Join us Saturday at Brooklyn Cupcake for guava, tres leches, coconut and more delicious cupcakes!

Our next meetup is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this Saturday at 2 pm at Brooklyn Cupcake! Hope you can make it. Next month is our 7th anniversary party (7 years, woo-hoo!). And our Cupcake Cruise is happening next summer. So many exciting cupcake things going on. Today I stopped by Brooklyn Cupcake because, despite living in Williamsburg, I hadn't been before. It was delicious, with cupcake flavors I've never seen before, like guava con queso, cozy and features great cupcake art. I'm excited about the meetup. Their cupcakes are $2.50 each (6 for $13.50) and they have 16 flavors, with a few special ones on occasion, and tiramisu on the weekends. You can also follow them @BrooklynCupcake on Twitter and on Facebook.

Join us this Saturday, November 5th, at 2 pm!

We're visiting a new local cupcake bakery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Cupcake. Inspired by Latin-and-Italian mixed family-owned and operated bakeshop offers flavors ranging from flan and guava con queso to tres leches (filled with three kinds of milk) and tiramisu. We will be giving away two cupcake stands at the meetup!







I bought 6 to try:

peanut butter chocolate and guava con queso cupcakes



inside the guava con queso cupcake



Oreo cookie and rainbow cookie cupcakes







inside the filled rainbow cookie cupcake, inspired by the Italian rainbow cookie, an almond cake, hard for me to describe, very unique



apple pie and coconut cupcakes - a guy sitting there told me that the apple pie cupcake was the best and I liked it a lot but...coconut was my favorite! Real pieces of coconut, plus a creamy delicious coconut frosting and a vanilla cake. That one was divine. They were all good but if you're a coconut fan you have to check it out!



apple pie cupcake closeup



Cupcake art for sale by Xmental University



Brooklyn Cupcake335 Union Avenue (between Grand and Maujer)Brooklyn, NY347-762-2253info at brooklyncupcake.com





and a Halloween cupcake tower from their Flickr account

Gooey caramel apple cupcakes

These caramel apple cupcakes look so good! I love apples and apple desserts. They're by Splurge Bakery in Millburn, New Jersey, via their Facebook page.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes with Recipe Link

With Fall in full force it is the perfect time to bake up some Caramel Apple Cupcakes! A food blog by the name of Craving Chronicles has created a fantastic looking recipe adapted from Annie's Eats and Flor Child.

The recipe seems kind of intimidating but some of the components can be made ahead of time. Plus, by the look of the end result it seems well worth the effort! Check out the recipe here!

Kara's Cupcakes' Steve Jobs cupcakes

These are from back in August, but seemed appropriate to post again this week. By Bay Area bakery Kara's Cupcakes, who you can find at karascupcakes.com and on Facebook.

More Apple Inc. cupcakes

Apple cupcake and tribute to Steve Jobs outside Wir Machen Cupcakes in Munchen. 

By Ah How Sweet in California

By Bailey Ana Cakes

By Sugar Daze

Sweet Avenue Bake Shop puts Steve Jobs on front of webpage, will donate $1 from apple pie cupcakes to The Gateway for Cancer Research

The graphic below is on the front page of Rutherford, New Jersey cupcake bakery Sweet Avenue Bake Shop, with this statement:



Steve Jobs started Apple the same way we started Sweet Avenue—From home, with little money and even less experience. Apple has always been an integral part of our personal and professional lives, from the iPhones and MacBooks we use to run our business, to the Apple TV that plays our movies, to the fact that Jake worked for Apple prior to us opening Sweet Avenue.

We don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Sweet Avenue might not be the same without the company and devices that Steve Jobs built, so from now through Sunday, instead of offering a Magical Mystery flavor, we'll be donating a dollar from every Apple Pie cupcake sold to benefit cancer research in Steve's honor. Funds will be donated to Gateway for Cancer Research.

Thanks, Steve. We'll miss you.





The apple cake is an apple cake with fresh apple pie filling and cream cheese frosting.

Visit their Facebook page and @sweet_avenue on Twitter for all the latest news.

RIP Steve Jobs: Apple, iPod touch and iPhone cupcakes

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passed away today. As a Mac user (typing this on my MacBook Pro) and someone who didn't have an iPhone the first time I saw iPhone cupcakes, I wanted to share these cupcakes. If anyone else has made Steve Jobs or Apple cupcakes, email us at cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com and we'll post them.


by NYC company Treat (via Flickr)



by alicia rae on Flickr



Caramel apple cupcakes by Albuquerque bakery Cupcakeology (via Flickr)



iPod touch cupcakes by Charlotte's Cupcakes via Flickr


And last but not least, Danielle Bilton's infamous iPhone cupcakes from Ignite NYC; follow her husband Nick Bilton @nickbilton on Twitter for all kinds of technology reporting.

