Valentine's Day Butter Cookies with Red Royal Icing (GF)

I've made Valentine's Day cookies several times with similar results. All were tasty. My first version was tasty but the red icing well, was a weird pinkish orange hue. Creating deep reds is perplexing. Do you add a whole bottle of fakey "no taste" food colouring? Often this renders the tongues bright red of the people who ingested your cookies. Or do you add a dab and hope that it'll do?  My second version was made with white chocolate but in the end the same washed out colours resulted.



I usually add a dab and complain to myself later about how I should have added more food colouring. But I'm torn. I don't like having so much fakey red food colouring in my food in general. I'm sure too that most people if given a choice would rather not ingest that much food colouring too. So I thought oh well, I'll live with the crappy muted red colours I was getting.





The other day, I thought I'd research and revisit this problem with red icing. I compiled a few tips for bakers who want better reds:
1. Do toss in a few tablespoons of Dark Cocoa powder to the icing. This will improve the depth and darkness of the icing.  Bonus: it adds great flavour!
2. Use "no taste" red food gel (I used Wilton brand) or red powdered food colouring
3. Allow the icing to sit overnight (covered) and the red will be deeper
4. If you have burgundy (which I don't) I hear a bit of this will help too.
5. You can always add more, but you can't take away! Add a little colouring at a time and thoroughly combine before repeating as necessary until you get the red you want
6. Don't sweat it if it's not bright red. You tried. Let it go. Just eat it.

VANILLA BEAN BUTTER COOKIES (GF)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup organic cane sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean, ground up)
2 ½ cups Gluten Free Flour Blend  (see gf blend recipe below) OR if you're not GF, then sifted all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon coarse salt

1. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt and mix until combined.

2. Halve dough; roll into a disk about 1/4 inch thick. Cut our heart shapes with a mini heart cutter.

3. Preheat oven to 375ºF.  Space cookies on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until edges are golden, 12 to 15  minutes.  This depends on the size of your mini cookies.  Just keep an eye on the first batch to make sure.  (cakebrain note: ensure the cookies are golden brown and they'll taste much more flavour as well as a better crunch). Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

4.  Decorate by flooding the cooled cookies with red icing.  See recipe link HERE.  Let dry.  Pipe with a small round tip around the edges to create lace design with white icing.  I gently tap the tip to touch the cookie at short intervals as I trace around the border.

CAKEBRAIN'S FAVOURITE GF FLOUR BLEND RECIPE:

2 1/4 cups superfine Thai Rice Flour (Asian market)

1/4 cup potato starch

2/3 cup tapioca starch

3/4 cup sweet rice flour (Thai brands are best)

1/3 cup cornstarch

2 teaspoons xanthum gum

• In a large airtight container, combine the flours together well.  I use a large wire whisk to mix the flours thoroughly.  Be particularly vigilant about distributing the xanthum gum as it is a small quantity compared to the rest of the flours.
• Use this GF Flour Blend in place of regular cake flour or all-purpose flour.  
• You do not have to worry about sifting as it's not lumpy
• You do not have to worry about overbeating as there's no gluten to develop.

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GIRLIE BIRTHDAY PARTY CUPCAKES: On turning 6

My girl's 6 and here's the cupcakes I've made for her bday party!

Chocolate Quinoa Cupcake recipe:  I adapted by using coconut oil (melted) and all you need to do is dump all the ingredients in your food processor.  I used my VitaMix

So she's 6!  6 is groovy. She's old enough to go to school but still young enough to still want girlie cupcakes.  6 is a good year.  You can still sit on daddy's lap, and get your older sister in trouble by pouting and giving the "look".

I adapted the recipe again by adding 1/3 cup more cooked quinoa and ended up with 15 large cupcakes.  Baking time was approx. 35 minutes.

What girl doesn't love sparkly dragees?

The secret to a smooth, light frosting is beating the heck out of your buttercream.  5-7 minutes in a stand mixer will lighten it to a heavenly texture.

Just a dab of pink gel food colouring (don't use too much) will get you there

Using a disposable piping bag and a Wilton 1M tip

Work the buttercream outside in

Pretty yummy

Don't drop too many dragees on each cupcake.  3 should do ya

Moist crumb; not cloyingly sweet

Serve with pink and white Jelly Bellies! The white ones are birthday cake flavoured Jelly bellies

