In Which Gluten-Free Cupcakes are Created {St. Patrick's Day Special}

{Step Two: Gather Ingredients}

I do believe that I promised a special post as soon as Ali and I baked gluten-free cupcakes {See Friendship on Monday, if you don't remember!}. So pin on your aprons, grab your raw, whole-milk, and don't get too concerned because my laptop battery is at 30% and it's 12:44 AM,  and I'm ready to wow you with my incredible baking prowess and then get some sleep.

Step One: Arrange Baking Date 
Obviously, the fun of baking is exponentially increased by doing it with a friend, especially when you're not the most competent baker in the world {me}, and really just need someone to make sure you don't put in tablespoons instead of teaspoons. As mentioned, Ali and I have been planning this gluten-free, cupcake baking extravaganza since February 23rd.

Step Two: Gather Ingredients 
I want the world to know that it is indeed more difficult to bake gluten-free red velvet cupcakes than regular cupcakes because the ingredients are just not as mainstream. Thankfully, Ali  and I managed to find all of the ingredients necessary without even a single grocery store run! We mixed almond flour and white rice flour, among other things...

Step Three: Mix Ingredients

This is where we really had fun. We definitely took turns measuring and pouring the ingredients in because, let's face it, it is SO much fun to push the flour off the measuring cup and make a perfectly level cup of flour, then pour the cup into a mixing bowl and watch the flour go *plop* in a perfect little circle. Everything was going smoothly, but then Ali told me to put in the butter. Now, I'm not entirely sure what she said, but my brain translated, "put in 3/4 of a cup of butter." I did this. As I began cutting the butter up inside the bowl, which already had flour and sugar and coco powder inside, Ali looked over and mentioned, "Wow, that does look like a lot of butter...." We then discovered that it was supposed to be *3/4 of a STICK of butter* which is half the amount that I had put it. Being the resourceful bakers that we are, we pulled out half of the butter, and washed it off for use in the frosting, later to come.

{Our poor, coco and sugar-coated butter}

{Butter-washing. It's a thing.}

Step Four: Make Sure Ingredients Are Actually Mixed 
So the thing is, I'm housesitting, so I don't know where every single baking utensil is in this house.... We couldn't find the plug ins for the electric mixer, and so our two separate bowls of red and green colored cupcake mixes were looking a mite butter-flecked, if you know what I mean. I mentioned the resourceful bakers? Ali and I improvised! And out of our improvisation I do believe we have actually invented the fine art of Butter-Mashing. We got down and dirty with that cupcake mix, and mashed.that.butter.

Butter-Mashing!}

{The fine art of....

 Step Five: Preheat the Oven because You Forgot to do this Earlier
The title of this step is basically this step. So enjoy the picture...

Step Six: Fill Cupcake Tins. Bake Cupcakes. 
Our green cupcake mix definitely looked a bit like some sort of alternative Kale-flavored mash, but we heroically carried on the operation and got our dozen cupcakes into the oven without further ado.

Step Seven: Make Cream Cheese Frosting 
It was at this point in our cupcake creating process that Ali and I discovered to our great amusement that we did NOT need the one cup of milk that Ali had told me to bring. To this very moment, no one knows why she told me to bring milk. It was extraneous.
Anyway, we pulled out the cream cheese from the refrigerator, rejoicing that we had not had to go out and buy cream cheese, we poured the powdered sugar on top of the frosting, when suddenly I exclaimed, "ALI! I don't think this is cream cheese...."

{This is Neufchatel Cheese. Not Cream Cheese. Oops.}

But can I really be blamed? Honestly. This box looks just like a cream cheese box. Unfortunately, it turns out that is in fact a cream cheese substitute. We made due, but are quite convinced our next frosting will taste more correct.







Step Eight: Pull Baked Cupcakes out of Oven and Cool in the Bathroom 
So, there are two very hungry dogs at the house I'm staying at. We decided to be safe and put the cupcakes in the bathroom with the door shut while they cooled off. I'm not saying this step is absolutely necessary. I'm just saying--it totally worked.

