp milk), 3/4 cup oil and 3 eggs.  Mix everything together, pour into two 8" pans and half an hour in the oven later, you have cake!

I was bringing the cake to my cousin's housewarming party, so I couldn't sample the cake ahead of time.  (That's why I like cupcakes, no one notices if one is missing...I'm sneaky like that.)  From my Wilton classes, I learned how to properly level a cake.  I adjusted my cake leveler and was shocked to discover that the cakes were already level.  In my almost two years baking gluten free, this has never happened.  While I was delighted that I saved a step, I was bummed that again, I couldn't sneak any cake in advance.  At that point, I decided the cake better be worth the wait!

After placing my cake on a foil covered board and carefully positioning one layer, I piped a some frosting onto the cake and spread it around.  Then the next layer was added and the cake went to the fridge to cool to prevent any crumbs from seeping into the frosting.  Once the cake was cool, I plopped a ton of light green thin-consistency frosting on top and began to ice my cake.  I used a stencil to make the decorative swirls on the top of the cake.  I added another two toothpicks worth of green dye to darken up my leftover frosting before adding in some piping gel and a tiny bit more water.  The stencil was outlined using a #3 tip and then surrounding freehand dots were added.  Using a #21 tip, I formed a shell border around the base of the cake in the remainder of the dark green frosting.  A two-tone yellow gum paste Gerbera Daisy (made earlier) found its way in the center of the cake.  Viola!  Beautifully decorated cake without my kitchen turning into a mess!

 

Later that day after toting my cake up to the Illinois-Wisconsin border for my cousin's party, I FINALLY got to try the cake!  Was it a better batter than I'm used to?  You bet!  The cake was deliciously moist, very soft and tasted like cake!  (I've tried some gf cake mixes that felt like I was biting into sand; Better Batter thankfully tastes like a decadent cloud.  And look at those air pockets!  The batter is not too dense.)  At the party, my cousin's other side of the family happily tried the cake and complimented how great it tasted...before they even knew it was gluten free!  Everyone loved it!  I am happy to add another brand of cake mixes to my pantry.  Having a naturally level cake is a huge draw for me since I love to cut corners and find faster ways of doing things without compromising the final product.  The edges of the cake browned a bit too much for my liking, but no one will ever see that after the cake is smothered with frosting.  Better Batter's Yellow Cake is a winner - it even converted my chocolate loving self into a huge fan!

Wilton Flowers and Cake Design - Class 4

It was time for the final class in Wilton's Flowers and Cake Design curriculum. Time to tie together everything I learned into one beautiful cake! I spent an hour or two researching my general idea on Pinterest and found some inspirational photos of baskets lovingly filled with flowers. (Check out my Pinterest Cakes and Cupcakes board for some eye candy.) I made all my flowers in advance and came to class with half filled bags of leftover brightly colored frosting and over two pounds of brown for the basket. Another blogger lamented the fact that the supply list only asked for 1 1/2 cups of frosting - she was only able to basketweave a tiny portion of the cake. Since matching colors is next to impossible, especially for something as bold as the basketweave, I made way too much. Better safe than sorry, right?
...Or is it better safe than having a naked cake?

In class I learned two new techniques: the reverse shell and the basketweave. I say "I learned" because for whatever reasons, our class of five shrunk to only one. I felt like the last one standing in a reality TV show! And what did I get as the lone survivor (who ironically is lactose and gluten intolerant)? A fancy certificate of completion, individual attention, and a delicious cake!

My cake turned out beautifully. I was able to effectively and elegantly tie in majority of the royal icing techniques (except for the troublesome rosebud - I blame being left-handed as my downfall on that one). My co-workers loved "cake day" and I was thrilled to share my final project with them. The cake was Bob's Red Mill Chocolate Cake with almond milk.

Wilton Flowers and Cake Design - Class 3

Flowers, flowers everywhere and all so good to eat!

