Gf Birthday Party

[Guest jhmom]

My precious daughter is turning 9 on Thursday just kidding, she is my baby and growing up WAY TOO fast lol....

Anyway, I have not had any luck baking gluten-free cakes , so I thought about baking her a pan of brownies, my question is would it turn out good if I put icing on it like a regular cake (to dress it up a little)? Just a thought......

PLEASE HELP....... Thank you

[angel-jd1]

I LOVE frosting on my brownies! I won't eat them any other way!! So I say go for it....have a glass of milk ready to wash them down, they will be rich!!

-Jessica

[gf4life]

Frosting would be fine on the brownies. I've frosted brownies before for school parties, since brownies were easier than cake. This was pre-gluten-free though. I'll be making gluten-free cupcakes for the class next week. My son will be 8 on June 10th( which is also the last day of school here!).

I remember last October when my oldest turned 9, all of a sudden it hit me that he was half way to adulthood! What a scary thought. Now my second is going to be 8 and my daughter just turned 5! My how time flies...

Have you tried Really Great Foods Chocolate Cake? I get mine from Gluten Solutions. It is the best! The trick is to beat the eggs, oil and water really good before you add in the mix and then bake it at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes longer (than the recommended time at 350 degrees). My kids and I love it, and I have served it at 3 parties so far and everyone loves it. Even the non-gluten-free people love it and can't tell it doesn't have wheat. I make a point to tell them after they have eaten it! Then they are so surprised that it is made with rice flour. It is probably too late to order it now, but for your next party...

You could always try to lower the temperature on your homemade recipe, and bake it longer. This seems to help. Kathleen (our resident chef from Alaska!) recommended this to me last year. She said that the rice flours seem to do better on a lower temperature, and I have found that it works. You just have to cook it a little longer. Jessica had posted that yummy yellow cake recipe that everyone just raves about. have you tried that?? My kids don't like yellow cake much, so we haven't tried it yet. They always choose chocolate cake when it's their birthday!

God bless,

Mariann

[Guest Florida Jean]

In regard to baking cakes....I think some time ago I had written and mentioned

that I use ALL of my old "wheat flour" cake recipes and just substitute the

Betty Hagaman flour mix for the wheat flour. But....be sure to add Xanthan gum....

1 tsp per 3 cups of flour. It seems to work just great for me and no one can

ever tell it was not wheat flour.

Have none of you other ladies [or gentlemen] ever tried this?

Anyway....good baking...and most important...stay gluten free!

Jean

[Guest Florida Jean]

I received this lengthy article from ALLRECIPES and found it interesting. Maybe you can get some good info from it too.

Bake Better Cakes...and hints brought to you by Kraft.

Rave Review!

" Carrot Cake III is my mom's favorite recipe, and she is a carrot cake addict. I love to make it for wedding cakes also, it always turns out perfectly. I only use 1/2 cup oil and increase the carrots to 5 cups (makes up for the moisture lost in oil reduction and adds great flavor). I increase the cinnamon and vanilla each by one teaspoon."

Don't Call the Bakery...

Making a moist, delicious, and beautifully decorated cake is not as hard as you might think. Save some money and collect endless praise by making the next special-occasion dessert yourself!

Take some Air. You'll have the greatest success if you let all your ingredients come to room temperature before beginning to mix the cake batter. The air you whip into the butter is what allows your cake to rise. Leaveners such as baking powder and baking soda cannot create air bubbles of their own, they can only enlarge the ones you created when you creamed the butter. If your butter is cold, you will not be able to whip as much air into it, and adding cold eggs and liquids can cause the batter to curdle, destroying those air bubbles you've already created.

Don't Crack! Everyone loves cheesecake! To avoid the dreaded cracks on top: 1) Bake it in a water bath. This keeps the oven moisture high and the heat gentle, two important conditions for perfect cheesecake. 2) Don't overbake. When cheesecake is perfectly done, there will still be a 2 to 3 inch wobbly spot in the middle; the texture will even out as it cools. And 3) Grease the sides of the pan before pouring in the batter; the cake will be able to pull away from the pan as it cools and shrinks instead of pulling apart from the middle.

The Finishing Touch. You don't need to be a master with a decorating tube to make a cake gorgeous. There are so many natural, edible decorations just perfect for adding the finishing touches. Piles of fresh summer fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, or pitted cherries add simple sophistication to any cake, especially when sprinkled with confectioners' sugar and garnished with mint leaves. Create chocolate curls by warming a block of chocolate in the microwave for a few seconds and then scraping a vegetable peeler across the edge. Edible flowers -- such as violets, lavender, honeysuckle, roses, nasturtiums, snapdragons, and pansies -- make for a breathtaking cake as well. Make sure the flowers you buy have not been sprayed with pesticides.

I know this is lengthy, but it is imformative.

Jean

[Guest jhmom]

Thank you.... to everyone...... I think I WILL go for it and put frosting on the brownies, I think she will love it, oh and I will make sure to have plenty of milk ready !!!

I tried a White Cake recipe from one of my gluten-free cookbooks and, it smelled wonderful as it was cooking but BOY WAS IT YUCKY!!!!! I copied Jessica's recipe for the yellow cake but have not got the nerve up to make it (I know I'm chicken) lol I will get to it eventually and will let you know how mine turns out! I plan on checking at the store for gluten-free Cake mixes, I wonder if the gluten free pantry makes any besides angel food cake????

