Gluten-Free Recipe: Lemon Raspberry Birthday Cake

Hello, friends! It's been over three months since I last blogged. Oops! Life has continued to a constantly changing rollercoaster ride filled with surprises, disappointments and chaos. I am so happy to share that despite all the changes, I sit here typing this post a very happy, very blessed woman.


A packed social calendar, near daily snowstorms and an interesting (to say the least) dating life contributed to the mayhem. A very brief stint working as a hostess at one of the best restaurants in America taught me so much about myself and my true aspirations. I left for various reasons, but I subsequently ended up in a fantastic role at a chocolate shop, doing both retail sales but also implementing sales, marketing and social media strategies. I love it and was already even offered a promotion. I also just recently accepted a second part-time position working on a CSA at an organic farm for the season -- I wish it were June already so I can begin this endeavor.

In addition to working at the chocolate shop, I am taking two courses this semester, both not science intensive like last semester, which leaves me with time to wholeheartedly focus on ME. Just me. Not to say I am not still my usual caring, thoughtful self and purposely hurt others with my actions, but I am much more conscious of my needs as I journey through each day. 
I'm still training for my "11 in '11" (eleven half marathons in 2011), and also practicing a lot of yoga, which infinitely aids in my IT band issues. I've been doing lots of cooking and baking, devouring books and magazines, continuing to explore Boston with my friends and occasional family visitors.


My days are filled with so much goodness, my heart is truly overflowing with joy.


Last week, I turned 26. Although I am one to make a big deal of birthdays (although I love other people's), my dear friends Elizabeth (check out our Towne date) and Michelle insisted I must do something. So I said I wanted to eat cake and drink wine. So that is precisely what we did! Earlier that day I went to a terrific yoga class at Baptiste then got a pedicure at MiniLuxe, then came home to put the finishing touches on my birthday cake. 

Obviously, cake is the main reason that I was willing to celebrate the twenty-sixth anniversary of my birth. I've been eating ungodly amounts of chocolate lately, and mid-March always leads to thoughts of warm weather, so I found myself craving a lemon raspberry cake. I never made gluten-free cake from scratch  before, but I think I've found a system that works for me to adapt my favorite recipes. Below please find a terrific recipe which received rave reviews from even skeptics.


Gina's Lemon Raspberry Birthday Cake


Lemon Cake

2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

5 eggs

1/3 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice

3 teaspoons lemon zest

1 vanilla bean, scraped 

2 teaspoon Cointreau  (note: 1 "nip" is enough for both the frosting and cake)

1/2 cup sour cream

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

12 ounces cream cheese, softened

1  1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup raspberry jam

1/4 cup fresh raspberries

1 teaspoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon Cointreau

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, guar gum, salt, and baking powder.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes on medium-high speed. Lower the speed to medium, and add the eggs one by one, mixing until combined after each addition. Add the lemon juice, zest, vanilla, and Cointreau. Beat in the dry ingredients, and then beat in the sour cream until the batter is combined. 

Grease and line two 9″ cake pans and divide the batter between them evenly. Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned. While cakes are cooling, beat together all frosting ingredients in electric mixer until smooth. Once cakes are completely cooled, apply frosting liberally over the entire cake, including a layer between the two cakes. Top with candles, make a wish, blow out candles and eat with ice cream -- Happy birthday!

More Gluten-Free Favorites

I realized it's been over a month since I shared new gluten-free products I've tried and liked. Here are a few with more to follow later this week...

Simply Decadent Cookie Dough Gluten-Free Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert - Did you know Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream was invented by Ben & Jerry's during our/my lifetime? As an ice cream addict, I always crave ice cream with lots of chunks, toppings and additions. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough was never a flavor I particularly lusted after until I lost my ability to consume it. My WFM coworkers and customers alike have been raving about Simply Decadent products so I decided to purchase their gluten free Cookie Dough flavor during my last grocery shopping expedition. I truly love this product. The "ice cream" has a very rich, creamy flavor with a subtle hint of coconut. The cookie dough chunks are large, abundant and taste like regular old cookie dough. This product deserves a gold star. I'm anxious to try their other flavors as well.

Navitas Naturals Chia Seeds

I purchased chia seeds to add to my vegan overnight oats as well as baked goods and other meals. Often described as a superfood, chia seeds have "long used by the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans as a staple food along with corn and beans... Chock full of healthy omega fats, protein, antioxidants, and dietary fiber, the little chia seed goes a long way." Along with flax seed meal, chia seeds are another fabulous food to implement into your daily dietary habits. They are also becoming popular with runners due to the outrageously popular literary adventure Born To Run. Navitas brand chia seeds are raw, gluten-free, kosher, vegan, and 100% organic; I purchased them in the Whole Body department of Whole Foods Market ($6.29 for 8-ounce package).

