My Birthday!

By: Unknown on 10/20/2012

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The one thing I was really stressing about for my birthday was the cupcakes. How does one make I good gluten, egg, xantham gum, and dairy free cupcake? They go on the Internet. Which is exactly what I did. I came across Ginger Lemon Girl's homemade vanilla cupcake recipe and modified it to suit my needs. I think I changed it up so much that it's basically my own recipe, however, I'll give credit where credit is due and it's definitely due here.

The cupcakes were really moist and fluffy. They didn't leave me with that sick feeling I get most of the time after eating a cupcake. I used the vegan chocolate frosting recipe from Elana's Pantry and it complemented the cupcakes perfectly. I also made my own colored sugar, since we were out of the yellow kind. :( Oh, well. It was fun. The recipe is at the end of the post.

For dinner, we ate a Hunger Games inspired menu: roasted roots (turnips, beets, sweet potatoes, and potatoes), turkey breast, and pita bread with jam. Mom bought a Costco pizza, too, just in case there wasn't enough food. Which there was. Everyone tried the roots and like them! They were pretty delicious if I do say so myself. I used Trader Joe's super-food jam and it closely resembled cranberry dressing. It was wonderful! The house smelled like Thanksgiving. Yum.

I came up with this awesome game to play. And, of course, that was Hunger Games inspired too. I made everyone bring whatever makeup they had and pull the name of a district out of a hat. I put the Capitol in as well. Then I sorted them into teams and the teams did each others' clothes, makeup, and hair according to what district they chose. I didn't invite enough people to do all the districts, but the ones that got picked were District 2, District 3, District 4, District 6, District 7, District 12, and the Capitol. There was glitter everywhere by the time everyone left. In fact, if you like underneath the cabinets in our study it still kinda sparkles. :)

Overall, it was a really great birthday. I couldn't imagine doing it any other way. Except maybe go to bed early. Ah, well, isn't that what sleepovers are for? To not go to sleep? ;)

Vanilla Cupcakes:

1/2 + 1 T. brown rice flour
1/2 c. arrowroot starch
1/2 c. evaporated cane juice (or regular sugar)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
very scant 1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 + 2 T. oil
3//4 c. non-dairy milk (I used vanilla almond)
2 flax eggs
1/2 T. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a small bowl, make flax eggs. 
3. Mix dry ingredients together well in a separate bowl.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients to the flax eggs and mix with dry.
5. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
6. Pour into each liner until 1/2 full.
7. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
8. Cool completely then frost!

Roasted Roots:

3 medium-sized turnips
3 large sweet potatoes
4 medium white or yellow potatoes
3-4 beets depending on how big they are
1- 1 1/2 T. olive oil
salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Chop up roots and mix with olive oil.
3. Spread on a greased jelly roll pan or lined with parchment paper or tin foil.
4. Sprinkle salt over roots.
 5. Bake for about an hour or until roots have turned golden brown.

For my family birthday, we went to BD's Mongolian BBQ. It was delicious! It's my new favorite restaurant. For dessert I made a gluten free, dairy free, egg free, xantham gum free, vegan pumpkin pie (recipe to be posted soon.)

Inquiry of the Day:

What's your favorite way to celebrate your birthday?

Mine's a dinner with family, dessert, and presents.