Cooking With C.C. ~ Gluten Free Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cake

It's time for the 6th installment of Cooking with C.C. Back sometime in October, Damaris and I made a Gluten Free Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cake. Our friend Katie who usually bakes with us was having a rough time, so we wanted to take her a treat that we knew she could eat. We also shared it with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece and of course my mom and dad joined Russ, Damaris, & I in suffering by having to eat this cake. It was quite a burden to have to take on, but we were up to the challenge! :)


So let's gather all our ingredients and get started.


In a bowl, mix 2 1/2 cups gluten free flour,


1 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum,


1/2 teaspoon baking powder,


1/2 teaspoon baking soda,


and 1 teaspoon salt.


In a separate bowl, beat together 2 sticks of unsalted butter (soften it - we just stuck it in the microwave for a few seconds),


1 1/2 cups granulated sugar,


2 large eggs (1 at a time),


3 large egg yolks (1 at a time),


and 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract.

This next part is a little tricky. Let me show you 2 photos and then I'll explain the process.



First, set aside about 1/4 cup of the dry ingredients. Then you're going to beat together the dry ingredients and 1 cup of low fat sour cream BUT you need to do this by alternating between the dry ingredients and the sour cream AND you should start and finish with the dry ingredients.


Remember the 1/4 cup of the dry ingredients you set aside? Mix about 6 ounces of chocolate chips (we used dark chocolate) into the dry ingredients. Then mix that mixture into the batter mixture. If any of this part or the previous part doesn't make sense, comment and I'll try to spell it out clearer.


Preheat oven to 350*.


Prepare your baking pan (I used a 9X13 I think, but you can definitely do various configurations, see the original recipe that I'll link to below) by spraying with cooking spray.


Action shot! Pour the batter into the baking pan.


Doesn't it look yummy? I so wanted to eat some but that's a no no since it has raw eggs in it.


Spread the batter out so it's even all over.


Set timer for 35 minutes and put cake into oven.


Baking, baking, baking (and we were washing dishes, but no pictures of that boring activity).


Check cake when timer goes off. If toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, then it's done. If not, bake for 5 more minutes and check again.


We cheated on icing the cake and decorating it. We went with a premade icing and a bag of white chocolate candy corn M&M's.


We were in a rush to ice the cake because we wanted to take some to Katie, so I cut a couple big pieces out of the cake and put them on a plate to cool and then iced them. That's what they are kind of crumbly on the edges.


I then decorated them with the M&M's.


Here's the rest of the cake iced and decorated after it had a better chance to cool.


Here's a side view of the cake. Looks yummy, right?

We all enjoyed this cake. It was fairly moist and the flavor was perfect, in my opinion. This recipe could be modified with different flavors of chips (butterscotch, milk chocolate, etc.) and different ways of decorating it.

This recipe came from the Gluten Free On a Shoestring. Check out her blog which is full of tons of great recipes on a budget. We did make a few edits to the recipe so if you want the original, you'll want to visit her website to get it.

Hope you've enjoyed this episode of Cooking with C.C. Let me know if you try this cake and if you make any modifications. You just may inspire me! And I definitely want to hear what your experience is. I'll be back soon with another recipe. Enjoy!

Cooking With C.C. ~ Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake with Maple Icing

It's time for the 5th installment of Cooking with C.C. On a Thursday in October, we made a Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake with Maple Icing for Damaris' 12th birthday party.


So let's gather all our ingredients and get started.


Beat 3 eggs in a mixing bowl until they are light and frothy.


Add 2 cups of light brown sugar (not packed).


Beat until smooth.


Add 1/2 cup olive oil,


a 15 ounce can of unsweetened pumpkin puree,


and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.


Beat until smooth.


In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups gluten free flour,


1 teaspoon xanthum gum,


1 teaspoon baking soda,


1 teaspoon baking powder,


2 teaspoons ground cinnamon,


1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice,


and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt.


Whisk these dry ingredients together.


Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture a little at a time.


Beat well after each addition.

Turn on the oven to 350* so it can preheat.