For our third class in the Wilton Flowers and Cake Design we made even more flowers. This time, we continued towards perfection on the Wilton rose, learned the beautiful daffodil, the super tiny violet, and the elegant lily. We rounded things off with stems and talked about cake design as we all started envisioning our final cake.

My favorite flower was the daffodil. Ever since I say a picture of it on the cover of the lesson plan booklet, I was hooked. They require a little more grunt work than other flowers (and three different tips) but they turn out lovely. The violets weren't too hard, just so tiny! Your hand hurts after a while...I'm not sure if I'll be taking any requests for violet filled cakes any time soon. Maybe the lilies - those were the largest flower we learned and perhaps the fastest to make. So many possibilities, so little time!

Next up: my final cake!

Wilton Flowers and Cake Design - Class 2

The second lesson in the Wilton Flowers and Cake Design class was all about royal icing flowers. I'm an expert at making royal icing - two pound bag of powdered sugar, 6 T meringue powder and 10 T water, put in a stand mixer, walk away for 7-10 minutes. My kind of recipe!

In class, we were only supposed to make rose bases and rose centers, but our instructor taught us how to complete the rose so we have three solid weeks of practice making the Wilton Rose. My rose bases and rose centers leave a little something to be desired - they do not stand up as straight as the instructor's do, but I was able to finish the rose much better than the ribbon rose from Decorating Basics.

We also made apple blossoms (small flower) and primroses (larger flower with yellow star) with our decorating nail. Once I got the hang of the curving motion, these were a breeze to make.

I had the most difficulty with the rosebud - I'm left handed so have to create it essentially backwards and I couldn't wrap my head around it as easily as everything else I was doing. And then the sepals started looking like octopus legs until my instructor pointed out how to correct that.

Afterwards, I had a lot of royal icing flowers that I do not intend to use on my final cake, so I brought them to work on Valentine's Day and shared roses with people in my department and primroses with some of the attorneys. What a nice sugar rush to start the morning!

Wilton Flowers and Cake Design - Class 1

This February, I started the second class in the Wilton cake decorating series: Flowers and Cake Design. New instructor, new classmates, and thankfully a lot less baking than the first course. (In the Decorating Basics, we brought in baked goods for four weeks in a row; this time we only need to bake a cake for the last class.)

What I really like about this class is that it is much more technique based. We only made two flowers in two hours, but now I know how they made the flowers on the cake at the bakery outside my bus stop! (Bonus points for applying my knowledge in the real world!) This was my first time ever working with Gum Paste and Fondant. I was transported back to childhood while working with the fondant - it is just like working with clay. After all the manipulation (kneading it, rolling it out, pressing it), it kind of makes me paranoid about cakes from designer bakeries. (Are you sure they washed their hands?)

The first flower we created was the button flower. The supply list called for the neon fondant multi-pack, but the store was sold out so I went with primary colors. The button flower was really basic - roll the fondant out, place it in the mold, and ever so carefully, remove it and let it dry in a flower forming cup so it does not dry flat. I swear, I had a kit that I used that was very similar to the flower press for paper flowers when I was a kid. I guess I can credit my beautiful flowers with years of practice.

Next up was the pansy. After forming the flower shape with a cookie cut, you mold the petals edges with the ball tool. They turned out really cool, but I am partial to the monochromatic pansies. Oh well, at least I can show my (grade) school pride with my color choices!

GFCF Gingerbread House

Last year, I bought a gingerbread house kit from the store and called it my most stressful decision ever. I nearly had a panic attack from working with wheat and dairy-filled icing. In the end, the gingerbread house was built with a hot glue gun and sat throughout Christmas on the far corner of my table - away from anything I would eat. This year, I wanted to put my Wilton skills to use (I took the first course and went from horrible to terrific very quickly) and that meant making a gingerbread house that could proudly take center stage on my kitchen table and I wouldn't be flipping out over touching a wheat-filled kit and then touching everything else in my kitchen. No gingerbread house is worth getting sick over!

