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I can’t even be-gin to tell you the trial and error process I had bringing my absolute favorite cocktail of all time to life in edible form as a cheesecake. Attempt #1 was way too heavy on the gin (I like a hint of gin, not an entire Christmas tree in my mouth), had a GIANT crack in the middle from the champagne air bubbles, and the lemon cream I whipped up was a tacky, sticky hot mess that glued your mouth shut, leaving you no way to wash the pine needles out of your mouth…but I was DETERMINED to make this work, and attempt #2 left me with a lemony cheesecake with only a whisper of juniper and a rich, creamy flavor. Proof that if you keep your gin up, you can persevere through just about anything.

Recipe and Instructions

Go ahead, cake my day. Yep, that’s right, January 7 was the 37th anniversary of my first time eating cake. Which, I guess, a normal person would just call it their birthday, but when you’re an introvert that loves cake as much as I do, putting something else front and center just feels right. I had a wonderful weekend celebrating my ever-quicker-oh-god-please-slow-down-this-ride climb to 40, but naturally, I needed cake to complete the circle/celebration. I remade my Rumchata cake from way back when, but this new version is gluten free and ensconced in whipped dark chocolate frosting that is so light and fluffy it’s as if it was made by baby angels.

It, however, does not exactly have an angelic calorie count (318 cals a slice/12 slices), but I tend to throw caution to the wind when it comes to my birthday. I’m gonna be eating a lot of feelings, and I need a flavor that can match the spiral–so we’re going full tilt here…because if I’m getting emotional on my birthday, my cake better be in tiers, too… Since I am taking time to savor the celebration, this blog will be short, sweet, and to the delicious point. Thank you to everyone who called, texted, messaged, DMed, Facebook-ed, and used any and all other social media platforms to wish me a happy birthday. You know how to make this old girl feel loved. Check out the tutorial video below the recipe to see how I decorated. And as usual, ’til next time, my fellow eaters!

Recipe and Instructions

I have not seen a single flake of snow so far this winter, and I simply can’t take it anymore. I decided to make a snowy dessert instead because necessity is the mother of invention and all that jazz. I made a cool gelatin Shark Week cheesecake over the summer, so I had been dying to expand my sprinkle collection and try out a winter version. Did I need to buy multiple types of snowflakes? No. Did I anyway? You bet. Kate needs to see snow whether it is in cheesecake or natural form. Be sure to check out the tutorial video for a play-by-play of how to layer your gelatin so you get the cool 3D look!

Recipe and Instructions

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All of 2023 seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye. October lasted approximately 15 minutes, Thanksgiving was a blink and you’ll miss it moment, but somehow, the month of December has been about 16 weeks long, or at least it feels that way. But it’s finally upon us: Christmas is but one single week away. Which is great if you’re totally prepared, presents wrapped, and ready to roll. If you’re a last minute shopper, this is your reminder that the last minute is here. If you’re wondering how to knock the socks off of every family member at your holiday celebrations, I’m giving you the gift of a chocolate peppermint cake recipe with easy petal piping details that only look difficult- in short, here is your Christmas Miracle of 2023.

If you’ve yet to venture into the chocolate + peppermint flavor territory, let me walk you through this winter wonderland. Imagine a York Peppermint Patty in cake form- a single bite whisks you away to world where cake has no calories, your entire family loves every single present you gifted them, and Christmas dinner and all sides are miraculously ready at the same time. In a word: perfect (I’ll give you a moment to digest this greatness I just thrust upon you). Add a peppermint cream cheese frosting (don’t second guess it, it works in a way that’s completely unexplainable, like how Santa manages to visit the houses of every child in the world in a single night), and now you’re beginning to understand the meaning of Christmas. And at only 279 calories a slice for 12 slices, you can have your own 12 Days of Cakemas if you don’t feel like sharing.

For my cake, I simply used:

• 1 box of Krusteaz gluten free chocolate cake (or regular version if not GF)
• 111 g (1/2 cup) unsweetened applesauce
• 112 g (1/2 cup) fat free Greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 1/2-3/4 tsp peppermint extract (less is more in my book!)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 8-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and bake even strips. Mix applesauce, yogurt, eggs, milk, and extract in a stand mixer on medium until things get frothy; add the cake mix and mix on medium-high for two minutes. Evenly distribute batter into pans and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes cleanly out the center of a cake. Let rest in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting.