Apple cupcakes and more by The Cupcake Tree

These apple and other cupcakes are by The Cupcake Tree, of Lebanon, Indiana, via their Facebook page. They can be reached at zionsvillecupcakes at yahoo.com or 765-894-6390. Some of their cupcake flavors include:

Applesauce Spice with Brown Sugar Buttercream

Bacon Maple Cupcake with Maple Frosting and Bacon Sprinkles

Coconut with Coconut Cream filling

Banana with Peanut Butter Frosting

Chili Pepper with Mangos and Rum

Chocolate with Marshmallow Filling and Marshmallow Icing

Peppermint Bark with white Chocolate frosting

Rolo Chocolate, Caramel

Peaches and Cream

Rosh Hashanah Jewish New Year honey apple cupcakes and recipe link

Tonight is the first night of the Jewish New Year, aka Rosh Hashanah. One tradition is to eat apples and honey for a sweet life, and blogger The Shiksa made honey apple cupcakes with special Rosh Hashanah cupcake picks as toppers, and gives you the recipe and printable design for the toppers. To those who are celebrating, L'Shana Tova! (That means "To a sweet year.")

Karina's Gluten-Free Apple Crisp

The best gluten-free apple crisp I've made. In this lifetime anyway.

I've been pondering identity lately. As in, am I the I writing this as Gluten-Free Goddess, or am I a word-free, less defined kind of I that isn't actually I at all but merely a spark in the collective energy source that is the great Mystery? Or Universe. Or Divine. Or whatever conceptual nomenclature you prefer. Am I my thinking mind- or am I more of an essence, what we call soul, a truth beyond the assumed collection of thought patterns and personal history framed by a set of beliefs and separation known as the ego?

I do know I am not my disease.

One of the reasons I chose not to use the word celiac in my blog title was for just this very reason. I do not define myself as celiac. In an identity sense. Yes, it says so on my medical records somewhere (in full disclosure, I think it actually says "possible sprue, resolved by the patient going gluten-free"). But I do not identify with my disease. That would be identifying with my limitations.

Hello, my name is Karina. And I have screwed up villi.

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Gluten-Free Cornbread Stuffing with Maple Roasted Acorn Squash

Gluten-free cornbread stuffing in maple roasted acorn squash.

While we're all adjusting to turning the clocks back (yawn), I thought I'd reprise two Thanksgiving friendly recipes today. Both recipes are redolent with old fashioned autumnal goodness. Warm and subtle spices. Maple. Apple. It doesn't get any comfy-cozier.


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Gluten-Free Apple & Pear Crisp

Easier than pie, a crisp makes a lovely gluten-free dessert.

Tart crisp apples and tender pears are sprinkled with a cinnamon and brown sugar crumble and baked to melt-in-your mouth perfection. This simple gluten-free dessert- worthy of excavation from Karina's Kitchen archives- evokes old fashioned autumnal comfort at its coziest.

Using a gluten-free pancake and baking mix- such as Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix- makes this treat easy as pie easier than pie to toss together. Celebrate fall and winter with this classic homey dessert.

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Apple-Pear Multigrain Muffins

Tender and sweet apple-pear muffins

Today I have new muffin recipe for your gluten-free repertoire- with apples and pears. And a story. A story not about muffins or fruit or sunlit pastoral memories of picking apples with my grandfather (he wasn't that kind of grandfather). No, no childhood ramblings. A story instead that's more of a snippet. A conversation, actually.

The dating game.

"I wish I knew you in high school," I tell my husband.

This is not news to him. I say it all the time lately, now that I am in my second adolescence, fifteen years past mid-life. I sketch for him study hall humiliations sharing a bottle of red table wine and mixed olives. I search for words to depict how it feels when a snickering jock punches your clutch of books with his fists, sending you to your knees to rescue the sprawl of English homework, algebra and biology books that emit the faint smell of ink and gum.

He hates to hear this. 

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Ruby Applesauce with Cranberries

Cranberry applesauce- deliciously tart.

