eat me:. mini chocolate pumpkin whoopie pies {& happy thanksgiving!}

Happy thanksgiving everyone, I hope y'all had a wonderful day.  I've had a lovely weekend getting to spend time with family, playing a million rounds of Dutch Blitz and getting to drink tea and watch movies while outside is a little cloudy and grey.

As mentioned last post, one of my most favourite parts of fall is getting to pick pumpkins, roast them and then make as many pumpkin flavoured things as possible.  Last year I made this cake which turned out amazing.  I was tempted to make again for this thanksgiving, but I decided to mix it up and try something a little bit different.  Namely, whoopie pies.  Whoopie pies have intrigued me for a while now, kind of like a bite-sized cake in the form of a sandwich cookie and absolutely nothing like pie, they seemed like the perfect treat for when you want something sweet and small.  And they are.  I was a little unsure about pumpkin frosting, but it is DELICIOUS and I would make it again in a heartbeat to frost any number of fall-flavoured cakes.

mini chocolate pumpkin whoopie pies. recipe adapted from martha stewart.

chocolate cookies.
1 3/4 C. flour.
3/4 C. cocoa powder.
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda.
1 tbsp. butter.
1/4 C. vegetable shortening.
1/4 C. sugar.
1/2 C. brown sugar.
1 egg.
1 C. milk.
1 tsp. vanilla.

in a mixer cream butter, shortening and sugars until pale and fluffy. add egg and beat for another few minutes.  sift together cocoa powder, flour, and baking soda.  mix together milk and vanilla.  starting and ending with the flour mixture, alternate between adding dry and wet ingredients to the sugar mixture.  mixing until just incorporated.  spoon two teaspoons at a time onto a greased or parchment lined baking sheet, spacing about two inches apart. bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until bottoms are darker brown but not burnt and tops spring back when touched.  let cool on a cooling rack before frosting.  makes about 40 cookies, enough for 20 finished whoopie pies.

pumpkin frosting.
1/2 C. cream cheese.
1/2 C. butter.
1/2 C. powdered sugar.
1/2 C. flour.
1/4 C. pumpkin puree.
a pinch of nutmeg.
a pinch of cinnamon.

in a mixer cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy, about five minutes.  add powdered sugar, flour and spices, mix. add pumpkin.  using an offset spatula or a piping bag spread the flat side of one cookie with frosting and place second cookie, flat side facing in, on top.

I hope you have a wonderful week full of things that bring you happiness. xo, T.

 

eat me: sweet potato bourbon bundt cake.

So it is finally fall! Hooray! And fall means fall recipes, which for me generally mean things involving large amounts of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.  I don't really know why, but they're just the perfect comforting balance to the crisp fall weather outside.  My most favourite part of fall is that pumpkins are in season. I adore pumpkins.  Although I hate pumpkin pie.  Figure that one out, I think it's a texture thing. 

Anyways, we have not yet gone on our lockport adventure to pick pumpkins so I thought I would try out a new fall recipe, one with sweet potatoes.  As you have probably noticed from the chocolate beet cake and carrot orange muffins, I like baking with vegetables. Sometimes things get a little weird, but generally you always end up with something super moist and subtly delicious tasting!  This cake turned out really well and was super simple - no frosting, just dumping melted chocolate on top and watching it deliciously run down the sides.  As for the bourbon, it adds a nice warmth and spice and all the actual alcohol content bakes out, but it can easily be replaced with apple juice if bourbon isn't your thing.

sweet potato bourbon bundt cake. adapted and slightly modified from martha stewart.

