Welcome to my blog. My name is Simona, and I was born and raised in Milan, Italy. In 2000 I moved to the United States and two years later I was married to my wonderful husband. Within four years our family expanded to include first our dog, Billy Bob, and then our three children.

Since I was a child, I have always had a sweet tooth. I grew up watching my paternal grandmother and my mom baking. I have always loved to cook, but baking has been my passion since I was a kid.

In my 40’s I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance, and everything I had learned about baking had to change. My first attempt to bake a gluten-free chocolate cake was a disaster: nobody in my family could eat it! Thus, I was on a mission: I wanted to re-create the flavors and tastes that I loved; I wanted a life with no without.

Many experiments and cookbooks later, I created a gluten-free flour mix of my own, and learned enough tricks to transform my passion into a business. Simona’s Gluten-free Baked Goods opened its doors in November 2011. After two years of amazing success, the demand of the business had become too much for a family of five. In 2013 I closed my wholesale bakery, but a few months later I started teaching gluten-free baking at a local kitchen store. If I cannot bake for my customers, at least I can teach them how to do it!

But my passion for baking still brings me to check out books and books from the local library, and every week I experiment with recipes, transforming them into their gluten-free equivalent.

And this is why I decided to start this blog. I want to share my baking with anyone who is looking for the same flavors and tastes I was craving. I want to reach out to anyone who has spent meal after meal at the corner of a table, pretending to enjoy a cardboard substitute dessert, under the pity of the other diners. I want that person to bake a knock-out cake or a batch of cookies, and be asked to share it with everyone else. I want them to close their eyes and think, “yes, this is exactly how I remember it!”

My Italian tradition and my American adoption mix together in a variety of recipes. I hope you will enjoy them all, and follow me in my quest for turning each recipe, gluten-free…