Tag Archive: Cake

Loaded Coconut Cake Squares

Loaded Coconut Cake Squares

As I’ve been eating my way through yogurt that Chobani sent me, I’ve been trying to get creative on new ways to cook with it. Everyone knows yogurt is a great low-fat alternative for baking so I took that as my starting point and took off from there.

While a good base recipe is essential, a lot of the fun of cakes and brownies is what you put inside or on top of them. Chocolate chips and coconut are among my favorites. These might not seem healthy but with Greek yogurt in place of oil and butter and craisins and coconut filling it up(in addition to some chocolate chips, of course) these won’t do you wrong or steer you off your New Year resolutions.

Loaded Coconut Cake Squares Yield

If you want to make this more of a healthy snack, swap in 1/2 cup of crushed walnuts or slivered almonds in for the chocolate chips. Either way it’ll taste great.

Loaded Coconut Cake Squares

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 1 8 x 8 pan):

  • 1 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
  • 1/4 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 eggs

Loaded Coconut Cake Squares Mix-Ins

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl sift together the gluten-free flour and baking powder.
  3. Add in the craisins, 1/4 cup shredded coconut, white and dark chocolate chips and mix.
  4. In a separate bowl, mix together the yogurt, brown sugar, and eggs until homogenous.
  5. Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry until the batter is well mixed.
  6. Lightly grease an 8 x 8 baking pan.
  7. Pour the batter into the pan and press down evenly.
  8. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup coconut on top of the batter and press in lightly.
  9. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the center of the cake has set and the coconut on top begins to toast.
  10. Remove from the oven and let cool before cutting into squares.

Loaded Coconut Cake Squares Final

Don’t forget to add caramel or fudge sauce just in case this doesn’t have enough flavors going on for you.

Low-Fat Cake Balls

Low-Fat Cake Balls Serving

Cake pops are one of my favorite recent food trends, not because I think they taste all that much better than regular old cake, but because once and a while we all make that cake that doesn’t rise or come out just how we planned and won’t serve to people but can’t bear to throw away.

That’s the beauty of cake pops: They’re very forgiving. You can start out with dry or crumbly cake and still come out with something delicious.

Low-Fat Cake Balls Chobani

Chobani sent me a few of their 32oz yogurt containers for their Just Add Good cooking campaign. They’ve added a new Kitchen page to their website full of yogurt recipes and beautiful photos to get your gears turning.

When I made these cake balls, I swapped out the oil in the cake recipe for an equal amount vanilla Greek yogurt. For the frosting I mixed the cake with, I swapped out the butter for 1/2 the amount called for of plain 2% greek yogurt. The result was just as moist and delicious as any cake ball I’ve made before.

Low-Fat Cake Balls White Chocolate

Since you lose richness when you cut the fat out of a recipe, this works better with bitter or spicy cake flavors like chocolate, pumpkin, or carrot cake. I used a gluten-free pumpkin spice cake with a white chocolate coating. 

Low-Fat Cake Balls

Don’t forget when melting chocolate to look for baking chocolate instead of chocolate chips. Baking chocolate melts smoother and makes a better coating for the cake pops.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Flag Cake

Gluten-Free Chocolate Flag Cake

Happy (almost) 4th of July! I know I’m five days early, but consider this my obligatory patriotic post.

A few weeks ago I went to an American citizenship party for some friends who recently passed the citizenship test. There was grilling and beans and red, white, and blue napkins so of course there had to be flag cake.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Flag Cake Collage 2

A family friend at this party recently had to cut gluten out of her diet; one of her favorite foods is chocolate cake so naturally I knew the cake I made had to be chocolate. I’d never experimented with almond flour and coconut flour in the same recipe but I thought I’d give it a shot. The texture was just like any good ol’ fashioned American sponge cake. You’d never guess it was gluten-free and grain-free.

The frosting also got a lot of praise, too. Then again, how can something with butter, cream cheese, and a pound of sugar not be good?