PRO TIP: gluten free cakes last about 48 hours before they’re so stale they taste like coal in a stocking. Brush the cakes with a splash of vanilla mixed with milk to add in some extra moisture and extend the cake’s softness. I don’t like using simple syrup because it makes cakes way too sweet; using milk with a splash of vanilla doesn’t make things so sweet you’ll get a visit from Hermey the Elf to pull some teeth (he finished dental school after helping Rudolph, btw).

I went with a classic crusting cream cheese frosting to ensure my piping would work for the petals. I used:

• 8 ounces of 1/3 the fat cream cheese at room temp
• 112 grams (1/2 cup) butter at room temp
• 3 cups (360 g) Lakanto monkfruit (use regular powdered sugar if desired)
• 1/4 cup + 2 TBS milk (add more milk 1 TBS at a time if frosting still seems too stiff)
• 1 TBS vanilla
• 1/4 tsp citric acid if you like a less sweet frosting
• 1/4 -1/2 tsp peppermint extract (again, this is potent stuff, I used 1/4 tsp)
• Other items needed: Red gel dye, two 6B piping tips, red & white sanding sugar sprinkles

Whip the cream cheese and butter for two-three minutes, until light and fluffy. Add in half the monkfruit, the peppermint, the milk, the vanilla, and citric acid if using. Mix on medium speed until combined. Add in the remaining monkfruit, mixing until everything has come together.

Place a totally cooled cake round face down on an acrylic or cardboard cake disk, the slather a layer of frosting on top. Place the second cake layer face down on top of this, and slather the top of the cake with a generous amount of frosting, pushing excess over the sides of the cake. You just need a very thin layer of white frosting all over the cake to help hide any gaps in the petal piping later. Place this in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Divide remaining frosting, dying half red, and leaving the other half white. Place each color into a piping bag fitted with a 6B or other large star tip.

To make the petals, you will pipe one star on the bottom of the cake in red.

Then take an angled spatula, place it in the middle of the star, and swipe left (or give it the ol’ Tinder “No.”).

Pipe another star on top of the “tail” that the first swipe left. Repeat this around the bottom of the cake. I find it helps to wipe off the spatula on a paper towel after each swipe. You’ll have an ending point that you will just pipe a single star without swiping since you won’t have room. Be sure to start your next two layers in the same spot you started the first row so these little single stars all line up and you have a “back” of a the cake.

Now, take the white frosting, and pipe a star right above your row of red petals. BUT, this time, give it the ol’ Tinder “Yes,” and swipe left so the petals will be facing the opposite direction. Continue around the entire middle of the cake.

To finish, switch back to the red frosting, swiping right again for each petal on your top layer.

Now, for the top, I alternated piped two white petals and two red petals around the top.

For my final touches, I took a Christmas tree cookie cutter, but you can also cut out a Christmas tree shape in some Parchment paper and fix it to your cake top to create a Christmas tree outline, and then I filled this with red and white sanding sugar, pressing gently into the frosting and crevices of my cookie cutter so the sprinkles wouldn’t scatter and spill when the cutter was removed. I also had some snowflake and red ball sprinkles I placed around the top red layer of petals anywhere there was awkward white space. I placed my cake in the freezer for 15 minutes to let the sprinkles settle before carefully removing the cookie cutter to reveal a cake so Christmasy, Santa himself would throw that plate of cookies away to grab a slice of this. Check out my piping tutorial video for a more detailed step by step:

I promise if you bring this cake to your family Christmas dinner, Aunt Karen will be so taken aback that she doesn’t remember to question your life choices. And if she does, you can just shove a slice of cake her way so she keeps quiet. The magic of Christmas! In all seriousness, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, remembering what matters most–the spirit of the holiday, the love of your friends and family, and, of course, a slice of really, really good cake. ‘Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Recipe & Instructions

It’s a-bundt time to celebrate for Christmas, and this red and green peppermint cake is a super fun way to deck the halls. Sleigh dessert this season with the holly-est, jolly-est cake ever. You’ll want to use a bundt cake that is a little bit more geometric in design than a standard tube bundt pan; this is the one I have. Santa (a.k.a, my mom) put it under my Christmas tree last year, and I love baking with it to get these cool edges and make a two-toned cake. It is Claus-itively awesome.

