Simply Citrus Cream Cake (gluten-free)

On Sunday, we had some great friends over for lunch. Eric and Molly are one of our favorite couples. I've known Eric since he was a wee lad, and he and Molly make a wonderful duo.

Molly is the first person I knew with Celiac disease and she's really one of the reasons I was so inspired into looking into gluten-free. I was excited to have her over, but also had to make sure everything was just right since there was no room for error here. I couldn't be responsible for her health. Yikes!

I made some Smoky Tomato Bacon Pasta for lunch (I'll share the recipe also), but one of the big things that would be/is tough to go without is obviously desserts. I mentioned making Simply Citrus Cream Cake in my post about going gluten-free, and I decided to make it for Molly & Eric.

I've had others ask for this recipe as well, so thought it'd be easiest to post it here.

You will need:

• 1 or 2 pkgs of gluten-free yellow cake mix (you need 2 layers & most GF packages only make one layer so you may need to buy a 2nd box. I HIGHLY recommend Betty Crocker's GF yellow cake mix, but Whole Foods did not carry it.)
  
• 1 pkg (3.4 oz) Jello lemon instant pudding mix (I know for sure that Kraft Jello mix is GF)
• 1 1/3 cups organic sour cream, divided
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup oil
• 3 eggs (look how colorful my farm fresh eggs are!)
• 2 T. orange zest (1 medium orange)
• 1/4 cup powder sugar
• 1 tub Cool Whip, thawed (I used a Whole Foods GF whipped cream, but I know Cool Whip is GF)
• 1 can organic mandarin oranges, drained

NOTES:

*I have found that most organic items are GF

*You can always use regular ingredients if GF is not your thing.

*Please take notice of my little measuring cup of powder sugar. I had 2 bags of powder sugar in my cabinet and went to look at the label just to double check and was shocked to find that it had a wheat starch in it to keep the sugar from sticking! I was blown away! So, I searched the web for what to do and it just said I could make my own. I'm quite embarrassed that I didn't know how to make my own powdered sugar. Maybe I missed Cooking 101. You just take your sugar and stick it in the blender and let it do it's thing for about a minute. So...how neat is that? I tried my food processor at first and the blades just weren't able to get down low enough for the small amount I was making. I also came to find out that my 2nd bag in my cupboard used corn starch, so it would've been OK to use, but I got a special learning moment.

As a side note, the 1st bag was from the "Evil Empire", so I have yet another reason to dislike them...they sell cheap food because they use cheaper ingredients. Sorry, I'll get off of my soapbox.

Anyway.............

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the cake mix, dry pudding mix, only 1 cup of the sour cream, the water, oil, eggs, and orange zest in a large bowl with a mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the bowl. Beat on medium for 2 minutes.

Pour mix into 2 greased 9 inch pans (In the past, I've floured my pans but just greasing them worked fine).

The packages say to bake for 25-30 minutes, but since there are 2 cakes and I have found that GF baking takes a bit longer, I would say it'd be closer to 45-50 minutes. However, keep checking it and use the toothpick to test to figure out if it's done.

The smell in my house while these were baking was HEAVENLY! At one point, I stopped and thought about the smell almost reminded me of the way it smells when you first walk into Baskin-Robbins. Weird, right? You can definitely smell the citrus.

My kitchen helper, Guinness, waits patiently and hopes to get a bite.


Let the cakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Next, invert the cakes on a cooling rack and let them cool completely.

You can go ahead and get your cream icing ready now.

Whisk the remaining 1/3 sour cream & the powdered sugar together in a large bowl. Fold in the Cool Whip.

Now for the layers! Place one cooled cake on the bottom. Place a little less than half of the cream on the cake. Spread evenly. Add half of the mandarin oranges on top of the cream. Repeat the layers and be sure to ice around the outside of the cake. I've just done cream in between and on the top before, but I liked this better.


Keep this cake refrigerated until you are ready to eat.

