Hi all! I realize its been a while since a recipe has appeared on this blog. But good things come to those who wait, and I have several recipes, the results from my kitchen experiments that took place over this past weekend, ready and about to come your way.
I was skeptical when baking up this particular Matcha cake, worried it wouldn’t come out tasting as delectable as I hoped. I was especially anxious because I would be serving it to friends with high expectations 😉 However I was relieved to find this cake immediately claimed as the favorite sweet on the table!!!
Another sinfully decadent chocolate dessert, without the loads of sugar. Imagine that. The three friends who sampled this one raved about it. This recipe (#49) is gluten-free and low in refined sugar. If you want to keep it 100% refined sugar-free, skip the ganache topping. The dessert will still be DELICIOUS. The mousse filling is made with protein packed Greek yogurt. The texture is light and creamy, which makes this a dangerous one. Its easy to eat more than one slice. Like a box of Girl Scout Thin Mints, it has a way of disappearing quickly. What can offer some peace of mind is that fact that the ingredients are far healthier and lighter than those of a typical chocolate mousse pie. Enjoy this tasty treat!
Calling all chocolate lovers, I have a succulent recipe for your eating pleasure. Behold, chocolate cream pie. This one (recipe #45) however, unlike the majority of others in its family, is gluten-free AND refined sugar-free! The texture of it is lovely. Silky smooth. The flavor is rich and chocolatey, but the pie itself is light. Be careful, it would be easy to eat several slices of this one in one sitting.
Calling all chocoholics! Another fudgy, rich, impossibly delicious treat just for you. This one has a short and sweet ingredient list and is a piece of cake to throw together. The result is a bakery-quality torte that will have you singing its praises every time you take a bite. Its that good.
Recipe #41 is one of the few I have posted which is not refined sugar-free, but, this one is worth the splurge. It is however gluten-free, and can be made dairy free if you were to use lactose-free chocolate (your choice).
Christmas as well as winter time in general practically begs for a requisite mug of tea or coffee to be wrapped within ones hand. I personally go for (green) tea, but I know most of you likely prefer coffee. Either way, to each his own. And what would coffee/tea be without a little something sweet on the side? However, I am sympathetic to the plight of expanding waistlines that seems to always inevitably come with the holiday season. That is why I whipped up this particular cake for your tasting (and viewing, because its a rather pretty cake) pleasure.
Made from buckwheat flour (which isn’t a wheat at all, its actually a fruit seed) which means the cake is wheat/gluten free, its also refined sugar-free and lactose-free. Hows that for something truly sweet during the holiday season? Now all we need is a blanket of glittering white come Christmas day. Then, perfection.
For this particular recipe, I decided to continue my foray into experimenting with slightly more unique flavors. My love affair with lavender is still going strong, but I recently became intrigued with the idea of doing some baking with rose. Yes, actual rose petals. Hence, the result is this cake which came out surprisingly lovely.
Drum roll for my second raw recipe…#25…and seriously? Its a GOOD one. One of the people I live with sampled it and said it was his “favorite thing” out of all the recipes I have made thus far!!!! I don’t know if its the best but I have to say, its among the top. This one came out shockingly great. The flavors together are just awesome. The texture is fun, the carrots giving it a nice crunch. The coconut and coconut flour lend the cake a slightly hearty feel. The sweetness just right. This is a pretty bomb dessert if I do say so myself. And it was all the result of an experimental whim. The best part? Its HEALTHY!!! The recipe is refined sugar-free and gluten-free. AND its raw!!!
(The cake itself is lactose free, though the frosting is not).
The recipe may look like a lot of steps. It isn’t. Half of the steps are simply regarding how to assemble it once the cake mixture is made. So do not be intimidated! This is one of the easiest desserts you will ever throw together, and with major taste payoff. The actual making of the cake is just steps 1-5 in the recipe below.
Yes, I am showcasing yet another cheesecake. But are you really so surprised? With the holiday season underway, I felt like this was a great opportunity to continue with the experimental cheesecake flavors. This dessert is also in one of the key Christmas colors! How is that for some thematic fun? For recipe #23, I decided to jump on the Matcha trend bandwagon.
Along with pumpkin, butternut squash, cinnamon and sweet potato, carrot is another top contender for flavors of fall (though I realize at this point, we have segued into winter. But carrot cake is fitting for all cold months). Carrot cake, bread, muffins, cookies, its all delectable. There is something so homey, down to earth and invitingly earthy about a slice of this flavor of cake. I love the slightly spiced taste that this sweet bread lends.
These carrot cake cupcakes are refined sugar-free, gluten-free and dairy-free (though the frosting I recommend is not dairy free. But man oh man, a carrot cake sweet bread just isn’t the same without a cream cheese flavor of frosting).
Coming at you as recipe #21 is another lovely-to-look-at cheesecake. Cheesecake is simply the bomb diggity. It pairs beautifully with tea or coffee. Its the perfect recipe to whip up for any celebration or get together, as its an easy one and always a crowd pleaser. Plus, the possibilities for flavor combinations are wide open. Its rich but not overwhelming. Sweet but not too sweet. Creamy, totally delicious.
I have been smitten with this particular dessert (OK lets be real, all desserts) since I was roughly twelve years old. But the moment I truly fell in love with it was at my family’s little cottage where we used to spend a week or two every summer throughout my childhood, right on Lake Superior. Many of my most loved and nostalgic memories take place with our “camp” (as well called it) as the setting.
This would be me with my little brother during one of these said camp summers.
During the particular summer when I was first introduced to cheesecake, I was on the cusp of my teenage years, which is a period that comes with more free reign than being a child offers. I had my own money. I could actually buy certain things that I wanted, of my own accord. The power and thrill that came with that, watch out. I used some of my meager funds to purchase a box of Sarah Lee Cheesecake Bites, which I had never sampled prior to this summer. Since then, I haven’t looked back. My love affair with cheesecake has only deepened over the years.
A man I dated briefly about a year ago nearly caused me to fall out of my seat when he told me during our get-to-know-you conversation that 1. he was a professional chef and 2. his specialty? Cheesecake. My jaw dropped. The one heartbreak from that short and sweet handful of dates with this (another perk, admittedly beautiful) man? That I never had the chance to sample this supposedly earth moving cheesecake. Oh, the regret!
December, one of the best months of the year. Christmas lights twinkling. Fires roaring in hearths and rustic wood stoves. Mittens and scarves have officially made a reappearance. Hot chocolate and tea are constants on rotation as the comforting warm drink of choice (alongside of coffee, which diehards tend to drink all year regardless). Decorations are hung. Christmas music is played, to an annoying degree for some (though personally, I love it). Cookies are baked and piped with colorful icing. Cards filled with affectionate sentiments are penned. Church on Christmas Eve with choir sung carols, magical. Finding for the perfect personal gifts for those you love. Thick books truly ideal for this month of the year, diving into an immersive, spellbinding, towering tale while holed up under your favorite blanket. Snow, a glittering blanket across the landscape. All of this and more is why I think December is fantastic.
Another awesome aspect of December…chocolate cake. This particular cake is decked out, much like the halls, during this month of the year (wink, wink).
Sugar-free, raw, gluten-free or lactose-free recipes. 