Recipe and Instructions

If you’re like me, your pumpkin stash is dwindled but not depleted after Thanksgiving, and throwing away pumpkin is a cardinal sin in your house, too. So if you’re trying to come up with a super simple recipe that uses up some of that orange gold, I’ve got you covered. And if you’re sad because pumpkin season is coming to a close, now you also have a cake to help you eat your feelings. This is sort of a win-win-cake situation.

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It seems like the month of October has been about 15 minutes long…I can’t believe the best month of the year is already drawing to a close. I baked as spooky as possible at every turn, watched Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus and both Addams Family movies at least 17 times, and longingly ogled every 12-foot skeleton from Home Depot I saw out and about, living their best 12-foot tall scary lives. Ya know, just creepin’ it real, as per usual. Naturally, I wanted to end the month on a hauntingly good note, so I made the most Halloween-y Halloween cake I could possibly think of:

This gorgeously macabre cake has a super spooky secret on the inside- it’s actually a Funfetti cake (the irony). Never fear, it is ensconced in black cocoa cream cheese frosting, drizzled with orange sparkly ooze, and stabbed (to death?) with black and orange chocolate shards, also made by yours truly. Just trying to keep my title of Hallo-queen over here. Also worth mentioning, the voodoo I used to make it so each slice is under 300 calories. I truly am a witchy woman. You won’t even need to exorcise after eating this Halloween cake.

For my cake, I simply used:

• 1 box of Pillsbury gluten free Funfetti cake
• 75 g (1/3 cup) fat free Greek yogurt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare three 6-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and bake even strips. Mix all ingredients on low for 30 seconds in a stand mixer before switching to medium-high for two minutes. Evenly distribute batter into all three pans and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes cleanly out the center of a cake. Let rest in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting.

To make black frosting that doesn’t have a metric ton of black gel dye in it (it haunts the colon), I recommend using black cocoa in place of regular cocoa. For this frosting, I used:

• 8 ounces of 1/3 the fat cream cheese at room temp
• 112 grams (1/2 cup) light butter (can still be cold)
• 4 cups Lakanto monkfruit
• 2 TBS black cocoa
• 2 TBS milk
• 1 TBS vanilla
• 1/4 tsp citric acid if you like a less sweet frosting
• Black gel dye
• Black edible disco dust or luster dust

Whip the cream cheese and butter for two-three minutes, until light and fluffy. Add in half the monkfruit, the cocoa, the milk, the vanilla, and citric acid if using. Mix on medium speed until combined. Add in the remaining monkfruit and some black gel dye, mixing until everything has come together and you’ve achieved the color you want. Hold on to the disco dust or luster dust for later.

Take a cool cake layer on a cake board, face down, and top with a layer of frosting. Smooth out and repeat.

Coat your entire cake in frosting and smooth as best as you can. This is a crusting buttercream, so you can plop your cake in the fridge for 30 minutes, then use a Viva paper towel to smooth out any lumps or things that go bump in the night. Chill the cake while you make the chocolate bark.

To make my bark (which you can watch above), I used half a bag of black chocolate melts and a quarter of a bag of orange chocolate melts, both melted according to package instructions. Working quickly, I smoothed the black chocolate onto a baking pan with Parchment paper into a rectangle. Then I dolloped orange on top of this and used a chopstick to create the swirled pattern.

Now, place this in the fridge to set while you dust your cake with black glitter and make the sparkly orange ooze to drip on your cake. I simply dipped a paintbrush into my disco dust and tapped, tapped away to my heart’s content:

Both myself and my cake stand will be covered in black glitter from now until New Year’s Eve. We’re both thrilled by this.

To make the orange ooze, you need:

• 1 1/2 tsp orange luster dust
• 3 TBS powdered monkfruit or powdered sugar
• 4 1/2 tsp clear vanilla extract

Simply mix everything together in a bowl, then use a spoon to drip down the edges of your cake. I pretty much tipped my spoon straight down to get the drips to move further down the cake. Unlike using chocolate melts that will drip a long way down the cake, this style of drip doesn’t move as much, so use more liquid if you want longer drips (but on the flip side, this drip is actually edible, unlike those nasty chocolate melts…candy corn is even better than those bad boys, and I will die on that flavor hill).

