Happy Birthday to Me!

I am a December baby; born on the winter solstice.  I am ambivalent about being born so close to Christmas.  On one hand, I absolutely love the holiday season; the lights; the music; the general good spirits.  On the other, my birthday will always take a back seat Jesus’.  I am reluctant to celebrate my birthday like others would, because it’s always just a tiny bit inconvenient for folks.  But, my family makes a point to separately celebrate, even if I’m not insistent.  I was insistent on one thing: a gluten-free birthday cake.  This year, I chose a vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting and strawberry filling (we used frozen strawberries and it worked fine).  We used a box mix for the cake because I was at my mother’s house, which doesn’t have all the GF essentials for baking, and made the frosting and filling.  The cake was a semi-success.  It tasted great, although the cake was a little dense, but it did not stay together.  It slipped and slid all over the place.  If you create a layered gluten-free cake, because the cake doesn’t rise too much and not all that evenly, I recommend slicing the rounded tops to create nice even surfaces for the cakes to rely on.  Additionally, to prevent sliding, use less filling!

My mom thoughtfully made reservations for birthday dinner at a restaurant that I’ve been to and reviewed before, Rizzuto’s, in Westport, CT.  My mom discovered that it was gluten-free friendly and so it was the perfect place to celebrate my birthday.  I chose pizza again, over pasta, and was nervous when the below came out from the kitchen:

I reminded the server that I had ordered a gluten-free pizza, and she whisked it away…and then brought it back!  They had changed their dough recipe to be thin-crust, different from the thick crust pizza I was used to there.  I’m glad they did!  The thin crust was much easier to consume than its thicker cousin and provided a better base for the delicious toppings.  I highly recommend Rizzuto’s if you’re ever in Fairfield County and itching for some GF pizza or pasta.

Christmas Baking Extravaganza

For Christmas this year, my sister and I were tasked with making dessert to accommodate our family’s dietary restrictions (gluten and nut-free).  We ultimately decided upon

a pear-cranberry pie and the reliably good, flourless chocolate cake.

I chose pie because I haven’t eaten pie since Thanksgiving 2009 and I was feeling selfish.  I googled “holiday pies” and came across this handy slideshow from Martha Stewart.

I decided on pear and cranberry because cranberries = holiday and pears are like apples, but aren’t associated so much with Thanksgiving and fall.  I have to admit that the crust isn’t homemade, but store bought from Whole Foods.  We had little time and a lot of tasks, so we went the Sandra Lee route here.  We followed Martha’s recipe and it turned out pretty good.  We did, however, create a beautiful true lattice, instead of a faux, like Martha recommends, that was pretty easy to do.  My one suggestion to Martha would be to reduce the cranberries and up the pears.  It was a little too tart.

I really love flourless chocolate cake.  It’s light and rich at the same time, and always a crowd-pleaser.  We used Nigella Lawson’s recipe and it was a great success.  The only problem we had is that it rose too much!  The oven we used is not really reliable, so we think it was a baking error and not a recipe error.  Nevertheless it turned out light, rich, and really really chocolatey.  We made a cranberry sauce for it to make it look prettier, but I wouldn’t recommend it, since I think it mostly took away from the chocolate flavor.