Remember

I took the picture above last October when my family and I were in NYC at the 9/11 memorial. It was a very neat and touching experience to visit the memorial. The names engraved above are those who did not make it out of the towers. When I saw the names above, it hit me strongly. They weren't  just names engraved. They were real people. Beautiful people who had beautiful, normal lives. They were parents, Uncles & Aunts, cousins, neighbors and friends to others, just like me and you.

 I'm so glad they get to be honored this way at this beautiful memorial site. 

God bless America, Land that I love.

SURPRISE! I blogged. I'm not even sure why. But I thought I'd share these lovely cupcakes with you today. Because they tasted LOVELY.  And they are gluten free...but they don't taste gluten free. I even had one for breakfast.

• Gluten free Ice cream sundae cupcakes:
• Original recipe here. I changed a few things up.
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups Bob's all Red Mill all purpose baking flour. (It's gluten free).
• 1 cup (3 ounces) Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or GF vanilla extract)
• 
  
• 1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add cupcake liners to cupcake pan.
  2) In a medium mixing bowl (not the bowl of your stand mixer), whisk together the sugar, all purpose flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum.
  3) Place the oil, eggs, water, and vanilla into your mixer bowl, and beat well.
  4) Blend in the dry ingredients 1 cup at a time, beating for 1 minute and scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl after each addition.
  5) Once all of the dry ingredients have been added, beat at medium-high speed for 2 minutes, to make a smooth batter.
  6) Pour the batter into cupcake liners.
  7) Bake the cakes for 18-20 minutes or until your cupcakes look done. 
  8) Add some butter cream frosting, sprinkles, chocolate sauce, & a cherry on top!