Gluten Free Mississippi Mud Cake: Guest Blog

This is a guest blog. I recently had a birthday and my daughter made me this gluten free cake! It tastes great. I have recently started eating gluten free and I feel much better. Eating gluten free is not cheap though, so we make a lot from scratch. Purchasing a gluten free cake like this would be very pricey!

Gluten Free Mississippi Mud Cake
16 servings
Begin making this cake early in the day, and allow plenty of time for cooling.

To make this cake, I merged two recipes together, and modified them a bit to suit the cake. The original Mississippi Mud cake recipe is found in The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts. (Their recipes are not even a little bit gluten free. Shame on them! :P)

Credit for the chocolate cake recipe goes to Sarah at www.sarahbakesgfree.com. Her blog is full of delicious looking gluten free recipes, so feel free to check them out too!

The recipe looks a bit intimidating, but don't let it fool you. Each step is quite easy, and there isn't a whole lot to mess up. Making this cake will take up a good chunk of your day, though. So make sure to budget some time. (I believe it took me about 3 hours the first time I made it, not counting cooling time.)

It's totally worth it though! This cake is super rich and can only be described as decadent. I've been making the gluten version of this cake for years, and it is always super popular wherever I take it. This gluten free version is actually better than the original in many ways!

Full Ingredient List:

* 1/2 cup butter, plus 3 tablespoons
* 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 1 cup oat flour
* 2 cups gluten free all purpose flour blend
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cups pure dark cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 cup buttermilk (or you can use 1 cup milk and mix with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar. Let stand for at least 5 minutes.)
* 1/2 cup oil
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, plus another 1 1/2 teaspoons
* 2/3 cup hot water
* 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows (check label to ensure it is gluten free)
* 8 oz semi-sweet melting chocolate (check label to ensure it is gluten free)
* 3 tablespoons water
* 3 tablespoons powdered sugar (check label to ensure it is gluten free)

Step One: Walnut-Mixture

* 1/2 cup butter (save the extra 3 tablespoons for later)
* 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 1 cup oat flour

Grease two 9 inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with waxed paper.
Over low heat, melt 1/2 cup butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat; stir in the walnuts, brown sugar, and oat flour.
Divide mixture evenly between your prepared cake pans and pat to evenly cover the bottom. Set aside.

Step Two: Chocolate cake

* 2 cups gluten free flour blend
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cups cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 cup buttermilk (or you can use 1 cup milk and mix with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar. Let stand for at least 5 minutes before adding to the batter.)
* 1/2 cup oil
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 2/3 cup hot water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together the flour blend, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
Drizzle in hot water slowly, scraping the bowl while beating on low. Batter will be thin.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and gently tap pans until the batter is evenly spread.
Bake for 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. [I did find that Sarah's estimate on baking in cake pans was a bit off. My cakes were in the oven for about 35 minutes. Just keep an eye on it, and remove when the toothpick comes out clean.]
Cool in pan until just cool enough to handle.

Step Three: Assembly


* 1 ½ cups mini marshmallows (I was out of mini marshmallows, so I sliced regular sized marshmallows into fourths.)

While still hot, carefully place one cake layer, with the walnut-mixture side up, on a cake plate.
Top with a single layer of marshmallows.
Immediately place second cake layer, walnut-mixture side down, on top of the marshmallows so they will melt. (I used a dinner plate to flip the cake out of the pan, and then flip again on top of the marshmallows.)
Insert long skewer in center of the cake to keep the top layer from sliding.
Allow cake to sit, or refrigerate, until completely cool.

Step Four: Glaze

* 8 oz semi-sweet melting chocolate
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 3 tablespoons water
* 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Once the cake has fully cooled, begin making the glaze. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate, 3 tablespoons butter, and water. Stir frequently until melted and smooth.
Remove from heat and add 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla.
Let chocolate mixture cool to room temperature.
Add the powdered sugar, beating with a spoon until well blended and a thick spreading consistency. (If your mixture is a grainy texture, add a bit more water.)
Remove the skewer from the cake. Spread glaze over the top and allow it to drip down the sides of the cake.
Garnish as desired. (I used chocolate chips and dusted a bit of powdered sugar on top.)

Pennies, Pennies Everywhere! Save Your Pumpkin Seeds and Toast Them!

 Every year I grow pumpkins. Mostly, I grow them because I like how they look on my deck in the fall of the year. (I did not grow all of these in this photo!) I also take the cornstalks I grew, tie them in a bundle, and use them for fall decoration. One bonus to growing pumpkins is toasted pumpkin seeds! When you cut open the pumpkin there will be a gooey glop of pumpkin seeds in the middle of the pumpkin. These need to be scooped out. 

Then comes the fun part, pulling all the glop off the pumpkin seeds! 

