Sweet Tradition

One of the sweetest traditions of a wedding reception is the cutting of the cake, which of course involves feeding one another cake.   How romantic is that?  Our wedding cake was a nutty version of Strawberry Shortcake, luscious almond cake layered with whipped cream and strawberries.  Cloaked in vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  We most certainly had a gluten-free option for the groom and all of those gluten-free bellies out there!  T's favorite, my chocolate cupcakes with a fat dollop of vanilla buttercream. YUM!

Gorgeous Dahlias from our local farmer were a simple and colorful garnish to our homemade wedding cake.

Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chunk Bread

Brown sugar, Theo Chocolate, Butter, Mashed Bananas & My gluten-free flour blend create a delightful version of a childhood favorite!  

Our Wedding Day!

It's official, T and I are married!  The past few months have been busy....planning, preparing, cooking, baking and celebrating!  Not leaving a spare second for personal writing.  Sorry about that!  We had a blast, and feel incredibly blessed to have such loving friends & family. Thank you Everyone for spending the day with us!

Grazie mille Bryan for your gorgeous photography!

Mr. & Mrs. G

Our Wedding Cake Tastings

While many couples go to wedding cake tastings in bakeries; we've been holding our own private tastings in the comfort of our home. I've been testing different versions of our cake for a couple of months now and with just 63 days to go, the ruling is in.... gluten free almond cake with ruby red summer strawberries and vanilla whipped cream.  T and I didn't have the patience to create the whole cake, so stopped when we had our own version of Strawberry Shortcake.  Yes, you heard that right, he' not only tasting, he's in the kitchen with me, using his designing skills to decorate the layers with berries.

For our wedding the cake will be all dolled up with a classic swiss meringue buttercream.

Alas, another check off our list!

V & T's Strawberry Shortcake

I Scream....You Scream....We All Scream for Sous Vide Ice Cream!

Okay, okay, I know, perhaps we don't all scream for sous vide ice cream! However, after you try my Creme Fraiche ice cream using the SousVide Supreme, then my readers you may just indeed scream! I have a new gadget in my kitchen, I'm not at all a gadget girl outside of my gelato machine, electric stand mixer and my food processor....all of these gadgets are a must in any kitchen. The SousVide Supreme is now one of my must-haves...it's so much fun! It creates succulent ribs that fall from the bone, the most perfect fish you'll ever sink your teeth into and tenderizes those inexpensive cuts of meat like a champ! If any of you have ever skirted away from a homemade ice cream recipe due to tempering the eggs for fear of scrambling the eggs then you will be happy to know that this lovely new gadget takes away that worry. I must say I'm over the moon for my Creme Fraiche Ice Cream, it's just delicious on its own, however pairs well with all of those soon to be in season fresh berries. For those of you that are questioning this whole SousVide Supreme thing? It's a water bath cooking device, in order to cook in it you have to vacuum seal your ingredients in a special bag called a cooking pouch, there are different types of pouches, some are specifically used with a vacuum sealer or if your ingredients contain a lot of liquid as my ice cream base does, then you can use the SousVide Supreme Zip Pouches. As you'll learn with liquids, you never want to vacuum seal as you'll suck all of the liquid up into the vacuum sealer and not only create a big mess, but you'll most likely destroy your sealer, so you'll need to simply use the Archimedes Principle of sealing the bag.

Rhubarb: Pretty In Pink

We are heading into the final days of Spring, therefore whenever I'm at the market, I feel the need to fill my basket with stalks of ruby red rhubarb because I know when I blink....this pink beauty will be gone.  My play day of Rhubarb consisted of pickling, reducing, extracting, dehydrating & pulverizing.

Rhubarb 4 Ways: Pickled, Syrup, Dehydrated & Crushed

Black pepper & vanilla compliment rhubarb in this ode to spring plating.

Rhubarb Ribbons

Bittersweet: Bitter & Sweet

Well hello there! Honey Dumplings has had a serious makeover, it's the least I could do after all of this time....I know it's been quite awhile since I've greeted you here and I do apologize for my absence.  Alas, I'm back, and there's no getting rid of me now.  Although, I've been creating recipes, I just haven't found the time to share them with you all, so sorry about that!