Step Nine: Frost Cupcakes. Take Pictures
We frosted those cupcakes with knives! They looked perhaps not quite as perfect as they could have looked. Our spirits undampened, we smiled with pride, and posed for a multitude of pictures, futuring *drumrollplease* Gluten-Free, Red {and green} Velvet Cupcakes!

Step Ten: Watch Copious Amounts of Television While Eating
Basically, we watched four and a half episodes of Call the Midwife, became addicted to the show {British TV, I tell you...}, ate two cupcakes each, consumed the milk that we hadn't used for baking purposes, drank two cups of tea, and each devoured a lime flavored popsicle.

Also, we took more pictures than I even put on this post, believe it or not. So enjoy one more picture of the two most competent, hipster, classy bakers you will ever find anywhere. Probably. Maybe not. I make no promises....

I hope you enjoyed the Cupcake Adventure. Go bake some right now. It will be worth it.

Xxx,

Friendship on Monday

{downtown Petaluma, afternoon of Tuesday  2/25/14}

Let's face it-- Monday has a bad wrap. The start of a week usually full of work, school, business, life, and sundry other things. What's the like? But worst of all, Monday marks the end of the weekend; that glorious set of days, where we theoretically have a break from the normal crazies. As I'm sure you've noticed, this is not always the case. On the other hand, Mondays are often not nearly as bad as we make them out to be. Such was certainly the case for me, this week.

I knew my Monday was going to be hectic. Calculus in the morning, exercise ten minutes after calculus, an hour-long math lecture ten minutes after my body conditioning class, and then rushing home to practice piano before rushing off to a piano lesson, then coming back to school to do homework for an hour before meeting up with a friend. I wasn't overly excited about all the rushing. 

Thankfully, exercise class got out ten minutes early, it turned out the math lecture was canceled, and that gave me plenty of time to get home and eat lunch before driving to my piano lesson in Rohnert Park. All of this to say, eventually I made it back to the Petaluma SRJC campus to meet up with a lovely friend, whom I had not seen in a few months! We made our way over to Jamba Juice, and had an absolutely fabulous time talking about anything and everything, including our blogs. We also got in a couple of highly attractive photos of one another....

{we started out inside Jamba Juice...}

{but quickly moved outdoors because the weather was stunning}

After an extremely relaxing time sitting outside, in the mild, perfect California weather, we decided to prolong the date, and made our way back to my house, where we made dinner together (we were having too much fun to take pictures. Now THAT is a lot of fun), and also made plans to create gluten-free cupcakes in the near future. You won't want to miss that blog post. We're going to be wearing our most adorable aprons. 

*The Point Being -->*

We had an amazing time together. And after she left, I kept thinking about how much I love spending time with my friends. To be quite honest, this is something I ponder frequently. I have been blessed with the most amazing group of friends in the world. If you think I'm exaggerating {yes I do use extravagant adjectives rather often...}, I'm not. That was the most convincing argument you are ever likely to hear. ;) As I talk to more and more people out there in the world, I've come to realize that I have an abnormally large group of people I can call genuine friends. Friends who will be completely honest with me. Friends who won't see me for months because our lives get insane, or we live far apart, but then we pick right back up where we left off without any awkwardness whatsoever. The list goes on and on and on. 

With my personality, I love to have a huge group of friends. But, even the most "introverted" {please, beware of labeling yourself. more on that someday...} person among us ought to have a group of friends to spend time with, doing the things one does with friends. We weren't created to go through life alone. 

So, if you haven't had a friend date in a while{the kind of friend date where you discover a new restaurant, or hike some foresty mountain, or get massages together, or just sit in a coffee shop and talk for hours}, schedule it in! Life can be crazy. Trust me, I know that too. But taking a break from all of that "stuff," to spend quality time with another wonderful person is important. 

Xx

{P.S. You can check out my friend's blog, The Parlor & Co. }

*PPS: Addendum* 

Ali and I noticed that our phones do NOT have cupcake stickers in the list of text emoticons. As Ali said, we should write strongly worded letters, such as: 

"dear Emoticon Company, 

WHERE IS THE CUPCAKE, SIR? 

salutations,

Ali and Katherine"