Pamela's Products held the answer to my gf Christmas wish! Her website has a recipe that uses Pamela's Gluten-Free Bread Mix to create a gingerbread house! And it even included templates for the house! Before work one morning, I quickly mixed together my dough, using Crisco as my butter, and refrigerated it.

When I came home, I laid out some parchment covered cutting boards and got to work. Since I don't have wooden bars for consistent dough rolling (this is on my Christmas list, Santa!), I laid down two square chopsticks and was mindful of where they started to taper down. I cut out the templates with scissors and then gently placed them on top of the dough to cut out the shapes with a dough cutter/scraper.

Only problem was the paper was sticking to the dough! Since these were rolled out on parchment paper, I simply picked up the paper and flipped the dough over onto my parchment paper covered cookie sheets. Voila! Problem solved! The nice, smooth side was face up. The dough gave me just enough for the house and three small gingerbread trees. Before cooking my house, I used some stencils that my mom and I found (unopened) in her kitchen (similar to these) and drew out the shapes I wanted to draw in an attempt to minimize any free-handing the cake needed.

The pieces ended up baking for about 20-22 minutes. When they came out of the oven, there were several bumps in the dough. I've never done proper gluten free cookie cutter cookies so I don't know if this is normal, the dough, or me. The lumps are barely detectable now that the house has some distracting decorations on it.

This year, no glue gun was needed to put this house together! I made Royal Icing from Wilton's website (naturally dairy free) and used almost a dozen tips and three colors (white, red, and green) to decorate my house. I had a lot of fun putting this house together this year. The stress was off and I was in my element decorating with swirls and flourishes. Having the stencils imprinted with the designs helped immensely! All of the decorations were made from royal icing, so I had no additional labels to read. Wilton has been great about responding to my e-mailed requests about their products being gluten and dairy free - I know my colors are all safe for me!

Are you building a gingerbread house this year? Will yours be gluten free or gluten full?

Mummy cupcakes

Cupcakes aren't just for kid's parties! They are a giant hit with adults as well!

I made these mummy cupcakes for work and a party and everyone loved them. These cupcakes are very easy to transform into a spooky Halloween treat. These were made gluten free and dairy free, much to the surprise of some of the eaters - they could not tell that anything was different!

To make, you need:

Baked, unfrosted, and cool cupcakes (I used a devil's food cake mix)

1 recipe of buttercream frosting (I used the Wilton classroom recipe with water, powdered sugar and Crisco)

Two decorating bags or freezer bags

No taste red icing coloring (or whatever color eyes you want for your mummy)

Toothpicks

Decorating tip 104 for the white mummy wraps

Decorating tip 10 for the eyes

Coupler for your decorating bag

Sprinkles for the center of the eyes

Put about 1/4 cup of frosting into a small bowl. Using a toothpick, add about 2-3 "dips" of the red icing coloring and mix well. Add to a decorating bag with tip 10, using a coupler if you prefer

Put the rest of the frosting into the other decorating bag with tip 104, using a coupler if you prefer.

Pipe two eyes on the cupcake in red.

Then, using your white icing bag, pipe a circle around the edge of the cupcake. This will provide maximum mummy coverage.

Then pipe a large X below the eyes, making sure the wraps extend the entire width of the cupcake.

Continue piping wraps over the mummy.

For an extra spooky (and even creepy) effect, carefully place sprinkles in the center of the eyes.

Get creative! These had red eyes, per the request of the party host. In no time, you can have custom made cupcakes for Halloween! Making mummies was so easy - this project would be great for little hands as well!

Course - Complete!

Sometimes I even amaze myself.

After finishing Class 4 of Wilton's Decorating Basics at Michael's, I'm finding myself emerging as an artist. I have better-than-average crafting skills (in college and in Chicago I worked as a prop designer on several theatre productions) but nothing was truly amazing. But this? Cake decorating? I found my strong suit!

