FTW

I cannot say it enough: Kinnikinnick is AWESOME.

I've bought a ton of their mixes online and even shipping from canada is totally reasonable and prompt. Their mixes are THE best gluten free mixes ever made. I completely state that as an indisputable fact...regardless that it's actually my opinion....it's a fact now.

Love them. seriously.

So I'm doing my sis's wedding cake and I've been somewhat unsatisfied with the cake mixes and cake recipe's I've found online and at my specialty GF stores and aisles. Kinnikinnick's cake mix wins. I baked the chocolate cake the other day and send some home with May (my friend) to eat and share with her boyfriend. He tasted it and thought it was regular cake...couldn't tell it was gluten free! to me that says WIN all over it. It was deliciously moist and has such a great flavor and texture.

I am totally excited about making this cake for my sister. She's going to love it.

cupcake preview

my sister's upcoming wedding and testing out ideas

I'm making the wedding cake for my sister's wedding in June. We've chosen a 5" cake for her and Patrick and individual wedding cakes for the attendees. My sister has left almost everything up to my judgement as far as the cakes go. My first thought was to do basic cupcakes but I wanted something more substantial. My second thought was to use my new popover pan and end up with larger cupcakes that could be filled and decorated like a regular cake, but popovers are kind of conical shaped and that might look strange. My third thought was to use soup cans. I know it sounds bizarre but it works really great and keeps me from having to buy several 3" cake pans and cooking all day to get the number of cakes I need.

cupcake, popover, can-cake


My friends are so sweet to let me test cake recipes and decoration ideas on them. My friend Kim just had a birthday on Sunday so a few of the girls are coming over tonight and we are having a little party for her and an excuse to get the girls together and hang out. I'm using all the opportunities I have to make cakes and practice my decorating skills.

I'll update with a picture of the cupcakes as soon as I get a good picture of them with the Royal Icing flowers placed on top. Rumors tell me that Royal Icing breaks down on buttercream so I don't want them sitting there too long before the party...just in case. (Photo at very top) Here's a photo of them pre-flower.



ok, so I tossed out the popover idea because of how awesome the can-cake turned out and because the popover sides were so angled. Using the can-cake, I divided it in half and put a layer of buttercream frosting and then did the basic white frosting base...to be decorated from there.


This isn't the exact way I want to decorate my sister's guest cakes, but it's cute and it worked for this one and matches the cupcakes.


I like how this angle looks, just wish I hadn't created so many angles on the round cake sides. :) I'm being perfectionistic again.


and here's another angle of the can-cake on top of the cupcake stand with the cupcakes

chocolate and peanut butter!

What two things go together better than chocolate and peanut butter? I cannot think of anything. They are perfect together.

what better for a chocolate cupcake than to be filled with peanut butter?


mmmmm, mmmm.

This recipe should make 8 regular cupcakes or 6 large ones...or just cram all the batter into 6 regular cupcake tins and let them rise and fall over the top. It's still good.

1 cup Pamela's Baking Mix
1/3 cup Powdered Sugar
3 Tbspn cocoa powder
(sift together till well mixed)
2 Tbspn vegetable oil
3 Tbspn cold water
1 egg
1/3 cup honey
1 Tbspn Vanilla extract

sift dry ingredients together to mix. add all wet ingredients and stir well (mixer if desired, but I just hand mixed)

pour batter into cupcake liners or directly into greased cupcake pan.

Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes.

now, here's the fun part, After the cupcakes have cooled just a bit, using a pastry bag with a #21 star tip, fill with peanut butter. Stab that tip right into the very center top of the cupcakes about half an inch down and squeeze out about a tablespoon of peanut butter right into the cupcake...slowly pulling the tip towards the surface of the cupcake (still filling). Then top the cupcake with chocolate frosting. I imagine some chocolate or peanut butter pieces/sprinkles would be adorable right on top of that, but I didn't have any.

It's delicious!