Gluten-Free Chocolate Flag Cake Slice

Make sure to use fresh fruit and to assemble it as close to serving as possible. The more the cake sits out, the more the juices from the strawberries runs into the frosting, and no one wants a runny flag.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Flag Cake

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 35 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 1 9 x 12 cake):

For the cake:

  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 1/4 cup almond flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 6 extra large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons hot water

For the frosting:

  • 1 4oz stick of butter, room temperature
  • 1 8oz block of cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1lb box of powdered sugar

 Fruit topping:

  • 1 half pint blueberries
  • 1lb fresh strawberries

Gluten-Free Chocolate Flag Cake Collage 3

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave.
  3. While the chocolate is melting, mix together the almond flour, coconut flour, sugar, and oil.
  4. Mix the melted chocolate into the flour mixture completely.
  5. Crack the eggs into the batter and beat each in.
  6. Add in the vanilla, baking soda, and salt.
  7. Add in the hot water and mix until the batter is smooth and slightly runny.
  8. Grease a 9 x 12 baking pan. Pour the batter in in an even layer.
  9. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the center of the cake has set. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely before frosting.
  10. Combine the butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, and half of the sugar in a large bowl.
  11. With an electric mixer, beat together the ingredients until the sugar is entirely incorporated.
  12. Slowly add more sugar into the mix until all of it is mixed into the frosting.
  13. Spread a few tablespoons of powdered sugar on top of the cake and brush it all around to prevent the frosting from tearing the top of the cake.
  14. Spread the frosting out all over the cake in an even layer and around the sides.
  15. Make a square of blueberries in the top left corner of the cake.
  16. Remove the stem from each strawberry and cut each in half. Lay them out top to bottom in horizontal lines in a flag pattern.
  17. Refrigerate until ready to serve.  

Gluten-Free Chocolate Flag Cake Finished

There were practice American citizenship tests at the party. I scored a 12/20. I think that’s good enough not to be deported, right? Too bad how to make a flag cake isn’t part of the test.

Gluten-Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

gluten-free-carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting

I saw a lot of carrot cake recipes last week leading up to Easter while I was planning to make one for yesterday, too. I’d forgotten it’s sort of an Eastery dessert. Easter is also the time I celebrate my birthday with my extended family and carrot cake has always been one of my favorite cakes. It’s kind of an odd choice(or so I’m told), but I love it. I even asked to have it as my graduation cake after 6th grade when everyone else was choosing chocolate and chocolate fudge; it’s their loss.

I haven’t had carrot cake since eating gluten-free a few years ago and have been meaning to make this for months. Of course, when I did decide to make it things started going wrong. I realized Friday night I only had one cake pan, so a layer cake was out. I also didn’t have a grater so I had to peel and chop the carrots. I completely forgot to add the pineapple I bought just for this, and as I went to add in the walnuts I remembered my aunt’s allergic to walnuts, so I swapped in some pecans at the last minute. Still, this was one of the best carrot cakes I’ve ever had.  

gluten-free-carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting-slicing

This recipe makes one cake layer. You can double it to make more for a layered cake. To make the cake dairy-free, use a vegan cream cheese substitute. I’d recommend something organic since vegan cream cheeses tend to have odd ingredients.

Gluten-Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts(or any other nut)
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut
  • 1 1/2 cups almond flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 4 eggs
  • 6 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted
  • 8oz cream cheese, room temperature
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1-2 Tablespoons milk or cream

gluten-free-carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting-serving

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Mix together the carrots, raisins, walnuts, coconut, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
  3. Mix in the maple syrup, eggs, and coconut oil until the batter is even.
  4. Pour the batter into a 12-inch cake pan and spread out evenly.
  5. Bake for 40 minutes until the cake rises and the center has cooked through.
  6. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before frosting.
  7. To make the frosting, sift the powdered sugar into a bowl with the cream cheese.
  8. Add in the extract and milk and beat until completely mixed.
  9. Spread on top and around the sides of the cake.
  10. Garnish with extra nuts if desired.

gluten-free-carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting-2

I’ll always have a soft spot(and empty stomach) for carrot cake. Since there are vegetables and fruit in this I’m going to go ahead and say it’s fine to eat the leftovers for breakfast, too.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookie-cake