This picture's a little dark, but you can see that we enjoyed it! It is such a yummy cake! Molly did say that one of the things that she's missed is the Starbucks lemon pound cake and that this was the closest to it since she's been without gluten. So...WIN! I love Sbux lemon pound cake and I love this cake, I'd just never thought of that before!

It does have a pound cake feel to it and Mark and I agree that it's always better the next day. He enjoys it most for breakfast!

This recipe is great for the summer time and it's even better because it's gluten-free!

Enjoy!!!

Christmas Gift

Ummmm....can we say best Christmas gift ever???

Jordan got Mark and I two lower level tickets to the bowl game. As if that wasn't great enough, he also gave us a UK football signed by the ENTIRE team!

Pretty amazing!

Mark and I are often amazed at what wonderful friends we have. We thank God on a daily basis for such good people in our lives.

Emily's Goodbye

Today was the day that Em and Chris left for VA. They'll be there for 3 months and then head to Colorado for 3 years. Then, they'll be in one more location for 2 more years. So...basically, Em left today for what will surely be a LONG 5 years.

Jen made this video that captures our friendship. I may or may not have cried a few times while watching. I'll let you be the judge.

Emily's Goodbye from Jennifer Cochran on Vimeo.

I was telling Jen, I have a very clear memory of when each of these pictures was taken. I can honestly say that some of the best moments of my life have been spend with these 2 lovely ladies.

Mr. and Mrs. Hurst- June 5, 2009

Oh my gosh, the highlight of my summer was Em and Chris' wedding! As I've stated before, Chris is Mark's best friend and obviously E is mine. This wedding was a dream come true for Mark and I because we know how happy our friends are and as we joke, we always have a built-in double date.

I was a little too busy the day before and the day of to take pictures, but I am including some of the pictures from the rehearsal and wedding taken by the photographer, Mary Lashbrook. You can look at her other photos here.

The rehearsal was at Talon and the dinner was supposed to be at Jacobson Park where we'd eat Fazoli's and play wiffle ball. It poured that day, so we moved it all to church and it turned out great! Here's some pics of all of us playing ball.

Glen was the champ when he slid into home!

I was speechless!


The wedding was at Talon and it was the most beautiful day! The clouds looked like cotton candy and there was a cool breeze throughout the ceremony. At one point, this flock of geese flew in V formation over the ceremony and it was just breathtaking looking over the lake. The wedding was so personal and so unique and it's just so obvious how much they love one another! I just absolutely loved it and cried through the entire thing! It was so great to look over and see my amazing husband on the other side and it reminded me what a lucky woman I am to have married such a wonderful man 5 years ago.

I will say that it was unfortunate for Jen as she stood in an ant hill for the entire 40 min ceremony. At one point, I looked over and she had approximately 15 red ants crawling all over her legs and through her toes. Yikes!

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Hurst

I'm also including a couple videos from the wedding that my brother filmed and edited as the videographer. I'm telling you, he has a gift! So great!

This first video is the beginning of the wedding.

This second video is during the song and the unity art done by Amy Cranfill. You can see the geese about 35 seconds into this video.

Women's Weekend Pt. 3- "I'm on a boat!"

This year, we had to go see the S.S. Paradise before E got married so we loaded up all of our gear the weekend before the wedding and headed out to see our true love. This year, we had Erica join in as the 4th in our Trio (it works) as we took to the open waters!

We did however make a tiny pit stop at the original KFC's Sander's Cafe. We grabbed a full bucket of chicken with all the sides to take onto our vessel. It was delicious, the water was cold but great, and the sun was shining without a cloud in the sky (which means we all lathered on the sunscreen to prevent sunburns or tan lines right before the wedding!).

The Colonel and I spending some quality time together

Me and Erica at the historic landmark sign.

NOTE: Check out how sneaky that little step is that I'm on.

It may or may not have resulted in me falling into the sign.

My favorite girls

Graduation #2

Towards the end of May, Mark and I also planned a trip to see Chris (Mark's best friend and E's now husband) graduate from West Point Academy as a 2nd Lieutenant. The thing is, he had no idea that we were coming to see him. The funny thing is that I can't imagine how we wouldn't know we were coming. We wouldn't have missed it for the world!

