Gluten-Free Rainbow Checkerboard Cake + Easter talk

Easter.

I finally got to unveil my Checkerboard Cake.

I had so much fun making this and honestly, apart for the decorating part, I found this to be very easy recipe.
You can find the recipe over on MyCupcakeAddiction and it's pretty much the ingredients in the first picture at the top x 2 for a full 6 layer cake.
Some worthy advice:
1. Use a pre-made cake mix. Trust me, trying to get a cake just right, rainbow and checkerboarded is too much for any holiday.
2. Mix the batter in a Kitchen Aid. Don't go crazy an play the perfect 50's housewife that can do it all. Also, mix one batch at a time. This should produce 3 layers.
3. Bake the layers three at a time. Remember they take less time to bake because they are thin.
4. I used a simple simple buttercream for the filling (250 g butter + 500 g sugar + about 100 g of cream cheese - all lactose free), put it between the layers a day before serving the cake and wait a hefty 6 hours before thinking that the cake will never hold and hence panic (this is basically what I did)
5. Cover the cake with either whipped cream(Chantilly cream) or buttermilk cream and/or fondant like I did. But make sure you know which one you are using beforehand and be prepared for double or even triple layers before the cake actually is covered. I wasn't hence I panicked yet again.
6. Decorate with simple, potentially pre-made decorations or be prepared to curse every Cake Boss episode you've ever seen. I did that but in the end the cake looked nice.
7. Don't give away the surprise! That's the best part!

I have to say I was super duper proud of myself for pulling off a difficult cake and actually making it gluten-free AND lactose-free much to the surprise of my family.
Mission accomplished I might say.

Easter was fabulous. Lots of Italian food, artichokes in particular, I have been cultivating a deep relationship with this oh-so-Italian vegetable. We had a wonderful time and missed my mom terribly because she couldn't join us. Next week will be Easter Part 2 especially for mom.

Easter was also "Unveiling the New Shoes Day" so tada!
Cue leather lace-ups with a bright white wedge that make me feel like Gulliver in Lilliput, but I have to say they are beyond comfortable. So you should get used to these shoes because you will be seeing me in them quite a lot.

The little monster got in some pics either directly participating or distracting me.

Pink Marylin Monroe print T-shirt

Bershka white jeans

New wedge lace-ups (I have to remember to put the name up)

Little monster

Kiss and Peace

Rainbow Miss Sinister

Easter Ambition - The Checkerboard Cake

With Easter just round the corner here in Italy, I started thinking about food. More precisely, dessert.
My grandma was a pastry chef so every Christmas and Easter was like a sugar bomb exploded in my house. We had elegant eclairs, homemade cookies and biscuits with every possible filling and sprinkling (hello caramel-chocolate cream!), Romanian cozonac filled with nuts, cocoa, turkish delight and raisins (and I kid you not, it had all of this things in it) and finally, the holy grail of my grandma's desserts - the cake.
Ah. I could tell you stories about those cakes that would make you instantly abandon yoga, pilates and healthy eating for a lifelong of ganache, sponge cake and buttercream.
But I won't.
I will tell you that this year I'm going to make a Rainbow Checkerboard Cake like Elise from My Cupcake Addiction to take to my boyfriend's family traditional Easter lunch. No pressure there, right?
Well, since I thought that just the cake alone didn't make for a very complicated task (beware of heavy irony), I want to make it gluten-free, lactose-free and still delicious as hell!
There you go, I just Barney Stinson-ed myself, so I am accepting the challenge!!!!

The video makes it look pretty simple, and I consider myself a rather successful cook, albeit some mishaps here and there.

Take a look for yourselves.

So what do you think?

Can I make it?

Kiss and Peace

Puzzled Miss Sinister