Dragon Cake Recipe

Kayleigh here. So, this is going to be more of a technique post than a recipe. Why? Well, because we didn't invent the cake, but Jason DID discover his hidden talents as a decorator.

Jason here. This post is going to be a bit different. Usually our comments are kept completely separate. This time however, I just went ahead and added my tips and tricks right along Kayleigh's.

Dragon cake! And actually, it's real easy to do! Don't let those crazy competition shows fool you- you can make pretty darn neat cakes with the items you already have in your cupboard. In this case, a single bundt pan of cake can be cut into a winding, serpentine monster.

Now, down to instructions. First, make an Angel Food Cake in a bundt pan. Pretty much any recipe you find should be safe, since most have a consistent flour-egg white-sugar ratio. Once that's out of the oven, either whip up a batch of vanilla buttercream icing, or set a storebought container out, making sure it is room temperature and easily spreadable- this is a delicate cake!

Now, for the sculpting. Make sure you've got a cookie sheet on hand, or an equally large surface to sculpt and store on. Then, cut the cake in half and place it to where the halves are sideways, forming two humps. At this point, use a smaller or more slender knife to begin smoothing out the humps. You want to use a serrated knife and saw the pieces of the cake off. Otherwise, you will end up just breaking the cake apart in ways you did not intend. Don’t worry to much about making the cake “round”, slicing off a bit of the edges to make it rounder will do. You will be surprised how much the icing and scales cover to make the cake look cylindrical. Make sure to cut the pieces out in fairly long strips, so they can be used more easily later.

Once the humps have been carved and placed to your satisfaction, you can start working with all those shavings! Use a longer, tapered piece for the trailing tail, then moosh and meld the rest into a Draconian head and neck, making sure to add bumps for the eye ridge areas. Tip: it will be easier to attach the soft insides of the cake to each other than the tougher, drier outsides. This will help the head hold itself together in the long run.

With the cake base all set and sculpted, it is now time to apply the icing. Do not be afraid to slather it on fairly thickly- you will actually be using it as a glue for the 'scales' And what are those? Well, you can either buy the nonpareils chocolates from the grocery store, or check a local crafting store for the melting decorators chocolate. The nonpareils give a 'glittery' sort of look and a fun crunch, but the melting chocolate is great if you want a unique flavor or color, since there is a huge variety out there.

Starting from the back and bottom, lay a layer of chocolates across, smooshing them lightly into the frosting to cement it. Put the next layer above, slightly overlapping, and offset so they are covering the larger gap areas (like real scales!). Make sure you push these into the frosting even more, since they do not have as much support. Once an entire section of cake is covered, use your hands to gently smoosh the whole cake inwards, which will further secure the chocolate pieces from falling off. The picture should help with an idea of how to layer the scales.

Once you get to the head, you have quite a few options. You could keep tiling the head with the chocolate pieces or switch things up with regular chocolate chips, nuts, sprinkles, or whatever you have on hand. We also used a tube of red gel to make a couple of slit pupils for the eyes and a gout of ferocious flame right onto the baking sheet. Basically, go crazy here! Make it YOUR dragon!

Now, you have a kick-butt cake, that you can be proud of and how off to all your friends! It is a great project to involve kids in, too, since it brings out their creative side.

Cheesecake Factory Review

Jason here. One of the restaurants I used to go to was The Cheesecake Factory. One of the things I love to order at restaurants is appetizers. In fact, most of the time I eat out, I order an appetizer as my main meal. The Cheesecake Factory has one of the most expansive menus at any restaurant I have been to, let alone the diverse appetizer menu. A great part about the Cheesecake Factory, is you get as fancy a meal as you would like, all for what I would consider a low cost.

I also thought that since they are a large chain, they would also be very gluten friendly. Unfortunately that was not entirely true. When I arrived I asked if they had an allergen menu, or a specific gluten free menu. At least at the Bellevue Square location, they did not have either. So I thought, alright maybe the regular menu calls out allergens. Again no such luck. When we sat at our table, there was an additional nutritional information menu/information pamphlet. No a single piece of allergen information in there. In fact, not a single piece of allergen information anywhere. I check online and found some sources which claim to have received allergen information after contacting their headquarters, and another source, that claimed to have pictures of the allergen menu which they uploaded. Maybe those were old, or maybe my store just did not have them, either way it was frustrating.

