Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Gluten Free Applesauce Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

 This gluten free cake was so good!  I'm trying to get some of my favorite things posted on my ol' neglected blog for safe keeping, but it's just not been easy for me--don't get me wrong, I feel good!  I just can't seem to get it done. Also had computer issues for a few months.  I won't complain.  And I'll just be short on words and see if I can get it done.

I've made this fabulous Apple Spice Cake before which I first got to experience from some cooking classes I was taking from my friend, Paige, in Kansas.  She has a great post on her blog for the Applesauce Spice Cake here.  With my autumn birthday recently (November 15) and it falling on National Bundt Day, I decided this is the cake I wanted to make gluten free for me.  Sometimes I'm not sure something will turn out well and I'll have lots of testing to do--but I sure love it when I first change a recipe and it turns out great!  So happy!

It was perfect and I have one slice left that is still perfectly moist.  My family doesn't really like when I've made something and I tell them it's gluten free.  They often won't even try it.  Sam ended up eating two or three slices and said it was pretty good!  It's not only made gluten free, but I used coconut sugar and raw honey for the sweetener!  Love it! I wanted a cream cheese icing on it since it was so good on the original cake so I made some to drizzle on the bundt cake with as little sweetener as I could and used a couple tablespoons of organic powdered sugar and then pure maple syrup.  I'll try it again to see if it's fine with just maple syrup another time.  But it turned out great and I used a lot less icing than the cake that is usually completely frosted with it.  So good though!

We had some apples here that were near "death", so I made homemade applesauce!  I peeled, cored and sliced the apples into pretty big chunks.  Then I put them in the Instant Pot with a little water and cooked them on the manual setting for ten minutes, then let it naturally release for another 10 minutes.  They were pretty well done/soft!  But it worked great!  I put them in the blender and within seconds they perfectly became applesauce! No sweetener added!

Gluten Free Apple Spice Bundt Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting, by Katrina Smith, www.bakingandboys.com

2 cups (240 grams) gluten free flour blend (with xanthan gum)

½ teaspoon xanthan gum (yes, extra)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup coconut sugar

½ cup raw honey

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce (I used homemade!)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 cup non-stick Bundt cake pan (or you can also use a 10 inch round cake pan) with cooking spray. I use a non-aerosol cooking spray.  Set aside.  Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.  Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter with the coconut sugar and honey until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes on medium high speed, stopping the mixer once or twice to scrape down the sides.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition. Beat for another 2-3 minutes.  With a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the applesauce (add the vanilla with the first half of the applesauce), beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, until they are fully incorporated.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean—about 35 to 40 minutes.  Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.  Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.  Turn onto cooling rack and let cool completely.  It should come right out of the pan.  Carefully move cake to serving dish or airtight cake keeper. Prepare icing while cake is cooling.

Cream Cheese Icing:

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

Dash of salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

2 tablespoons organic powdered sugar

½ tablespoon almond milk

2 tablespoons walnuts, lightly toasted, chopped (optional)

 

Whisk together the softened cream cheese, salt, vanilla, maple syrup, and powdered sugar until well combined with no lumps.  Add almond milk starting with ½ tablespoon and possibly a little more until desired consistency.  Drizzle over cooled cake.  Sprinkle with walnuts.




Love my bundt pan.  I've never had anything stick and I always only spray it with a non-aerosol spray.  Though I think I want to start collecting different bundt pans.  Seems like a perfect birthday/bundt day thing to do!






Monday, April 13, 2020

Banana Noatmeal

Hi.  Hello.  Look at this--I'm here!  I know, you thought you'd never hear from me again.  Well, tricked ya.  I really, really miss the good old days of blogging.  I miss wanting to share things with you.  I miss doing all the baking my heart desires.  I even miss spending time writing up blog posts, though let's be honest, I think that's probably all bloggers' least favorite part of this gig.  Times change.  I just can't seem to get things done like I used to be able to do.  I'm fine.  I'm healthy.  I'm busy.  I'm tired.  Even with this crazy time of the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic and being home more, I seem to be just as busy with boys and dogs (We have 3 now! Chip and Candy are both coming up on ten years old, so we adopted Trixie last November.  She's now 7 months old--what was I thinking being a puppy mom again?  She's a Corgi/Pomeranian mix).  I keep finding other things to do besides baking and sharing.  It's sad, I know. 



That said, my friend Shelby from Grumpy's Honeybunch has a cookbook out! The One Pot Paleo Cookbook is available from Amazon now (linked here).  Check it out.  Everything looks and sounds so delicious.  I love that they are simple one pot meals and could use a sheet pan in the oven, a skillet on the stove or a slow cooker!  I was excited to hurry and try a recipe but am limited on trips to the store right now (as we all are) so I quickly looked for something I could make with ingredients I already have and settled on this Banana Noatmeal.  Afterall, breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day and guess what I eat almot every day?  Oatmeal, with banana to be exact.  I've actually wanted to try a Paleo version for a few years now so this was just perfect!  If you're eating a Paleo diet (or even if you're not!) this is great as it is low-carb since it doesn't actually have oats.  Hence the clever name of noatmeal.  But I can't believe how much it literally tastes like oats.  I prefer for my oatmeal with used the quick cooking kind (gluten free, please), so this has the same texture.  The main ingredient is almond meal.  Then it also has some flaxseeds (I used ground meal), some hemp seeds and chia seeds (the recipe says white chia seeds, I only had black).  Everything is simmered with coconut or almond milk, then served with bananas, walnuts, a drizzle of maple syrup and a dusting of cinnamon. 

This is my ideal breakfast!  Excited to try it with berries when I can go shopping and get some!

Go get Shelby's cookbook!  Whether you follow a Paleo diet or not, it's got lots of great recipes!  Can't wait to try more!

On a family note, my "baby" turned 13 (ahhh!) in March.  We all went to dinner as a family, including my married son, Scott and his wife Diana and our son Parker who turned 18 and moved into his own apartment.  We went out the day before our state decided on a stay home, stay safe initiative and closed dining-in at restaurants.  For Easter yesterday, we had everybody over for grilling some hot dogs and hamburgers outside.  Scott, Diana and Parker stayed out of the house and tried to maintain the 6 feet rule from us.  Sam enjoyed hiding some Easter eggs outside for them to hunt.  It was fun watching grown kids collecting eggs.  We had some much-needed laughs together.  We look forward to this pandemic being over and life being more normal again.  How are y'all getting along?  We are truly blessed!  I was even able to go get my monthly infusion for MS last week.  Had to wear a mask and that is hard for me.  I named it being like "walking claustrophobia".  But I survived and I'm grateful my infusion center is still operating and they are taking a lot more sanitizing precautions and spacing everyone out more than normal.  I'm kind of hoping when we get to go back to things being more like they were before this virus came along, that the world learns to be more giving and kind and loving as it's been during this time.  What good things have you noticed in the world lately?