Recipe - Lemon Bars

Lemon Bars

So right now I'm not eating chocolate. Every year I give it up for lent and this year is no different. I'm not Catholic or anything, it's just a tradition I started in university and have carried on ever since. It's a good thing. I like to test myself - but it also means I need to find other sources of sugar to help my cravings. Enter the lemon bars. Apologies, my crust looks a little darker in my photos this time because I had run out of white sugar and used brown sugar instead. I also think I slightly over-cooked mine but either way, they're still sticky and soft and chewy and absolutely frikin' delicious and absolutely worth you making at home.

Recipe - Jamaica Ginger Cake

I'm such a contradiction sometimes. For example, I rarely like things with ginger in them; it's just not a spice I appreciate. I'm not a huge lover of a lot of Chinese or Japanese cuisine and I definitely don't like it in my smoothies or juices, but put just a touch of it in something sweet and I love it. Ginger snap cookies? Heyoooo. Growing up I absolutely loved McVitie's Jamaica Ginger Sticky Cake. It was the best of the best. And every so often I get sad that I can't eat it anymore.  So, every so often I decide I'm going to make myself one. This time it could have been a bit more sticky, but it was still bouncy as anything and the texture was... textbook. Feel free to add more golden syrup to the recipe. I usually just keep adding in more until I think I should probably stop. I can never have enough golden syrup. Can you?

Recipe - Chocolate Fudge Crinkle Cookies

For the past couples of weeks we've been trying to eat healthier in the ol' Shomo household. I know how heavy Christmas can be for me - especially if I'm spending it in England and catching up on all my favourite foods like I am this year! So, as a consequence, I haven't been baking as much. Well, today I decided that we needed some Christmas cheer and I was going to bake - the result was Chocolate Fudge Crinkle Cookies! Bonus, they also look Christmassy with their powdered sugar coating! They're not only naturally gluten-free but also dairy free. So eat away my coeliac friends!

Recipe - Mrs Whips' Sweet Potato Casserole

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! Does everyone have what they need to feed at least 5000 people? Well, you might just have to go get the ingredients to make this one last thing, because boy is it good. I first had this 3 years ago when I was at my friend's house for Thanksgiving. Caleb was on tour and so I ended up at their house with a few others who had nowhere to go. I fell so in love with this dish that I instantly stole the recipe and here it is!
Now I know people usually put all kinds of weird things on sweet potatoes during this holiday (marshmallows?) but this comes with a crumble like topping, and although it mostly tates like a dessert, it's the perfect pairing to the turkey and stuffing and potatoes. So, if you're making sweet potatoes/yams this year (and lets be honest, it's a staple) then make sure to make them this way.

*Side note, this year I actually burnt the top of mine (schoolboy error) and so it's been incredibly hard to get a good photo of the result. I myself, king of like some things a little burnt, but it definitely isn't how it's meant to be. Trust me, it's a beautiful thing to make and eat, so make sure you do!

Recipe - JSho's Chocolate Pecan Pie

Thanksgiving celebrations have already come to the Shomo household! Caleb's parents were visiting this weekend and so yesterday we decided to do the Shomo traditions whilst they were in town. And boy I'm glad we did! Thanksgiving food is always great, but mostly I get excited about the chocolate pecan pie; you've never tasted anything like it! This year I decided I was going to steal JSho's (my nickname for Caleb's mum Julie) recipe and share it with all of you lovely people. I know a lot of people love normal pecan pie, but I am often of the belief that adding chocolate to most things make things better... and especially in pie. So, don't miss out and enjoy today!

Ps. I am cheating and expecting that you'll either be buying a gluten free pie crust or have gluten free crust to roll out into a pie dish - so this doesn't include instructions on pie crust. Just let yourself cheat for once... I got mine this time from Trader Joes and it was perfect. Whole foods also offer great crusts, just check the frozen aisle!

Recipe - Millionaire's Shortbread

Who doesn't love caramel? Because I sure do... and actually, so has everyone else I've ever come into contact with. And what could be better than putting it with chocolate and shortbread? Nothing. Nothing could be better than that.