Once you’re done with the drip, just cut your chocolate bark (that would taste better if it were made of candy corn…) into triangles and stab ’em into the top of a cake in a way that would make Freddy, Jason, or Ghostface proud. Then your glittery black and orange beacon of Halloween is ready to scare (or feed) the masses! Bone appetit!

Halloween is upon us, so abide by my favorite mantra of all time: live, laugh, scare. I will be soaking up every moment remaining in the month before we are lambasted by the pushiest holiday of the entire year: Christmas. I’ll be keeping Mariah Carey at bay with the help of this cake and Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween. Let’s get the Halloween party startled! Thanks for coming along with me on another month of Baketober adventures. I’m already scaring up ideas for next year…I’m always ready to (Ooogie) Boogey. ‘Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Recipe & Instructions

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I remember watching Little Shop of Horrors as a kid, when I probably really and truly shouldn’t have, but how could a movie about a dentist and plant be nightmare fuel for a child of 8? I was raised on Addams Family, Hocus Pocus, Nightmare Before Christmas…I liked spooky, spooky liked me, but something about a giant man-eating plant that also looked quite similar to the piranha plants from Mario scrambled my little brain, and it may or may not be the reason I refuse to garden or grown any plants indoors to this day. Inherently, plants = danger in my book (a two-month ordeal with poison ivy a few summers ago kept this fear alive). But what if I turned the tables and made a plant I would be the one eating??!

So I made the thing that haunts my nightmares edible. Shoe’s on the other foot now, Audrey II. These are cookie cups filled with chocolate protein mousse, topped with the world’s most menacing strawberries. This recipe makes 8 evil little babies that you can devour before they can devour you, at only 233 calories each. Nothing terrifying about that!

The ingredients for the cookie cups, mousse, and frosting are super simple:

• Premade cookie dough of choice (Sweet Loren’s if you’re also gluten free!); you’ll need 8 dough balls at room temp
• 172 g (3/4 cup) fat free Greek yogurt
• 60 grams (2 scoops) chocolate protein powder (I love Quest’s chocolate milkshake flavor)
• 10 grams (2 TBS) cocoa
• 60 mL (1/4 cup) sugar free syrup
• 8 medium strawberries
• A half or quarter batch of your preferred frosting (cream cheese, classic American buttercream, anything that is pipeable/can hold shape; my favorite cream cheese recipe is here). You don’t need a lot of frosting for this decoration.
• Gel dyes in green and red
• 2 leaf tips (#67 or #68 work best), 2 small round tips (#2 or #3 work best)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and grab a mini muffin tin. Roll your thawed cookie dough into even balls. Place these in the mini muffin tin and use the back of a tablespoon to press down gently and create a divot in the center of the cookie dough. Bake for 12 minutes.

IMMEDIATELY upon pulling the cookies out of the oven, use the tablespoon to press into each cookie gently and reform the cup. Let these cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes while you make the mousse. Simply dump the yogurt, protein powder, cocoa, and syrup in a bowl and mix until everything is incorporated. Once your cookies have fully cooled to room temp, you can plop this evenly into each cup. I used a piping bag with a 1M tip, but the filling gets covered up, so it doesn’t have to be pretty.

Divide up your frosting so you have the following:

• Plain white frosting in a piping bag with a #2 or #3 tip
• Green frosting in a piping bag with a coupler so you can switch from a round tip to a leaf tip
• Red frosting in a piping bag with a leaf tip

I’ll give you a photo play by play here, but you can also see a video of how I assembled these on my Instagram. Start by piping leaves on the side of each cookie cup like above. Then switch to the small round tip and draw vines in front. Take a strawberry, chop off the top, then split vertically in half. Plop one half on top of the mousse, then use the red frosting with the leaf tip to pipe a tongue:

Then take the white frosting, and pipe on some pointy pearly whites for Audrey II to terrorize the neighborhood, nay, every household in America with:

She’s definitely taking shape, but we unfortunately have to give her the rest of her mouth with which to eat you with, so take the other half of the strawberry and pipe more teeth. Then grab a toothpick to secure the top of the mouth carefully to the bottom.