LaraBar (new flavors) -- I have discussed LaraBars many times on this blog, as I'm a huge fan of their delicious and nutritious bars. Much to my delight, last month they released four new flavors, all of which could easily substitute for dessert. Carrot Cake is my overall favorite new variety -- each bar provides 25% of the Daily Value of vitamin A, is a good source of potassium and is also ½ serving of fruit. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (are you sensing a trend here?) and Chocolate Chip Brownie are not quite as indulgent, but taste fantastic frozen then thawed for 10-15 minutes (an amazing tip from Alysa). Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip is a bit too rich for me, but I find myself keeping one on hand lately.

Ian's Natural Foods Allergen Friendly Chicken Nuggets -- Earlier this summer when visiting my parents in New Hampshire, I bought Ian's chicken nuggets because the grocery store in our rural area didn't carry many frozen, easy gluten free options (I used to be a huge fan of Morningstar Farms veggie burgers and other vegetarian products, but they are all made with wheat protein so they are now off-limits). They have since become a staple of my go-to simple meals. Paired with natural unsweetened applesauce (I despise ketchup so I've always dipped my chicken nuggets in applesauce -- strange, I know), asparagus and Food Should Taste Good tortilla chips, and can create a nutritious meal in about five minutes. Ian's makes a lot of allergen friendly products including fish sticks, breakfast sandwiches, French bread pizzas and French fries, which I may eventually try when seeking an easy frozen meal.

Bionaturae Gluten Free Pasta -- I was quite happy with my Schar brand gluten free pasta until my family purchased two bags of Bionaturae brand for me when on vacation in the Thousand Islands in July. The recipe took over a year to develop (by Italians and an American in 1994) and it shows in the final product, a combination of organic rice flour, organic rice starch, organic potato starch and organic soy flour. It's a bit pricey (over $4 per bag) but being half Italian/Sicilian, I will pay the extra money for a quality, tasty pasta.

More Gluten-Free Goodies - Gingersnap Molasses Cookies

Ginger has always been a favorite spice in my family, especially in sweet treats like gingerbread and gingersnaps. In high school I devised a recipe for what I liked to call Gingersnap Molasses Cookies. Not quite a gingersnap, because I prefer a softer, chewier cookie, but not quite a molasses cookie due to all the spices. I became famous for them amongst friend and family -- the perfect balance of spicy, salty and sweet. People argued over whether they taste best warm from the oven, cooled later on or even three days later. They truly are a favorite of nearly everyone who tries them. I have even been told I could start a business just selling those cookies, that's how delicious they were. My techniques in baking these cookies are very specific; my brother has tried several times to bake them since I moved out of my family's house and he can never get it quite right.

My new, obviously gluten free as well as vegan, recipe has gotten rave reviews from two of my best friends and I have not been able to stop eating them as well, so they are definitely another big hit. Tonight my dear friend Liz and I enjoyed the cookies as ice cream sandwiches filled with local Salted Caramel Batch Ice Cream and a bottle of Malbec. Combined with our delightful conversation, it was a perfect pairing. Follow my directions exactly and you will be quite pleased with the results!

Gina's Gluten Free Vegan Gingersnap Molasses Cookies
adapted from BabyCakes Bakery

3/4 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup natural unsweetened applesauce
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups cane sugar
2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup flax meal
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking sooda
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

In medium bowl, combine the oil, applesauce, salt, molasses, vanilla and cane sugar. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, flax meal, spices, baking soda and xanthan gum. Carefully add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until just combined. Chill dough in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Roll spoonfuls of dough in palms of hands until 1.5 inch diameter round ball is formed. Place cookie dough balls on greased cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart. Gently flatten each cookie dough ball with the heel of your hand (to ease in spreading while baking). Bake for 12-14 minutes, until dough begins to crisp along edges but center does not nearly look done. Allow cookies to cool on hot cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then gently place on large piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper to further cool. Do not use a regular cooling rack or the hot cookies will become misshapen! Cookies will keep 3-4 days in airtight container and also freeze well.

Note: Do not double this recipe! The ratios need to be adjusted. I had my first baking blunder in years attempting to double them this weekend.

Gluten-Free Goodies - Chocolate Chip Cookies

For a girl who has wanted to be a pastry chef her entire life, I haven't been doing much baking lately. The heat of summer combined with a bit of resentment toward my new gluten-free lifestyle has kept me out of the kitchen much more. But something in me clicked yesterday and my usual constant desire to cook and bake up a storm resurfaced full force (as you can see from the pictures below, I love any excuse to use my Cooknook Cookbook Holder, one of my best purchases ever).

