Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Every year for Thanksgiving I always make Pumpkin Bread and Cornbread.  This year though, I wanted to make pumpkin cupcakes instead.  I wanted to do something a little different than typical Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing.  I decided on makes Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream and Cranberry Syrup.  I also wanted a crunchy element so I added Candied Pepitas as well.  The tartness of the cranberry sauce contrasts the sweetness of the white chocolate buttercream.  The pepitas are sweet and crunchy and full of spices.  The cake is full of pumpkin flavor and warm spices like cinnamon and cloves.  They're the perfect pumpkin treat.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart
Made Gluten Free by Jesicakes
Makes 2 dozen cupcakes
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Ingredients

- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

- 4 large eggs

- 1 cup light brown sugar

- 1 cup granulated sugar

- 2/3 cup brown rice flour

- 2/3 cup sorghum flour

- 1/3 cup white rice flour

- 1/3 cup tapioca flour

- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 1 tsp ginger

- 1/2 tsp cloves

- 1 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix)

Baby Cookie Tutorials: Onesies and Teddy Bears

I recently welcomed a new baby cousin into my family. As you can tell by the cookies his name is Zackery.  I wanted to make onesie and teddy bears to celebrate.  I've done tons of onesies while I was decorating for a living, and I wanted to do something different.  I once did a baby shower order that was jungle themed with monkeys and lions and elephants and I thought it would be really cute to do those images but on the onesies.  The great thing about this design is you can alter them and do any decoration you want on the onesie.  You can go to my flickr and see some variations on baby cookies like punk rock baby cookies or jungle baby shower, .  Also, you can do variations on the bears.  Last year for the holidays I made them into polar bears with scarves!

Safari Onesies and Teddy Bears

Decorating level: Medium
Concept, design, and execution by Jesika Rose

• Gluten Free Chocolate Sugar Dough Recipe
• Royal Icing Recipe
• Onesie and Teddy Bear cutters
• 6 Decorating bags, couplers, tips, and rubber bands
• Three #3 round tips
• Three #2 round tips
• Three #1 round tips 
• Toothpicks
• Gel food coloring:
• Lemon Yellow
• Sky Blue
• Orange

Peanut Butter Cookies Two Ways

A while back, Julie911 on tumblr posted a recipe for gluten free peanut butter cookies and ever since I had been wanting to try my own version of them.  These type of peanut butter cookies (I always called them fork peanut butter cookies since the impressions on the top of them are made with a fork) are so reminiscent of being a child.  They're sweet, chewy, and full of peanut butter flavor.  Peanut butter is possibly my favourite food, I eat a spoonful of it for a snack sometimes.  Needless to say, these cookies are addicting if you're a peanut butter lover.  I wanted to do something a little more special too on top of doing just plain peanut butter cookies.  I did milk chocolate filled, semisweet chocolate filled, and jelly filled (like a pb&j) versions as well.  They add a nice little surprise to the cookie and add even more flavor to the already delicious unstuffed versions of the cookie.

When I made the first batch, the plain cookies were absolutely delicious, but the filled cookies, especially the jelly one, stuck the roof of your mouth slightly.  So I developed a different recipe based off the first.  The first recipe is completely gluten, dairy, and all flour free.  The second is gluten free but uses butter and gluten free flours as well.  The recipe with flour and dairy is much better suited for stuffed the cookies.  The flour ones are delicious plain as well, but plain I definitely prefer the flour free ones.  I'll post both recipes for you to decide which ones you prefer!

Best Ever Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe adapted from Julie911
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.
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Ingredients

- 1 cup of natural, salted peanut butter (I used Nature's Promise)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt

Sugar Skull Owls for Halloween

This year for Halloween I wanted to do a cookie that was a little less traditional.  I've done skulls and spiders and mummies and things like that in the past.  At first I wanted to do a whole bunch of decorative owls, almost look like they were made of cut paper possibly in Halloween colors like oranges and purples.  Then I really wanted to do sugar skulls, but I feel like everybody is doing sugar skulls now.  Then the thought came to me to do a very decorative sugar skull inspired owl design.  I used a chocolate sugar cookie base to really make the design pop on the cookie and I couldn't be happier with the results.  They're something a little different than what I normally see for Halloween cookies and that's exactly what I was going for.  And like always, they're gluten free.  If you want to make these too, here's what you're going to need.