The other thing is that we couldn't leave until around 2 PM on Friday because Mark had to work. Keep in mind that the graduation was Saturday morning. If you're not aware of the location of West Point, it's in New York. It's over a 12 hour drive. We got into our hotel between 2 and 3 AM, slept for literally 4 hours, then woke up to drive to the graduation.

After the graduation, which went from about 9 AM-2 PM, we got right back on the road and followed behind Em and Chris all the way home. We got home Sunday morning at 5 AM. If you're keeping track, that's 52 hours with only 9 of which we weren't driving. I can honestly say that I have never been more tired in my entire life.

Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!

Would we do it again? IN A HEARTBEAT!

But let's just pray that we NEVER have to do that again!

E and I in the stands-we're such schemers!

(By the way, I cut all my hair off to donate it!)

Chris on the Jumbotron receiving his diploma
(He still doesn't know we're there!)

Mark and I on West Point's campus overlooking the Hudson River.

Absolutely beautiful campus!

Chris and Mark. Best buds!

Me and my 2nd husband

We are so proud of Chris! Congrats 2Lt. Hurst!

April-Bachelorette Party

No excuse for how lazy I've been, just haven't had time to blog. But I thought I'd highlight the last few months since SO MUCH has happened!

I'll start with E's bachelorette party. I planned a trip to Cincy because it's her favorite city and I centered our trip around a Reds game (because my girl loves her Redlegs). We enjoyed a Reds-Braves game (even though they lost) and a night at Hofbrauhaus and Jefferson Hall for some fine dancing. Here's just a few pics from the night.

Our bride-to-be.

I made the shirt and Erica made the hat.

Allie, Erica, and Em

Jen, Diva B, MJ, and me
taking the bus over to the game

All of us with Mr. Redlegs

Em brought us all gift bags and in them, we each got a gorgeous ring!

Here they are in all their glory. Note that E's shines the brightest!

Wedding Coming Soon...

This weekend, since Em was feeling on the up and up, we were able to work on some of the wedding stuff. The project of the day was to prepare the centerpieces for the tables as much as possible.

Em is using glass jars that she got off freecycle.org and filling them with all sorts of stuff. We had a little hot tub party for all the jars as we waited for most of the adhesive and labels to get soft. We transported, soaked, peeled, organized, and prepped 57 glass jars yesterday.

Here is a preview of what one may see at the wedding.

The bride-to-be hard at work!

On a side note, my dress is paid for in full and I am awaiting it's arrival in the next couple weeks. I can't wait to see how good they look!

47 days and counting...

Passover and Easter

This year, we celebrated Passover at an annual dinner that Amy and Micah put together for all of their friends. We ate a really cute little diner in downtown Winchester and enjoyed good food and good company. I'm really glad Mark and I could make it this year.

The healthy members of the BLC at Passover

A few days later, Mark and I went with my parents up to Indiana for Easter weekend. We stopped in Indianapolis on Friday night and spent most of the day in Ft. Wayne on Saturday with both sides of the family.

Mark reading Twig to the Abba Dabba monkeys

Trinity playing with Easter eggs

We travelled back that night to have a LATE dinner with Daniel on the way through Cincy. On Sunday, after Mark and I went to church with my parents and Jordan, we went to have lunch at Mark's parents' house. Carmen pulled out all the stops as usual and it was great to see the family (although sad because Ticean and Amy weren't there).

The Easter holiday was better than usual for me this year. I'm not really sure what it was, but I really enjoyed the holiday and all of the time with family and friends.

A Night With Paula

As an early birthday present (very early), Jen took me a few weeks ago to see Paula Deen at Xavier University in Cincinnati! We went up with some friends from Williams-Sonoma and we just all had a great time! Our early arrival time helped us get front row seats and yes, I did get a hug from Paula herself!!!!

What a wonderful gift from a wonderful friend!

Me with my signed copy of Paula's new cookbook.

Jen with Pam and Marsha

Paula herself.

Paula and her husband, Michael.

To read more about it, check out Jen's blog.