For our final lesson, we had to bring in an iced and ready to decorate cake. I used The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten Free's recipe for Devils Food Cake with Bob's Red Mill Chocolate Cake mix. I made the cake ahead of time and leveled and froze it. The day before class, I defrosted it in the fridge and then made my icing and frosted it while watching TV. So it took a little longer to frost than it should have (Glee was very distracting this week). I realized that the more I messed with it, the worse the cake looked. It was better to walk away and leave it be at a point. I also mixed two pounds of powdered sugar worth of icing in various colors for my cake, choosing vibrant and bold colors.

In class, we learned how to print. Writing is not my strong suit - I'm left handed in a family of right handers and I grip my pen really weird. So holding the bag properly was weird for me. It didn't look that bad - but it left me with something to keep practicing. The only other thing we learned was how to make a ribbon roses . My icing was a little too thick, so the petals did not have a super clean edge. But as my instructor pointed out - they look very natural. I made a lot of progress even between my first and fourth rose.

For decorating the cake, we could do whatever we wanted to showcase the different techniques we learned throughout the course. The general cake decorating guidelines are to do your writing, flowers, leaves, and borders in that order. I found that using the Wilton Flower Lifter (rather than a spatula or my fingers) to move the flowers was a lifesaver. I was able to get my flowers perfectly positioned every time. As my cake came together with each addition and splash of color, my adrenaline started pumping. I was very excited to create something so beautiful and so uniquely me.

Taking the class with food allergies was actually not a big deal at all! I went into the class terrified that someone was going to accidentally glutenize my food (I pictured cake flying everywhere - not the case at all) and was so relieved to have an incident-free experience. The icing (assuming you don't use milk and go with water or a milk alternative) is dairy free. Wilton has been fantastic with answering my questions regarding products' milk and gluten statuses (their products tend to be "same facility as" wheat and milk). My frosting behaved just like everyone else's did and I was never at a disadvantage in class. When my friends on Facebook asked if I made it "edible (by us) or poison?" I was excited to answer that it was entirely gfdf. I maintain a strict dedicated gluten free kitchen (I live alone - it's easy) and could not imagine the emotional stress of working with wheat.

I'm planning on taking the next two courses when the weather gets warmer. Juggling a cake, bag and purse or backpack on public transit during rush hour was a little much. I can't imagine doing it with a bulky jacket in the snow. (But now that I've said that, watch, I'll sign up for a January or February course during a blizzard.)

Overall - I highly recommend the Wilton classes. They are an easy and affordable (if you time your coupons right) way to learn lifelong skills that help you elevate your baked goods to the next level. You learn so many tricks and techniques along the way that open up the door to so many new decorations on the Wilton website. You'll impress your friends and coworkers and surprise yourself and have fun all at the same time! And you'll never look at an overpriced, poorly decorated cake at the store the same way again!

Decorating Basics - Week 3

Week two was a cupcake cake (how meta) and week three moved the cupcake to the starring role.

For Lesson Three of Wilton Cake Decorating Basics (I'm taking the class at Michaels), we learned how to make icing flowers and a few new techniques. The drop flower is super easy - we learned both methods - the star flower (simple squeeze and lift) and the swirled flower (squeeze, turn and lift). The rosette was nice and elegant.

The shell gave me a bit of trouble - I'm having difficulty being consistent and this is one technique that I really need to master since the shell is one of the most common borders on cakes. We took out our flower nails and learned the pompom flower (which my instructor loving calls the sea urchin). My very first attempt is pictured - I swear I got better as I made a few more. Net up was leaves - the tip does the work for you! Beautiful leaves every time! We also learned shaggy mums that were very fun to make. We had the opportunity to fill our cupcakes and tossed around some ideas of good fillings. Perhaps the greatest thing we learned was how to ice a cupcake. My instructor said that the trick is to go faster and with more pressure than you think you need. In about five to ten seconds, I had a perfectly iced cupcake. I think that is faster than taking a spatula out of the drawer... This is now my go-to-method for icing cupcakes. Where has this trick been my entire life? The tip is only $1.69. That's nothing considering the praise you will get for your beautifully iced cupcakes!!

