It%u2019s not too late to get in a little end of the year baking. It is actually the perfect time to bake. All the holiday hub bub is still going on so there is usually still people all around still willing and able to eat your offerings (if you were so inclined to share), the days just feel more slow and of need of warmth and lovely smells. Plus we need something to do while while waiting for New Years, because we are just all sitting around waiting for that ball to drop, right? HAHAHA. No.
Anyway, I have been wanting to make some version of a boiled clementine cake for a while now. I love that fact the the whole clementine goes into the cake, that there is no peeling or zesting or juicing. It is just boil the clems for a little while to get the bitterness out and you are good to go. And it doesn%u2019t hurt that right now is citrus season so I have a humngo bowl of clementines, plus a shit load of other oranges and other citrus to go through so the thought of tossing a good few clementines into a cake, well it was just what needed to be done.
And the family is coming over to eat and trash my house so I needed another dessert besides the half eaten ice cream cake left in the freezer from Camereon%u2019s birthday/Christmas. So I baked that they will eat. And there we go. Win win.
Now to the clementine cake.
The stuff. Flour, baking powder and soda, salt, sugar, oil, cinnamon, vinegar, clementines, and powdered sugar.
First you need to boil the clementines. Big pot, fill with water, place clems inside, bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 hours. Seems like a long time but just do it while you are making and drinking coffee or doing laundry or whatever. You don%u2019t need to keep an eye on them, other then to check that the water hasn%u2019t evaporated, and it smells so nice.
After the 2 hours are up, remove clementines from water and let cool enough to handle. Cut in half. If there are giant seeds, remove them.
Place the clementines into blender and blend until silky smooth.
Now the other stuff. Flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda, and cinnamon. All into big bowl.
Whisk together until incorporated then add in the clementine puree, the oil, and the vinegar. Whisk together until it becomes a uniform batter.
Scoop batter into a very well greased bundt cake pan and bake, 50-60 minutes, until tester comes out clean.
The big revel%u2026. And it went perfect! Now time to let this sucker cool a bit on a wire rack.
While the cake is cooling, make a simple glaze. Just powdered sugar and fresh (not boiled) clementine juice. Mixed unit glaze consistency.
Once the cake is pretty much cooled, pour on the glaze.
And now it is cake time.
-C
Makes one bundt cake
2 1/4 cups all pupose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 cup any neutral oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 clementines (you need 2 cups pureed)
For the glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 clementine
To start, place 6 clementines into large pot and fill with water. Place on stove and bring water to a rapid boil then reduce heat and continue to simmer clementines for about 2 hours.
Once clementines are cooked, cut in half and check and discard any large seeds. Place the clementines into a blended and blend until smooth. Should have about 2 cups puree. If you are short on volume, add water to make up the difference.
Preheat oven to 350
Grab a large bowl. Dump the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar and whisk together until completely incorporated. Now add in the clementine puree along with the oil and the vinegar. Mix until completely incorporated. Scoop batter into a well greased burnt pan (at least 10 cup capacity) then place into oven on middle rack and bake for 50-60 minutes until a tester (or a fork) stuck in to the deepest part of the cake comes out clean.
Once baked, remove cake from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in pan, then flip the cake out of pan, gently of course, and hope you greased it well enough for it to just pop out. Once removed from pan, allow to cool on a wire rack.
While cake is cooling, make the glaze. Powered sugar into a bowl along with the juice of a clementine. Mix together. If the glaze is to thick, add more juice (or water), to thin, a little more powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency (pourable but not runny is good) and once cake is cooled, pour glaze all over.
And then eat cake.
Kind of a spur of the moment cake situation. I was in the middle of doing some paper work and remembered that I had made plans with the littles to go bike shopping and do dinner. Usually when they come over for dinner I don%u2019t make a point to have a dessert (they are happy with a handful of chocolate chips if I have nothing) but I felt the need to have something special. I mean, bike shopping, that%u2019s a big deal and they were so excited so I wanted to have a little celebration cake thing. A, YIPPIE YOU GOT BIKES! cake. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
So I made cake. I running a little short on time (yet I still had time to take pictures%u2026.) so I went with my trusty one bowl, super easy chocolate cake. (This is everyone in my families favorite cake). Peanut butter frosting because it was right in from of me and really, it was for Coco the fat baby. He basically eats nothing but peanut butter these days. And of course because peanut butter and chocolate together are never going out of style. I cooked the cake in a loaf pan because I was just feeling loafy I guess. But This cake could totally be cooked into a cake round or square if you wanted to.
And that was that. I made that cake, they got the bikes (YEA!!!!, although I told them both that they sucked because they walked into a store and picked out bikes in less then an hour. I on the other hand have been bike shopping for more then a month and still haven%u2019t made a decision.) We then came back here to my house, biked around for a while, then ate cake (after dinner of course.)
Anyways. This cake. Rich, dense, chocolatey peanut butter goodness. Has been described as the best cake ever and like a Reese peanut butter cup. If you are into any of that, well this is the cake for you.
To the cake.
The stuff for the cake.. Flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, oil, coffee, vanilla. brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar. And the stuff for the frosting. Peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, and almond milk.
In a big bowl, whisk together the dry stuff, pinching and breaking apart any big clumps of cocoa or sugar. Then just dump in the wet.
Whisked until glossy and smooth. A perfectly perfect chocolate cake batter.
Pour batter into a greased and lined loaf pan and into the oven it goes. 50-60 minutes or so or until a tester poked in the middle comes out clean. Then pop the cake right on out. Remove cake from tin and let cool on a wire rack.
While cake is cooling, make frosting. Beat together powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, and milk.
Fully beaten. Ready to frost a cake.
Once cake is cooled, cut in half down the middle, length wise. Then frosting the middle. (Make sure it is cooled in the middle before frosting. If it is still warm, let it cool)
Pop the top back on and frost the rest.
And don%u2019t forget the sprinkles. Went with chocolate and gold because. But you do you and use whatever sprinkles you want.
And then you eat the cake.
I ended up stick it in the freezer to hide for a while%u2026 I guess this cake cold or slightly frozen is just about the best thing ever. The littles damn near ripped my arm off trying to get seconds.
-C
makes 1 loaf cake
For the Cake
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup neutral oil
1 1/2 cups warm coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
For frosting
3/4 cup minus 2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons vegan butter
1/4 cup plant based milk
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350 and grease and line a loaf pan.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and brown sugar. Break apart any big clumps of sugar or cocoa with your fingers. When that%u2019s mixed, dump in the wet and whisk together until just fully incorporated. Pour batter into the greased pan and stick into oven.
Bake for 55- 60 minutes or until a tester poked into the middle comes out clean.
Once cooked, remove from oven and carefully remove from pan. Place on a wire rack to cool.
While cake is cooling, make the frosting. Just beat together the butter, peanut butter, and milk until nice and creamy. If you find your frosting be too thin, add in more powdered sugar, too thick, a splash more milk.
When it is cooled, cut the loaf in half length wise. Make sure the inside is complete cooled as well. I totally stuck my cake in the freezer for little bit to speed up the cooling process%u2026..
When the cake is cut and completely cooled, frost it. Spread a little less then half the frosting on the bottom layer, stick top back on, and finish the frosting. Cover with sprinkles (if you want) and then that is it.
Serve room temperature or what my people really like is served slightly frozen, which is great because I just cut the cake up and froze individual pieces making for a perfect quick dessert.
I have a bag of coconut flour that I need to use up so I have made coconut snack cake a few times the past couple weeks. Once with orange instead of lime. Once I added chocolate chips. This time I stepped it up made a little glaze action, toasted a little coconut for some extra coconutiness and took these here pictures and wrote down the recipe. Just. For. You.
Not that I don%u2019t know already that my snack cake creation is good, but I guess it was just super A+++. I threw this one together right before the mr and I headed down to PA to hang with my dad. As soon as he (and sister and nephews) started in on it, well the responses were more then average. My dad even snuck a piece off and hid it for later. They really, really, really were into it. Wanted me to make another right then and there. Normally I would but my dad doesn%u2019t keep coconut flour on hand and I don%u2019t make it a habit to travel with any myself. (I might have to change that.) Next time he will know to stock the coconut flour.