Beat to combine for 2 minutes.


Spray 9X13 cake pan with your preferred cooking spray.


Pour batter into the cake pan.


Smooth with spatula.


Bake for 30 minutes or until the cake is firm and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean.


Allow cake to cool.

Not sure how we missed taking pictures of mixing up the icing. It's pretty easy to make though. Beat 8 ounces of softened cream cheese and 3 1/2 tablespoons of softened unsalted butter. Add 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup and 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar (3 cups total) 1 cup at a time and beat until smooth. You can add add more maple syrup and/or sugar to thicken if needed. My brilliant thought was going to be to frost the cake with the white icing and save a bit of the icing to tint pink with food coloring. Then I was going to use the pink to write on the cake. Only, when I tried that, the pink icing started to run together.


So I squeezed out all the pink icing on the cake spread it smooth.


Here is the final decorated cake. If you look closely, you can see the white icing peaking out from underneath the pink.

Regardless of the icing incident, the cake turned out amazing. It was so yummy! Most of those who ate couldn't even tell it was gluten free. I would highly recommend this cake especially this time of year when pumpkin is so appropriate for your menu.

This recipe came from the Gluten Free Goddess. Check out her blog which is full of tons of great recipes. We did make a few edits to the recipe so if you want the original, you'll want to visit her website to get it.

Hope you've enjoyed this episode of Cooking with C.C. Let me know if you try this cake. I want to hear what your experience is. I'll be back soon with another recipe. Enjoy!

Where Have You Been C.C.?

It's been a pretty rough last few weeks. And most of the roughness has been health related. We thought leaving Houston would bring huge positive changes for me. But that hasn't been the case.

One of the biggest issues we are facing is our lack of health insurance. To go from amazing coverage to absolutely nothing is beyond overwhelming. And even though Russ is now employed, he doesn't receive benefits for the first 90 days. And when he does, it would take half his paycheck every month to insurance just me! There is no way we can afford to do that.

So, in the midst of all this, I was about to run out of two of my medications. I called the pharmacy to see how much it would be to fill them with no insurance. The lady at the pharmacy was shocked to tell me it would be $500. Since I couldn't pay that, I took all that I had and then stopped. Well, apparently that was a mistake, unbeknownst to me. I was ok for a day or two and then I started to go off the deep end. It got to a point where I thought Russ was going to have to have me hospitalized because I was losing my ever-loving mind. It was really bad. I'll spare you all those gory details, but needless to say, it was extremely bad. Russ and my mom found some discount cards and worked to get the medication reduced in price to where we could afford it for a week while I waited to see someone at a local clinic that sees patients based on income via a sliding scale.

I began to level out to some degree. Russ went with me to my appointment. The certified family nurse practitioner spent 45 minutes with us during that visit. We really felt like she listened to and heard us. She wants to get me off some of the medications I am currently on (which I am not opposed to at all) and try me on one different one. She also suggested I research programs that will help me get my medication for a reduced price or free. (I did do this and found that between those programs and the $4/$10 program at most discount stores, I can afford my meds. We did have to deal with a bit of an idiot at the clinic who decided he could try to stir up trouble, but between the C-FNP and us, it was nipped in the bud but not before I had a complete meltdown - which was understandable with my frame of mind and meds still not at the right levels in my system. We are now waiting to hear back from the programs which usually takes about 4 weeks.)

In the mean time, I had some lab work done (still waiting on results, but I assume they will be the same as when I had these labs done about 1.5 years ago, but I could be wrong). I have also started to gradually (and safely) decrease one of my medications. Oh, another thing about the appointment, we brought up our concern/fear about possibly needing to pursue the disability process. The C-FNP said she would be supportive whatever we needed to do. At this point, I cannot work. Will changing my medications change that? Possibly. We decided to try these changes over the next few months and then reevaluate things.

I've tried to keep going and have posted my reviews but obviously haven't felt up to doing much else. I've done a bit here and there as able and I'm gradually getting to the point where I can do more. More of my "normal" anyway. And that's where I've been.