And we're off, and baking! Gluten-Free and damn tasty!

Mom and I undertook our first “Convert” the other night. Of course we ran into technical difficulties right off the bat…figures. Camera issues, both of them…ended up having to use my camera phone for some, thanks LG!

The plan has been to take these brand name ingredients that my friend Leslie has given us, and using our cooking and baking expertise, actually make them taste like something you’d want to eat. Not just eat because you have no other option. Leslie is admittedly in a rut, thus the reason she’s asking our help. Diagnosed with Celiac Sprue about 9 years ago she’s tried most all of the Gluten-Free, Organic everything’s that are on the market. Doing her own research and trials to see what tasted good and didn’t put her down for days or even weeks at a time.


That being said, Namaste Brand spice cake mix was our first shot. She had said that this was probably the best tasting cake if you followed the directions, and she even uses olive oil versus canola or vegetable oil in her cooking and it still tastes good!


So we tried our famous family Carrot Cake recipe utilizing the spice cake mix as our dry ingredients and added carrot meal (after I did my raw juicing, which was the reason for my making carrot cakes in the first place. Story for another time… ) canola oil, pineapple and cinnamon. And my Mom likes her raisins in her carrot cakes, I don’t, but I conceded to authenticity. I prefer pecans in my carrot cake.

This ended up making one tasty cake and six beautiful jumbo muffins! Which begs the question…”what’s the difference between a muffin and a cupcake?”…What time you eat it-HA!

No really, there were quite good and as we haven’t played with altering our world famous cream cheese frosting yet, we’ll call them muffins vs. cup cakes.


So being as excited as we were, we blasted the recipe to Leslie, which you’ll see in a moment, to get the reply…

Hey Ya'll!


I feel so bad, but here's the deal... I STILL can't eat it. Ha!

The thing is even though I don't have an allergy to tropical fruits I usually avoid things like pineapple (not to mention I am not sure about a brand that is gluten free, it would have to be juiced in a juicer!) I think the strong pineapple would hurt my stomach mixed in with a baked goodie--- maybe another fruit could be used?

The other thing in this recipe I don't eat is Canola Oil... I could be wrong but when I first was diagnosed with Celiac I was told to avoid it because it gave a lot of people bad reactions. I cannot use corn oil either, because I can't eat corn! Doh!

I generally only use Bionaturea Olive Oil in all my cooking.

If ya’ll want to be my heroes, find out where I can get the cinnamon that is gluten free too! Cinnamon is naturally gluten free, but the issue for those with Celiac Sprue is that many products are dusted during packaging with wheat- ruining the good food for us!

xoxo Leslie aka “ tha' Wubby”

Blast it! Foiled again!

Well back to the drawing board…maybe apples? Fresh, stewed, applesauce, Hmmm? We know that the canning process used to make canned pineapple works better than fresh in baking recipes, so maybe it has to do with the heat? I don’t know.

For those of you who can eat pineapple do it in this cake. It makes all the difference in the world!


So, on to the next trial; Carrot Cake using bulk organic alternative flours, like amaranth and soy…stay tuned!


And remember, we’re here cooking for you!


PS. A little homework and I discovered www.organiccinnamonsticks.com, and www.organicspices.com, profess that they are gluten-free so we’ll see if we can get them involved with our little project to get you guys great spices at great prices! Hey that rhymes!


Noelle

Convertible Cooks- July 8, 2010 Test Drive

NAMASTE FOODS* Challenger-
SPICE CAKE MIX-1 26oz. pkg. (737g) makes two 9” layers

Ingredients:

Evaporated cane juice

Sweet brown rice flour
Brown Sugar
Tapioca flour
Arrowroot flour

Rice milk powder
Baking Soda

Salt

Cream of Tartar

Xanthan Gum

Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves

The package reads for spice a cake ; Add: 3 Eggs, 2/3 Cup Oil ,¾ Cup Water

Spoon into in two 9” round pans; Bake about 35-40 minutes in a 13x9 pan, or about 20-25 minutes for cupcakes

Convertible Challenge:
CONVERTIBLE -“Namaste Foods” Spice Cake Mix- with Pineapple, Carrot & Raisins


VS.


The REAL DEAL- Pineapple Carrot Cake courtesy of “The Emmeline and Hessie Cookbook 
1979 Pg. 83




CONVERTIBLE -
“Namaste Foods” Spice Cake Mix- with Pineapple, Carrot & Raisins

Gluten-Free Carrot Cake made with frugal pre-juiced carrot meal leftovers, their package suggests adding 1 cup shredded carrots, a handful of nuts, currants or raisins after blended.


