Why Flour?

Butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and flour. I place all the needed ingredients into the mixer and turn it on as I listen to music in the kitchen. I was baking a cake for my cousin's birthday as he moved to Philadelphia from his Georgia home. He had asked for a chocolate cake, but little did he know that my definition of chocolate differed ever so slightly when it came to decorating the cake as seen above.

Once the cake came out of the oven and I put the KitKats around the perimeter and sprinkled the top with M&Ms the cake was finally complete. When my cousin saw the cake he stared at it in awe and made sure to put it on Snapchat and Instagram because who didn't want to see a cake like this? We sang the usual Happy Birthday and it was finally time to taste the masterpiece.

Up until tonight I had been having issues with my stomach as after I would eat I would end up with crippling stomach aches, but one look at this cake and I knew I just had to have a slice. I had worked to long and too hard on it not to. One bite and it was easily my best work yet. I had never tasted a cake so moist and fluffy, I silently declared in my head that it was my new favorite. However, what happened next changed that thought quickly.

Once I finished my piece, within ten minutes I was doubled over in unexplained pain. I laid on the couch for the next day and a half rarely moving from my spot. I didn't understand, I had made cakes before and I never had this kind of reaction to it before, so why now? Why did it have to be this cake? Why not vanilla instead since I prefer chocolate anyways?

In the weeks to come, concurrent with countless doctor appointments, I found out that it was the flour that caused my unexplained pain and other symptoms, more specifically the gluten in the flour. My first thought what is there left for me to eat? Half of my diet is bread and how in the world would I be able to bake? Baking was what I loved. People have their hobbies of sports, video games, and other activities, but I had baking. How was I supposed to tell if what I made was any good if I wasn't able to taste it myself?

I felt like my days of baking were over. I didn't know what to do. Where would I buy gluten free ingredients, did stores even carry gluten free products? I felt my entire world getting smaller, that is until I actually looked into it. I went the store looking for flour substitutes, only to find that stores carried gluten free flour and to my surprise, more than one brand!

Suddenly, I felt my world of baking opening back up once again, I wouldn't have to give any of it up. With this blog I plan to chronicle my experiences with gluten free baking both good and bad.