Gluten Free Christmas Gifts #7: Little Loaves of Carrot Cake

One of my favorite gluten free treats of all time are the Carrot Cake Muffins that I made to taste almost like Mimi's Carrot Cake Muffins. So last year, I gave all the neighbors in my circle little loaves of the Carrot Cake in those little aluminum pans and I wrapped them in wax paper with some baking twine. Totally cute. This year I came across some of these:

That's right. Cute give-away-able mini loaf pans, that look cute whether or not you wrap them. So I decided to show how to make these little treats with or without a little bit of wrapping.

First, mix up a batch of Carrot Cake batter. Wrap each loaf pan with some foil and place on a cookie sheet. There are small holes in the bottom of the pans for ventilation, so you don't want the runny batter to drip out. Bake about 40 minutes for three little loaves. Test with a knife inserted into the center to make sure they are baked through. Let cool.

Then, I took one of those cellophane treat bags and just put the little loaf inside it and taped up the open end like a present. So much easier than wrapping the whole thing in plastic wrap.

Next, you have two choices. Actually, three or four, but two for now. One, simply wrap the loaf with cute ribbon (this was about 47 inches of ribbon) with a bow and add a tag saying to and from. Or, take a piece of tissue paper in a festive color, and wrap it butcher-style, like this:

And there you have it. A perfectly respectable neighbor gift. The price on these will be a little hard for me to estimate, because the ingredients are a little pricey. The loaf pans were $4.49 for 3, the cake mix was $6.99, and the nuts, coconut, zucchini, carrot, raisins and pineapple added about $6 to the whole batch. So I'm guessing each loaf cost about $7 with ribbon and tissue paper. Give or take a dollar.

Happy giving!