let them eat {gluten free} cake!

i’ve been leading a gluten-free lifestyle for about 6 months now. i’m still sorta pinching myself when i hear that. “carboholic” was a kind way of describing my previous condition. when considering gluten-free, my first thoughts were something like this: “ummm you’re telling me i can’t EVER have a croissant again?” which of course translated to “is life really worth living?” tell a total foodie to cut an entire food group out of their life - well, you can expect some kickback. unless it was raisins. i have a very, very strong aversion to raisins.

i’d suspected for a while that i might have a gluten intolerance. i’ve had an extremely sensitive stomach my whole life. first i was allergic to milk, then i wasn’t, then i was again, then i was lactose intolerant, then it went away, then it made a grand entrance again. i’m used to not eating ice cream or drinking milk. but no bread? no cake?? no pie??? wait...NO BEER?!?!?

the other clue to my gluten intolerance was my habitual migraines. i’d tried everything, including some serious medication (which had some SERIOUS side effects). so when my friend mentioned that she was a celiac and was diagnosed after she connected her migraines to her gluten intolerance, i decided to give it a try.

to make a long story short: it worked.

i’ve slipped up twice—you try going to your boyfriend’s 90-year-old Italian grandmother’s house on Christmas and explaining that you “don’t eat pasta.” both times i’ve eaten it, i’ve felt, well, pretty damn crummy.

that being said, it’s now my lifestyle, and the atlernatives, options, and recipes are surprisingly good. we have it a lot better than the celiacs and gluten-intolerants (yeah, i’m coining that one) that paved the way before us.

every once and a while though, a girl’s gotta have some cake.

{side-story: i was (okay, am) that weird kid that scraped the icing off cake. thank goodness my sister was there to make sure it wasn’t wasted. i also started requesting angel food cake and spice cake (with butter, not frosting) for my birthday cake each year...whennnn i was about 4. weeeirrdddddooo.}

voila...