Friday, January 24, 2014

Friday Night Foodie: Baby Shower!

What do you get when you cross an insomniac with a gluten intolerant foodie who has a baby shower at the office in the morning? Late night baking whilst watching waaaaay to much TV. This week I meant to make gluten free sweet potato gnocchi but in light of said baby shower (and the aforementioned insomnia) the plan changed. I had to scour the internet because most recipes had odd ingredients that no normal person has just sitting around in their pantry (what the heck is xanthan gum?) but I finally found a somewhat simple recipe (apparently it's a polysaccharide secreted by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris,[2]used as a food additive and rheology modifier,[3] commonly used as a food thickening agent…what kind of rubbish foodie am I?).  From there it was relatively simple…sorry I don't have many pictures, it was getting late…


  • 2 cups of gluten free flour (thanks Michelle!)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup of baking cocoa
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar
Mix dry ingredients first and then add the wet.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (mine needed 25) and then dust with powdered sugar.

The good: absolutely delicious flavor and not dry like every other cupcake I've ever made in my entire life.

The bad: I didn't have any frosting…but that's not on the recipe.

The different(?):  it was much thicker than normal cupcakes but I kind of liked that aspect.  It was more bread like and not quite as fluffy.  

I took it into work and was pleasantly reminded that the wife of our shop manager (who is the one the baby shower was for) is also gluten intolerant.  If I hadn't brought them she wouldn't have gotten a cupcake at all…ok, it's the small victories.  I would definitely use this recipe again.  

2 comments:

Kirsten Oliphant said...

That's great that you had something she could eat! How fun that you are having all these new adventures with food thanks to gf. Though I'm sure it's a pain also. Sweet potato gnocchi!? YUM.

celiselott said...

It is a lot of fun actually! I love trying new recipes and learning the way different ingredients work together and how different kinds of flour effect taste and texture. I was so happy that the cupcakes didn't just benefit me, haha! Sweet potato gnocchi next week hopefully!