 Here is a recipe for toasting pumpkin seeds: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/10/salty-roasted-pumpkin-seeds-recipe.html There are a few different ones out there. Some of them have a Cajun flair if you like that. In short order, you will have some yummy toasted pumpkin seeds that are mostly free to you, since you probably otherwise would have thrown them out! 

I had a small pumpkin this time and I am cooking it just for scooping and eating. You can also make pies or bread with pumpkin. 

Happy Savings!

Save Your Christmas Ham-bone to Make Bean Soup!

Many of you will be having ham for Christmas. There will no doubt be leftover ham for sandwiches and the like but a very easy and inexpensive bean soup meal can be made using the ham-bone. 

 This is a photo of 16 bean soup mix. There are different bean soups that can be made with a ham-bone like split-pea soup or lentil soup or just plain old Boston Baked Beans. Beans are very inexpensive and go a long way for a good hearty meal. First, I soaked the above beans in water for an hour or so before adding them to the pot with the ham-bone to cook down for a few hours. (This can also be made in a crock pot if you have to work and/or are out of the house.)

 Here is a recipe for 16 bean soup: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/sixteen-bean-soup After cooking down and adding a few other ingredients like onion, celery and garlic, voila! Lovely 16 bean soup. It tastes even better the next day.

This tastes great with some homemade bread or corn muffins on the side and should last for a couple  meals for a family of four. Happy Savings! 

Making Your Own Products

One way to save money, especially when you are staying home with young children, is to learn to make your own products. Anyone can do this, but it does take time. The best thing is, once you have learned what you like to make yourself, you can save a lot of money over the course of years of making things. 

At a garage sale this summer, I found this neat book. It's an older book, but sometimes I actually prefer older ones. Sometimes they contain hard to find recipes and usually cost next to nothing. I found this one for .25!

This book has recipes for a lot of different types of products you can make yourself at home. Here are a couple of examples:

I like that it gives the cost of ingredients and how much you can save. These dollar figures are from 1987 so they are outdated. However, the savings amounts can give you a good idea of how much you can save per product. Some have a much larger margin than others in savings. This can help you decide what to choose to make. 

This book, since it is so old, can be bought for .01 on Amazon plus postage and handling. So, you could purchase this book for a total of $4.00! You can probably save much more than that using some of the recipes. Here is a link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0060960574/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1474993513&sr=8-1

Happy Savings!

Simple, Easy Recipes for Beginners

A while back, I was listening to someone who works at a food bank. She said if there are fresh potatoes available, most people won't take them, they want boxed potatoes because they don't know how to do anything with the fresh ones. I thought that was tragic for many reasons. First of all, fresh potatoes are healthier. They are also less expensive. Years ago, in school, we had a class called Home Economics that taught kids how to do some of these things. Apparently, they are not teaching people these things now. So, people really need to take it upon themselves to learn some of these things for their own benefit.

One of my favorite and very easy ways to make baked potatoes is in the microwave. First, wash potato. Next, put in microwave wrapped in small towel for about 6 minutes or until tender. Take out, load with butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon bits or ham. Voila! Easy breezy meal.

Here are some links to some other easy meals for beginners. Cooking has a bit of a learning curve but it is much healthier and less expensive and tastes so much better! And once you learn how, it gets easier and easier.

I would scrub some potatoes and cook them with the next two. I also would throw in some onion and carrots with the Roast Beef. It all cooks at once!

Roast Chicken:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/228848/stupid-simple-roast-chicken/

Roast Beef
http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-roast-beef-370461

I would heat some tomato soup with the next one!

Grilled Cheese
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/23891/grilled-cheese-sandwich/

Scrambled Eggs
http://www.eggs.ca/recipes/basic-stovetop-scrambled-eggs

These are good to start with and there are many easy recipes to be found online. Pretty soon, you'll be cooing like a pro!

Happy Eating and Happy Savings!

Saving Money Making Your Own Mix Recipes

There are many ways to save money making your own mixes. This does take time. However, once the mixes are made, you can just grab and use. Here are a few mixes that you can make. Many more can be found online. Back in the olden days, pre-internet, I was thrilled to find this thrifty cooking book at a garage sale, when recipes weren't at your fingertips.

Here is one for a brownie mix. I have also included a link to a recipe online for easy bookmarking:

http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2008/09/homemade-brownie-mix.html

You can make your own taco mix! For this, I would recommend buying the spices at a bulk food store. Bulk food stores usually sell spices very inexpensively. The price range on spices can be pretty big between regular stores and bulk food stores. You also know exactly what goes into your mix and can eliminate MSG (mono-sodium glutamate) and things like that.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-taco-seasoning-mix/

Instant cocoa for those cold winter months! There are a lot of different recipes for this, some with powdered sugar and creamer and some not. You can experiment and see what you like best!

http://www.momables.com/homemade-hot-cocoa-mix-recipe/

Biscuit mix!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-biscuit-mix/

There are so many money saving recipes at your fingertips! Anything you can thing up can simply be looked up online and it will likely be right there. I hope you have fun with these and save some money to boot!