To make the poached strawberries: In a saucepan bring the pomegranate juice. Slice the strawberries. Place the strawberries in a medium bowl. Pour the hot pomegranate syrup over the berries. Let cool.

To make the whipped sour cream: Beat the cream to soft peak. Add the confectioners’ sugar. Continue whipping until a medium-stiff peak is achieved.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream and vanilla. Fold into the whipped cream. For best results, cover and let chill a full hour.

Spread half the whipped sour cream over one cake. Garnish generously with poached berries. Layer with a second cake. Spread the remaining whipped sour cream on top. Garnish with the remaining poached berries and syrup. Serve chilled.

This article is for those who are beginning or considered a gluten-free lifestyle. I suggest printing this off and keeping it in your wallet for the next time you go shopping.

Gluten finds itself in the following grains: wheat, barley, rye, triticale.

BARLEY: barley, malt, malt syrup, malt vinegar

WHEAT: all-purpose flour; besan flour; bran; bread crumbs; bread flour; bulgur; cake and pastry flour; cracked wheat flour; durum; enriched flour; farina; farro; fu (wheat gluten); gluten flour; graham flour; hard flour; kamut, phosphated flour; pizza '00' flour; self-rising flour; semolina; spelt flour; triticale; triticum; wheat flour; wheat germ; white flour; whole wheat flour

RYE: beer, rye flour, whiskey, and some vodkas, triticale

OTHER COMMON HIDING PLACES FOR WHEAT: baking powder; hydrolyzed vegetable protein (hvp), monosodium glutamate, non-certified oats, spices, powdered seasonings, sauce mixes (including some everyday condiments), soy sauce, prepared soup, bulk bins. *Note: all the items in this list do not inherently contain wheat/gluten but often do.

While we find gluten in so many products there are countless more free of it. However, most if not all gluten-free flours/starches should be used in combination with others for best results.

AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF GLUTEN FREE GRAINS, FLOURS, AND THE LIKE: agar; almond flour; almond meal; amaranth flour; arrowroot starch/flour; bean flour; buckwheat flour, light and dark; brown rice flour; cassava flour; coconut flour; cornflour; cornstarch; chia seed; chickpea flour; flaxseed; glutinous rice flour; kasha, which is toasted buckwheat; lentil flour; maca root; millet flour; mung bean starch; nut meal/flour; oat flour, certified gluten-free; potato starch; potato flour; pysllium husk; quinoa flour; soy flour, although I do not recommend it for health reasons; sorghum flour; sweet potato flour; sweet rice flour; tapioca starch/flour; teff flour; white rice flour; wheat starch (all gluten has been striped from the starch); xanthan gum, see article on page xx; yam flour; yuca flour

I shopped the lowest prices on amazon for you. By purchasing these products that you need anyway you give me a commission and help keep this blog alive (without gluten)!

360 grams   egg whites, room temperature
310 grams   granulated sugar
5 grams   cream of tartar
10 grams   Madagascar vanilla extract
48 grams  brown rice flour
48 grams   sweet rice flour
24 grams   arrowroot starch
a pinch of kosher salt

1. Line the bottom of two 20 centimetre (eight-inch) cake pans or one angel food cake pan (this one is super handy with its removable base) with parchment. Preheat on oven to 177°C (350°F).

2. Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar in a stand mixer for two minutes, until light and frothy. Slowly stream the sugar into the egg whites, while beating. Continue beating until medium-stiff peak. Fold in the vanilla.

3. Gently fold the flour into the egg whites in three stages. With the last stage also fold in the salt.

4. Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake for 12 by 15 minutes. Gently remove from the oven. Let cool completely before removing from the pans.

Gluten intolerant may seem like a popular buzz word or the latest polite excuse to not eat food you just plain don't like. Perhaps this is true in some cases, but for those of us really struggling with a genuine disorder those words burn. Recently, a co-worker was experience extreme nausea day in and day out for over a month. After a few rounds of testing it was confirmed that she need to go gluten-free and lactose-free. This was a reminder to me that new people are still being diagnosed everyday with Celiac disease and gluten intolerance. It is a reality.

It takes an average of 11 years for patients to be diagnosed with Celiac disease. The average cost of a misdiagnosis is $5,000 – $12,000 per person per year (glutenintoleranceschool.com/gluten-intolerance-statistics/).

You do not have to let it take that long for you or loved one. Here is a helpful article on 13 early signs of a gluten intolerance. Sometimes if you catch gluten intolerance at an early enough stage the intolerance is reversible so it pays off to pay attention to what your body is tell you.

For more information on the importance of being diagnosed check out my earlier post here.

Find answers to frequently asked questions about gluten here.

Still have questions? Hmm,,, no lets be honest. Then ask your question in the comment section below!

Hello one and all,

Well it has been a long time since I last blogged. In fact would you believe that it has been close to three years?

During that hiatus, I have seasoned a little (pun totally intended), I am now the ripe old age of twenty-two, haha. Okay, sure I have aged three years, but I do not really mean that I have become old. No, merely I wish to say that I have learned much more about cooking and baking through Culinary School and working in professional kitchens.

I never stopped blogging because of disinterest in gluten-free living. In fact my decision to live a life after gluten has become further solidified, since January 2017.

Now that I have developed a plethora of solid gluten free recipes (solidly consistent not rock hard dense gluten-free bread), and gained further knowledge on why recipes work, I feel this is the time to return to blogging Life After Gluten.

If you have any questions or specific recipe requests comment below!

Until later friends,
Tamara Green