Something hit me when I was browsing TasteSpotting a couple weeks ago: I haven’t had a cookie cake in ages. I decided right then I wanted a cookie cake at my birthday party this year, because clearly I’m 20 going on 12. But then I figured why wait? I could bake a cookie cake for any occasion.

peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookie-cake-cutting

Of course I made mine gluten-free using one of my favorite flours: Almond flour. It also just happens to be dairy-free because I was low on butter that day. The peanut butter helps to act as a binder, makes the cake richer and adds a nutty flavor. You could substitute in almond butter to work around a peanut allergy.

peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookie-cake-overhead

I liked mine slightly under-baked because it kept the inside moist and gooey almost like eating cookie dough. If you like your cookies a little crustier, I would recommend adding a few minutes onto the baking time and watching it carefully.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 6 Tablespoons cane sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 6 Tablespoons chocolate chips

peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookie-cake-middle

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
  2. Mix together the almond flour, sugar, and baking powder.
  3. Beat in the eggs, peanut butter, oil, vanilla extract, and water.
  4. Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
  5. Grease an 8-inch cake pan. Pour the batter in and spread it around the bottom into an even layer.
  6. Bake for 20 minutes until the outside is firm and bounces back to the touch.
  7. Let cool slightly before cutting in.

peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookie-cake-serving

I thought this could have used a little more sugar, but that’s probably because I love things sweet. If you’re making this for adults, it’ll be fine the way the recipe is. If you’re making this for little children or me, I would add a 1/4 cup of sugar to the recipe.

New Years Eve Chocolate Cake

new-years-eve-chocolate-cake

This recipe comes almost 4 months in the making. I needed a lot of time and a big celebration to make it for so New Years fit the bill. It’s also my submission for the Scharffen Berger elevated classic recipe contest.

new-years-eve-chocolate-cake-layers

The point of the contest is to take a classic dessert and elevate it with chocolate. My favorite chocolate dessert has always been flourless chocolate cake, which has been made in my family for years with the same recipe. It’s certainly a good recipe, but not the best.

new-years-eve-chocolate-cake-scharffen-berfer-chocolate

To elevate it, I added a raspberry fudge sauce and topped the whole thing with a coconut milk mousse, all made with Scharffen Berger chocolate. I love the combination of the dense cake with the airy mousse and the tartness of the raspberries between the two sweet layers. Technically it was probably one of the hardest desserts I’ve made; I’ve never successfully separated and tempered yolks before now. Needless to say I was very happy on New Years Eve when the cake turned out as well as I planned.

new-years-eve-chocolate-cake-vertical

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Fudge Sauce and Coconut Milk Chocolate Mousse

For the cake:

For the sauce:

For the mousse:

*To get coconut cream, leave a can of coconut milk undisturbed for a week or so. When you open it, the water should have separated from the thicker part, the cream. Just be careful not to mix the two together and you should be able to scrape the cream off the top easily.

new-years-eve-chocolate-cake-slicing

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Beat together the butter and sugar, adding in eggs one at a time until all of them are incorporated. The batter should be smooth and ribbony.
  3. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave.
  4. Slowly temper the melted chocolate into the batter until it’s completely mixed in.
  5. Grease a 9-inch cake pan and pour the batter in.
  6. Bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
  7. Remove the cake and let it sit undisturbed until it cools to room temperature. It should deflate as it cools. Don’t worry if the top cracks since it will get covered eventually.
  8. While the cake cools, make the sauce by bringing all of the ingredients together to a boil in a small sauce pot.
  9. Mix the contents of the pot until the chocolate has melted and the sauce is uniform in color.
  10. Pour the sauce over the cake. Let it cool completely and then refrigerate to chill.
  11. While the sauce sets, make the mousse by bringing to a light boil the coconut cream and water in a sauce pot. Chop the chocolate and add it in, mixing off of the heat until the chocolate has melted.
  12. Beat together the 3 egg yolks. Temper them by adding a little of the chocolate coconut mixture in as you beat. Once the yolks have been tempered you can mix them into the pot along with the salt. Keep the pot off of the heat stirring occasionally to prevent fit rom getting a film.
  13. Beat the egg whites while sifting in the powdered sugar until light peaks form like you’re making a meringue.
  14. Carefully fold the egg whites and chocolate coconut mixture together in a large bowl until it’s all mixed. Be careful not to over-mix the mousse and deflate the egg whites; fold just enough until it’s all the same color.
  15. Put the mousse into the refrigerator until it’s set, about 3-4 hours.
  16. Once the mousse has set, carefully scoop it on top of the cake. Spread it out into one layer as if it were a frosting. Using a piece of saran wrap to push down for a flat surface is an easy way to do this.
  17. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Remove from the refrigerator for about 15 minutes before cutting and eating.