I didn%u2019t realize my people were such coconut people. Good thing for them that I like coconut people. As a matter of fact, I consider myself a coconut person. And coconut is not code for awesome, but I am that too. HA
Anyway enough about me. Coconut snack cake is what you want to know about. It is soft and dense. Moist, not overly sweet. Lots of lime and coconut flavor and is just perfect for snack time. Eat it with a fork on a plate with coffee or tea or grab an piece and eat it walking down the street while thinking about green leaves and warmer weather. Or wherever and whenever. If you make it then it%u2019s up to you when and where you eat it. That only seems fair.
Now to the snack cake of your coconut lime dreams.
The stuff. Gonna need all purpose flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, a couple flax eggs, some warmed coconut oil, plant milk, brown sugar, vanilla extra, apple sider vinegar, a couple lime, some powdered sugar, and some lightly toasted shredded coconut.
Grab a big bowl. Add in the brown sugar, flax eggs, warmed coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla. Mix it all up until evenly incorporated.
Dump in the flours, baking soda and powder, and salt. Zest in lime, squeeze in lime juice and start to mix. Add in the milk as you are mixing.
Cake batter mixed and done. Now to bake it.
Dump the cake batter into a well greased baking pan and level it off with a spoon or spatula.
Now it%u2019s oven time to bake into a great and well cake.
A cake out of the oven, great and well. Golden brown and smells of all the goodness that a coconut cake could possible smell.
While cake is cooling, which it should be now, make the glaze. Powdered sugar, lime zest, and lime juice. Mix until it%u2019s glazy.
Pour the glaze all over cooled cake.
Don%u2019t forget the shredded coconut. Get it on before the glaze starts to set.
And then it%u2019s just the matter of cutting cake%u2026%u2026.
You know once you cut it, that means snack time right? Coconut lime snack cake for all of your coconut time, lime time, hungry snack time needs.
Keep it good.
-C
Makes a 9×9 cake
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
3/4 packed cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup coconut oil (warmed to liquid)
1 1/4 cup plant milk (I used almond)
2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax seeds with 1/2 cup warm water)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
A lime
For the glaze
3/4 cup powdered sugar
a lime
1/4 cup or so toasted shredded coconut to sprinkle on top (optional)
Preheat oven to 350
In a large bowl, mix together the bbrown sugar, flax eggs, warmed coconut oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar until completely incorporated. Next dump in the flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Zest the lime into bowl. Start mixing, adding in the juice of the lime and the plant milk. Mix it all together until completely incorporated.
Dump mixture into a well greases 9×9 baking pan and level off with a spoon or spatula. Place into oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and a tester stuck into the middle of cake comes out clean.
Once baked, remove from oven, let cool in pan for a few minutes then carefully remove cake from pan and let cool on a wire rack.
While cake is cooling, make the glaze. Just zest other lime into powered sugar then add the juice (or as much juice as you needed) of the lime until a pourable glaze forms. If your lime is not particularly juicy enough and the glaze is still really thin, just add a splash of water to thin out as needed.
And when cake is completely cooled, pour glaze all over cake and cover with toasted coconut flakes.
Now cut. And eat.
Store left over cake in a air tight container for 3-4 days. Individual pieces freeze well for all your future snacking needs.
I have very strong feelings for heart shaped baked goods. I think that everything, all year round, should be heart shaped. How lovely would that be? It would be ever so lovely, or I would think so anyway. And yes, ok, I was thinking about Valentines Day when I made these cupcakes but don%u2019t let that be the only reason you make a cupcake, cake, or any other baked good into the shape of a heart or pink for that matter.. Hearts are just so sweet and cute and dare I say cuddly? (Can you cuddle baked goods? Let me know if you have and do. We should talk about that). And pink is just a fantastic color, especially when it is the color of the flavor. Purple-y pink equals a taste like berry so all just makes sense.
Anyways. Cupcakes. Made with nutty almond meal to taste all nutty, frosted with blackberry and clementine frosting which is a pairing that all party and non party people will love. A down right deeelightful combination that will, no matter your circumstance in life, make you smile. Because lets get this clear, these cupcakes might look all lovey dovey and Valentines Day-e and are very much a perfect Valentines Day treat, but also can be an everyday, run of the milll, straight up any day, all day cupcakes. Valentines Day does not own the heart or pink.
These cupcakes are for you to love and you don%u2019t need to worry if they love you back. That would be weird.
Slightly off topic thought. How awesome would it be if someone made a cute little teddy bear that when you squeezed it it would scream %u201cWHAT THE HELL! GET OFF ME!%u201d Hahahaha. That would be amazing.
To the cupcakes!
The stuff. Flour, almond meal, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, soy milk, oil, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar. Also some blackberry jam, powdered sugar, some vegan butter, and a clementine.
In a big bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, flour, almond meal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
Add in the oil, vanilla, milk, and apple cider vinegar. Mix until fully incorporated.
And that is some mixed batter.
Scoop the batter into well greased muffin tins. I used to different shapes and sizes because I wanted too. You can do the same, just be aware different sizes will cook at different times.
And into the hot oven they go.
Baked, popped out of the tins, and cooling to cool.
Frosting time. Butter, clementine zest, and jam mixed together makes for the prettiest color.
Add in the powdered sugar and juice of the clementine and beat with a beater.
Pretty pink frosting. All natural.
And now that the cupcakes are cooled (you must wait until they are completely cooled) get them frosted.
And of course, adding sprinkles will only make them that much better.
And now you got the cupcakes which makes it cupcake time.
Look at that smile. Thats a smile just for cupcakes, not at all because I told him too.
Happy happy.
-C
Makes 12-16 cupcakes (depending on size)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/3 cup neutral oil
1 1/4 cup almond milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
For the frosting
3 tablespoons blackberry jam or preserves with or without seeds
2- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoon vegan butter
1 clementine (zest and some juice)
Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda and powder and sugar until fully combines. In a separate bowl mix together the oil, milk, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour into the dry and mix, by hand, until full incorporated. Scoop batter into well greased muffin tins (heart or other shape up to you) and place into oven for 13-18 minutes (shorter time for smaller cupcakes, longer for larger sized) or until lightly browned and a tester stuck into a cake comes out clean. Pull from oven when done and pop from tin. Place on a wire rack to cool.
While cakes are cooling, make frosting. Beat together the butter, zest of the clementine, and jam. Add in the sugar and the juice and beat until fully incorporated. If the consistency is to thin, add a little more sugar, to thick, more clementine juice or if out of juice, a splash of milk.
Once cupcakes are full cooled, frost, add sprinkle if you would like, and then the only thing left to do is eat them.
Eat cupcakes, store left overs in an air tight container in the fridge for up to a week.
I have been making at least one cake, if not 3, a week for the past month. Last week I did not have a cake that I needed.to make, so what did I do? I made a cake.
I might have an alternative motive here, I have started my winter squash stash, and already it is looking pretty impressive. I have delicata, acorn, kombucha, and sugar pumpkins littered all over the house. As of now I think I have a count of about 27. Some came fro the garden, some from (and still coming, all winter long) from farm share, and some came from when they went on sale at the grocery store and I filled the shopping cart up. The cashier checking me out thought I was crazy, but I get that a lot. (Like when I buy 20 heard os cabbage.. it%u2019s like I scare them) The alternative motive is that some of the squashes don%u2019t have the shelf life of some of the others so I need to get on to eating the ones that don%u2019t last as long, like the delicata and pumpkins, which I am doing, gladly might I add. So while I am eating those, I figured I would use up an acorn squash for cake because well, I don%u2019t want to have a million acorn squash laying around and I am just too busy eating the pumpkins to get the acorn. And this is why I made an acorn squash cake.
What does acorn squash cake tase like? Basically like pumpkin cake. Every time I make any sweet thing with any squash other then pumpkin, no one really seems to notice the difference, but that is not to say there isn’t one. I would say that acorn has a slightly sweeter and nutter flavor then pumpkin so you might get a more flavorful flavor out of an acorn squash. And really, if you like pumpkin, your gonna like the acorn. And people love them some maple frosting so smothering that along with walnuts on this cake, well I know made some people really really happy.