Thank you Jean for those helpful hints on baking and info about the flour mixture, I have not tried it yet....... maybe soon!!!!

Kathleen........our celiac chef........ I sure wish I lived closer to you lol, I would PAY you to bake her a cake!!!!!!!!!!!!

[azza]

Hello,

How nice.. gluten-free brownies....!! I wish I could have some.. Any successful recipe for gluten-free brownies? And without any xanthan gum or tapioca flour? Because what is available here (UAE) is only rice flour (Brown too!) and corn flour.. . Hope I can make brownies with these ingredients!

~~ Please reply!! Thnx alot

Azza,

[angel-jd1]

Jean is right on, I also use my old recipes and just substitute Bob's Red Mill All Purpose gluten-free FLour and some xanthan gum and it works fine for the most part.

For the brownies, I do LOVE the Gluten Free Pantry Chocolate Truffle Brownie Mix with some dunkin hines homestyle milk chocolate frosting! and a big glass of milk! I might just have to make some of those today now!! haha

I hope your daughter has a great bday!!

Just remember frosting covers up any cake mistake! ha Also instead of sprinkles, could chop up some M&M's to add some color! YUM!

-Jessica

[angel-jd1]

ok with all this brownie talk, I caved in and made a batch of gluten free pantry brownies!! haha

Getting ready to put some frosting on, then pour a big glass of milk. Maybe top with some ice-cream (bryers vanilla) and some reddi whip and have myself a brownie sundae!! YUM!! Who says a girl shouldn't spoil herself? haha

-Jessica

[jaimek]

Speaking of sprinkles, does anyone know if they (Jimmies/Sprinkles) are gluen free?

[angel-jd1]

Most of them are supposedly not. There are a couple brands sold that is for sure. You can buy one at the Gluten Free pantry called "let's do organic Chocolate Sprinkles"

-Jessica

[gf4life]

It depends on the brand.

All Cake Mate decorations are gluten free. (these are what I use)

Betty Crocker/Signature brands have some decorations that are gluten-free.

All Dec-A-Cake are supposed to be gluten free.

Some Wilton decorations are gluten-free.

I did see some sprinkles to day at my son's class ice cream party that contained dextrin, so I didn't let him have any of those. I would check the ingredients on what ever you have if you aren't sure about it.

God bless,

Mariann

[Guest jhmom]

Sorry Azza the recipe in my gluten-free cookbook for fudge brownies calls for rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch flour and xanthan gum

I keep fogetting about Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour, I need to get some soon, I am sure it's alot easier than using 3-4 different kinds of flour. Can it also be used in frying things like chicken, etc??? I normally just use rice flour and it turns out well.

ooooooooo Jessica..... brownie, ice cream, redi whip..... sounds yummy, sounds like a chocholate thunder, but I bet it's better!!!!! Maybe that's what we should do, I will ask Hope to see what she wants afterall it is her day !!!! The verdict is in....... she wants to do both

Thank you for the info on sprinkles too, I think we will have a lot of fun decorating her cake and then making sundae's!

[kalo]

Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour???? Wow! I have a bucket of his baking mix, buckets of wheat berries, a bucket of oats etc to give away when my test comes back positive. Guess I'll do a search for this flour. Don't think my co op sells it. Oh well. Hugs, Carol B

[kejohe]

Just for everyone elses benifit here is the buttercream icing recipe that I suggested to Stacie, and also you really should try that gluten-free yellow cake recipe, it really is easy and it turns out fantastic everytime. My son loves to eat the batter before I bake it, and he's so cute licking the beaters!

Change the type of extract for different flavors, and for chocolate exchange some of the sugar for cocoa powder (maybe 1/2 C or so). Anyway, here you go:

8 oz butter

8 oz shortening (use butter flavor for a richer taste)

1 # powdered sugar (sifted)

1 egg white for a stiff cream, or 1 egg yolk for a richer cream

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream together butter and shortening, with the paddle attachment of your

mixer until well blended. Add 1/3 of the sifted sugar at a time until

completely incorporated. Add remaining ingredients, mix at medium until

combined, then crank it up to high speed and beat until light and fluffy.

For a softer buttercream, add about 2 Tbs of water, or until it reaches the

consistancy you want. Makes almost 2# of buttercream which will cover a full

size sheet cake, keeps well in the refrigerator for several weeks, don't

know how or if it freezes. I add lemon or orange zest for breaskfast cakes

and cinnamon or pie spice for spice cakes.

[angel-jd1]

I was just curious how the Birthday turned out? I sure hope that everything went well. Let me know what you decided to do and how it went!!

-Jessica

[Guest jhmom]

It turned out GREAT

I made the brownies, bought chocolate icing, sprinkles, Breyers Vanialla Bean ice cream and redi-whip.

Instead of putting icing and spinkles on the entire brownie we each made our own brownie sundae's. My daughter only wanted icing and sprinkles and the rest of us loaded everything on. They were a HIT.... they couldn't even tell they were gluten-free!!! Thanks for the idea Jessica Oh I also served popcorn, chips and a fruit tray!