Tag Archive: Frosting

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies

chocolate-hazelnut-brownies

What better way to finish off a week than with chocolate? After I made chocolate hazelnut butter, my first thought was to make chocolate hazelnut brownies. For some reason, that sounded familiar; sure enough I looked back through the recipe pages to see that I made those last Winter. I made a few changes to the recipe this time around and took some higher quality photos to show you just how good these are.

chocolate-hazelnut-brownies-overhead

These brownies aren’t quite cakey but aren’t quite fudgy, either; they’re in between. You can use store-bought or homemade chocolate hazelnut spread. Since the recipe doesn’t call for eggs to begin with, these are really easy to make vegan; simply swap out the butter for non-dairy margarine and use water or a non-dairy milk for the liquid.

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 16 brownies):

  • 1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread
  • 1/4 cup room temperature butter
  • 3/4 cup cane sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour(I used all-purpose gluten-free flour)
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup water or milk
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon chocolate chips(optional)
  • 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts(optional)

chocolate-hazelnut-brownies-mix-ins

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
  2. In a large bowl, cream the chocolate hazelnut butter, sugar, and butter together.
  3. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda.
  4. Pour in your liquid and mix until the batter comes together uniformly.
  5. Fold in any chocolate chips or hazelnuts you might be using.
  6. Grease an 8×8 baking pan and press the batter in in an even layer.
  7. Bake for 28-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  8. Take out of the oven and let cool completely before cutting in.

chocolate-hazelnut-brownies-serving

I didn’t add hazelnuts or chocolate chips into the batter and since that felt a little boring I gave these a chocolate icing to make them a little more special. Mission accomplished.

Sweet Freedom, Round 2

August 22nd 151

While I was in Philadelphia, I couldn’t help but take a trip to Sweet Freedom Bakery. I came here the last time I was in Philly and fell in love. It’s the only bakery I’ve ever been to where I could order absolutely everything there and not have to ask about the ingredients(which they proudly display), and their baked goods taste just as good as any others.

I intended to a couple of their cinnamon buns(which are incredible) but sadly they had none this time around. There menu had changed a lot since the last time I was there and a lot of the pastries were seasonal. The “cupcake tops” caught my eye.

Nov. 21st 023

I’m a huge frosting fan. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve had layer cakes where I just ate the frosting and filling and left the cake part. Cake just isn’t as delicious. Naturally, anything with a frosting to cake ratio of 2:1 is right up my alley. I tried the chocolate flavor; while the frosting was great, the cake was a little disappointing, which made me glad I didn’t get the whole cupcake. It tasted a little starchy from the gluten-free flours used; I’m guessing the recipe has a bit too much potato or tapioca starch and it overpowers the cocoa.

Nov. 21st 055

The other dessert I tried was their “magic bars”. It looked small and unassuming, but ended up being my favorite of the two. The bottom tasted like a homemade graham cracker-peanut butter crust. On top was a chocolate ganache and flaked coconut. I don’t think I could get tired of chocolate and peanut butter desserts, and this just attested to that. It’s something that also looks easy to make at home so I’ll be trying to replicate their recipe soon.

Obviously I’m a fan of Sweet Freedom Bakery, but I could have told you that before I went. I’d definitely recommend visiting if you’re in the neighborhood.

Dark Chocolate Almond Meal Cake w/ Peanut Butter Glaze

June 26th 045

Sunday we went to Maine to celebrate Father’s Day with relatives. I didn’t need any more of an excuse to start baking. I’d already had this cake recipe in my head and couldn’t wait to try it out.

The body of the cake is made with just almond flour, making it gluten and grain-free and lending a slightly nutty flavor. Because almond flour isn’t all that absorbent, the cake comes out slightly dense and fudgy. I don’t know about you, but those are two adjectives I like to describe my cakes. The cake isn’t all that sweet, though, so the glaze adds that final punch of flavor that makes it a show stopper. This cake recipe will become my standard for frosted and layer cakes.

Dark Chocolate Almond Meal Cake

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups finely ground almond meal
  • 3/4 cup cane sugar
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3oz unsweetened chocolate
  • 1/4 cup neutral oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

June 27th 003

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together the almond meal, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Whisk in the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, and egg whites completely.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a double boiler and fold that into the cake batter until it’s completely emulsified. Pour the cake into a cake pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until the center has set. Remove from the oven and let cool.

June 26th 038

This is a great gluten-free cake on its own, but it’s not incredibly sweet nor does it have much else going for it. This cake really begs for a frosting or a glaze of some sort, and what goes better with chocolate than peanut butter?