That%u2019s the real reason why I made this cake. To make some people happy. Jeeze, I am just so nice. Ha HA!
The stuff. A roasted acorn squash. flour, baking soda and baking powder, spices of cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of nutmeg, salt, oil, soy milk, brown sugar, white sugar, and a little apple cider vinegar.
Start by pureeing your squash If you haven%u2019t already which basically involved removing seeds and skin (save seeds to rest, eat skin, it delicious) and blending the squash until smooth.
You are now ready to cake. Add squash puree and oil into bowl with the sugars and mix until completely combined. Whisk together all the dry ingredients then add in the sugar, squash, oil mixture to the wet along with the milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix until just combined then stop mixing so you don%u2019t over mix.
Batter then gets poured evenly into two greased and lined cake pans.
And into the oven they go.
Golden brown and smelling all nice and cozy. A tester in the middle making sure that they are cooked completely.
Cakes get popped out of pans and and placed on a rack to cool completely. In the mean time, make the frosting. Powdered sugar, salt, vegan butter, maple syrup, and maybe a splash of soy milk (you might or might not need it). And don%u2019t forget the walnuts.
Sugar, salt, butter, and maple get beaten together until creamy and smooth.
Toasted walnuts get chopped into bits.
And now it%u2019s cake assembly time. Place one completely cooled layer on a cake plate and spread half the frosting on top. Sprinkle with half the chopped nuts. Place second layer on, spread rest of frosting on top, and sprinkle with the rest of the nut.
Now eat.
Enjoy the fall weekend and all the squash.
-C
makes and 8 inch 2 layer cake
For the Cake
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup neutral oil
2 cups acorn squash puree*
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
pinch of nutmeg
1 1/2 cups plant milk (I used soy)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
For the frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup earth balance or any vegan butter
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons plant milk (if needed)
1 cup toasted walnuts
Note. For acorn squash puree. roast an acorn squash by place entire squash into oven at 425 degree for about 1/2 hour or until fork tender. Once cooked, cut in half, let cool a few minutes, then scoop out all the seeds. Remove skin and blend the squash until smooth.
Preheat oven to 350
Place brown and white sugar into bowl along with the oil and squash puree. Mix until completely incorporated. In a larger bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and powder, salt, and spices. Pour wet mixture into dry almond with the soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix until just completely incorporated then stop to prevent over mixing.
Grease and parchment line two 8 inch cake pans. Pour batter evenly between pans then place into oven for 30-35 minutes or until Depp golden brown and a tester stuck into middle of cakes comes out clean. When it%u2019s done, remove from oven, let cook a few minutes, then remove from cake pans. Place on a wire rack o cool completely.
While cake is cooling, make the frosting. Beat together the powdered sugar, salt, maple, and earth balance until nice and creamy. If the frosting seems to thick, add a splash of milk, to thin, add a 1/4 cup more of powdered sugar.
Chop walnuts into small bits if they are not already.
Once cakes are completely cooled, assemble. Place first layer on cake plate and spread 1/2 the frosting onto first layer and sprinkle on half of the chopped walnuts. Place on second layer, spread the rest of the frosting on top, and sprinkle on the rest of the nut. And that is it. Now you just need to eat it.
Store any left overs in for a day on the counter, but any longer place in an airtight container in the fridge. I even froze a few pieces and the mr loved them frozen to if you like frozen cake%u2026..
Every year the same thing happens. Cherry season hits, I indulge and buy a few pounds of those cherries with great intentions of making something great, something to share, but then I always end up eating them all myself. What can I say, I love me some cherries.
But this year I realized my mistake.%u00a0If I really did want to make something %u00a0with cherries other then eating them all,%u00a0%u00a0I needed to buy a shit ton of cherries so I would have enough for my belly and some to share. %u00a0So I bought like 6 pounds at once so I would have to bake something before they went bad.%u00a0%u00a0(Honestly I could have eaten them all but I was able to control myself.)%u00a0
I was going to make a straight up cherry pie, put then that would take me making pie dough, which I really like to do in most cases, but was just not feeling it this week. Plus that would have require a hell of a lot more cherry pitting which again, wouldn’t have been that bad, but I was just hot really feeling it. But upside down cake, that I was feeling.%u00a0%u00a0I always like the visual aspect of an upside- down cake so cake it was, cake it be.%u00a0%u00a0Upside side down cake with a little lemony lemoness and %u00a0lots of gooey cherry goodness. Simple and stunning and better then cherry pie because it is baked upside-down and you can’t bake a pie upside-down.%u00a0
I did good. (Here I pat myself on the back, give myself a high five, and finish off with a double thumbs up)%u00a0
The stuff. Flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in the bowl. A bowl of fresh cherries. White sugar, canola oil, soy milk,%u00a0a lemon, a little apple cider vinegar, some vanilla extract, melted earth balance, and a bit of brown sugar.%u00a0
This is the most labor intensive part, pitting cherries. What I do is cut the cherries in half and then with my thumb, dislodge the pit. Pile the un-pitted halves to the side and once done pitting, double check you got all the pits out.%u00a0No one will like you, including yourself, if they bit down and crack a tooth on a cherry pit.%u00a0
Cherries are pitted so now take the melted earth balance and brown sugar and mix together in the bottom of your greased cake pan. I lined my with parchment which I think was a good idea so you might want to do that too. Mix the mixture around to evenly coat the bottom then place the cherries in, singled layered and not overlapping,%u00a0but get as many in as you can.%u00a0(You can do them all facing hte same way like me or not, I don’t know if it would really make much of a difference.)%u00a0
Time for cake batter. Mix the sugar and zest of the lemon into the bowl of flour, baking soda and powder, and salt.%u00a0
In goes oil. milk, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla. Give it all a good whisk%u00a0
Stop when it is all mixed and incorporated. Don’t want to over mix or the cake with get tough.%u00a0
Batter gets poured right onto cherries in pan and the whole sha-bang gets popped into the oven for about 50 minutes to turn into golden brown, upside-down cherry greatness.%u00a0
Now for the best part, you must wait at least a few minutes, if not ten, to pop the cake right side up? Or os it now upside down? And be careful cause it’s hot. Tip . Before inverting cake, run a knife around the edge of the pan to make sure cake is loose. Once cake is upside down on cooling rack (use a cooling rack, not a plate so the %u00a0bottom dset getting soggy),%u00a0give the pan a good tap tap with a wooden spoon until the cake pops out.%u00a0%u00a0If a cherry or two got stuck, its ok, just stick it back to the cake.. no one will know.%u00a0
And loooooook at that. Upside down cakes are always like magic.%u00a0
As you can see, it didn’t stand a chance. A piece cut within minutes because how can you not.
I finally did it, I shared my cherry stash, and I feel good about it because all the people looooved the cake so it was worth it. And I still have cherries left for me!!
Now go upside-down a cake.%u00a0
-C
makes a 10 inch upside-down cake.%u00a0
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 %u00a0teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup neutral flavored oil (I used canola)%u00a0
2 tablespoons earth balance or vegan butter substitute%u00a0
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup soy milk
1 lemon%u00a0
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 cups sliced in half and pitted cherries
3 tablespoon brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350.%u00a0
Start by rinsing and pitting cherries. Remove all stems, cut cherries in half, and remove pits. I use my thumb and just kind of pop them out, but do it anyway you feel like. If using a fancy de-pitter, you are going to want to cut the cherries in half.%u00a0%u00a0After you have removed all pits, DOUBLE CHECK that there are no pits.. Pits will crack a tooth for reals.
Grease and line a 10 inch cake pan with parchment. Dump the melted earth balance and brown sugar in bottom and mix together. Spread mixture all around then grab sliced cherries and place them, single layered, into mixture. Get as many as you can in there without overlapping.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and soda, the salt, the white sugar, and the zest of the lemon. Once fully combined add in the soy milk, apple cider vinegar, the oil, and the vanilla. Mix that all up until just combined. Pour batter all over the cherries in the pan. Level out batter and pop into the oven (middle rack) for 45-55 minutes, or until the cake is a nice deep golden brown and a tester stuck in the middle comes out clean.