taa daa

BEST EVER QUINOA CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
adapted from Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood
Makes 15 large scrumptious cupcakes
2 1/3 cups cooked quinoa, cold (see note below for instructions to cook quinoa)
1/3 cup milk (or soy, almond or coconut milk)
4 large eggs (or egg replacer)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cups coconut oil, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
*2 large-welled muffin tins (large cups, large cupcake liners).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the muffin tins with the 15 large-sized cupcake liners.
In a Vitamix, Blender of Food Processor, combine: milk, eggs, vanilla. Blend until combined. Add 2 1/3 cups of cold cooked quinoa and the melted coconut oil and continue to blend until smooth.
Dump in the sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the Vitamix. Blend well to combine.
Pour from the blender directly into the cupcake liners, evenly distributing the cupcake batter between the 15 liners. Gently tap the tin on the counter to ensure there are no air bubbles. Smooth the tops with a small spatula (or your finger!)
Bake in the centre of the oven for approximately 35 minutes.
Test the cupcakes for doneness with a toothpick or cake tester.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow the cupcakes to cool completely on a rack.
Frost if desired with Swiss Meringue Buttercream using a 1M Wilton tip. Decorate with the chocolate lace hearts (see post above for the easy method I used). Bling it up with dragees if desired.
Cupcakes can be stored sealed in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month. But I don't think they'll last that long.

Note: Bring 2/3 cup raw, rinsed white or golden quinoa to boil in a heavy saucepan with 1 1/3 cups water. Cover, reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave covered saucepan on burner for another 10 minutes. Fluff with fork and allow the Quinoa to cool.
Rice Cooker Method: Cook rinsed quinoa as you would rice, following manufacturer's instructions and the indicator lines for appropriate water levels. I made 1 cup quinoa and found it had enough leftovers to make another dish.

GIRLIE PINK BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 T milk
Place the softened butter in a large mixing bowl and gradually add the confectioners' sugar a little at a time to the butter, beating continuously. Continue until all the sugar is blended in.
Beat with the mixer until the icing is pale and fluffy. Beat in the milk until well combined
Use pink gel food colouring (not too much! a dab'll do ya) to colour the buttercream.
Scoop the buttercream into a piping bag with a "1M" tip (Wilton) and pipe swirls on the tops of the cupcakes.

Decorate with pink buttercream frosting (see below for recipe), and share the fun and have your loved ones sprinkle on the dragees, sprinkles, sanding sugar & dark chocolate shavings.




HOW TO SWIRL BUTTERCREAM

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Happy Holidays

Sparkly Vanilla Butter Cookies

Chocolate spritz cookies (GF) with white chocolate drizzle and festive sprinkles

I am missing you dear readers, but I am quite busy with life! I am still baking and eating out but I have put posting on my food blog on a pause for now. I will be back when my schedule lightens up.

Happy holidays!

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LEMONADE GF BAKERY ON CAMBIE

Add caption

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CLINGING DESPERATELY TO THE LAST REMNANTS OF SUMMER

Local Blueberry Tarts with Coconut-Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream

Local Blueberries fully ripe and ready for picking!

The buckets they provide hold about 5 lbs of berries.  They provide buckets for picking, but you should bring your own shallow containers for bringing the berries home.  Transfer the berries from their buckets after weighing and paying.  Minimum was 5 lbs per person (i.e one bucket per adult).  We picked 2 buckets and paid $1.75/lb.  It took us a leisurely 1 hour to pick two buckets full.  

U-Pick Blueberry Field @ GS Farms, Richmond.  Check out this link for other local UPick farms

Some of the bushes were so full of berries, they sagged from the weight of the berries

Coconut milk pastry cream...a good thing

For the Coconut Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream, I used my ol' trusty recipe from a previous post.   The toughest part...waiting for the pastry cream to cool before eating!  

No need to make tart pastry from scratch...though I know you can do it...the time is ripe to eat these blueberries now!  There's 10 lbs of these blueberries! Life's too short!  No time to lose!   Buy frozen tart shells from the grocery store and bake per instructions before filling with pastry cream and berries.

Press the cooked pastry cream through a sieve to ensure smoothness.

Refrigerate the pastry cream until cold.  To prevent a skin from forming, you should press plastic wrap on the surface.

FYI:  That's not dirt in my pastry cream.  Those are quality Tahitian Vanilla Bean seeds freshly scraped from the juicy pods.

Top the fresh berries on the pastry cream.  No need to glaze.  Savour the last remnants of summer.

Wishing all my readers a relaxing Labour Day weekend and a fantastic start to the new school year! 