1 C. brown sugar
1/3 C. butter
2 eggs
1 C. cooked and mashed sweet potato. (approximately 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes [yams] preferably organic.)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 3/4 C.flour
1 1/2 C. milk
1/3 C. bourbon
1/3 C. apple juice (or 2/3 C if not using bourbon)
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. ginger.
1 tsp. nutmeg.
1/3 C. chopped pecans + more for sprinkling.
1 C. dark chocolate chips or finely chopped baking chocolate.

cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add eggs one at a time. add sweet potato. in a separate bowl mix together flour, spices and baking soda. starting with the dry ingredients alternate,adding to the butter mixture with the milk.  add bourbon and apple juice and mix until just combined.  stir in pecans.  pour into a prepared bundt pan and bake at 325 degrees until a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean, 50 - 60 minutes.  let cool in pan for 20 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

to make the chocolate glaze melt the chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds until melted and smooth. to thin into a glaze pour in a few tablespoons of milk while stirring and mix until incorporated and smooth (it takes a bit of mixing!) repeat until desired thickness is reached.  pour over cake and sprinkle with chopped pecans.

enjoy! 

ps. - does anyone else feel that a bundt cake with glaze looks like a giant donut from above?  That is all I could think about while I was taking photos.  I have a weird mind.

Happy Fall! xo, T.

eat me:. whole wheat saskatoon shortcake.

So, it's already the middle of August, and I'm already dreading the end of summer. I really like being warm, being outside all the time in the sunshine and the chance to go to the beach. In an effort to prolong summer as long as possible I decided to bake the most summery dessert I could think of, shortcake. Shortcake is the quintessential summer dessert to me, light and sweet with fresh whipped cream and fruit. I decided to make it the prairie girl version by swapping the usual strawberries with saskatoons. Best choice ever.

Whole wheat Saskatoon Shortcake. Shortcake recipe modified from joy the baker.

for the shortcake:

1 C. flour.

1 C. whole wheat flour.

1/4 C. sugar.

2 tsp. baking powder.

1/3 C. cold butter, cut into small cubes.

1 large egg.

1 tsp. vanilla extract.

1/2 C. milk.

sugar for sprinkling.

In a bowl sift together flours, sugar and baking powder. cut in butter with a fork or pastry cutter until it looks crumbly. mix together wet ingredients. form a well in the centre of dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients, slowly mixing together. Knead together and transfer to a floured surface, kneading and stretching a few times. Form into a rectangle approximately 6"x9". I made my cakes smaller than suggested so they weren't so thick. this makes nine shortcakes. if your prefer larger, thicker pieces then form the dough into 4"x 7" and cut into six pieces. sprinkle tops with sugar and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. let cool.

for the whipped cream:

1 C. whipping cream.

1 tsp. sugar.

in an electric mixer beat the cream and sugar on high until soft peaks form. don't overbeat. you can also do this by hand, it'll just take a while longer.

for the saskatoon compote:

2 C. saskatoons.

1 1/2 C. sugar.

in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat bring saskatoons and sugar to a boil, stirring constantly throughout. let simmer for a minute or two then transfer to a bow and let cool, it should thicken up quite a bit.

To serve cut short cakes in half and layer on whipped cream and saskatoons to your hearts content.

Have the sweetest rest of your summer! xo, T.

eat me:. chocolate beet cake.

Last week I got together with two of my lovely friends to bake a chocolate beet cake.  It may sound a little weird, but after watching this video we were convinced we needed to try it.  And it was delicious, or at least we thought so, I did get an odd look from aunt when I told her about it.  Still, it was a yummy way to use some of the beets I had gotten at this summer's farmer's market!

One of my lovely friends is a super talented photographer, you can find her blog here, she took the loveliest photos while we were baking, and these are some of my favourites!  Make sure you take a peek at her blog, it's full of beautiful images!

chocolate beet cake.  adapted from Tiger in a jar video.

2 C. flour.
2 tsp. baking soda.
1 1/2 C. brown sugar.
1 C. butter.
1/2 C. cocoa powder. or 4 oz. semi sweet baking chocolate.
1 tsp. vanilla.
2 C. beets.  roasted, peeled and mashed.
3 eggs.
1/2 C. milk.

beat sugar and butter on high speed unitl fluffy, five minutes or so.  add eggs and vanilla. sift together flour, baking soda nd cocoa powder.  alternating between milk and dry ingredients, mix everything together.  you may need to add a bit more milk, you want the batter to be thick but still liquidy and pourable.  stir in beets.  pour into two prepared nine inch baking pans and bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

cream cheese frosting.  because we decided cake is not complete without frosting. a family recipe.