Luckily, the rest of the experience was very pleasant. Our waiter was very nice, and understanding when I asked her about a couple items if they were gluten free. With such an expansive menu, I certainly would never expect anyone to remember if any of the items were gluten free, so I completely understood when she said she would have to go back and ask. She quickly came back and told us my second choice of the New Orleans Shrimp was gluten free. As a side note, the waiter also constantly on top of things, refilling my drink as soon as I finished it, clearly my plate when I finished, etc.

The food was very good. It had shrimp, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, Andouille sausage, and served in a light sauce. I opted for the white rice side. The whole meal was filled with flavor, the sauce coating the entire dish, making it almost like a shallow soup. As a drink I highly recommend the strawberry lemonade. I must have had 3 or 4 refills that night. They are so sweet and refreshing.

Kayleigh here. It was rather relieving to find a good experience here, considering the memories we have of several Valentines Day double-dates through our college years. With hundreds of items on their menu, there are really even more entree options to finagle than most other GF-friendly restaurants can offer! And although they currently do not have an option to finish off the experience with a slice of gluten-free cheesecake, Jason and I remain optimistic about it. Really, it creates an excuse to go and seek dessert somewhere quieter, such as a Frozen Yogurt joint. But that is for another post, now isn't it?

The only other comment on the Cheesecake Factory would be that is was loud. This has little to do with the restaurant itself, as they do everything they possibly could to keep the volume low. It is simply a very busy restaurant, with a lot of people, so be aware If you plan on have a quiet talker with you. Other than that, the moral of this story is to give chains like this a chance- even if they don't have a menu on hand, the chef on shift should be knowledgeable enough to provide you a delicious and poison-free experience.

Emergency Burger Buns Recipe

Kayleigh here. So, I do love cooking dinner every night, and making as much as possible from scratch, but I tend to prepare most of the more complex dishes over the weekend, and heat or reheat them on the weekdays.

The other week, though, I was driving home in the evening, and realized that those lovely brown rice burgers sitting in the fridge were...rather lacking in buns.

So, in a frantic fit of using what was on hand, I fried up a batch of.... sort of arepas, sort of corn pancakes. Not as light as a bulkie roll, but amazing for a last minute fix, when there's no way your hunger can wait for that darn yeast to activate. And, actually, it went quite well with the earthy flavors and spicy mayonnaise-based sauce.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Corn Flour
1/4 cup Garbanzo Flour
1/4 ts Guar Gum
1 Tbs Brown Sugar (or Molasses, for a wheaty taste)
1/2 ts Baking Powder
1 Egg
1/4 cups milk
1 Tbs melted or softened butter
Salt to taste
Peanut/vegetable oil for pan

1) Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stirring ONLY until ingredients are mostly combined. Over stirring can make it tough!
2) Put a pan on medium heat, putting in enough oil to lubricate things a bit. We didn't deep fry these puppies, but you can if you'd like more of an arepa feel to them.
3) Spoon batter into the pan. You should be able to have enough for three bun-sized dollops.
4) Just cook these like pancakes- try flipping them after four minutes. If the bottom has begun to brown, then it's good to flip. Cook the other side for three or so minutes, until brown on that side as well.
5) After letting them cool for five minutes or so, slice them in half. Then, either grill the insides lightly, or use as is with whatever sauces, patties, and toppings you want!

Another possible variation of this would be to add a bit extra sugar, cook with butter instead of oil, and serve as corn pancakes for a different breakfast spin! Well, and top with peanut butter if you're Kayleigh, and chocolate chips if you're Jason.

Jason here. These turned out surprising well for a spur of the moment sort of dish. A couple things to note.

They came out a little oily as they need to be fried in a pan. This makes eating a burger a messier enterprise than usual.

Second thing, these were way better fresh. We ended up making a ton of extras, and freezing them to use later. Initially they were this delicious crispy fried bread texture which went awesome with the burger and sauce we used. Unfortunately, after reheating in our toaster oven they had more of a stale bread texture to them. Luckily they still had a good corn bread like taste to them. What I got out of this, is don’t make a ton of extras and you will have one really delicious, if messy, burger bun on your hands.