;* cb 

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SHE'S BACK! WITH BANANA CAKE AND COCONUT GELATO (GF)

BANANA CAKE WITH SUGAR FREE COCONUT GELATO

Where have I been all this time, you might have been wondering?

or maybe you haven't noticed my absence? o.O

Here's what I've been doing in a nutshell:

• @ the end of the school year, I got really sick/asthmatic (getting better now); doc says blood work indicates severe allergy to something; on waiting list (over 3 months) to see an allergist and a respirologist
• applied for and got a NEW JOB (part time; still teaching English too) as a Learning Technologies Mentor for my district (yay!) \o/
• completed my Graduate Diploma in Teacher Leadership (Certificate of Innovative Educational Leadership) 
• joined Fitocracy to track my workouts (5-6 times/week)...and bought 2 kettle bells too
• road trip:  visited Great Wolf Lodge with kiddies; wore a bikini for 1st time in years thx to my workouts
• road trip:  Portland, Oregon to continue our vacation and was impressed by food carts & shopping... and I think it's a fabulous place that I would def want to visit again!

COCONUT GELATO (SUGAR FREE)
from Amato Gelato, Vancouver, B.C.

In Portland, Oregon we stayed at the Embassy Suites Hotel Downtown.   I cannot recommend this hotel enough.  FREE happy hour drinks and snacks, Art Deco, totally renovated boutique hotel within walking distance of everything and especially VOODOO DOUGHNUTS!

I decided to get glutened.  I planned it very carefully.  I went the whole trip GF, but decided I would eat those damned doughnuts at the end of the trip.  I did my research online ahead of time and listed the doughnuts that looked promising.  I bought 5 doughnuts in total (see HERE for a pic of them)...had Stomach trek on over at 5 in the morning (it wasn't busy at that time but usually there's a huge lineup out the door... but they're open 24hrs/day) on the last day of the trip.   Before the drive home, I had my first yeasted doughnut.  (Be forewarned Voodoo Doughnuts are not politically correct doughnuts.)  It was called the GAY BAR.  OMG.  A yeasted long john covered in white icing, filled with custardy cream and blinged up with a row of rainbow Froot Loops.  Hit the link to see a pic I took of it.  It was my fave.  I was in gluten heaven.  I knew I would regret it but eventually I pushed it too far and on the drive home had another doughnut.  

It was the Voodoo Doll Doughnut that did me in.  As we drove home from Portland, we got stuck in traffic.  All the lanes of the I5 were closed down for some reason.  People came out of their cars and started walking towards the edge of the highway overlooking the airport.  They were taking pics of the airport.  How odd these Americans are, I thought.  Stomach asked someone and found out that Obama had just landed and gotten out of his plane that was right in front of us as we looked from our cars on the highway.  Some of the people even got pics of him getting into his car I think.  Geez!  And his escorted car was making its way from the airport and so the whole highway was shut down.   I was starting to wonder why these drivers didn't seem to be too upset about the stoppage of traffic.  

So during this huge delay on our way back, I decided to go for another gluten goody.  That Voodoo Doll Doughnut was eyeing me.  Literally...with its beady m&m eyes.  I pulled the pretzel stake from the vdoll's heart and gave it to Bebe to eat.  I bit off his head and crunched on his eyes.  The tender chocolate icing covered long john was delish.  Then I bit into his torso and lo and behold my mouth filled with jewel-red jelly! Awesome!  what a nice surprise!  

A little later on, I succumbed to the horrible bloating and crampy feeling in my tummy from eating too much gluten and I knew I had maxed out my gluten tolerance for the day.   Was it worth the pain and suffering?  Hell ya.  The next day, I had to fast practically the whole day to get rid of that awful feeling.

But I'm back on the GF wagon again and though I haven't baked in ages I figured I'd warm up again with an oldie but goodie.  Today I present you with my fave gluten free Banana Cake recipe.  I served this with sugar free Coconut Ice Cream from Amato Gelato.  Perfect pairing.    

USE THE RIPEST SPOTTED BANANAS FOR THIS RECIPE

In Portland I went to Sur la Table (bought 2 sets of cutlery, one fork is pictured above).

 You wouldn't know it's Gluten Free. Tender crumb.   

delicious!

BANANA BUNDT CAKE (GF)

adapted from Dorie Greenspan's "Classic Banana Bundt Cake" from Baking:  From My Home to Yours

For my favourite Gluten Free Flour blend recipe, check out my post here.

• 3 cups GF flour blend (or all purpose flour, as in Greenspan's original recipe)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups organic cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large organic free range eggs, room temperature
• approximately 4 very ripe bananas, pureed (1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups)
• 1 cup sour cream

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to Preheat the oven to 350 F. Generously butter a 9- to 10-inch (12-cup) Bundt pan. [I sprayed my Nordicware bundt pan with Pam.]
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together.
3. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the bananas. Finally, mix in half the dry ingredients (the mixture will look curdled — just keep mixing), all the sour cream, and then the rest of the flour mixture.  Mix until well blended.  Scrape the batter into the pan, rap the pan on the counter to de-bubble the batter, and smooth the top.
4. Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. [mine took 75 minutes] Check the cake after about 30 minutes, if it is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding on the rack to cool to room temp.
5. If you have the time, wrap the cooled cake in plastic and allow it to sit on the counter overnight before serving — it’s better the second day.
6. Because my adaptation of the cake is gluten free, it should be refrigerated.  It will keep well in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for several days.  You can warm up slices in the microwave for a few seconds or allow the slices come to room temperature before serving.  This bundt would freeze well too.

