Feature

Desserts to Celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride

By Christina Ossa

Volume 1 Issue 8

June 8, 2021

Image provided by Claire Nolan

With Pride Month just around the corner this June, what would be a better way to celebrate than to bake some special desserts that represent either your sexual orientation or the orientation you prefer to represent? While one may not be my own, these recipes are sure to help you celebrate the many different sexualities and preferences this month and will leave you satisfied in terms of taste as well. Also, baking these delicious treats to celebrate with family and/or friends is also an amazing way to show your support or to express your identity this month! While I did not have a chance to bake anything special for this article, I’ll be baking these recipes that I’ve tried in the past couple of years again to celebrate and commemorate Pride Month. Also, being part of the LGBTQ+ community motivated me to find a unique way to celebrate my pride, and while this method may not work for everyone, it definitely is an enjoyable way to commemorate PRIDE for all orientations this month!

Rainbow Sprinkle Cinnamon Rolls:

While cinnamon rolls may seem like a more challenging recipe to attempt, if you follow the directions carefully and give your best effort, these will impress you. Though this recipe is not my own, I’ve made this recipe during pride month last year as well as other times throughout the past couple of years since I discovered it. The roll itself is extremely rich and airy; the buttery flavor you can taste is amazing and melts in your mouth. The frosting, which I added from my own regular cinnamon roll recipe, is also an amazing compliment to the bun. While the bun is more buttery and light, the filling compliments this with its sweetness as well as the frosting which gives a creamy aspect to the dish. Though this recipe will take effort, the payoff is worth all of the work since you end up with an incredibly delicious cinnamon roll that just drives you to want more.

Dough:

1 ¼ cups warm water

1 package active dry yeast

1 box vanilla cake mix

2 ¼ cups flour (set aside the ¼ cup for rolling out the dough)

2 tbsp rainbow sprinkles

Filling:

6 tbsp butter

1 ½ tbsp sugar

½ tbsp cinnamon

¾ cup brown sugar

2 tbsp rainbow sprinkles

Frosting (My own):

4 oz cream cheese (preferably softened)

2 tbsp melted unsalted butter

4 tbsp milk (add more if consistency is too thick)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

(*recipe except the frosting is not my own, credits go to Claire Nolan from the Tasty Team*)

Instructions:

Pour yeast evenly over the warm water and let it bloom for 5 minutes.
In a bowl, combine cake mix and 2 cups (255 g) of flour, then pour in the yeast mixture. Stir until it starts to come together, then add the sprinkles. Gently knead the dough together into a ball.
Cover with a towel and let the dough rise for 1 hour in a warm place.
During the resting hour, combine the ingredients for the filling in a medium-sized bowl, creating a type of cinnamon-sugar butter spread.
Place dough on a floured surface and sprinkle with the remaining ¼ cup (30 g) of flour. Knead until it is no longer sticky (some extra flour may be needed).
Roll out the dough into an oval shape and spread the cinnamon-sugar butter mixture onto one side of the dough.
Preheat oven to 350°F
Starting at the bottom of the widest end, roll dough and cut into 1 ½ to 2-inch pieces and place in a baking dish; cover with plastic wrap, and rest for 30 minutes
After 30 minutes, place the baking dish in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown
Mix the ingredients for the frosting
Once the cinnamon rolls are done, drizzle the rolls with frosting and, if you would like, more rainbow sprinkles!
*Optional* if you would like, you could use different colored sprinkles that represent your sexual orientation
Once cooled down, serve and enjoy~

Pride Frosted Bar Vanilla Cookies:

Although I have written about this recipe before, it will be a bit modified this time in terms of preparation. I’ve modified this recipe so that it’s in the form of a bar instead of a circular or other shapes, which makes preparation a bit easier in my opinion. While I haven’t made this recipe in a while, the cookie itself is extremely buttery, flaky, and the perfect amount of sweet. The sweet frosting also compliments the more buttery cookie as well, as it adds a level of sweetness as well as a more creamy taste. This is also a perfect recipe to represent your orientation’s flag since you could customize the colors you’d like you frost onto the cookie with the frosting and put your desired flag’s colors in the form of sprinkles as a topping! This recipe is not only delicious and fulfilling to celebrate pride, but it is also more low-maintenance and doesn’t require any piping or forming of certain cookie shapes.

Cookie Dough:

3 ⅓ sticks butter

1 ¼ cups powdered sugar

1-2 large eggs

3 ¼ cups flour

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

A pinch of salt

Frosting:

¼ cup unsalted butter (softened)

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1-2 tbsp heavy whipping cream

½ tsp vanilla extract

food coloring of choice (desired flag colors)

sprinkles of choice

Instructions:

Preheat oven to about 320-325°
Either wait until your eggs and butter are room temperature and the butter is softened, or put each stick of butter in the microwave for 10-15 seconds
Add your butter to a large bowl and slowly add your powdered sugar and mix with a hand mixer, whisk, or kitchen aid if you have one
Add in the eggs one by one, mixing each time you add an egg
Just as you mixed in the powdered sugar, pour in the flour little by little and mix it together until fully incorporated (batter should be sticky but not so much that it fully sticks to hands)
Grab a 9 x13 buttered (or bigger if necessary) (“buttered” just means spread butter, oil, or Pam across the pan so that nothing sticks) pan and place the cookie dough inside, spreading it out across the pan
Place pan in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes (or until a crust forms across the top of the cookies)
While the cookie dough is in the oven, combine the ingredients for the frosting in a medium to large-sized bowl
*OPTIONAL* if you’d like to make the cookie have your desired orientation’s flag colors, divide the frosting into 3 or more sections and use your desired colors to color each segment of frosting
Once the cookie is out of the oven, spread your frosting across the top of the cookie, and (optional) add the colored sprinkles of your choice to the top of the cookie
Serve by cutting a piece as if you were cutting a brownie and enjoy~