We'll be trying to engineer a better bun recipe in the future, when we have time to wait for rising, but we'll definitely be cooking these babies up next time we need a quick fix!

Brownie in a Mug Recipe

Kayleigh here. So, who here has tried that old standby of brownies in a mug?

Well, for those who haven't seen this odd concoction before, it's a wonderful vehicle for making a decent dessert for one in a matter of five minutes, with the use of common household baking ingredients. It's great for rainy days, sudden chocolate cravings, and spontaneous house guests!

Now, I've always made the original kind a bit differently than the standard recipe. It might be just because I love peanut butter, but I've found that adding a tablespoon or two in place of some of the oil or sugar tends to give it a much nicer texture. I know Jason sometimes prefers the oil, and adding extra chocolate syrup or chips. But let's just stick to the standard formula for here, so you can figure out your own sweet spot!

Gluten Free Brownie in a Mug

Ingredients:

1 Mug (or microwave safe bowl/container)
1 Egg
4 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Sorghum Flour
1 Tbs White Rice Flour
1 Tbs Tapioca Starch
Pinch Guar Gum (really, like 1/8 ts)
1 1/2 Tbs Cocoa Powder
3 Tbs Milk
3 Tbs Vegetable Oil
Handful chocolate chips, Reeses Pieces, Nuts, etc.

1) Combine all ingredients in the order listed (putting the egg in first makes sure you don't end up with unmixed flour at the bottom of the bowl)
2) Stir and add candy/chocolate/nuts.
3) Microwave (2:40 is perfect on our machine, but it may be more or less depending on yours).
4) Eat.

If you're feeling guilty about this last minute indulgence, you can always put Millet or Brown Rice flour in instead of the White Rice. Give it a whole-grain sort of feeling, and it won't seem so bad.

On the other end, you could all out, an mix up a simple sugar-milk glaze, or top with chocolate syrup, ice cream, or more nuts/candy. There- just as good as any diner dessert, and even faster than going out for it!

Jason here. Ignore her guilty comments. Top it with all the chocolate syrup you want. Add handfuls of chocolate chip. Mix in some chocolate syrup. Basically you can make it as decadent as you want, and to me that means go crazy.

To me this recipe doesn’t really match the name. It tends to come out more like a dense cake in a mug, then a brownie. Perhaps that’s why I like to add so much extra chocolate. Saying it is more like a cake is not necessarily a bad thing; It still tastes delicious! Also make sure you mix the ingredients well enough. I have often found that they don’t mix well and makes the taste uneven throughout, especially the egg.

This recipe is great for kids to. If you premix the dry ingredients, you can whip up a brownie in a mug in a no time at all. All the while you can have the kids add whatever ingredients they want to their own individual brownies. Seeing a kid’s face light up as they throw their own handful of chocolate chips in, and add the sprinkles on top will let you know you have found a hit recipe.

Blue Moon Burgers Review

Jason here. A weekend or so ago, we decided to take a trip downtown to the Woodland Park Zoo. We planned it so we left early in the morning, and be leaving sometime between lunch and dinner. This way we could stop at one of the nearby gluten free places and grab a bite to eat. We decided on a burger joint named Blue Moon Burgers.

Wow do they have some delicious burgers. Both Kayleigh and I got their signature El Diablo Azul burger. The burger has cayenne and cumin seasonings, as well as a buffalo sauce. Jalapeno bottle caps, pepper jack cheese, fresh lettuce, and Pico de Gallo. Usually it is served on a Potato Square, but we requested the gluten free buns. As I said this burger is delicious. It came dripping in sauce, which had a unique creamy buffalo taste. Much more than a burger with Franks Red Hot splashed on top, which you see so often. The jalapeno bottle caps were substituted with fresh jalapeno slices, to make the burger gluten free. All of the produce was very fresh, including the jalapenos which added a nice kick to the burger. Despite all of the spicy toppings, I would not call it overly spicy. The buffalo sauce and jalapenos added spice, and only enough heat to add to the experience. The gluten free buns were good, but fairly standard in both taste and texture. That is to say, the burger buns were not there to add taste, but merely a device used to transport the rest of the meal. The only warning I have about the burger is that it was very messy. The sauce was dripping off the burger, and there were a lot of toppings which slid out at times. So if you are on a date, I would recommend you get something a little more manageable to eat.