Peanut Butter Glaze

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • Water to thin

June 26th 041

Scoop the peanut butter into a large bowl. Slowly sift in the powdered sugar, mixing it in little by little. When the sugar is completely incorporated, pour in the maple syrup and stir. Slowly incorporate water until the frosting reaches a glaze-like consistency. Pour the glaze over the cake and level out.

June 26th 048

I decorated mine with Trader Joe’s miniature peanut butter cups and cut it up into 14 slices. I couldn’t believe how well this turned out on the first try. The cake is somewhere between cakey and fudgy, which isn’t and easy balance to strike with gluten-free flours. And the peanut butter glaze doesn’t over power the rich chocolate in the cake.

June 26th 060

I’ve set a goal to only have one slice a day. So far that’s not going so well.

Semi-Homemade Coconut Cupcakes With Lemon Buttercream

April 24th 014

Lord help me.

I’m posting a Sandra Lee-esque recipe.

April 23rd 004

It’s not that I don’t love baking from scratch; I do. But there are only so many hours in a weekend, especially Easter weekend. Somewhere between spending Saturday at the mall and egg-painting and Sunday at home with family sifting together flour, sugar, and baking soda didn’t seem so important. So I phoned it in. But I made the frosting from scratch, and everyone knows that’s the part that counts.

Coconut Cupcakes

Ingredients(Makes around 16 cupcakes):

  • 1 box yellow cake mix
  • 2 or 3 eggs*
  • 1 cup coconut milk

*Use however many the instructions for the cake mix calls for.

Preheat an oven to 325 degrees.

Mix together the mix, eggs, and coconut milk in a large bowl until well-beaten.

April 23rd 048

Evenly scoop the batter into lined cupcake tins making sure each paper liner is about 2/3rds full. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until the tops are firm to the touch. Let cool completely before frosting.

April 24th 003

Lemon Buttercream

Ingredients:

  • 4oz room-temperature butter
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • Zest from one lemon
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Beat together the butter and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Slowly incorporate the rest of the sugar while beating until all of it is mixed in. Add in the lemon zest and juice and mix until the frosting reaches a uniform consistency.

April 24th 008

Spread on cupcakes or over cake. Optional: Roll the tops of the cupcakes in a bowl of shredded coconut.

April 24th 010

Like I said, it’s the frosting thought that counts.

Raspberry Fudge Sauce

March 28th 099 - Copy

After I baked this cake recipe for my birthday, the cake looked good but a little plain so I decided to throw together something for the top. I love the pairing of raspberries with chocolate so I decided to make a raspberry chocolate sauce to go on top. I had no clue how it would turn out but I’m happy to report it was perfect. Heated, the sauce is easy to work with and at room temperature it hardened to a semi-soft, fudge consistency which was easy to cut through. It was great on cake but would be good over ice cream, too.

Raspberry Fudge Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
  • 1/3 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons maple syrup(or any liquid sweetener)
  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

March 28th 092

Heat the raspberries over low heat in a sauce pan until they’ve reduced to about half their volume and cooked down to a sauce.

Toss in the chocolate chips, butter, maple syrup, and salt and mix until the butter and chocolate chips have melted. Frost or scoop over ice cream while the sauce is still warm and liquid.

March 28th 102

I should have made extra to eat with a spoon; one year older, still not wise enough.

Cupcake Tour of DC

When you’re a foodie, the best part of visiting a new city isn’t the historical monuments or the shopping centers. It’s the food—more specifically, the cupcakes.

March 27th 144

My partners in crime, Holly and Madeline share this same sentiment. After over a year of stalking reading there blogs I was ecstatic to finally meet both of them. On Friday after finding each other at the race expo we down to Georgetown to Georgetown Cupcakes.

March 26th 009

If you aren’t aware of the gem of a reality show that is DC Cupcakes you really should be. The TLC show focuses on two sisters who opened up a cupcake bakery and… well, that’s the entire premise. But I promise it’s funny. The storefront offered some amazing sounding flavors. I was most surprised when I saw they had a gluten-free lava fudge cupcake for me!

March 26th 012

This might have been the best cupcake I have ever eaten: a chocolate cupcake with a vanilla cream cheese frosting and a fudge sauce filling. The filling was delicious and entirely unexpected. And the cupcake part didn’t taste starchy at all which can be a problem with gluten-free baked goods. But the best part was the frosting; Madeline and I both agreed that we would have bought a tub of the frosting if they sold that.

March 27th 133

On Sunday the three of us headed to Sticky Fingers Bakery for breakfast. The owner of the bakery won season 1 of Cupcake Wars on Food Network(another show that I admit is awful and yet 100% addicting). Sticky Fingers is an all vegan café with plenty of gluten-free options, too.

March 27th 137

I ordered the gluten-free pancake plate which came with maple syrup, tofu scramble, and vegan grits.