Once the cake is bake, let it sit on counter for about 10 minutes. %u00a0Once slightly cooled, grab knife and run it along the edge of the cake. Take a cooling rack and place on top of cake then flip upside down. Tap around he pan with a spoon then gently lift pan away.%u00a0
Tada. You should have yourself something fantastic and great. And no worries if a cherry or two got stuck to pan, just pop it back on to the cake.
And now all you need to do is eat the cake. So do that.%u00a0
The day started off with rhubarb soup and ended in cinnamon walnut rhubarb bread. The bread was a star,%u00a0the soup, not so much, which sucked because I was so excited and so sure it was going be fantastic. Tomatoes, rhubarb, and fresh ginger.%u00a0Doesn’t that sound good? I still have hopes for the combination, but the batch I made was way way to acidic and thick and spicy because I added so much fresh ginger to it that it made the mr’s eye water and my nose run a little. So yeah, the soup needed work, but I was not going to end my day of rhubarb cooking with a fail. Also I felt like I owed it to the mr to make him something that he found edible. He really did not like the soup.
I knew the mr wanted (or at least he hinted at) pie but I had no time for pie. I already spent the morning making not so good soup and I had shit I needed to do. Pie would just take a little to long.%u00a0Quick bread was more in my time frame. A few minutes to chop and mix,%u00a0toss it into the oven for a while. and done.%u00a0%u00a0I had time to cleaned up, run to the post office and bank (I should probably tell you not to leave your oven on when you are not in the house, but I do, but only for short periods of time. And don’t tell the mr. He will kill me) and come back to the house not on fire and fresh cinnamon walnut rhubarb bread. I felt redemption,%u00a0even this it was not pie. The mr didn’t complain, not one bit.%u00a0
And by the way, the soup made it’s way into a different batch of soup that had other stuff in it and it WAS fantastic.%u00a0
The stuff. Rhubarb and walnuts and a bowl with flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Also have coconut oil, brown sugar, soy milk, and a little dish or more brown sugar, cinnamon, and coconut oil for the topping.%u00a0
Chop rhubarb and walnuts into small pieces, not tiny pieces, but not big ones either.%u00a0
Mix the brown sugar and coconut oil into dry mixture, then add in the milk and vinegar and mix until just incorporated (don’t over mix).
Don’t forget to mix in the rhubarb and walnut pieces.%u00a0
Pour batter into a greased pan and then its %u00a0time for the cinnamon sugar topping. (cinnamon+sugar+coconut oil=rainbows?)
Cinnamon sugar topping %u00a0gets crumbled on and I found a few stray walnuts so I tossed those on top too. %u00a0
Now it’s time for the oven.
Look at that, fresh from the oven. So handsome.%u00a0%u00a0Pop it out of the tin and get it onto a wire rack to cool.%u00a0
And when it’s cooled a little and you are ready to take a seat, you slice and eat.
-C
makes one loaf
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cups brown sugar%u00a0
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup soy or another plant milk
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted and cooled)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
3 stalks rhubarb (2 cups chopped)
1/2 cup walnuts
Cinnamon Sugar Topping
1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 hefty tablespoon cinnamon%u00a0
Preheat oven to 350
Chop rhubarb into small 1/2 inch pieces. If your walnuts are whole, chop those up into small pieces as well.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix together then add in the brown sugar and %u00a0the melted coconut oil and mix. Then add in the say milk %u00a0and apple cider vinegar and mix until all is incorporated. %u00a0Stir in the chopped rhubarbd and walnuts.
Pour batter into a well greases bread pan. For the cinnamon topping, just add the cinnamon and brown sugar to the melted coconut oil and mix. %u00a0Crumble the mixture on top of the bread. if you have a few more walnuts, you can toss those on top too.%u00a0Pop bread into preheated oven.
Bake for 60 -70 minutes %u00a0or until a tester stuck into the middle comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. When ready, cut and eat.
Bread lasts 3 day in airtight container on counter, a few days longer in the fridge. %u00a0Freezes well.%u00a0
The person that invented sprinkles is a very smart person. Whoever they are, I wonder if they new exactly what they were doing, that even the mention of sprinkles can, and does, drive a person (mostly littles) mad with the need for sugar. Just the mere glimpse of the rainbow colored topping was enough to bribe a few little littles into somewhat decent behaviors, even for just a little while (especially when I let them know about the sprinkles on the inside, well they just snapped into line).%u00a0No rainbow sprinkle cupcake if you don’t clean up and eat all you peas!. That goes for everyone, not just the littles. Haha.%u00a0
Have you notice that most of the snow melted and it’s finally spring? Whoop whoop. Now that the house is feeling fresh because the windows and doors are thrown open, I feel the need to blast music and bake. I went with cupcakes because I haven’t in a while, and lemon because its fresh, and sprinkles because we need to celebrate spring and really, sprinkles in and on everything will never be a bad idea.
%u00a0I have more or less been using kind of the same recipe for a vegan vanilla cake for a while. And while it was a good cake, it was never a great cake. When I made these I decided to tweak it a bit and they came out awesome. Finally a great cake. The mr, the littles, everyone who has eaten one has reached for another. And eaten the crumbs off the table and licked the parchment wrappers clean.%u00a0The littles even asked if they could have the recipe so when they grow up they can make them by themselves. (So cute.) A cake winner here for sure.%u00a0%u00a0
So if you are feeling sprinkly and lemony and want a sweet, then go, go to your kitchen. Throw open the windows, blast some tunes, and bake away.%u00a0
The stuff. Vegan butter, oil, sugar, and a few lemons. Flour, baking soda and powder, salt, plant milk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract*, and of course sprinkles.%u00a0
*I used imitation vanilla extract because I have read in more then a few placed that the typical funfetti cake uses it. So I did and there were zero complaints.%u00a0
Start by mixing the dry together along with the zest of the lemon. After zesting, add the juice of one of the lemons and the apple cider vinegar the milk and give it a mix.%u00a0
Beat together the sugar, butter, and oil until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla.%u00a0
Then to mix it all together. Interchange adding dry to the butter mixture and beating, then add some milk mixture. Repeat until lit’s all mixed and beat just until everything is all incorporated. Don’t over beat the mixture.%u00a0
And for the happiness. Fold in the sprinkles.
Cupcake tin lined and greases. Fill each equally until you have no batter left.%u00a0
Into a hot oven they go to bake and be great.
Baked and looking all sprinkly. %u00a0Get them out of the tin and onto a wire rack to cool.%u00a0
While the cupcakes are cooling, make thefrosting. Vegan butter, powdered sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice %u00a0with a splash of vanilla. Or if you want to make it all vanilla, omit lemon zest and juice with %u00a0more vanilla extract and a little splash or plant milk.%u00a0
All beaten together until nice and thick and creamy.%u00a0
Then it’s time. Get them frosted.
And don’t forget to add more sprinkles.
Now you are done and now you eat.
The rainbow coffee cup was a completely coincidence.%u00a0
-C
makes 12 cupcakes%u00a0
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegan butter
1/4 cup neutral oil
3/4 cup plant milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used imitation vanilla)
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 1 lemon
teaspoon apple cider vinegar%u00a0
1/4 cup spinkles%u00a0
For the frosting%u00a0
1/3 cup vegan butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 lemon (zest and juice )
%u00a01/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract%u00a0
Preheat 350
First zest the lemons because it is alway easier to zest a whole lemon then a half of one. Measure out the milk and add In the juice of one lemon and the apple cider vinegar.%u00a0In a small bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and %u00a0the zest of the two lemons . In another bowl beat together the sugar, vegan butter, oil, and the vanilla. Interchange adding %u00a0the dry mixture into the butter sugar mixture and bating with the wet mixture. Once all is together, %u00a0beat only until all the ingredients are incorporated, then stop so you don’t over beat.%u00a0
Grease and line a cupcake pan and fill each mold evenly until batter is gone.. Bake for about 20- 22 %u00a0minutes or until a slight golden brown and a tester comes out clean. %u00a0Once baked, remove from pan and place on a rack to cool completely.%u00a0
While cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting. Beat together the butter, sugar, and the juice and zest of a lemon until light and fluffy. IF the frosting seems to thin add in a splash of milk or too the, a few tablespoons more of powdered sugar.%u00a0%u00a0!f you prefer vanilla frosting, omit the lemon and add another 1/2 %u00a0teaspoon of vanilla and a splash of plant milk.%u00a0
Once cupcakes are cooled, frost them and cover with sprinkles.%u00a0
Eat at your leisure. Cupcakes will last in a airtight container for 3-4 days but really, they probably will be gone before you get a chance to hide them.%u00a0
THE LOVELY CRAZY
January 7, 2020 by maximios • Blog
It%u2019s not too late to get in a little end of the year baking. It is actually the perfect time to bake. All the holiday hub bub is still going on so there is usually still people all around still willing and able to eat your offerings (if you were so inclined to share), the days just feel more slow and of need of warmth and lovely smells. Plus we need something to do while while waiting for New Years, because we are just all sitting around waiting for that ball to drop, right? HAHAHA. No.