We also split an order of fries. For one serving we definitely got our money’s worth, because there was a heaping of fries in our dish. The fries were nicely cooked. They came out on that fine line of well done enough to be crunchy on the outside, but still light and fluffy on the inside. Other than that I don’t have much else to say about the fries.

I am happy to say the restauaunt is very gluten friendly. They advertise right on their website and menu that they cater to gluten free individuals. When I ordered the El Diablo Azul burger with the gluten free bun substation, without missing a beat the waiter asked if I would also like to substitute the jalapeno bottle caps with just fresh jalapeno slices, since the bottle caps contain gluten.

Kayleigh here. The waitress really did impress me with how well she knew the menu, and what allergens were in each item. She filled us in about the gluten free frier as well, guaranteeing that no cross-contamination would reach the fries. I would also like to mention how fabulous the handmade peanut butter shake is. I mean, I'm a happy camper any time a restaurant has peanut butter somewhere on the menu, and it is a huge bonus when I do not need to finagle a special order to get it. According to their menu, you can even mix the various flavors together- maybe I'll throw in some strawberry next time!

So, next time you are planning a trip downtown, check to see if there is a Blue Moon Burgers in the neighborhood. Plenty of signature burger options, as well as the ability to make a custom burger with gluten free, vegetarian, and just plain unique options. Of course, it helps that their ingredients are locally sourced, fresh, and hand-made on premises. And really, it is a freshness you can taste.

Cinnamon Roll Waffles

Kayleigh here.  When is the last time you indulged in a warm, gooey cinnamon roll? The kind that comes from a high-end bakery, or over a full day of preparation and patience? Don't you wish you could get that kind of satisfaction on a whim, whenever you start to get that craving?

My desire for instant cinnamon buns ended in a realization- I really like waffles, too. And waffles are quite a bit faster than overnight rolls.

So, now the work came of making a waffle batter with the deliciously sweet kick of cinnamon sugar in each bite, and just enough denseness to hold up to the syrupy soaking it would receive. And really, I think these did the job quite well.

Ingredients:

For the waffles (makes 2)

1/4 cup Sorghum Flour
1/4 cup White Rice Flour
1/8 cup Tapioca Starch
Pinch Guar Gum
2 ts Baking Soda
1-2 TB Cinnamon, depending on tastes
2 TB Brown Sugar or Maple Syrup
1 TB Cashew Butter (optional, but adds a richness to the batter)
1 Egg
1/2 cup Milk
1 ts Vanilla Extract
1 TB Butter, melted
Handful Walnuts/Pecans (optional)

Cream Cheese Sauce

4 TB Cream Cheese (room temperature)
1 TB Butter
1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar
Small splash of Almond or Vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Combine all waffle ingredients in a bowl. Mix only until combined- overmixing batters can cause weird texture changes in the final product.
2) Heat up the waffle iron, and begin making those waffles. While you're waiting, mix the cream cheese sauce ingredients in a smaller bowl. If you desire, you can heat it up in a microwave in 10 second intervals. Be careful- cream cheese has a tendency to coat the walls of your microwave if you are not watching closely.
3) Once both waffles are done, cover them in the sauce and serve up hot!

Other variations: If you find the waffles to be too dry, or miss that cinnamon sugar filling, then microwave a mixture of 2Tablespoons butter, 2 Tablespoons brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon, and a pinch of powdered Ginger. Also, if you're not a big cream cheese fan, you can always mix up a standard milk and sugar glaze ( I won't put a recipe up here, but you should be able to find one easy enough)

Jason here. First thing, always be careful when microwaving the cream cheese sauce. Any sauce really, but I have found anything with sugar to come out like lava, if microwaved for even a second too long. Second, these are really delicious. We whipped up a generous amount of cream cheese sauce and kept the extra in the fridge, since it reheats so nicely. Delicious cinnamon bun waffles for breakfast before heading off to work really started my day off right.