March 27th 139

Simply put, the pancakes were amazing. They were thin but the taste and texture were dead on. They even soaked up the maple syrup perfectly. I have no idea how they made these without eggs or gluten but I want the recipe.

March 27th 138

The vegan grits came with Daiya cheese. I’m still not even sure what grits are or how these were made. They were filling and tasted OK but could have used a pinch more of salt.

March 27th 140

Sticky Fingers was definitely a winner in my book.

On the way out we all grabbed some cupcakes. I meant to save it for the bus ride to the airport but ended up eating it at 11am. Hey, I did run a marathon the day before.

March 27th 145

I got the gluten-free chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting. The cupcake itself was excellent and reminded me a lot of Georgetown Cupcake’s gluten-free cupcake. The frosting, however, was a little boring and just tasted generically sweet. I enjoyed Georgetown Cupcake’s cupcake more but if I were vegan I would not at all mind settling for Sticky Fingers. My only wish would be that cupcake stores make more interesting gluten-free flavors than chocolate(I swear I ordered it both times not because I’m a chocoholic but because that’s all there was).

I have to say thanks to my hungry companions, Holly and Madeline, for the awesome time! The only question left is what city should we hit up next?

Lemon Drop Frosting

March 3rd 038

Question: How do you make coconut blondies even better? Answer: You give them an awesome and delicious frosting.

I know I said these are so good that they don’t need any frosting, but really, what doesn’t frosting make better? I was reading in this NY Times article on coconut oil that it makes a great, smooth vegan frosting so I wanted to try it out. If you don’t have coconut oil, room-temperature non-hydrogenated shortening would also work well in this recipe.

The flavor reminds me of a lemon slurpee or an Italian ice. It’s really sweet and refreshing. It goes perfectly with the coconut, but would also work with any vanilla cake. And it takes about a minute to come together! You can’t beat that.

Lemon Drop Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup coconut oil
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice

March 3rd 023

Start by mixing room-temperature coconut oil and lemon juice. If your coconut oil is too hard to begin with, gently heat it to the point where it’s semi-soft.

Gently sift in the sugar and continue folding until the frosting starts to come together.

March 3rd 027

Once the mixture’s homogenous and starts sticking to itself, it’s done.

March 3rd 032

The frosting should be rather soft and easy to spread.

March 3rd 041

Don’t worry if you eat more than you frost with; that’s completely normal. It’s also completely normal to pick off the frosting with a fork and eat it after you’ve frosted the blondies. These things happen.

 

How To Ice Christmas Cookies

November 30th 043

A cookie is naked without good icing. You wouldn’t make a wedding cake an not frost it, would you?! Icing is an intricate part of Italian Christmas cookies and others, as well. It’s a simple but delicious way to elevate your cookies from bland to a hit. And you can flavor icing any which way.

Simple Icing

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon really hot water*
  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon any extract(optional)

*You could use milk, coconut milk, or any flavor of juice instead of water. Keep in mind that the icing will take on the flavor of whatever liquid you choose.

November 30th 030

Sift the powdered sugar into the hot liquid. Beat it in with a fork, slowly adding the extract(if using).

November 30th 032November 30th 033

Holding your cookies by the sides, dip the top in and move it around briefly. Pull out the cookie and hold it upside down for a few seconds, letting excess icing drip. Flip it over and let the icing set.

November 30th 036

I used anise extract to frost my cookies, and it was like frosting on a cake icing on a cookie. You could add a little lemon or orange zest for a punch of flavor, too. The flavors are endless!

Peanut Butter Frosting

Oct 22 055

Where was I?

Oh yes, the frosting. It turns out, the nomenclature of frosting is quite complicated. There’s “frosting”, “buttercream”, “icing”, “ganache”,—the list goes on. I can definitively say this is a “frosting”. I can also say it is damn delicious, too.

Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup butter(or Earth Balance or coconut oil)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt(omit if your peanut butter is salted)

Oct 22 028

In the microwave or over a stove, melt down the butter and heavy cream and emulsify. Stir in the peanut butter until it’s thin and runny.

Oct 22 030

Sift in the powdered sugar with the salt little by little and stir until it’s fully absorbed. The frosting should still be loose at this time.

Oct 22 035

Pour it over whatever you’re working with and spread evenly. Let the dessert cool to room temperature, or put it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to quicken things up. The frosting will be cooled when you can touch it and make an indent without any sticking to your finger.

Oct 22 038

How did this taste? Flippin’ amazing. Normally I’m against using chunky peanut butter for frosting, but it was all I had at the moment, and the chunky peanuts were a nice contrast from the soft, sweet blondies. I don’t think I have to tell you these didn’t last long…