Taking that note into consideration, we drove on as the package described:


Step 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (except mine is a Thermadore convection oven so I used the 325 degree automatic setting)


Lightly spray pans ( I used Bakers Joy) and paper liners for my large muffin pan (6 count)

Step 2. Mix (I dumped plastic wrapped bag of contents into my trusty KitchenAid upright mixer) and added-

3 Eggs


1 Cup Mazola Corn and Canola Oil (‘cause I had it on hand)

1 Cup Crushed Pineapple w/ Juice (I used Winn-Dixie Brand –“in Juice” just ‘cause…)


½ Teas. Cinnamon (‘cause… we were adjusting to downplay the nutmeg /cloves added in the spice cake pouch-And it is my FAVORITE spice!) Next-


I started to mix it before adding the-


2 Cups Carrot meal (I’m going to call it that ‘cause I haven’t found a better word) and


1 Cup Raisins (Noelle doesn’t like to put these in her cakes- but they are my excuse to call my first slice and my final slice...A meal!

Step 3. Spooned the mixture into my waiting 6 large paper lined muffin tins and had plenty for a small personal sized cake (maybe remained 2 ½ cups to 3 cups of batter- enough for a single layer 8” round pan remained – Some muffins to “gift” and some cake to eat!-My favorite way to bake…)

Step 4. I baked them together on the middle rack of my oven…My small cake arriving at “doneness” in about 30 minutes, the muffins required 35 minutes (“Doneness” is my finger test to push down on the top to see if the cake springs back to indicate it’s finished. If the finger mark remains leave it in the oven a few minutes longer) Experience guided me to figure 5 more minutes but as moist as these muffins turned out, they could have stayed in longer, but the smell was delicious and we could hardly wait to have one for desert.

Step 5. Cool for 15 minutes in the pans before turning or on cooling rack.


Step 6. Try one- They are delicious!

Because it was late and we like a desert before Jimmy Kimmel Live comes on Dad served himself a WHOLE mega-muffin with chocolate ice cream.

I caved in later after our “tester” bites with Noelle and had another ½ mega-muffin with vanilla ice cream…adding yet another layer of TERRIFIC on to this test drive.


It is a clear winner even without it but adding the creaminess has begun my quest to find a suitable “frosting” for the dairy challenged folks. I’m thinking Tofu….


Here’s to Better Baking,


Carol






P.S. My nervousness springs from using up our ground carrot pulp…The liquid in our original grated carrots would need some adjustment in baking time or liquid reduction somewhere. If you don’t used the juice elsewhere as my daughter does, then my UNTESTED suggestion would be to cut back on the oil by ¼ cup as the cake is almost (if not too… wonderfully moist) and I’d rather not remove the juice from the pineapple unless I was forced to do so…It would be worth the try as this Convertible challenge worked out so well.)


Start your engine…and give this one a run…


Heres to Better Baking,


Carol


*Namaste Foods


• P.O. Box 3133


• Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816


• www.namastefoods.com


• Toll Free 1866-258-9493


• Made in U.S.A.

The REAL DEAL-

 Pineapple Carrot Cake courtesy of 
“The Emmeline and Hessie Cookbook" c.
1979 Pg. 83

In a large mixer bowl combine:


2 Cups sugar


2 Cups flour

2 Teas. Baking soda

2 Teas. Cinnamon

½ Teas. Salt

1 Teas. Vanilla


3 Eggs

1 Cup Wesson Oil

1 Cup Crushed Pineapple, with juice


2 Cups Grated Carrots


1 Cup Raisins


Mix until well blended. Pour in a 10” tube pan that has been greased and floured. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Cool and frost.






Cream Cheese Frosting


In a mixer combine:


8 oz. cream cheese


1/4lb. margarine


1 lb. 10x confectioner sugar






Beat until smooth and spreadable. Garnish sides or top w/chopped nuts-optional






ConvertCook-Carol’s Notes:

This Carrot Cake is the best that has ever been served up ANYWHERE. It is so versatile and has been so successful baked by so many different cooks it had to be our recipe of choice to launch our Convertible drive through this delicacy.

Introduced to my family’s baking circle by my sister Flo Packard Anderson way back in the late 1970’s and all credit goes to her- it has been our hands down favorite…Fool Proof –our “Go to Guy”…for success as it has NEVER failed to please. And I do mean Never!

I have enjoyed this cake when I FORGOT the carrots! It’s turned out amazing “Blow-up and over the sides” cookies from my oven when I screwed up the Baking Soda somehow…it still came out a winner! But my warning is this. Don’t leave the pineapple out! That is what makes it so darned good and different!

So to convert me from this beauty will take a bit of doing.

Here’s to Better Baking,


Carol