Gluten free baking has been a very odd experience for me. So far we have been trying to duplicate different baked goods. This of course makes it impossible to bake the exact same thing using different ingredients. I have no other better way of describing it other than saying it is a weird mental sensation. I look at something we have baked, say bread, and think to myself this will taste exactly like the bread I have always tasted. I can’t help but to think that. This means even if tastes fine, it still doesn’t taste like “bread”. 

Thankfully, these unique tasting experiments we create can be repurposed. The cinnamon bun waffles are such an example. When I eat the cinnamon bun waffles, I don’t have a preconceived notion of what they should taste like, what their texture should be. I only know that they taste delicious, and the waffles we created work perfectly.

So I’ll end this post by saying, don’t be afraid to repurpose things you cook. Just because it didn’t come out exactly how you would like for one dish, doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect for another.

Blueberry Coffeecake Recipe

Kayleigh here. Being the season of fresh berries and deliciously cold drinks, Jason and I have a long standing tradition of buying up ridiculous amounts of strawberries the moment they go on sale each summer. Usually, they go into frosty daiquiris or warm, freshly baked muffins, but the pure pleasure their fresh taste brings is the same either way.

This post, though, is not about those strawberries. No, we have found new loves that injure the wallet even less than on-sale produce- the kind you pick yourself. For the past month, Jason and I have been seeing hundreds of ripe blackberry bushes lining the roads we take to work, where picking some to wash and eat is as simple as reaching your hand out from the sidewalk. On top of this, we were informed of a blueberry farm literally within walking distance of our apartment, where the berries are as tart and refreshing as they are cheap.

With these particular harvests, they have mostly disappeared into our mouths before ever seeing a recipe book. But we have been careful to save a handful for pancakes each weekend, served with our favorite real maple syrup. This weekend, however, I realized that I should get a little more creative about things, and remembered all the standard cookbooks on our shelf that hadn't seen the light of day since gluten became the enemy. Perhaps I could take one of the pages, and alter it without losing the original taste?

The concept this stems from is the Buttermilk Coffeecake recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. In addition to replacing the flours and halving the original amounts, we added fresh blueberries to the bottom, and a sparse coating of maple syrup, brown sugar, and walnuts to the top.


Ingredients:

½ cup Sorghum flour

¼ cup white rice flour

½ cup Tapioca Starch

1 ts Guar Gum

2/3 cups Brown Sugar

1/3 cup Butter

1 ts Baking Powder

¼ ts Baking Soda

½ ts Cinnamon

1 Egg

2/3 cups Buttermilk (or 2/3 cups Milk with 1 ts Cider Vinegar)

Pinch of Salt
 2/3 cup Blueberries
1/3 cup Walnuts (or pecans)
2-3 TB Brown Sugar
Maple Syrup (the cheaper, thick kind)


Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of a 8x8” baking pan, then set aside. In one bowl, combine flours, guar gum, brown sugar, and salt. Add butter in tiny pieces, mash in slightly (we found leaving small chunks of butter in the batter made a delicious texture when baked). Add baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon, stirring until combined.
2) In a second bowl, combine egg and buttermilk. Add this to the flour mixture, stirring just until barely combined.
3) Pour mixture into prepared pan, then place blueberries around, evenly spacing them as well as you can. Place this in the oven for 20 minutes.
4) At this point, check with the toothpick test. If the toothpick comes out dry or nearly dry, then drizzle the entire top with maple syrup. Sprinkle brown sugar and walnuts on top of this, then shake the pan a bit to make sure it all adheres to the maple syrup. Place this back in the oven for 5 minutes, just to brown things a bit.
5) Remove from oven, then wait 15 minutes or so before cutting in. We found this made about 6 breakfast-sized pieces, or 9-12 if serving at a party.

The somewhat thin batter makes the blueberries sink into a layer at the bottom, which really looks rather lovely. There is JUST enough moistness to hold everything together without weighing it down, which is somewhat of a rarity in Gluten free cooking. If you're a fan of coffeecake, or are just looking for another idea to use up berries, give it a shot!

Jason here. These blueberry coffeecakes came out delicious. They were the perfect consistency, and taste. We had a lot of blue berries laying around so Kayleigh made sure to add a lot, which goes a long way in taste. I would say they were a little heavier then traditional coffeecakes I had in the paste, but honestly that went well with how many blue berries we added. As an added bonus, these made great on the go breakfast treats.