Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies converted to Gluten Free

Well by golly I've done it!  Ok, that statement might prove that I've overdone myself watching all the seasons of Downton Abbey while I've been unpacking boxes lately.  But, none the less, I really have done it!  I wanted to bake something, anything really and after looking in my recipe box I decided that I wanted some peanut butter oatmeal cookies.  However, because it's been so long since I've made any kind of cookie at all, I threw in some chocolate chips too in order to make Craig happy too.

I have a recipe that I've used many times in the past and I knew it was a good one, but I wanted to make it gluten free.

Carved Basketball Birthday cake

 It has been so long since I've been able to bake anything, that I didn't even realize I hadn't posted all of the cakes I did this summer!  It has been a very full year in our home - a lot of travel, I mean a lot - as well as getting our oldest graduated from college and started out on her own with her first job and apartment, getting our youngest off to her sophomore year of college at her dream school which is 2500 miles from home, my husband getting a promotion, selling our house and moving across the state.  I think that about covers it :) I love to keep all of my baking adventures here and not muddle it up too much with other stuff so I decided to start a sister blog called Glitter and Green Beans that goes into all of those adventures here if you want to check it out.  I will have a lot to say about nutrition over there, as well as home improvement projects, family life, my pets, and pretty much anything else that happens to pop up in life.  

But here, it's about my cakes and this one I made for our youngest cousin as she hit her teen years.  She is a superstar on the basketball court and so fun to watch.  She is also just hitting her girly stride

Quick Zebra cake

This is a quick little cake that I did for a great little girl turning 10.  Her mom said that she liked animal prints of all kinds so I went with both zebra and leopard.  I used caramel for the leopard spots and it worked out great expect caramel has different melting point than chocolate butter cream.  It was a hot day when I delivered it and I had to make sure it sat (in the closed box) down on the floorboards of the car with the air conditioning blasting!  My feet were freezing but the cake made it just like it needed to!

Buttercream Transfer tutorial

I've never actually posted a tutorial.  I usually don't get enough pictures for that, but this time I purposefully tried to make it happen.  I needed to do a Madagascar cake for little girl and at first thought I would just get a few little toppers and keep it simple.  But I couldn't find any when I went out looking and had to turn to plan B.

I've done buttercream transfers before and they can be a lot of fun if they turn out well.  They can be very frustrating however, if they don't turn out well!  But that's how it goes with a lot of cake decorating doesn't it?  If you've never tried to make a transfer I hope I can do a good job of explaining them so you can go for it and give it a try!

Cupcake Cake

It's been a crazy summer.  So much to do in such a short amount of time created a crunch around Audrey's birthday.  She had just come home from college and was eagerly anticipating a letter to come announcing if she'd gotten in to the college she has been wanting to go to for the last several years.  Her birthday was almost too much to consider in the midst of it all.  Which really says something because up until this year she has always, I mean always, had an idea of what she wanted to do with all the plans thought out.  So I couldn't just let it pass too quietly.  I needed to put something together that was easy, but represented her well.

Our new gluten-free diet programs also contributed to this decision.  I decided to go with cupcakes but didn't want to just make them regular.  Making them into the numbers was a fun idea and I think it came out really well.  Putting the edging decorations and the flowers just gave it that little bit extra that it needed.  The zebra cupcake liners were a hit too.

Audrey had asked if I could make a chai-tea flavor, which I tried to but had to modify when I got started and realized I didn't have the tea in the cupboard like I thought!  Oops.  I did use a black tea with some extra spices to try to mimic the chai flavor.  I didn't get there completely but they turned out well anyway with a light hint of spicy.  I was worried they'd be overpowering, but they were a good balance.  Then I used a cinnamon buttercream on top, and of course - edible glitter!

She received the letter of acceptance a few days later too!! 

Batman Cake

Sometimes the cakes that are the simplest turn out to be so much fun!  I really loved the way this cake turned out.  I especially liked the board with the fun messages on it.  I had that in my mind to do when I was planning the cake and was going to just freehand it, but a couple days before I was at Williams-Sonoma and found these great cookie cutters that can make Spiderman comic cookies and the action bubbles in that kit worked perfectly for this project.

layered "firework" cupcakes

In case you are as busy as I am - a while back it was 4th of July :)  Time just flies by!  

I recently decided to try the new Wilton product that allows you to separate the batter in cupcake liners in order to make colorful centers.  Of course because I can never do things the easy way, or apparently practice before I share, I went ahead and tried to layer 2 colors of batter in the center to take to our friends' home for dinner and fireworks.  It's hard to see in the picture but they were obviously red, white and blue.  

These were vanilla gluten free "firework" cupcakes.  I thought they were yummy and I did receive many complements so it must not have been just my opinion :)

I found the batter separator to be great at keeping the batter from mixing together and becoming "muddy".  However, once you take the separator out of the first row and try to move it to another row, the batter drips and if you try to do what I did with 2 colors it can get really difficult to keep it all clean.  

You just have to work slow and careful but overall the device is helpful and fun to use.