new-years-eve-chocolate-cake-raspberry-layer

It was a lot of work but completely worth it. Everybody loved the cake. And I think the mousse would be a great and impressive dessert to make on its own for another occasion.

The Most Popular Recipes Of 2011

Life’s a bit of a popularity contest; I’m not delusioned into thinking otherwise. And so, instead of me telling you what my favorite recipes have been so far, I figured it’d be more useful to show you the recipes you all picked as the best—the popular crowd.

These are my 5 most visited recipes over the past year. Rereading the comments on all of these posts, I’m shocked by how many people tried(and loved) them. It makes me happy since I loved all of these, too. Hopefully as popular as they are you’ll find one that’s new to you and be inspired to try it out like others have.

hazelnut-chocolate-cake

These Raw Vegan Hazelnut Chocolate Cakes blew up on stumbleupon. With almost 40,000 views and a couple hundred likes, it’s been a huge hit for plenty of foodies. But don’t think it’s just for raw vegans; this tastes delicious no matter who you are(even the avocado frosting, which I swear you won’t be able to taste anything funny in).

July 14th 074

Healthy Frozen Smore Parfaits were a huge hit on Pinterest over the Summer. I have to say I made these more times than I can count myself; they were the perfect way to beat the Summer heat with 2 servings of fruit in each serving. 

If you’ve ever googled “Almond Flour Cookies”, you’ve probably landed on these Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies. It’s one of my most visited daily pages and has been visited even more frequently in the past few weeks; looks like a lot of people will be having gluten-free holidays. The best thing about these is that you probably already have all the ingredients for them in your pantry. 

May 8th 049

To this day I’m surprised by how often this Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip is pinned on Pinterest. If everyone who pinned this onto a board called “NEED TO MAKE!!” actually has—well that would be a lot of peanut butter. Apparently it’s a big hit with little kids, which I can understand since I love it and am pretty much just a big kid at heart.  

January-6th-067

This Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Hummus is probably my most made recipe judging by the comments and testaments I’ve gotten. If you’re still afraid of the idea of a sweet hummus, trust the hundreds of people who tried it and know that you can’t taste anything but goodness.

Here’s to 2012 being an even tastier year.

In Case You’re Craving Peppermint, Too…

December 31st 043

I didn’t cook much this weekend; I haven’t had the time. Most meals have been thrown together in 5 minutes or less and were far from blog-worthy. Who am I kidding? Most meals have been candy and Reese’s peanut butter trees because I’ve been stressed. I’m sure life will be back to normal once these last few finals are finished.

Even if I’m not feeling the holiday spirit right now, my taste buds definitely are; I’ve been craving peppermint in everything. I’ve pretty much been satisfying those cravings with peppermint extract in chocolate oatmeal and cheap mints from the store, but here are some recipes I’d make with peppermint in them if I had more time.

Homemade peppermint patties(vegan + gluten-free)

raw-dark-chocolate-peppermint-pudding1

Raw peppermint pudding

paleo-mug-cakes-serving

Paleo mug cakes(just add 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract)

January 19th 050

Grasshopper brownies

And now I’ll take one of each, please.

Paleo Mug Cakes

You’re going to want to bookmark this one; trust me.