Isn’t she just the cutest little man-eating dessert you’ve ever seen?

She’s got a mouth on her, in more ways than one, that Audrey II.

“Shing-a-ling, what a creepy thing to be happening!” Okay, musicals are also awful as far as I’m concerned (“Hey, how about we ruin this movie every 15 minutes?” -creator of musicals), BUT this movie gets a pass because it’s absolutely ridiculous and plays into those themes perfectly in song. It might have given me a lifelong fear of anything green, but making these little Audrey II’s were the perfect amount of creepy as we inch closer and closer to Halloween, the greatest and spookiest day of them all (minus the day the plants took over in the original ending of the movie). ‘Til next time, my fellow (plant) eaters!

Recipe & Instructions

BAKETOBER IS HERE! I’ve actually made quite a few posts over on my Instagram with some super simple and incredibly fun Halloween breakfast, snack, and dessert ideas, so be sure to head over there for plenty of frights and delights. I wanted to make a blog post with a video tutorial on how to make these fa-boo-lous chocolate-covered Halloween cakes using a nifty Wilton pan, some candy melts, and any cake recipe…plus, like, a hauntingly ridiculous amount of Crisco. If you’re looking for a fun, simple way to get ghoulish, look no further. These are ready in under an hour and perfect all month long. Just boo it!

Materials needed:

• Wilton’s ghost and pumpkin nonstick pan (I found mine on Amazon)
• Orange and white chocolate melts (most craft stores and grocery stores will have them this time of year)
• Crisco or coconut oil
• Black, orange, and silver or white luster dust (most craft stores have this; Amazon also has tons of options)
• Food-safe paintbrushes
• Your favorite cake mix

Instructions:

• Prepare your favorite cake recipe; red velvet is always fun this time of year, so is anything with black cocoa! You’ll have enough chocolate melts that the cakes will get totally covered on top, so the color underneath won’t show through.
• Take your pan, and liberally coat each cavity with Crisco or solid coconut oil. I find it easiest to use a paintbrush to get in all the nooks and crannies.
• This will make 12 mini cakes, so pour half your batter in the 6 cavities for now; fill it up about 3/4 of the way full.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes cleanly out of the center of a cake.
• Let rest in pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before removing cakes.
• Bake your second batch following those same instructions.
• Once cakes have totally cooled, clean your pan, dry thoroughly, and coat again with Crisco or coconut oil.
• Take 120 grams of white chocolate, and melt according to package directions.
• Use a spoon to distribute the white chocolate in each of the ghost molds. Place a cooled ghost cake face down in the chocolate and press in gently.
• Repeat this process with 120 grams of orange chocolate to make the pumpkins.
• Place in the freezer for 30-60 minutes to set.
• Use an angled spatula or dull knife to release from the pan; be gentle so as not to break the chocolate.
• Wipe any excess oil or Crisco off the cakes.
• Use a larger paintbrush to paint silver or white luster on the ghosts; this can be done dry/without adding anything to the luster.
• Use a new paintbrush to paint orange luster on the Jack O’Lanterns.
• Finish your spooktacular creations by using a very small paintbrush dipped in black luster to fill in the eyes and mouths; it is helpful to tap excess black luster off the brush before beginning. If you do get black luster somewhere it shouldn’t be, use a Q-tip to clean and come back in with the base luster color.
• See video below for how I used the melts. Happy haunting!

Baklava is a dessert I sincerely miss since entering my gluten free journey the last 4 years. I’ve looked high and low (and even at Trader Joe’s), for gluten free phyllo dough, but no such luck. I also don’t miss anything enough to try to make gluten free phyllo dough from scratch considering I can’t even master a gluten free pie crust, which is supposedly ~easy~, but somehow still impossible for me to master. SO, I decided to start making a pistachio-walnut-spiced-sugary baklava topping, and just throw it on top of everything. The first iteration was baklava baked oats. And oh those baklava oats walked so this bakalava bundt cake (topped with a honey glaze) could run.

Recipe and Instructions