Somedays, it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed. Ok, so today really wasn’t one of those days, but I wouldn’t have objected to spending it under the covers anyway. Snuggled up with some books, house empty of children, fridge full of Diet Coke – ah, such is the lurid fantasy of a working single mom!
I was still sleeping off the pizza and sugar-induced hangover from Skye’s Chuck E. Cheese birthday-fest when the alarm went off all too early this morning. I swear that stuff is harder on my system than a night out of nachos and margaritas with the girls! Everyone was dragging around, cranky and running late… well, more than usual. I’ve come to believe that any “restaurant” with a big hat wearing rat as it’s mascot is not to be trusted. As it was, I had to make and bring a gluten-free pizza for Sean and a gluten-free, dairy-free, peanut-free, hypo-allergenic, biodegradable, all-organic, non-edible birthday cake… well, it was sort of edible-ish. It wasn’t horrible – and it WAS chocolate and slathered in buttercream frosting… which basically means that it was totally devoured. One tiny little piece left to take home for Sean to have another day. It was sure pretty though – I do good work, I can cop to that: It was an awesome-looking cake!
Originally, it was going to be a fondant-covered, floral fantasy-castle masterpiece… but, well, that’s a whole other blog! Skye loved it, she got to keep the Princess figurines, and it got lots of ooohs and aaaahs from everyone there. I am done with box mixes though. It definitely looked better than it tasted. But, in the very infamous words of Billy Crystal riffing Fernando “it is better to look good that to feel good, dahling!”
And so begins the quest to find the holy edible gluten-free cake recipe grail. Yeah, try typing THAT into Google! If I can get together a decent collection of gluten-free bakery recipes, I swear I should start my own catering business! People will pay big money for that stuff – I know I would!! Well, not BIG money. Not Wheel of Fortune “come ONNNNN big money” money – but you know, like 30 or 40 bucks at least! Ok, so I’m cheap. Shocker. Which is why I bake my own gluten-free cake instead of custom-ordering some $200 monstrosity off the internet.
Tomorrow’s blog: an ode to Diet Coke
We use Bob’s Red Mill cake mixes with flaxseed substituted for egg. And it is soooo yummy!