Anyway, I have been wanting to make some version of a boiled clementine cake for a while now. I love that fact the the whole clementine goes into the cake, that there is no peeling or zesting or juicing. It is just boil the clems for a little while to get the bitterness out and you are good to go. And it doesn%u2019t hurt that right now is citrus season so I have a humngo bowl of clementines, plus a shit load of other oranges and other citrus to go through so the thought of tossing a good few clementines into a cake, well it was just what needed to be done.
And the family is coming over to eat and trash my house so I needed another dessert besides the half eaten ice cream cake left in the freezer from Camereon%u2019s birthday/Christmas. So I baked that they will eat. And there we go. Win win.
Now to the clementine cake.
The stuff. Flour, baking powder and soda, salt, sugar, oil, cinnamon, vinegar, clementines, and powdered sugar.
First you need to boil the clementines. Big pot, fill with water, place clems inside, bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 hours. Seems like a long time but just do it while you are making and drinking coffee or doing laundry or whatever. You don%u2019t need to keep an eye on them, other then to check that the water hasn%u2019t evaporated, and it smells so nice.
After the 2 hours are up, remove clementines from water and let cool enough to handle. Cut in half. If there are giant seeds, remove them.
Place the clementines into blender and blend until silky smooth.
Now the other stuff. Flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda, and cinnamon. All into big bowl.
Whisk together until incorporated then add in the clementine puree, the oil, and the vinegar. Whisk together until it becomes a uniform batter.
Scoop batter into a very well greased bundt cake pan and bake, 50-60 minutes, until tester comes out clean.
The big revel%u2026. And it went perfect! Now time to let this sucker cool a bit on a wire rack.
While the cake is cooling, make a simple glaze. Just powdered sugar and fresh (not boiled) clementine juice. Mixed unit glaze consistency.
Once the cake is pretty much cooled, pour on the glaze.
And now it is cake time.
-C
Makes one bundt cake
2 1/4 cups all pupose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 cup any neutral oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 clementines (you need 2 cups pureed)
For the glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 clementine
To start, place 6 clementines into large pot and fill with water. Place on stove and bring water to a rapid boil then reduce heat and continue to simmer clementines for about 2 hours.
Once clementines are cooked, cut in half and check and discard any large seeds. Place the clementines into a blended and blend until smooth. Should have about 2 cups puree. If you are short on volume, add water to make up the difference.
Preheat oven to 350
Grab a large bowl. Dump the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugar and whisk together until completely incorporated. Now add in the clementine puree along with the oil and the vinegar. Mix until completely incorporated. Scoop batter into a well greased burnt pan (at least 10 cup capacity) then place into oven on middle rack and bake for 50-60 minutes until a tester (or a fork) stuck in to the deepest part of the cake comes out clean.
Once baked, remove cake from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in pan, then flip the cake out of pan, gently of course, and hope you greased it well enough for it to just pop out. Once removed from pan, allow to cool on a wire rack.
While cake is cooling, make the glaze. Powered sugar into a bowl along with the juice of a clementine. Mix together. If the glaze is to thick, add more juice (or water), to thin, a little more powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency (pourable but not runny is good) and once cake is cooled, pour glaze all over.
And then eat cake.
Kind of a spur of the moment cake situation. I was in the middle of doing some paper work and remembered that I had made plans with the littles to go bike shopping and do dinner. Usually when they come over for dinner I don%u2019t make a point to have a dessert (they are happy with a handful of chocolate chips if I have nothing) but I felt the need to have something special. I mean, bike shopping, that%u2019s a big deal and they were so excited so I wanted to have a little celebration cake thing. A, YIPPIE YOU GOT BIKES! cake. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
So I made cake. I running a little short on time (yet I still had time to take pictures%u2026.) so I went with my trusty one bowl, super easy chocolate cake. (This is everyone in my families favorite cake). Peanut butter frosting because it was right in from of me and really, it was for Coco the fat baby. He basically eats nothing but peanut butter these days. And of course because peanut butter and chocolate together are never going out of style. I cooked the cake in a loaf pan because I was just feeling loafy I guess. But This cake could totally be cooked into a cake round or square if you wanted to.
And that was that. I made that cake, they got the bikes (YEA!!!!, although I told them both that they sucked because they walked into a store and picked out bikes in less then an hour. I on the other hand have been bike shopping for more then a month and still haven%u2019t made a decision.) We then came back here to my house, biked around for a while, then ate cake (after dinner of course.)
Anyways. This cake. Rich, dense, chocolatey peanut butter goodness. Has been described as the best cake ever and like a Reese peanut butter cup. If you are into any of that, well this is the cake for you.
To the cake.
The stuff for the cake.. Flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, oil, coffee, vanilla. brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar. And the stuff for the frosting. Peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, and almond milk.
In a big bowl, whisk together the dry stuff, pinching and breaking apart any big clumps of cocoa or sugar. Then just dump in the wet.
Whisked until glossy and smooth. A perfectly perfect chocolate cake batter.
Pour batter into a greased and lined loaf pan and into the oven it goes. 50-60 minutes or so or until a tester poked in the middle comes out clean. Then pop the cake right on out. Remove cake from tin and let cool on a wire rack.
While cake is cooling, make frosting. Beat together powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, and milk.
Fully beaten. Ready to frost a cake.
Once cake is cooled, cut in half down the middle, length wise. Then frosting the middle. (Make sure it is cooled in the middle before frosting. If it is still warm, let it cool)
Pop the top back on and frost the rest.
And don%u2019t forget the sprinkles. Went with chocolate and gold because. But you do you and use whatever sprinkles you want.
And then you eat the cake.
I ended up stick it in the freezer to hide for a while%u2026 I guess this cake cold or slightly frozen is just about the best thing ever. The littles damn near ripped my arm off trying to get seconds.
-C
makes 1 loaf cake
For the Cake
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup neutral oil
1 1/2 cups warm coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
For frosting
3/4 cup minus 2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons vegan butter
1/4 cup plant based milk
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350 and grease and line a loaf pan.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and brown sugar. Break apart any big clumps of sugar or cocoa with your fingers. When that%u2019s mixed, dump in the wet and whisk together until just fully incorporated. Pour batter into the greased pan and stick into oven.
Bake for 55- 60 minutes or until a tester poked into the middle comes out clean.
Once cooked, remove from oven and carefully remove from pan. Place on a wire rack to cool.
While cake is cooling, make the frosting. Just beat together the butter, peanut butter, and milk until nice and creamy. If you find your frosting be too thin, add in more powdered sugar, too thick, a splash more milk.
When it is cooled, cut the loaf in half length wise. Make sure the inside is complete cooled as well. I totally stuck my cake in the freezer for little bit to speed up the cooling process%u2026..
When the cake is cut and completely cooled, frost it. Spread a little less then half the frosting on the bottom layer, stick top back on, and finish the frosting. Cover with sprinkles (if you want) and then that is it.
Serve room temperature or what my people really like is served slightly frozen, which is great because I just cut the cake up and froze individual pieces making for a perfect quick dessert.
I have a bag of coconut flour that I need to use up so I have made coconut snack cake a few times the past couple weeks. Once with orange instead of lime. Once I added chocolate chips. This time I stepped it up made a little glaze action, toasted a little coconut for some extra coconutiness and took these here pictures and wrote down the recipe. Just. For. You.