After we learned all of our new techniques, we had time in class to practice what we learned. My gluten free cupcakes started off looking very pitiful (I used a doughnut recipe to make mine, so they were all sunken in) and ended up as a colorful array of cupcakes! Once I got home, I took out some plates (these make cleanup a BREEZE!) and started practicing some of the techniques I learned and used up my extra icing. My white plates were quickly dotted with pink flowers, purple shells, green leaves, and white stars.

When I started this class (meets for four weeks, two hours a time, on the same night throughout the month), the class was crowded with 11 students. By the time we got to week 3, we were down to 5 students. Where did everyone else go? All the ladies in my class were super excited to take it, but our numbers keep dwindling. I'm all for learning on the internet and from TV, but there's something important missing when you don't have an instructor who can help guide you along or fellow classmates whose work can inspire you. (I totally keep looking over to see what everyone else is doing - we can all be doing the exact same technique but we each have our own personality woven into it. Very cool!)

Next up? Learning roses and my final project cake. (Color scheme and theme still to be determined...Really only two days to decide since I need to make my frosting on Tuesday night...No pressure.)

It's a Cupcake Cake!

For our second class, we were to bring in one 8" cake and then level and fill the cake in class. Gluten free cakes do not rise well, so I made two 8" layers from one recipe (I used the yellow cake potato starch recipe from You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free. Strangely enough, this is my first gf yellow cake.) I made chocolate pudding with soy milk for my filling. As predicted, I WAS the girl on the train balancing a cake, a messenger bag, and an overflowing bag of cake make supplies. Taking this class is probably the first time I ever wanted a car in the city. I got nervous watching my cake slide around in its carrier on the over-crowded bus and eL.

During the class, we learned about curving lines and tight zigzags (which require holding the bag at an awkward 45 degree angle) and dimensional decorating. We also started coloring our icing - I bought the 12 color set (thank you, 50% off coupon!) so I have a variety of bold colors to use. After a few minutes of practicing the new techniques, we got to work on our cakes. Everyone in class worked at her own pace and soon our bare cakes were transformed into colorful creations as we iced the cake. While the icing was setting (put your cake in the fridge for 15 minutes if you can!), we mixed colors for our top design. The patterns for the designs are traced with piping gel on parchment paper and then placed on the cake and ever so gently transferred. The instructions in our class guide recommend using a paint brush; our instructor used her finger and said that the paint brush method was good for people who would otherwise have a very heavy touch. Well guess what - I'm a paint brush person.

My first attempt at transferring failed so I had to retouch my cake, wait 15 minutes for the icing to set, and then try again. When my cake was finally ready to go, I got to work with my various icing bags. Decorating the cake with dimensional decorating was much easier than I thought. I was basically making zig zags and circles and out came a gorgeous cupcake! The base of the cake was decorated with white circles.

I had one of those "Oh my God - I made that? (And it doesn't suck?!?)" moments.

Remember how I said I wish I had a car in the city? If I thought I was nervous with a naked cake moving around in its carrier while on public transit, I was panicking with an iced cake. I made it the few blocks to the train station and as I was sitting down on the eL, the cake shifted and one side got smashed. I brought most of my icing home with me, so I was able to perform some cosmetic surgery and return my cake to its original glory. I adhered the cake board to the base of the cake carrier with some duct tape and successfully and problem free carried it on the bus to work the next day. My coworkers loved the cake and I was happy to share something that looked beautiful and tasted great, too!

Next up: cupcakes and flowers. Don't worry - my cake carrier has cupcake holders so my creations won't slid.

