Occasionally a recipe wildly exceeds my expectations. This Lemon Chiffon cake is one of those recipes. Chiffon cakes, if you've never tried one, are a cousin to angel food cakes. (Unlike Angel food cakes, Chiffon cakes use egg yolks along with whipped egg whites.) A good chiffon cake should moist and ethereally tender.

This recipe, if I do say so myself, is all of those things and more. It produces a cake that is fair better than any gluten-filled chiffon cake I've ever eaten. The cake is so wonderfully tender and flavorful! My husband said, "It is as light as a cloud." To which I replied, "I don't think clouds are this light. It is lighter than a cloud."

When one starts comparing a recipe to clouds, you know they are in love. . . . keep reading

As I've mentioned before, my baking is inspired by many different things. This recipe was inspired by my desire to create a small batch recipe for cupcakes. I realize that cupcake recipes that yield 24 cupcakes might be too large for some members.

And I didn't want to stop there. Sure a small batch is fine but, remember, I wrote the book on Easy Gluten-Free Baking (bad pun. sorry!). So not only did I want the recipe to be small; I wanted it to be easy. And it doesn't get much easier than this recipe. "How easy is it Elizabeth?" I hear you asking. This recipe is so easy that it doesn't even require an eclectic mixer. That's right! You can dump all the ingredients into a bowl and mix them together with a wooden spoon.

Now I don't want you to think these cupcakes are only for folks, like me, who don't have big families. These cupcakes are for everyone who loves cupcakes. They are delicate with a fantastic vanilla flavor.

And if you have a big family, you can always double the recipe!

By the way, my husband loves these cupcakes iced with chocolate icing. What icing do you like on vanilla cupcakes? Let's talk about it in the discussion forum. . . . keep reading

It might seem odd that I am posting a recipe for Brown Sugar Maple Cupcake Bites in March. Many people associate the flavor of maple with fall. Not me. Maple is one of those flavors that I love all year long. In fact, I find myself thinking about maple in the spring more than any other season.

As I drive around my community, I see lots of Sugar Maple Trees with plastic tubes and buckets attached to their bases. Why? People are collecting sap! It is a wonderful sign of spring. While I have never collected sap myself, my husband and I had a chance to see sap running the other day. During a walk, we heard "drip, drip, drip." Now it hadn't rained for days. As the sound grew louder we both spied a tree dripping sap from a broken limb. (Sadly we had a terrible ice storm this year that destroyed lots of beautiful trees.)

After that walk, the thought of maple was fresh in my mind. It is amazing to me how clear sap becomes wonderfully sticky, fragrant syrup. I decided that I wanted to create a recipe to honor this time of the year.

I headed into the kitchen and made delightful brown sugar cupcake bites with a maple brown sugar glaze. The cake is so tender; it almost melts in your mouth. I'll admit these cupcakes don't pack a huge maple punch. More like a whisper of maple. I guess this is like the fresh sap that runs in March , not yet full bodied but just enough to delightfully carry you along. . . . keep reading

I thought it was time that gluten-free eaters got in on the fun! So, for the next week, I am celebrating "Cupcake Days" at GlutenFreeBaking.com. I'll be bringing you new, easy and delicious gluten-free cupcakes.

I'm kicking off "Cupcake Days" with a light spring-themed cupcake: Lemon Cupcakes with Lime Icing. The cupcakes are really easy to make. Simply whisk together the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and, boom, you've got a cupcake!

The icing is a nice change of pace from plain vanilla buttercream. I've used lime flavoring (you can use lime juice if you have it on hand) to create a "sweet tart" icing. Just for fun, I added a few drops of green food coloring. Of course, you don't have to do this! Either way, these cupcakes will look and taste delicious!

. . . keep reading