Perhaps it had something to do with finally being able to check the BabyCakes cookbook out of the library after weeks of waiting. BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery is the cookbook of a (you guessed it) hip allergen and special diets friendly bakery in Manhattan. Everyone absolutely raves about their insanely delicious baked goods, even those without dietary restrictions; celebrities and civilians alike flock to BabyCakes to appease their sweet tooth. Top Chef head judge and James Beard Award winning chef Tom Colicchio (who I creepily dream about sometimes and therefore often feel is my friend in real life) wrote the forward; Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel and Jason Schwartzman all profess their love of BabyCakes in print! Unfortunately, I've never had the pleasure of eating at BabyCakes (despite being a Yankees fan, I don't get to Manhattan very often) but thankfully with the publication of their cookbook I can at least attempt to replicate their gluten-free goodies at home.

Deciding exactly which recipe to try first from the cookbook was no easy task -- Ginger Peach Corn Muffins, Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Carmelized Bananas, Red Velvet Cupcakes and even Almond Palmer recipes are included in this gorgeous book, which also features an extensive glossary of ingredients and tools, list of resources and purveyors and helpful guides on technique. Eventually I determined my first real foray into gluten-free baking should be simple. Chocolate Chip Cookies immediately came to mind, and the gorgeous image accompanying the recipe solidified my choice.

Despite knowing I am a talented aspiring pastry chef, baking something not only gluten-free but also vegan made me a bit nervous; baking without eggs, butter or wheat flour can go oh so very wrong. Some of my fears were quieted when after mixing coconut oil, applesauce, salt, vanilla and evaporated cane juice together, the mixture looked (and tasted) nearly exactly like mixing butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla. It was quite amazing actually! Combined with flour, flax meal, baking soda and xanthan gum, the resulting batter looked normal and tasted just as delicious as any other cookie dough (without worrying about salmonella poisoning as a plus).

After approximately 15 minutes in the oven, my apartment was filled with the glorious smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, which looked divine. I patiently waited for them to cool down a bit, then took my first bite. A thin cookie with crispy edges and a chewy center, as well as a subtle hint of coconut. I was in love - and so proud of myself! I truly could not believe the end result of mixing such seemingly random ingredients together to achieve such fantastic results.

The cookies have since been approved by my roommates and my dear friend/aspiring vegan Jessica, and have also been continuously taste-tested by the baker herself. I'm so in love with these cookies! Next time I am going to experiment with adding a touch of cinnamon and also some crystallized ginger, or perhaps some walnuts.

In this recipe, I was most intrigued by the use of coconut oil in place of butter. As the author, Erin McKenna, states in the cookbook "Coconut oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids, is packed with lauric acid, stores in your body as energy and not fat, and supports the proper function of the thyroid, thus stimulating the metabolism" - wow! I remember my mother, who did an amazing job raising her four children on healthy foods, having a list of the Top 10 Foods You Should Avoid posted on our refrigerator when I was growing up. Coconut oil was on this list, so I've been surprised to learn how good it really is for you, and intrigued by changes in nutrition research (can you tell I am getting really excited to start school this fall?). I also love how applesauce and flax seed meal, both highly nutritious foods, combine to seamlessly replicate eggs.

So after all this hype, I am sure you are all dying for the recipe! Please note that I have acquired the ingredients for these cookies over several weeks; if one does not already have gluten-free, vegan products on hand already, these could very well end up being a $50+ batch of cookies. Enjoy and if you do bake them, please let me know what you think!

I also started a Tumblr page to keep my Facebook and Twitter pages less cluttered, so definitely check it out to see news stories, videos, quotes and other randomness I find worthy of sharing.


BabyCakes Gluten-Free, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
(modified from BabyCakes cookbook)

1 cup coconut oil (you can also use canola oil)
6 tablespoons unsweetened/natural applesauce
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups cane sugar (not white granulated sugar)
2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour
1/4 cup flax meal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 cup vegan chocolate chips (note: I used regular chocolate chips so my cookies were not truly vegan - and I also used about 1 1/4 cups!)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, mix together coconut oil, applesauce salt, vanilla and cane sugar. In another medium bowl, whisk together flour, flax meal, baking soda, and xanthan gum. Using a rubber spatula, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture until evenly combined. Gently fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the resulting dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing portions at least one inch apart. Gently press with the heel of each hand to help them spread. Bake cookies on center rack for 15 minutes, rotating pan 180 degrees about halfway through baking. Cookies are ready to be removed from the oven when the edges are crispy and center is still soft.

Let the cookies stand on the sheets for 10 minutes before removing to cool on wire racks. Allow cookies to cool completely before covering. They will store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to three days (if they last that long!). I also froze some right away (3 cookies per sandwich bag) to save for friends and rainy days.