Award winning bar cookies

For those who read my food blog, no this is not a recipe, per say.  It is more a plug.  My cousin, Kim Naegle, entered the "Utah's Own Baking Contest" and they just announced she tied as the winner with these delicious "Chocolate, Almond, Toffee Squares with Carmel Sauce".

Don't they look divine!!!  

Coconut, chocolate chips, white chips, almonds, toffee, & caramel -- doesn't get better than that.  Anyway, if you want the recipe (the non-GF version -- the GF version is on my Creating From Scratch blog) then click here.  You won't be sorry, except maybe your waist, but it is worth it!

Cooking with Mom

Yesterday I got sent a recipe for Cupcake Bites that once I looked at the recipe (1 cake mix, 1 tub frosting, candy coating, chocolate, and frosting) I realized I could easily make it Gluten free with a few adaptations. We also made a few other adjustments (we made some mint and some with nuts) for ours and they are delicious! So today Andrew and Alexis and I made some GF for Karissa and regular for the rest of us. I was a little worried that it would get crazy, but it didn't, we all had a lot of fun and now we have lots of cupcake bites.

They loved the part where we broke up the cake into bits.

Here's is Andrew's Ball, both him and Alexis helped make the cake balls. We had to combine a few of Alexis' because she liked making "baby" balls. Andrew informed us this was an "Uncle" Ball."

The finished product

If you want to see more detail on what we did I posted more detailed instructions on my cooking blog, it is the Mini Cupcake Bites.

Cooking with Mom

Yesterday I got sent a recipe for Cupcake Bites that once I looked at the recipe (1 cake mix, 1 tub frosting, candy coating, chocolate, and frosting) I realized I could easily make it Gluten free with a few adaptations. We also made a few other adjustments (we made some mint and some with nuts) for ours and they are delicious! So today Andrew and Alexis and I made some GF for Karissa and regular for the rest of us. I was a little worried that it would get crazy, but it didn't, we all had a lot of fun and now we have lots of cupcake bites.

They loved the part where we broke up the cake into bits.

Here's is Andrew's Ball, both him and Alexis helped make the cake balls. We had to combine a few of Alexis' because she liked making "baby" balls. Andrew informed us this was an "Uncle" Ball."

The finished product

If you want to see more detail on what we did I posted more detailed instructions on my cooking blog, it is the Mini Cupcake Bites.

Carrot Cake

A few years back I bought The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. When I was looking through it at the store I found a recipe for a 3-layer Carrot Cake that looked divine. Basically, no raisins, and it had coconut, pineapple, & pecans with a buttermilk glaze & cream cheese frosting. Your mouth is watering already, I know. This has become a favorite dessert of ours, however, we generally only make it when company comes or when we have a party since it is so rich that we shouldn't eat the whole thing (even though we could & have). This is Brandon's favorite treat after Banana Cream Pie and he wants it all the time so I thought I could make it for Valentine's. Well Friday turned out to be a bad pregnancy day so no cake. So I decided to make it for today and invite company over to share.

The downside for the last two years was that before Karissa was diagnosed with Celiacs it was also one of her favorite desserts and I have kept saying (for the past 2 years) I am going to make a GF version. However, she doesn't need a 9" 3-layer cake and, frankly, I wasn't going to try it out and find out it didn't work and have to throw out a cake that size. Added to this, Brandon's mom gave us the beautiful small cake stand the cake is pictured with that I have tried to figure out how to use outside of just putting a cupcake in it. So for 2 years off and on I have been looking for small cake pans that I could then adapt the recipe and make a smaller version but I never really found what I wanted. Then a few weeks ago my sister suggested Ramekins and I thought that was brilliant, however, I haven't bought them yet and I wanted to make the cake now so I baked the cake in an 11"x7" pan and then cut the "layers" out using one of those disposable baby bowls as a guide. The cake turned out delicious and moist, and honestly, I couldn't tell the difference between the two. I am thinking I am going to use the leftover pieces and chop them up and add cheesecake pudding to them to make a trifle. If you are interested in seeing the actual process you can check out the recipe on my cooking blog Creating from Scratch.

Yummy Treats!

I am on a Gluten Free Recipe Swap Yahoo Group which I love. Anyway, today someone posted that they were wishing for Eclairs which made me really want Cream Puffs and decided that I should learn how to make them Gluten-free. They turned out really yummy. Karissa actually preferred to eat them plain -- who is this child? Andrew on the other hand ate them like crazy. He was especially proud of his pudding smile.

Isn't this a cute kid

If you are interested you can check out the Cream Puffs on my Creating From Scratch website.

Don't they look yummy!