1/4 C. cream cheese.
1/4 C. butter.
3 C. icing sugar.
1/2 C. flour.
2 tsp. vanilla.
milk.

cream butter and cream cheese in a mixer until fluffy.  add flour and icing sugar and mix. add vanilla. add milk slowly until desired consistency is reached, thick, but spreadable.  frost your lovely cake with an offset spatula.

I hope you all have the most wonderful week! xo, T.

eat me: mango coconut upside down cake.

I've been missing Brazil lately.  A lot.  When I went in December it was the first time I had been to South America and it was an amazing experience, occasionally overwhelming, but so good!  I loved the beaches, the sand, the waves, the buildings, the tiling everywhere, the fruit, the shoes...I adored the shoes!! The fruit especially was amazing, I have never eaten a mango or a pineapple that has tasted nearly as good as the ones I had there!  I had a mango for breakfast almost everyday, along with coconut cake.  Yep, cake is a breakfast food in Brazil.  Until then I hated coconut, or at the least the super sweet north American version, but between the cake, popsicles, coconut water, and candies Brazil converted me.  I LOVE coconut.

So after six months of being home and wishing I was on the beach at Copacabana, it was time to bake something Brazilian.  This cake turned out super well and combines both of my favourite Brazil flavours, mango and coconut.  The cake is super moist from the coconut milk and the coconut flavour isn't sweet, it's just...nice, it's kind of a soft taste.  I was a little hesitant about cooking mango but it turned out lovely and sweet on top of the cake!

mango coconut upside down cake.  very loosely adapted from flavors of Brazil. a little blog that has a whole bunch of other Brazilian-inspired recipes!

mango topping

1/8 C. brown sugar

2 tbsp. butter.

1 1/2 medium-sized, ripe but firm mangoes.

cake.

1/4 C.  butter.
1/2 C.  white sugar.
1 egg.
1 1/2 C. flour.
2 tsp baking powder.

1 1/2 C. coconut milk.

1/2 C. shredded, unsweetened coconut.

1/2 mango, cut into cubes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  while oven is heating place butter in 9" round cake pan and place in oven to melt.  once butter is melted mix in brown sugar and smooth evenly across baking pan surface and sides until evenly coated.  slice mango into thin slices, about 1/8" and place in cake pan, covering as much of the surface as possible.  set aside.

In a mixer whip butter and sugar for 5-8 minutes until fluffy.  add egg and mix.  sift flour and baking soda together and add to butter mixture, alternating with the coconut milk until all the flour is added. fold in shredded coconut and mango.  spread evenly into prepared baking pan and bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a knife comes out clean.  let pan sit on a cooling rack for 20 minutes before turning out onto a cake plate.

Writing out this recipe has reminded me that I haven't really shared any of my Brazil photos with you yet, I need to do that!  In the mean time here are my two favourite songs from Brazil:

They played these songs ALL the time while I was in Rio and Sao Paolo.  I have no idea what they're singing about, but I love them.  So bake your cake, listen to Don Omar and pretend you're in Brazil! xo, T.

eat me: grapefruit yogurt cake.

Happy Wednesday!  So, you know that's kind of exciting.  Want to know what else is exciting?

Grapefruit.

yep. 

I don't really know where it came from, but all of a sudden one afternoon it struck me that grapefruit is like, always left out of desserts.  Orange is in everything.  Lemon has a square.  Lime has a pie.  And grapefruit has nothing.  At least nothing I've tasted.  How incredibly unfair.  I decided this needed to be fixed immediately and the result is a delicious one.
This cake is super simple- one of the only things I bake that can be thrown together in one bowl - and super summery.  It's light, and moist, not super sweet and the citrusy taste is nice and refreshing.  And it has yogurt in it.  So it's healthy!! Sort of.

grapefruit yogurt cake. modified from Martha Stewart

1 C. flour.
1/2 C. sugar.
1/2 tsp. baking powder.
1/8 tsp. baking soda.
1/2 C. plain yogurt.
1/4 C. vegetable or canola oil.
zest of one grapefruit.
juice of half a grapefruit.
1 egg.
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract.
1 grapefruit, segmented and zested for garnish.

sift together dry ingredients.  add yogurt, oil, zest, juice, egg and vanilla, beating after each addition.  pour into a prepared 9-10 inch baking pan, baking at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

dust with powdered sugar and garnish with grapefruit segments.

