Cream Filled Evil Chocolate Cuppeycakes and creating awareness!

     May is National Celiac Disease Awareness Month. The American Celiac Disease Alliance is helping to promote awareness and support changes in labeling laws through their "Cake for One" contest. They are inviting all people with celiac to make cupcakes, one cupcake for each year you have been gluten free. Then they would like you to take a picture of the cuppeycakes and share them on their facebook page. Then ask your friends to go and "like" your picture and of course that counts as a "vote" for your picture. They are being judged on presentation, most years gluten free, most unique decoration, and "kids corner".
     I thought this sounded like a fun way to create awareness, so I decided to participate. I have been gluten free for 9 years and 5 months. SO my photos have 9 cuppeycakes and one cuppeycake that has been partially eaten (to represent the 5 months).
     I made devils food chocolate cuppeycakes using Betty Crocker's Mix. I also used cheated and used Milk Chocolate canned frosting. HOWEVER, I totally amped them up because I made a cream filling and pumped them full of yummy cream filling (Think snack cakes of your gluten filled days). They are to die for. These cupcakes are EVIL!! *drool*

Cream Filled Evil Chocolate Cuppeycakes

1 Box of Betty Crocker Devils Food Gluten Free Cake Mix
*I followed the instructions on the box with the exception of : Cut the amount of butter in half and added a small single serving container of plain applesauce to make the cuppeycakes more moist

1 Tub of Prepared Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Frosting
1 Recipe of the Cream Filling

Bake cupcakes according to the instructions on the box and following my adaptations. Allow the cupcakes to completely cool.

Use a pastry bag to pipe the cream filling down into the cupcake. OR you can cut a small hole in the top of the cupcake, fill with cream filling and replace the piece of cupcake that you cut out. You want to pipe about 1 tablespoon of filling into the cupcake.

Frost the cupcakes and decorate if you wish.

Cream Filling   
Enough to fill and decorate 24 cupcakes

2 tsp very hot water
1/4 tsp salt
1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow cream
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Dissolve the salt in the hot water and allow to cool.

Whip the marshmallow cream, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla until it begins to get fluffy. Add the water and whip.

Yummy creamy filling

A great way to fill a pastry bag is to set it down inside a cup!

I used a plain open tip to pipe the creamy filling into the cuppeycakes.

I filled each cuppeycake until I could tell it was "full". I got a couple of them too full and they cracked. OH well, I bet those will be the best ones! :)

Frost with the milk chocolate frosting.

9 years and 5 months gluten free for me!

I hope you enjoy these yummy cupcakes. Also don't forget to make your cuppeycakes for the contest!! Get out there and help create awareness.

-Jessica

ABC's Episode of Man Up.....a gluten free response and letter



Gluten free food doesn't look bad to me..........

     Raise your hand if you were excited about gluten being talked about on ABC's Man Up last night! ME ME ME!! Raise your hand if you were sadly disappointed after about five minutes into the show. ME ME ME!!
      ABC horribly portrayed a kiddo (Character Nathan Keen) who had to eat a gluten free diet. His parents decided that the whole family would eat gluten free. However, the parents couldn't cut it. They both cheated on the diet. They were consulting with another family on the show, the mother of that family also cheated on the diet. The food that they were serving to the poor kid on the show looked horrible and sounded horrible. Soyasagna (soy lasagna), banana paste on millet toast, and some kind of a pizza (can't remember what they called it) that came out of the pan in a dry crumbly glob.
     There were funny parts to the show, but the parts that had to do with eating gluten free were horribly written. It was like they didn't even do research or consult with anyone who knew about eating gluten free.
      The episode didn't sit well with me last night, but I thought I would think it over. However, this morning I didn't feel any differently. It was poorly written. They would not have made fun of diabetes, cancer, lupus, or anything else the way that they made fun of eating gluten free. Viewers would have been MAD! Well this viewer is unhappy, so I wrote a letter this morning and submitted it online. I don't think I will probably hear back from them, but I do feel that they need to know that people don't like being made fun of. They had an amazing opportunity to put a positive spin on gluten free, but it was probably MUCH easier to take it in a negative direction. They would have had to use a little more creativity and energy to write it positively.
      Below I'm sharing my letter with you that I sent to ABC and I will also put a link to the episode just incase you missed it. If you feel so inclined, write your own letter to ABC and let them know how you feel about gluten free being put in the negative light. We fight so hard every day to break the exact stereotypes that this episode put out there. UGH!

-Jessica

My Letter:

November 30, 2011


Dear Producers of ABC's show Man Up,
     Under normal circumstances I enjoy your show. However last night's episode "Disciplining the Keens" was less than wonderful.
     I am a person who suffers from Celiac disease. I can not have wheat, rye, barley or oats. This of course means that I have to follow a gluten free diet.
      I was very excited to learn that your episode was going to talk about gluten. I thought it would be a great opportunity to create awareness with a little humor. I sat down in front of my television to tune in. However, I was quickly disappointed in the way that your show portrayed eating gluten free.
     The show seemed to make fun of people who eat gluten free. I'm not a big fan of people who make fun of others. I realize that you are a comedy show, however most of the jokes seemed to go past funny and straight on to mean.
     You had misinformation in the episode. Did you guys even consult with anyone in the gluten free community before the episode was written? If you had, I don't think you would have made alot of the silly mistakes.
     I hope that if you choose to continue any further episodes with the character of Nathan Keen eating gluten free that you will do some research. Eating gluten free is not horrible and terrible as portrayed in your episode. Eating gluten free can be challenging, but it isn't the death sentence that it was made up to be in your show.
     I think it would be very cool for you to do an episode showing Nathan eating a table of yummy looking goodies, and his parents walk in to find him. They freak out thinking he "fell of the wagon", only to find that all of the amazing looking foods are gluten free!! Now THAT is an episode I would enjoy watching. It still has humor while showing gluten free in a positive light.
     I hope that you continue to show Nathan eating gluten free in future episodes. I also hope that you do some further research so that Nathan's character can show gluten free eating in a positive way. I would hate to see the horrible stereotypes continue in future episodes. I will not be tuning in if the negative light continues. I know that many others in the gluten free community feel the same way.
     Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Jessica


Here is a link to the episode just incase you didn't catch it last night:
Man Up Episode :Disciplining the Keens

All You Magazine article on Celiac Disease and other autoimmune disorders

So that's me in the article above......I am excited to let you all know that All You Magazine has a pretty darn good article on celiac in their November issue. The issue just hit stands today. I may be a touch biased in the greatness of the article because I am featured *grin*.

   All silliness aside, I'm very proud of the article. It talks a little about my struggles and puts a face with celiac. I have already had several people contact me via facebook saying they have gotten this article and how nice it is to know someone else is out there. That is exactly what I wanted to accomplish by agreeing to do the article. I wanted to create awareness and to help people with Celiac.

    So if you happen to be shopping, pick up the magazine. At least take time to read it in the check-out lane!!

P.S. It's full of coupons so it pretty much pays for itself. If you are a coupon user this is a great magazine to buy!!! And this month it's even better because I'M in it!!

-Jessica