While reading internet news and such this morning I discovered it was National Chocolate Cake day… who knew? Seriously though, who comes up with these “national” food days. While the recipe I am sharing today isn’t a chocolate cake, you could use this frosting to decorate your favorite chocolate cake and celebrate this holiday.

Blood oranges really don’t differ in flavor than your traditional navel orange, but they do have a beautiful bloody red inside. When making the frosting try to use the juice from oranges that have the reddest insides in order to get that pretty pale pink color. These would be perfect for Valentine’s Day, a bridal shower, or baby shower for a little girl. You get a delicate pink colored frosting without the need for red food coloring. Plus the frosting tastes delicious!

BLOOD ORANGE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons blood orange zest (zest from 2 oranges)
5 tablespoons blood orange juice (juice from 1 1/2 oranges)

In a stand mixer beat butter and cream cheese on high for about 5 minutes until complete combined and fluffy. Turn mixer down to low and slowly add in the powdered sugar, being careful to make sure the sugar doesn’t fling out of the bowl.

As the sugar becomes more incorporated turn the speed up to medium high. Add in the vanilla extract, zest, and blood orange juice. Beat on high until fluffy. If the frosting isn’t stiff enough for your liking add more powdered sugar. But make sure to turn your mixer down to low otherwise you will be wearing powdered sugar.

Pipe onto your favorite cake or cupcakes. I used a 1M tip and generously swirled the frosting onto gluten free chocolate cupcakes.

What is your favorite frosting? I think my favorite frosting I made was a dulce de leche buttercream for a friend’s birthday cake. Yum! 

The white puppy chow made a perfect backdrop for some of the red, white, and pink Valentine’s Day M&M’s, so I *had* to add some to the mix Whip up a quick batch for the love of your life!

WHITE CHOCOLATE PUPPY CHOW
9 cups Corn Chex cereal
1 cup white chocolate chips
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 package Valentine’s Day themed M&M’s (optional)

In a microwave safe bowl put white chocolate chips and peanut butter together. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir to combine. If mixture isn’t creamy microwave in 30 second intervals until everything is smooth.

Measure the 9 cups of cereal in a large mixing bowl. Pour the white chocolate and peanut butter mixture over the cereal. Carefully stir to coat all the cereal evenly.

In a large ziplock bag pour in the cereal mixture. Dump in the 3 cups of powdered sugar. Zip the bag closed and give it a shake to coat all the cereal with the powdered sugar. Pour into a large serving bowl and gently stir in the M&M’s.

The first time I tried this recipe was last year for Valentine’s Day, and it was my first attempt at making anything gluten free before. We invited friends over (who also have young children) for a Valentine’s dinner party. Being Valentine’s day and all I knew I wanted to make a dessert. I found the recipe on Gluten Free Cooking School’s website.

This year instead of making a whole cake I made little heart shaped cupcakes for my husband to bring to work. I am assuming everyone liked them, because the cake pan came back empty.

You could make this in two round cake pans, and have yourself a beautiful red velvet layer cake. I however, chose to make mine into heart shaped cupcakes. My mom bought me some silicone heart shaped cupcake molds and I was excited to use them for the first time. Needless to say, some of the cupcakes got stuck in the mold. Looks like I am not the only one that has had an unfortunate experience with silicone cupcake molds. There is a whole discussion at The Kitchn about baking with silicone molds –they actually made red velvet cake in theirs too. Maybe it is the cake and not the mold?

GLUTEN FREE RED VELVET (CUP)CAKES
from Gluten Free Cooking School

1 3/4 c. canola oil
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten (room temp)
1 c. brown rice flour
3/4 c. sorghum flour
3/4 c. tapioca starch
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. buttermilk (or 1 Tbsp cider vinegar and 1 c. milk substitute)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 oz. red food coloring (this is one of the McCormick’s bottles) *I used just enough to give the batter a reddish color. Less than 1/4 of the bottle.
1 Tbsp. cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together oil and sugar. Add one egg making sure it is completely mixed in before adding the other egg.

Sift together all the dry ingredients (leaving out the cocoa powder) in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the oil, sugar, and egg mixture in FOUR parts. Alternating the flour and buttermilk. Make sure the last one added is the flour mixture.

Make a paste out of the vanilla, red food coloring, and cocoa powder, and stir into the batter.

Pour batter into two greased and floured (GLUTEN FREE) round cake pans OR fill cupcake molds 2/3 the way full.  Bake for 25 minutes for the cake pans OR about 18 minutes (turning pans about half way through) for the cupcakes. Test the cakes and/or cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness.

Allow cakes to cool completely before frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, room temperature
2-3 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 c chopped nuts

In mixing bowl beat together cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Add the sugar while mixing on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy.

You can stir in the chopped nuts or sprinkle the nuts on top of the frosted cupcakes. ENJOY!

OTHER RED VELVET (not gluten free) CREATIONS:
Red Velvet Cupcakes from Rue le Sel
Red Velvet Macaroons from delectable deliciousness
Red Velvet Bundt from Recipe Girl

Lately it seems like I have the best intentions of writing, I just never follow through with them. Ugh! My goal is to post something more often. I have so many recipes and photos of different food that I haven’t posted yet. This weekend I was really ambitious, I made homemade doughnuts, that is going to be another post, however.

I made this heart cake for Alex on Valentine’s Day. It was delicious! Target had heart shaped silicone pans on sale for $2.50 after Christmas, so I picked one up and stashed it away until Valentine’s day. I have to apologize, I was going to make a cake from scratch. I was determined to make a beautiful made from scratch heart shaped cake, I even bought cake flour at the store. But… that didn’t happen. I was so busy on Valentine’s day, running around trying to make sure everything was just perfect, that I resorted to the fail-safe boxed cake mix. I did take the time to make my own buttercream frosting!

I baked the cake according to package directions. It was my first time cooking with a silicone pan so I was a little unsure of how long it would take to bake. Heads up –it took 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. Once the cake came out of the oven I let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring it to a wire cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool completely before working with it. Once the cake was completely cooled, I sliced it in half. I then took a generous amount of buttercream frosting and spread it on top of the bottom layer, replaced the lid and completely covered the cake with the remaining frosting. I garnished the cake with chocolate covered strawberries. It was a beautiful and tasty dessert.

I got the buttercream frosting recipe from Wilton.

Buttercream Recipe
(Medium Consistency)
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract
4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
2 tablespoons milk In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

YIELD: Makes about 3 cups.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.