Not that I don%u2019t know already that my snack cake creation is good, but I guess it was just super A+++. I threw this one together right before the mr and I headed down to PA to hang with my dad. As soon as he (and sister and nephews) started in on it, well the responses were more then average. My dad even snuck a piece off and hid it for later. They really, really, really were into it. Wanted me to make another right then and there. Normally I would but my dad doesn%u2019t keep coconut flour on hand and I don%u2019t make it a habit to travel with any myself. (I might have to change that.) Next time he will know to stock the coconut flour.
I didn%u2019t realize my people were such coconut people. Good thing for them that I like coconut people. As a matter of fact, I consider myself a coconut person. And coconut is not code for awesome, but I am that too. HA
Anyway enough about me. Coconut snack cake is what you want to know about. It is soft and dense. Moist, not overly sweet. Lots of lime and coconut flavor and is just perfect for snack time. Eat it with a fork on a plate with coffee or tea or grab an piece and eat it walking down the street while thinking about green leaves and warmer weather. Or wherever and whenever. If you make it then it%u2019s up to you when and where you eat it. That only seems fair.
Now to the snack cake of your coconut lime dreams.
The stuff. Gonna need all purpose flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, a couple flax eggs, some warmed coconut oil, plant milk, brown sugar, vanilla extra, apple sider vinegar, a couple lime, some powdered sugar, and some lightly toasted shredded coconut.
Grab a big bowl. Add in the brown sugar, flax eggs, warmed coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla. Mix it all up until evenly incorporated.
Dump in the flours, baking soda and powder, and salt. Zest in lime, squeeze in lime juice and start to mix. Add in the milk as you are mixing.
Cake batter mixed and done. Now to bake it.
Dump the cake batter into a well greased baking pan and level it off with a spoon or spatula.
Now it%u2019s oven time to bake into a great and well cake.
A cake out of the oven, great and well. Golden brown and smells of all the goodness that a coconut cake could possible smell.
While cake is cooling, which it should be now, make the glaze. Powdered sugar, lime zest, and lime juice. Mix until it%u2019s glazy.
Pour the glaze all over cooled cake.
Don%u2019t forget the shredded coconut. Get it on before the glaze starts to set.
And then it%u2019s just the matter of cutting cake%u2026%u2026.
You know once you cut it, that means snack time right? Coconut lime snack cake for all of your coconut time, lime time, hungry snack time needs.
Keep it good.
-C
Makes a 9×9 cake
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
3/4 packed cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup coconut oil (warmed to liquid)
1 1/4 cup plant milk (I used almond)
2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax seeds with 1/2 cup warm water)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
A lime
For the glaze
3/4 cup powdered sugar
a lime
1/4 cup or so toasted shredded coconut to sprinkle on top (optional)
Preheat oven to 350
In a large bowl, mix together the bbrown sugar, flax eggs, warmed coconut oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar until completely incorporated. Next dump in the flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Zest the lime into bowl. Start mixing, adding in the juice of the lime and the plant milk. Mix it all together until completely incorporated.
Dump mixture into a well greases 9×9 baking pan and level off with a spoon or spatula. Place into oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and a tester stuck into the middle of cake comes out clean.
Once baked, remove from oven, let cool in pan for a few minutes then carefully remove cake from pan and let cool on a wire rack.
While cake is cooling, make the glaze. Just zest other lime into powered sugar then add the juice (or as much juice as you needed) of the lime until a pourable glaze forms. If your lime is not particularly juicy enough and the glaze is still really thin, just add a splash of water to thin out as needed.
And when cake is completely cooled, pour glaze all over cake and cover with toasted coconut flakes.
Now cut. And eat.
Store left over cake in a air tight container for 3-4 days. Individual pieces freeze well for all your future snacking needs.
I have very strong feelings for heart shaped baked goods. I think that everything, all year round, should be heart shaped. How lovely would that be? It would be ever so lovely, or I would think so anyway. And yes, ok, I was thinking about Valentines Day when I made these cupcakes but don%u2019t let that be the only reason you make a cupcake, cake, or any other baked good into the shape of a heart or pink for that matter.. Hearts are just so sweet and cute and dare I say cuddly? (Can you cuddle baked goods? Let me know if you have and do. We should talk about that). And pink is just a fantastic color, especially when it is the color of the flavor. Purple-y pink equals a taste like berry so all just makes sense.
Anyways. Cupcakes. Made with nutty almond meal to taste all nutty, frosted with blackberry and clementine frosting which is a pairing that all party and non party people will love. A down right deeelightful combination that will, no matter your circumstance in life, make you smile. Because lets get this clear, these cupcakes might look all lovey dovey and Valentines Day-e and are very much a perfect Valentines Day treat, but also can be an everyday, run of the milll, straight up any day, all day cupcakes. Valentines Day does not own the heart or pink.
These cupcakes are for you to love and you don%u2019t need to worry if they love you back. That would be weird.
Slightly off topic thought. How awesome would it be if someone made a cute little teddy bear that when you squeezed it it would scream %u201cWHAT THE HELL! GET OFF ME!%u201d Hahahaha. That would be amazing.
To the cupcakes!
The stuff. Flour, almond meal, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, soy milk, oil, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar. Also some blackberry jam, powdered sugar, some vegan butter, and a clementine.
In a big bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, flour, almond meal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
Add in the oil, vanilla, milk, and apple cider vinegar. Mix until fully incorporated.
And that is some mixed batter.
Scoop the batter into well greased muffin tins. I used to different shapes and sizes because I wanted too. You can do the same, just be aware different sizes will cook at different times.
And into the hot oven they go.
Baked, popped out of the tins, and cooling to cool.
Frosting time. Butter, clementine zest, and jam mixed together makes for the prettiest color.
Add in the powdered sugar and juice of the clementine and beat with a beater.
Pretty pink frosting. All natural.
And now that the cupcakes are cooled (you must wait until they are completely cooled) get them frosted.
And of course, adding sprinkles will only make them that much better.
And now you got the cupcakes which makes it cupcake time.
Look at that smile. Thats a smile just for cupcakes, not at all because I told him too.
Happy happy.
-C
Makes 12-16 cupcakes (depending on size)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/3 cup neutral oil
1 1/4 cup almond milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
For the frosting
3 tablespoons blackberry jam or preserves with or without seeds
2- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoon vegan butter
1 clementine (zest and some juice)
Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda and powder and sugar until fully combines. In a separate bowl mix together the oil, milk, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour into the dry and mix, by hand, until full incorporated. Scoop batter into well greased muffin tins (heart or other shape up to you) and place into oven for 13-18 minutes (shorter time for smaller cupcakes, longer for larger sized) or until lightly browned and a tester stuck into a cake comes out clean. Pull from oven when done and pop from tin. Place on a wire rack to cool.
While cakes are cooling, make frosting. Beat together the butter, zest of the clementine, and jam. Add in the sugar and the juice and beat until fully incorporated. If the consistency is to thin, add a little more sugar, to thick, more clementine juice or if out of juice, a splash of milk.
Once cupcakes are full cooled, frost, add sprinkle if you would like, and then the only thing left to do is eat them.
Eat cupcakes, store left overs in an air tight container in the fridge for up to a week.
I have been making at least one cake, if not 3, a week for the past month. Last week I did not have a cake that I needed.to make, so what did I do? I made a cake.
I might have an alternative motive here, I have started my winter squash stash, and already it is looking pretty impressive. I have delicata, acorn, kombucha, and sugar pumpkins littered all over the house. As of now I think I have a count of about 27. Some came fro the garden, some from (and still coming, all winter long) from farm share, and some came from when they went on sale at the grocery store and I filled the shopping cart up. The cashier checking me out thought I was crazy, but I get that a lot. (Like when I buy 20 heard os cabbage.. it%u2019s like I scare them) The alternative motive is that some of the squashes don%u2019t have the shelf life of some of the others so I need to get on to eating the ones that don%u2019t last as long, like the delicata and pumpkins, which I am doing, gladly might I add. So while I am eating those, I figured I would use up an acorn squash for cake because well, I don%u2019t want to have a million acorn squash laying around and I am just too busy eating the pumpkins to get the acorn. And this is why I made an acorn squash cake.