A few years ago I decided I wanted to make myself some Millionaire's Shortbread because I couldn't find any that were gluten free anywhere. This style of shortbread isn't really a thing in America, so I decided I would have to start testing out recipes and introducing it to my friends and family, so they could see what they were missing out on. Fast forward a few years and now, it's what I'm known for. So, if you're looking for delicious home-made caramel sandwiched between shortbread and chocolate, then look no further!

Recipe - Cherbourg's S'mores Bars

In Columbus we have two GF bakeries. Two! What a treat. It's a truly great thing, especially as they both offer different styles of items to buy. If you're looking for more french-style items, as well as the usual cookies & cupcakes etc. then Cherbourg bakery is the place to be. They offer everything from cream puffs to lemon bars to zucchini cake and also a wonderful thing called a S'mores Bar.

They are sticky and chocolatey and cookie dough like and are just all round amazing. They're the first thing that anyone wants when you say you're going there, they're that good. Heaven. Then, I was recently told that the owner of Cherbourg is a legend and writes her own blog with recipes from the bakery! So, I've gone ahead and stolen the recipe, but credit where credit is due, this thing of beauty is all theirs and we are just here to enjoy it. After cooking mine, they were a bit more underdone than what they're usually like at Cherbourg, but I liked that. Caleb did too. He wanted to eat the entire dish and it was hard for me to not slowly eat it all over a few days.

If you make them like me, the dough might be a bit wetter than Cherbourg's, resulting in a softer bar. Which I think is just AOK! If you want yours a bit firmer, then just add slightly more flour if the batter is too runny/sticky for you!

So, here is the recipe for Cherbourg's S'mores Bars!

Recipe - Citrus Drizzle Loaf Cake

Does anyone else love lemons? I honestly can never get enough of them. I love citrus flavour and even with my cocktails I think the sourer the better! I even sometimes like to eat lemons, but don't tell anyone that as that's probably very, very strange. So, when I saw the Gluten Free Blogger do a post about a citrus cake, I immediately saved the link to her blog & as soon as I had a chance, I baked it!

So, this is basically (pretty much exactly) her recipe, except with extra lemon-ness and converted into American measurements (because that's where I live these days). But of course, all credit goes to her & you should obviously check out her blog for amazing recipes and way better photography than I could make happen for my attempt. She is right up there with the best and basically puts me to shame - I need to put more of my recipes up! So without further ado, here is the...

Recipe, Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

Hello everyone!

I see I'm still slacking in the posting department. What can I say? I've had a couple of months of everyday living and cold weather (it's only now just beginning to warm up) and that has left me feeling a little uninspired. It was only last week that I decided I wanted to get back into baking (which I love to do) and actually made it happen. Spring is now upon us & hopefully the end of the freezing temperatures that I so hate. So, with that all said a few days ago I decided to make some chocolate cupcakes. I also made them a week prior & the cupcakes were perfectly tasty, but I miscalculated my marshmallow frosting and ended up with a bit of a runny mess. So, this time, I decided my cupcakes were delicious enough, and just changed what type of frosting I was going to top them off with. Enter salted caramel frosting. Heyooooo. Who doesn't love that? They turned out great and I've enjoyed eating three of them over the past few days (yep 3 of them whoops). Below are separate instructions for each area incase you want to search online and do your own frosting choice, or make them vanilla cupcakes instead of chocolate. It's all changeable and isn't that great? I actually halved the cupcake recipe because I didn't want to make 16 of them, as there was only me & Caleb in the house, so feel free to adapt away.

Recipe - Gooey Chocolate Brownies

I've always loved to bake, but I genuinely haven't had the time to do it recently. Well, today I woke up and decided I was going to make brownies. So, below I'm sharing a recipe for Gooey Chocolate Brownies, which also happen to be dairy free as well as GF (obvs). These guys are extremely soft & VERY chocolatey and can be a bit much for some people - so be prepared!