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LONGEVITY HERBAL TEA

Pu Erh Tea in the "Tuocha shape"

We were in Chinatown for lunch at Phnom Penh (I recommend the Garlic Chicken Wings!) and I walked into a lovely tea shop near Ming Wo. The shop, Jane's Longevity Tea and Arts (41 East Pender Street) had traditional Chinese tea supplies...specialty tea cups and pots, formal tea sets and specialty teas from China. They also served free samples of tea in a ceremony very similar to though very different from a Japanese tea ceremony. I was looking for something to relieve my recent strange asthmatic symptoms. I have a persistent dry cough and my voice is strained from the constant hacking. I even popped a ligment behind my ribcage from coughing so hard a couple of days ago.

I spoke with a man who said he was just "watching the store" because the shop owner had stepped out.  He told me his father was a famous TCM doctor in China and he seemed to know a thing or two about teas and TCM. I told him of my symptoms related to asthma and he said he also had asthma as a child but does not have symptoms now. I learned that my lifelong consumption and preference for green tea might be contributing to some of my symptoms.

Apparently, green tea is higher in caffeine than Pu-Erh tea and is also very cooling.  See health benefits of Pu Erh tea HERE.  It's cholesterol lowering, detoxifying and can help with fat loss.  Because I have recently developed asthmatic symptoms (I didn't have asthma as a child)...mainly a persistent dry cough, I am not helping my symptoms by drinking so much green tea. I usually drink from 1 to 4 cups of green tea in a day.

Pu Erh Tea from Yunnan province, China.

He advised me to try Pu-Erh (or Bo Lai...Cantonese pronunciation) which is a sort of fermented tea from Yunnan province in China. The tea leaves are dark and produce a red or dark tea. The one I purchased was not expensive though like fine wine, if you want to, you can pay hundreds of dollars for a Pu Erh brick that is priced by its age and region.  Some bricks can be decades old. 

I paid $15Cdn for my pressed tea ball, which is sort of cute. It is the size of a baseball cut in half. There is a depression that I imagine is part of the pressing and molding process. The tea guy told me you take a small knife and use it to pry the tea ball and break off small pieces to use.

Apparently, though Pu Erh is a dark tea, people mistake it for black tea but it isn't. He told me that it is a very special tea that wealthy people drink because it can be very expensive; it's good for your health too. The density of a brick can indicate how well it can age. The tighter the packing, the slower it will age. The more surface area, the faster the tea will age.

The shape of my teaball is called Tuocha bowl, or nest.

When I took a small paring knife to it, I was surprised by the hardness of the teaball. It was extremely hard and difficult to break into. I broke off a tiny chunk less than a teaspoon to make my cup of tea. You steep the leaves in hot water for a few minutes and drink. It's kind of hot outside and I wanted to drink it right away so I poured my freshly brewed tea over ice in my double-walled Bodum cup.

                      

The tea was smooth and delicious.   It was nothing like the Bo Lei/Pu Erh tea you get at dim sum with your meal.  It was not bitter or astringent (like some I've tasted at restaurants) but almost sweet and I hear that the quality of the tea, like fine wine can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars as quality aged tea is rare.  The Pu Erh bricks have the region, year and production information on its paper wrapping.  Also, like fine wine, you have to watch how you store it and many variable affect its taste.  If you want to read some history about Pu Erh tea, I found this link helpful.  About an hour after my first cup of the Pu Erh tea I could not believe it. The constant tightness in my throat was eased. I will be drinking this tea from now on as it seems to suit my constitution. I used to think green tea was the be-all and end-all but I guess the tea guy was right. Sometimes you need to match the foods you eat with your body type. He also advised me to limit my consumption of seafood and bitter melon (which is not a problem as I dislike bitter melon).

I am so pleased to have some free TCM advice from this man. I told him my kids were plagued with nosebleeds; up to 3 or 4 a week. He recommended once a week to boil this detoxing tea for 5 minutes and have them drink it. Because of its medicinal flavour from the goji, I asked if I could add sweetener and he said maple syrup or honey would be okay.

I'll let you know how the detox tea works.

Detox Tea

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