What does acorn squash cake tase like? Basically like pumpkin cake. Every time I make any sweet thing with any squash other then pumpkin, no one really seems to notice the difference, but that is not to say there isn’t one. I would say that acorn has a slightly sweeter and nutter flavor then pumpkin so you might get a more flavorful flavor out of an acorn squash. And really, if you like pumpkin, your gonna like the acorn. And people love them some maple frosting so smothering that along with walnuts on this cake, well I know made some people really really happy.
That%u2019s the real reason why I made this cake. To make some people happy. Jeeze, I am just so nice. Ha HA!
The stuff. A roasted acorn squash. flour, baking soda and baking powder, spices of cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of nutmeg, salt, oil, soy milk, brown sugar, white sugar, and a little apple cider vinegar.
Start by pureeing your squash If you haven%u2019t already which basically involved removing seeds and skin (save seeds to rest, eat skin, it delicious) and blending the squash until smooth.
You are now ready to cake. Add squash puree and oil into bowl with the sugars and mix until completely combined. Whisk together all the dry ingredients then add in the sugar, squash, oil mixture to the wet along with the milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix until just combined then stop mixing so you don%u2019t over mix.
Batter then gets poured evenly into two greased and lined cake pans.
And into the oven they go.
Golden brown and smelling all nice and cozy. A tester in the middle making sure that they are cooked completely.
Cakes get popped out of pans and and placed on a rack to cool completely. In the mean time, make the frosting. Powdered sugar, salt, vegan butter, maple syrup, and maybe a splash of soy milk (you might or might not need it). And don%u2019t forget the walnuts.
Sugar, salt, butter, and maple get beaten together until creamy and smooth.
Toasted walnuts get chopped into bits.
And now it%u2019s cake assembly time. Place one completely cooled layer on a cake plate and spread half the frosting on top. Sprinkle with half the chopped nuts. Place second layer on, spread rest of frosting on top, and sprinkle with the rest of the nut.
Now eat.
Enjoy the fall weekend and all the squash.
-C
makes and 8 inch 2 layer cake
For the Cake
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup neutral oil
2 cups acorn squash puree*
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
pinch of nutmeg
1 1/2 cups plant milk (I used soy)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
For the frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup earth balance or any vegan butter
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons plant milk (if needed)
1 cup toasted walnuts
Note. For acorn squash puree. roast an acorn squash by place entire squash into oven at 425 degree for about 1/2 hour or until fork tender. Once cooked, cut in half, let cool a few minutes, then scoop out all the seeds. Remove skin and blend the squash until smooth.
Preheat oven to 350
Place brown and white sugar into bowl along with the oil and squash puree. Mix until completely incorporated. In a larger bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and powder, salt, and spices. Pour wet mixture into dry almond with the soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix until just completely incorporated then stop to prevent over mixing.
Grease and parchment line two 8 inch cake pans. Pour batter evenly between pans then place into oven for 30-35 minutes or until Depp golden brown and a tester stuck into middle of cakes comes out clean. When it%u2019s done, remove from oven, let cook a few minutes, then remove from cake pans. Place on a wire rack o cool completely.
While cake is cooling, make the frosting. Beat together the powdered sugar, salt, maple, and earth balance until nice and creamy. If the frosting seems to thick, add a splash of milk, to thin, add a 1/4 cup more of powdered sugar.
Chop walnuts into small bits if they are not already.
Once cakes are completely cooled, assemble. Place first layer on cake plate and spread 1/2 the frosting onto first layer and sprinkle on half of the chopped walnuts. Place on second layer, spread the rest of the frosting on top, and sprinkle on the rest of the nut. And that is it. Now you just need to eat it.
Store any left overs in for a day on the counter, but any longer place in an airtight container in the fridge. I even froze a few pieces and the mr loved them frozen to if you like frozen cake%u2026..
Every year the same thing happens. Cherry season hits, I indulge and buy a few pounds of those cherries with great intentions of making something great, something to share, but then I always end up eating them all myself. What can I say, I love me some cherries.
But this year I realized my mistake.%u00a0If I really did want to make something %u00a0with cherries other then eating them all,%u00a0%u00a0I needed to buy a shit ton of cherries so I would have enough for my belly and some to share. %u00a0So I bought like 6 pounds at once so I would have to bake something before they went bad.%u00a0%u00a0(Honestly I could have eaten them all but I was able to control myself.)%u00a0
I was going to make a straight up cherry pie, put then that would take me making pie dough, which I really like to do in most cases, but was just not feeling it this week. Plus that would have require a hell of a lot more cherry pitting which again, wouldn’t have been that bad, but I was just hot really feeling it. But upside down cake, that I was feeling.%u00a0%u00a0I always like the visual aspect of an upside- down cake so cake it was, cake it be.%u00a0%u00a0Upside side down cake with a little lemony lemoness and %u00a0lots of gooey cherry goodness. Simple and stunning and better then cherry pie because it is baked upside-down and you can’t bake a pie upside-down.%u00a0
I did good. (Here I pat myself on the back, give myself a high five, and finish off with a double thumbs up)%u00a0
The stuff. Flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in the bowl. A bowl of fresh cherries. White sugar, canola oil, soy milk,%u00a0a lemon, a little apple cider vinegar, some vanilla extract, melted earth balance, and a bit of brown sugar.%u00a0
This is the most labor intensive part, pitting cherries. What I do is cut the cherries in half and then with my thumb, dislodge the pit. Pile the un-pitted halves to the side and once done pitting, double check you got all the pits out.%u00a0No one will like you, including yourself, if they bit down and crack a tooth on a cherry pit.%u00a0
Cherries are pitted so now take the melted earth balance and brown sugar and mix together in the bottom of your greased cake pan. I lined my with parchment which I think was a good idea so you might want to do that too. Mix the mixture around to evenly coat the bottom then place the cherries in, singled layered and not overlapping,%u00a0but get as many in as you can.%u00a0(You can do them all facing hte same way like me or not, I don’t know if it would really make much of a difference.)%u00a0
Time for cake batter. Mix the sugar and zest of the lemon into the bowl of flour, baking soda and powder, and salt.%u00a0
In goes oil. milk, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla. Give it all a good whisk%u00a0
Stop when it is all mixed and incorporated. Don’t want to over mix or the cake with get tough.%u00a0
Batter gets poured right onto cherries in pan and the whole sha-bang gets popped into the oven for about 50 minutes to turn into golden brown, upside-down cherry greatness.%u00a0
Now for the best part, you must wait at least a few minutes, if not ten, to pop the cake right side up? Or os it now upside down? And be careful cause it’s hot. Tip . Before inverting cake, run a knife around the edge of the pan to make sure cake is loose. Once cake is upside down on cooling rack (use a cooling rack, not a plate so the %u00a0bottom dset getting soggy),%u00a0give the pan a good tap tap with a wooden spoon until the cake pops out.%u00a0%u00a0If a cherry or two got stuck, its ok, just stick it back to the cake.. no one will know.%u00a0
And loooooook at that. Upside down cakes are always like magic.%u00a0
As you can see, it didn’t stand a chance. A piece cut within minutes because how can you not.
I finally did it, I shared my cherry stash, and I feel good about it because all the people looooved the cake so it was worth it. And I still have cherries left for me!!
Now go upside-down a cake.%u00a0
-C
makes a 10 inch upside-down cake.%u00a0
Preheat oven to 350.%u00a0
Start by rinsing and pitting cherries. Remove all stems, cut cherries in half, and remove pits. I use my thumb and just kind of pop them out, but do it anyway you feel like. If using a fancy de-pitter, you are going to want to cut the cherries in half.%u00a0%u00a0After you have removed all pits, DOUBLE CHECK that there are no pits.. Pits will crack a tooth for reals.
Grease and line a 10 inch cake pan with parchment. Dump the melted earth balance and brown sugar in bottom and mix together. Spread mixture all around then grab sliced cherries and place them, single layered, into mixture. Get as many as you can in there without overlapping.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and soda, the salt, the white sugar, and the zest of the lemon. Once fully combined add in the soy milk, apple cider vinegar, the oil, and the vanilla. Mix that all up until just combined. Pour batter all over the cherries in the pan. Level out batter and pop into the oven (middle rack) for 45-55 minutes, or until the cake is a nice deep golden brown and a tester stuck in the middle comes out clean.