Apple season is upon us. Bring on the apple recipes. First up- a favorite New England pairing- apples and cranberries simmered to create a luscious slightly tart sauce, sweetened with organic raw agave. Make it as sweet or as tart as you prefer. This beautiful ruby red applesauce is a lovely side dish for so many fall recipes- from Turkey and Sweet Potato Enchiladas to classic Sweet Potato Latkes.

Ruby Applesauce with Cranberries Recipe

Simmering the fruit in juice gives a big flavor boost. I used unsweetened cranberry juice to do this, but if you prefer a sweeter applesauce, try using cranberry-apple juice.

2 rounded cups peeled chopped apples- preferably mixed varieties for best flavor
1 cup fresh or thawed frozen cranberries
1/2 cup cranberry juice or cranberry-apple juice, more as needed
1 cinnamon stick
Raw organic agave nectar or honey, to taste (I used 2 tablespoons, as I wanted it tart)

Combine the chopped apples and cranberries in a medium sauce pan and pour in enough cranberry or apple-cranberry juice to barely cover the fruit. Add a whole cinnamon stick. Cover and bring to a simmer.

Cook until the fruit is very soft. Remove the cinnamon stick. Using a potato masher, mash the fruit until you get a sauce texture you like. I prefer mine with a little bit of texture. If you like your applesauce  smoother process it in a food processor or Vita-Mix.

Taste and sweeten the sauce with agave or honey. Stir and allow it to cool a bit.

Spoon into a storage container, cover and chill until serving.

Makes about a pint of sauce.

Printer-friendly recipe

Serve as a side dish with these compatible recipes:

Sweet Potato Latkes
Turkey + Sweet Potato Enchiladas
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas
Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie with Black Angus Beef

Gluten-Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Cinnamon apple goodness- gluten-free.

A classic fall favorite- the pairing of apples and cinnamon. Stir them together in a muffin batter and you have a sweet and cozy breakfast treat that is not only heart warming and soul satisfying but super easy to wrap and freeze. That is, if you don't eat every single morsel first. These little gems would be a fabulous side nosh for Thanksgiving brunch- or a casual supper of Curried Butternut Soup.

It's a gray flannel sky kind of day here in the high desert. Chilly and damp. Steve is watching The Great Escape as I nibble on a warm apple muffin. It's been a historic week. I am still re-viewing on-line videos of our President-Elect with gratitude and awe, thankful that hope, grace and smarts prevailed despite the ugly drumbeat of fear, fueled by prejudice and the age old tactic of scapegoating and button-pushing, appealing, of course, to the lower instincts of our reptilian past. The old and rusty paradigm is giving birth to the new on a collective level. And I feel it in my bones and in the air that I breathe.

I am grateful. Hopeful. And eager to greet change.

It's all good.


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Gluten-Free Latkes and Cinnamon Applesauce

A stack of crispy, lacy latkes

Have you made latkes lately? Latkes are fried potato pancakes made with fresh grated potatoes. Though latkes come in all shapes and sizes (via personal preference) I make my latkes thin and lacy, fried to a crispy golden brown. Oy, these are good! Maybe Mel Gibson wouldn't be such a nudnik, if he tasted these. Although if he did, he'd probably ask for ketchup.

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Apple Jam

This is my contribution for Shrivali Event –MEC (Microwave Easy Cooking) Sweet.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Make 1\2 cup

Ingredients:
11\2 cups apple, peeled and grated,
1\4 cup sugar,
4-tbsp lemon juice

Method:
Step 1: Combine the apple and sugar in a microwave safe bowl.

Step 2: Microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Step 3: Remove from the microwave, mix well and microwave on high for another 2 minutes.

Step 4: After that remove from microwave and add lemon juice and mix well.

Step 5: Again microwave for 1 minutes.
Step 6: Cool in room atmosphere.

Step 7: Sterilized the bottle on gas stove for just few second and cool at room atmosphere.

Step 8: Place the apple jam in sterilized bottle and Store refrigerated in an air-tight container.

Step 9: Spread over bread and toast. I make Jam biscuit. Spread the jam over one biscuit.

Step 10: Place oval shape cut biscuit over it and decorate with sugar.

Next coming for Jihva-Rice Event.........

Archana give me this two Award….Thanks my dear...I appreciate both of them :)

Sharmi is also give me Power of Schmooze Award...Thank you Sharmi.:)

I am little busy in my work so I really don't know about this Award...I do not know May I deserve it or not. My mom is not feeling well so I am busy in home and job….so not visit any other blogger site…But when Sharmi say me than I am really very surprised…..Thank you Sharmi and Archana.:))

The Power of Schmooze Award is for bloggers who “effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.”