I never understood the appeal of mug cakes before recently. It seemed to me that if you wanted something chocolate and delicious you should put in the time and effort to bake some almond flour brownies and the extra hour would be well worth it. It also didn’t help that most mug cake recipes aren’t gluten-free, or—if they are—come out with a weird starchy taste to them.

But now I’ve seen the light and have come around to mug cakes, partly because the oven I use was 3 floors below where I lived at the time I made this and partly because the recipe is so damn good. When I was trying the recipe, I also wanted something that was sort of healthy. This is healthy enough even to be eaten for breakfast, which I’ve done on a few too many occasions.

The original recipe is only 4 ingredients, but you can add in things like chocolate chips, walnuts, candied ginger, vanilla extract, and anything else to shake things up.

Paleo Mug Cake

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 3 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 1 cake):

  • 1 small ripe banana
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons almond butter(or any nut butter)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 heaping Tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons sweetener(optional)
  • Chocolate chips, walnuts, dried fruit, or other mix-ins(optional)

Method:

  1. With a fork, mash the banana into a smooth puree.
  2. Mix the almond butter, egg, cocoa powder, and extra sweetener if using into the banana puree until it forms an even batter.
  3. Fold in any mix-ins into the batter that you’d like. Otherwise, our the batter into a mug or other microwave safe container. Be sure to only fill the container up to 2/3rds the way because it will expand in the microwave.
  4. Microwave on high for 2 and 1/2 minutes until the center is set. Carefully remove the mug from the microwave and enjoy hot, cold, or at room temperature.

I don’t add sweetener to mine and it still tastes delicious. I’ve only ever made it with almond butter but I’m sure peanut butter would be a nice alteration. The banana flavor is definitely prevalent, especially once it cools, but that only reminds me of a chocolate covered banana which I love. The best things about these cakes are that they don’t have any sort of flour flavor to them and are rich and fudgy like a brownie. The worst thing about this recipe is once you make it you’ll never stop.

Hazelnut Chocolate Cake {Raw/Vegan}

hazelnut-chocolate-cake

Saturday night we had a special dinner with family friends. For one weekend all 8 of us were around before starting vacations and school again; one of is even spending a year studying at Oxford(no, it’s not me; yes, I’m jealous). That called for cake. I had been wanting to make this recipe for a while and wanted to wait until just the right celebration. Everyone loved it, although when I told them the frosting involved avocado you would have thought I told them my own hair was in it. They started eating it again 2 seconds later when they remembered how good it was and decided you couldn’t taste the avocado.

hazelnut-chocolate-cake-front

I actually made this cake for Father’s Day last year and featured it as a guest post on Gena’s blog. Since then I’d completely forgotten about it and had to go look it up to remember how to make it. Now that I remembered, I kind of wish I could forget again. The ones that we didn’t give away didn’t last long in this house. It’s hard to say no to a piece of cake, and even harder when you can tell yourself it’s “healthy” because it has fruits and nuts in it.

Hazelnut Chocolate Cake {Raw/Vegan}

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(makes 5 2×3-inch frosted cakes):

  • 2 cups hazelnuts
  • 1 cup pitted dates
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder, divided
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup, divided
  • 1 medium avocado
  • Crushed hazelnuts for garnish

hazelnut-chocolate-cake-plated

Method:

  1. Pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor until finely ground into a flour
  2. Add in the dates, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, and 1/4 cup maple syrup and process until it forms into a thick dough that sticks together.
  3. Lay the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper and roll to about 3/4-inch thickness.
  4. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into either 8 or 10 equal sized rectangles. If there’s excess dough you can form it into a ball, roll it out, and cut again.
  5. Make the frosting by blending together the remaining maple syrup, cocoa powder, and the meat from the avocado until it’s uniform in color and texture. Taste it and adjust the sweetness if need be.
  6. Spread about 2 tablespoons of frosting over half of the cakes. Layer with another slice and spread an equal amount of frosting on top of that piece.
  7. Garnish with crushed hazelnuts.

hazelnut-chocolate-cake-slice

These took from start to finish about 20 minutes to make, maybe a little more than that because I was distracted. Even so these are much quicker to make than traditional cake and certainly have all the show-stopping qualities.