Sugar Skull Owls for Halloween

Decorating level: Advanced
Concept, design, and execution by Jesika Rose

• Gluten Free Chocolate Sugar Dough Recipe
• Royal Icing Recipe
• 4" round cookie cutter
• 12 Decorating bags, couplers, tips, and rubber bands
• Two #3 round tips
• Nine #2 round tips
• Two #1 round tips 
• Toothpicks
• Gel food coloring:
• Regal purple (or Violet with a dash of Fushia)
• Lemon Yellow
• Leaf or Neon Green
• Sky Blue
• Deep Pink
• Orange

Go-To Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Right now I'm working on two decorating projects that I plan to also do tutorials for.  Both designs involve lightly colored icing or white icing for the base color.  I really want these designs to pop though, and those colors can sometimes look bland on a regular sugar cookie.  So I really wanted to find the perfect chocolate sugar dough recipe to give these cookies some contrast.  After looking at at least a dozen recipes, I decided this recipe by Georganne at LilaLoa appealed to me the most.  Nice crisp shapes, and tons of raving reviews about how delicious they are. 

So I converted it to be gluten free and I was not disappointed!  Great, rich chocolate flavor and with the help of just three-four drops of black dye the perfect contrast color I was looking for (don't worry! that little dye does not give it a bitter taste).  They roll out great and they hold their shape perfectly.  They seem like the perfect ground for decorating, and they're also great plain or just sprinkled with a little bit of sugar.  So if you don't want to go all out with royal icing decorating, even using a cute cutter and just sanding them with sugar will make a delicious treat.

This will be your go-to chocolate sugar dough.  And I dare you to not sneak any bites of this raw!  That is just how delicious it is.

As with most sugar dough, you need to let this dough rest.  When you're done mixing it will be very sticky and soft.  Georganne suggests if you need to use it right away add 1/2 cup more flour.  While I did not try this, if you need to go with more brown rice or sorghum flour.  I did not try this with gluten free flours though so it may not work the same as with wheat flour.  If you try the extra flour and it works let me know!  Otherwise just a few hours in the fridge will make it the perfect texture for rolling out without any problems with it being too soft or stick

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Recipe adapted from LilaLoa
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen 4" cookies
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Ingredients

- 1 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla, gluten free
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp baking powder, gluten free
- 2/3 cup non dutch-processed cocoa, I used Hershey's
- 1 cup brown rice flour
- 1 cup sorghum flour
- 2/3 cup tapioca flour
- 1/3 cup white rice flour
- 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
- Black gel dye, optional

Ocean Themed Decorated Sugar Cookies

A few weeks back I decided to have some fun after work and make some ocean themed sugar cookies.  I hadn't decorated in a while and missed it...so I picked up some new cookie cutters along with some marine ones I already have and decorated cookies of my other great passion, marine animals and the ocean.  I had so much fun doing this cookies.  Especially the octopus and the whale which I designed myself on a round cookie (I wasn't liking the whale cutters I found and I didn't have an octopus).

Banana Bread Cookies

A few weeks back, I had bought a bunch of bananas and forgot about them.  They got too overripe to eat, which makes the perfect for banana bread.  While banana bread is delicious, I wanted it to be something a little sweeter, and I had cookies in mind because they're easy to travel with, and normally stay fresh in a container for a few days.  So then the idea of making banana bread cookies came to me.  They're light, fluffy, almost cake like texture perfectly captures the texture of banana bread while still being a cookie.  The banana flavor really comes out and balances perfectly with the coconut and chocolate.  Banana bread has a comforting taste, there's just something so warm and homey about it.  These cookies capture that feeling.

Banana Bread Cookies

Recipe adapted from my Sweets Treats and More
Makes about 2 dozen cookies
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Ingredients

- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup of butter (2 sticks)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp gluten free vanilla
- 3/4 cup brown rice flour
- 3/4 cup oat flour
- 1/4 cup white rice flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 ripe bananas
- 2 cups gluten free rolled oats
- 1 cups chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut plus extra for topping

*These would probably be delicious with chopped walnuts as well, but I recently became slightly allergic to them so I didn't include them.  But if you like walnuts I definitely recommend you try it!