Guest Post: Sweet Song Bird

Hello! My name is Evey and my blog’s name is Sweet Song Bird.  I am a stay at home mother of three, amongst other things.  I own my own business called Evey’s Creations, and baking is absolutely one of my favorite things to do, hands down! 🙂 

I have been gluten free for over 10 yrs due to an autoimmune disease and my kids are all gluten sensitive, so I have had quite a bit of practice creating recipes and baking for this lifestyle.  My goal is to share what I’ve learned along the way with others who might have similar conditions, so that they too might enjoy the “sweeter things in life”!

Since I am a baker by trade, I find myself baking quite often! Last year, my friend Victoria bought me the “Cake Doctor bakes Gluten Free”, with the following advice: “It’s ok NOT to make everything from scratch once in a while!”, which was code for “Girlfriend, please stop stressing yourself and RELAX!”  =)  She’s kind of awesome.  I figured it couldn’t hurt to try some of the recipes for day to day baking for my family.   If anyone is on the fence about this book, go out AND GET IT!  The theories and methods behind it are incredible, and the use of a prepackaged cake mix makes life so much easier! (You can make your own mix, too, if you’re a puritan like me! haha)

Today, I will share with you one of my own doctored up “Cake Mix Doctor” recipes, because I can never just leave things like recipes alone! 😉 Today, I will share with you my semi-homemade recipe for GF whoopie pies! 😉  It started out with the Cake Doctor’s recipe for Snickerdoodle Cookies, and I turned it into this!

Ingredients:

For Cookies:

1 Packaged (15oz) chocolate or Devil’s Food Cake GF cake mix

1/4c lightly packed light brown sugar

8tbsp butter (1 stick) cut into tablespoons

1 large egg

1tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract

2c 60% Cacao Cocoa Baking Powder (always go for the premium stuff, you will thank me later!)

(Optional): 1-2 tsp water or milk (I prefer the latter)

Filling:

1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

2c of Marshmallow Cream (make sure it’s GF)

1 1/2c sifted powdered sugar

1tsp Pure Vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place the cake mix, brown sugar, and cocoa into the bowl of a food processor (can also be made in a stand up mixer, but will require much more patience!) with a steel blade and pulse to combine.  Add the butter, a couple tablespoons at at time, pulsing some more, add the egg and vanilla and continue to pulse until the dough comes together slightly.  If it’s still not fully together, add 1-2tsp of water or milk to bring it together.  Scoop out 1 and 1/2 inch balls of dough and make about 24 balls of dough.  Arrange on 2 cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, 1 or 2 minutes less if you want chewier cookies.  When done, remove from cookie sheets and place onto a cooling rack immediately!  Allow cookies to completely cool before filling.  This recipe makes cakey cookies that will melt in your mouth! 

Filling:

Mix ingredients in a bowl with a stand up or hand mixer and mix until fluffy, about 3 minutes.   

Check THESE out! 🙂

A BIG thanks to Kaysi for allowing me to share my GF recipe with you all!  Let me know if you enjoy the cookies and I wish all of you a Happy and prosperous New Year!! 🙂

-Evey