Wilton Decorating Basics - Class 1

While my cupcakes with powdered sugar dusted on top are pretty, at some point in my gluten and dairy free life I need to put a little more work into the finished product. And learn how to decorate a cake without resorting to the decorate-while-warm-for-the-melted-frosting look. I've known about Wilton cake decorating classes forever - there is a Michaels store in my hometown and I've always wanted to go but never really felt like it was the right time for me or it did not fit in my schedule. This past birthday, my aunt went to the Wilton tent sale and bought me some new brownie and loaf pans (with rounded edges so no crumbs stick) to upgrade my gear and surprised me with a 25 piece decorating set with some piping gel. She obviously thought more highly of my decorating skills than I did... When I was a prop designer, I decorated three cakes in a year - all of them looked horrible. But that's going to change! I signed up for the Wilton Cake Decorating Basics course at my local Michaels craft store and now I'm going to be a decorating extraordinaire!!!

For the first class, our supply list included the kit, ready made icing and cookies. After a few e-mails back and forth with Wilton, I learned:

White Decorator Icing, 710-118: no dairy or gluten in this product but there was dairy and gluten in the plant. This means our lines are cleaned for cross contamination but we let customers know this for air born allergies.

Most of our icing colors are gluten and dairy free but the only way to be sure is to check each stock number such as 610-256 in order to know for sure. I hope this helps and I apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any other questions or stock numbers you would like us to check, please feel free to let us know! We appreciate your business,

So far, so good! I'm still not a fan of needing to e-mail the company with stock numbers of already purchased products (that seems to be the only way to get a solid answer), but am happy to know that Wilton is on top of the cross contamination issue and declares allergens on their labels. (The white decorator icing is made in a facility that also processes milk and wheat products.) They were also quick with their responses.

I'm always going to be the special kid in class because I'm left handed. But I can't eat wheat or dairy? And I need to make buttercream icing? Fun fact: Wilton's class buttercream icing is butter and cream free. It uses shortening (Crisco), milk or water, confectioner's sugar and the optional flavor, meringue powder and salt. Helpful hint: Crisco doesn't change consistency with temperature. Butter does. Keep it dairy free. No problem!

For the first class, we were supposed to bring in cookies. Since I'm super excited about baking these days, I made up a recipe to make six very large, chocolate cookies. Recipe at the bottom. I was ambitiously over-prepared for the first class (I found the supply list online) so was able to buy some things with 40% off coupons first (you get a 10% off class supplies coupon, but 10% off is kind of a joke when you are looking at all the toys you need/want. At the first class, we started late because people needed to still buy their kits and icing (do this in advance!). Our instructor went over how to bake a cake (no new info for me), recommended using box mix (too expensive for me), how to make the icing and how to water it down for the right consistency, how to fill a decorating bag, leveling and torting a layered cake, how to ice a cake and how to make a piping gel transfer. Seems like a lot of info, but a lot of the class was very basic.

When we did get our hands into the action, we pretty much just piped stars using tip 18 on the practice board and then class was over. I wasn't leaving until I decorated at least one cookie, so I piped some stars in a swirl on one and took a picture. I decorated the rest when I got home. The next night, I took out the practice board and kept going with the stars. They are getting closer to consistent the more I practice.

Next week we need to bring in an 8" cake to level and tort. Gluten free cakes don't rise too much, so this means I'll be making two 8" layers and leveling off the tops. I still need to decide on the filling... And find a recipe! And buy more things! Yeah...I'm going to be that awkward girl on the train next Wednesday during rush hour juggling a cake, plastic tool box and backpack, aren't I?

Michelle's First Ever Cookie Recipe

1 stick vegetable oil spread/dairy free butter

1 c gluten free flour mix

1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 c sugar

1/4 t salt

1/2 t baking soda

2 t vanilla

1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a stand mixer, cream the butter. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Slowly add to the butter mix. Then add in the vanilla and egg. Mix well. Place cookies on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake in oven for 8 minutes. The cookies should expand quite nicely and give you PLENTY of room to add as many stars as you desire.