Once the cake is bake, let it sit on counter for about 10 minutes. %u00a0Once slightly cooled, grab knife and run it along the edge of the cake. Take a cooling rack and place on top of cake then flip upside down. Tap around he pan with a spoon then gently lift pan away.%u00a0
Tada. You should have yourself something fantastic and great. And no worries if a cherry or two got stuck to pan, just pop it back on to the cake.
And now all you need to do is eat the cake. So do that.%u00a0
The day started off with rhubarb soup and ended in cinnamon walnut rhubarb bread. The bread was a star,%u00a0the soup, not so much, which sucked because I was so excited and so sure it was going be fantastic. Tomatoes, rhubarb, and fresh ginger.%u00a0Doesn’t that sound good? I still have hopes for the combination, but the batch I made was way way to acidic and thick and spicy because I added so much fresh ginger to it that it made the mr’s eye water and my nose run a little. So yeah, the soup needed work, but I was not going to end my day of rhubarb cooking with a fail. Also I felt like I owed it to the mr to make him something that he found edible. He really did not like the soup.
I knew the mr wanted (or at least he hinted at) pie but I had no time for pie. I already spent the morning making not so good soup and I had shit I needed to do. Pie would just take a little to long.%u00a0Quick bread was more in my time frame. A few minutes to chop and mix,%u00a0toss it into the oven for a while. and done.%u00a0%u00a0I had time to cleaned up, run to the post office and bank (I should probably tell you not to leave your oven on when you are not in the house, but I do, but only for short periods of time. And don’t tell the mr. He will kill me) and come back to the house not on fire and fresh cinnamon walnut rhubarb bread. I felt redemption,%u00a0even this it was not pie. The mr didn’t complain, not one bit.%u00a0
And by the way, the soup made it’s way into a different batch of soup that had other stuff in it and it WAS fantastic.%u00a0
The stuff. Rhubarb and walnuts and a bowl with flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Also have coconut oil, brown sugar, soy milk, and a little dish or more brown sugar, cinnamon, and coconut oil for the topping.%u00a0
Chop rhubarb and walnuts into small pieces, not tiny pieces, but not big ones either.%u00a0
Mix the brown sugar and coconut oil into dry mixture, then add in the milk and vinegar and mix until just incorporated (don’t over mix).
Don’t forget to mix in the rhubarb and walnut pieces.%u00a0
Pour batter into a greased pan and then its %u00a0time for the cinnamon sugar topping. (cinnamon+sugar+coconut oil=rainbows?)
Cinnamon sugar topping %u00a0gets crumbled on and I found a few stray walnuts so I tossed those on top too. %u00a0
Now it’s time for the oven.
Look at that, fresh from the oven. So handsome.%u00a0%u00a0Pop it out of the tin and get it onto a wire rack to cool.%u00a0
And when it’s cooled a little and you are ready to take a seat, you slice and eat.
-C
makes one loaf
Cinnamon Sugar Topping
Preheat oven to 350
Chop rhubarb into small 1/2 inch pieces. If your walnuts are whole, chop those up into small pieces as well.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix together then add in the brown sugar and %u00a0the melted coconut oil and mix. Then add in the say milk %u00a0and apple cider vinegar and mix until all is incorporated. %u00a0Stir in the chopped rhubarbd and walnuts.
Pour batter into a well greases bread pan. For the cinnamon topping, just add the cinnamon and brown sugar to the melted coconut oil and mix. %u00a0Crumble the mixture on top of the bread. if you have a few more walnuts, you can toss those on top too.%u00a0Pop bread into preheated oven.
Bake for 60 -70 minutes %u00a0or until a tester stuck into the middle comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. When ready, cut and eat.
Bread lasts 3 day in airtight container on counter, a few days longer in the fridge. %u00a0Freezes well.%u00a0
The person that invented sprinkles is a very smart person. Whoever they are, I wonder if they new exactly what they were doing, that even the mention of sprinkles can, and does, drive a person (mostly littles) mad with the need for sugar. Just the mere glimpse of the rainbow colored topping was enough to bribe a few little littles into somewhat decent behaviors, even for just a little while (especially when I let them know about the sprinkles on the inside, well they just snapped into line).%u00a0No rainbow sprinkle cupcake if you don’t clean up and eat all you peas!. That goes for everyone, not just the littles. Haha.%u00a0
Have you notice that most of the snow melted and it’s finally spring? Whoop whoop. Now that the house is feeling fresh because the windows and doors are thrown open, I feel the need to blast music and bake. I went with cupcakes because I haven’t in a while, and lemon because its fresh, and sprinkles because we need to celebrate spring and really, sprinkles in and on everything will never be a bad idea.
%u00a0I have more or less been using kind of the same recipe for a vegan vanilla cake for a while. And while it was a good cake, it was never a great cake. When I made these I decided to tweak it a bit and they came out awesome. Finally a great cake. The mr, the littles, everyone who has eaten one has reached for another. And eaten the crumbs off the table and licked the parchment wrappers clean.%u00a0The littles even asked if they could have the recipe so when they grow up they can make them by themselves. (So cute.) A cake winner here for sure.%u00a0%u00a0
So if you are feeling sprinkly and lemony and want a sweet, then go, go to your kitchen. Throw open the windows, blast some tunes, and bake away.%u00a0
The stuff. Vegan butter, oil, sugar, and a few lemons. Flour, baking soda and powder, salt, plant milk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract*, and of course sprinkles.%u00a0
*I used imitation vanilla extract because I have read in more then a few placed that the typical funfetti cake uses it. So I did and there were zero complaints.%u00a0
Start by mixing the dry together along with the zest of the lemon. After zesting, add the juice of one of the lemons and the apple cider vinegar the milk and give it a mix.%u00a0
Beat together the sugar, butter, and oil until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla.%u00a0
Then to mix it all together. Interchange adding dry to the butter mixture and beating, then add some milk mixture. Repeat until lit’s all mixed and beat just until everything is all incorporated. Don’t over beat the mixture.%u00a0
And for the happiness. Fold in the sprinkles.
Cupcake tin lined and greases. Fill each equally until you have no batter left.%u00a0
Into a hot oven they go to bake and be great.
Baked and looking all sprinkly. %u00a0Get them out of the tin and onto a wire rack to cool.%u00a0
While the cupcakes are cooling, make thefrosting. Vegan butter, powdered sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice %u00a0with a splash of vanilla. Or if you want to make it all vanilla, omit lemon zest and juice with %u00a0more vanilla extract and a little splash or plant milk.%u00a0
All beaten together until nice and thick and creamy.%u00a0
Then it’s time. Get them frosted.
And don’t forget to add more sprinkles.
Now you are done and now you eat.
The rainbow coffee cup was a completely coincidence.%u00a0
-C
makes 12 cupcakes%u00a0
For the frosting%u00a0
Preheat 350
First zest the lemons because it is alway easier to zest a whole lemon then a half of one. Measure out the milk and add In the juice of one lemon and the apple cider vinegar.%u00a0In a small bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and %u00a0the zest of the two lemons . In another bowl beat together the sugar, vegan butter, oil, and the vanilla. Interchange adding %u00a0the dry mixture into the butter sugar mixture and bating with the wet mixture. Once all is together, %u00a0beat only until all the ingredients are incorporated, then stop so you don’t over beat.%u00a0
Grease and line a cupcake pan and fill each mold evenly until batter is gone.. Bake for about 20- 22 %u00a0minutes or until a slight golden brown and a tester comes out clean. %u00a0Once baked, remove from pan and place on a rack to cool completely.%u00a0
While cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting. Beat together the butter, sugar, and the juice and zest of a lemon until light and fluffy. IF the frosting seems to thin add in a splash of milk or too the, a few tablespoons more of powdered sugar.%u00a0%u00a0!f you prefer vanilla frosting, omit the lemon and add another 1/2 %u00a0teaspoon of vanilla and a splash of plant milk.%u00a0
Once cupcakes are cooled, frost them and cover with sprinkles.%u00a0
Eat at your leisure. Cupcakes will last in a airtight container for 3-4 days but really, they probably will be gone before you get a chance to hide them.%u00a0