Enjoy! xo, T.

chocolate pear cake.

So it happens to be the end of reading week, fundamentally different from spring break because it isn't actually a break.  No classes, yes, but 8000 assignments due the minute you get back. 

However, since we actually have multiple days off it's rather easy to get lured into thinking you can only do fun things all day.  This was one of those days, sleep in, then go to school for like five hours...and then decide that that is enough work for one day and you should probably spend the evening baking a cake.  Best decision ever.

I had been eyeing this recipe at Smitten Kitchen for a while and decided it was finally time to go for it, brown butter, pears and chocolate. Do you need any other reason to make this?  I don't particularly think so.

I chose to make it with whole wheat flour, so it didn't rise as high but it was still delicious, I would totally make it with whole wheat again!

chocolate and pear cake.

slightly modified from smitten kitchen

1/2  cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder
3 eggs

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar
3 pears, in a small dice

3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks or chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and dust with flour.

Sift the flour and baking powder together, set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on high speed until pale and very thick. (like 10 minutes.)

While the eggs are whipping, brown the butter. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan (because it will foam a lot) and cook it until the butter browns and smells nutty (about 6 to 8 minutes). It helps to frequently scrape the solids off the bottom of the pan in the last couple minutes to ensure even browning. Remove from the heat but keep in a warm spot.

Add the sugar to the eggs and whip a few minutes more.

Just as the egg-sugar mixture is starting to loose volume, turn the mixture down to stir, and add the flour mixture and brown butter. Add one third of the flour mixture, then half of the butter, a third of the flour, the remaining butter, and the rest of flour. Whisk until just barely combined — no more than a minute from when the flour is first added — and then use a spatula to gently fold the batter until the ingredients are combined. It is very important not to over-whisk or fold the batter or it will lose volume.
Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the pear and chocolate chunks over the top, and bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back to the touch, about 40 to 50 minutes or a tester comes out clean.

This was the best afternoon snack.  Enjoy! xo.

oh and some fun things from this week.  Mainly pyrex bowls and wearing three colours at once...

pumpkin cake.

Even though it has been incredibly hot the past few days in my mind it's pretty much fall. 

Although I love beaches and being warm all the time I adore fall more.  All the things I do in the summer - bike rides, wandering aimlessly through pretty little neighbourhoods, being outdoors all the time, flowers, pretty little projects, baking - I can do in the fall, but with tights and boots on, which means I can wear way more of the pretty dresses in my closet!  My family also gets visibly less upset when I go to turn the oven on to bake something. 

Both things make me extremely happy.

One of my very favourite fall things is pumpkins.  I love pumpkin.  Pasta, cookies, cupcakes, anything.  And, since I refuse to bake anything with canned pumpkin I get very excited when the little orange squashes start appearing at the farmers market!

Amazingly, when I went this saturday my favourite organic mennonite farmers had boxes and boxes of perfect little baking pumpkins.  Needless to say I was ecstatic. 

Unfortunately, I was so excited to roast the pumpkin and make something delicious that I didn't take a photo.  Visualize the prettiest little 4 lb pumpkin and you'll be on the right track.

roast pumpkin

To roast the pumpkin I cut it in half, scooped out all the seeds (which you can roast later!), cut off the stem and put the halves face down on a baking sheet.  I placed the baking sheet on the highest rack and turned the to high, ie. just below broil.  It took about 45 minutes to roast this 4 lb pumpkin.

The skin will get charred and black, but when you flip it over (let it cool before you do this, since it's crazy hot) the flesh will be lovely golden orange and super soft, it should peel away easily from the skin.  If it isn't soft enough put it back in the oven for a bit.

I usually just scoop out the flesh, mash it with a fork and keep it in the freezer to use whenever!

It isn't a lot of work and leaves you with very delicous, beautiful pumpkin to use for whatever your heart desires.

Doesn't this make you so excited for fall?

What my heart happened to desire on this particular day was cake.  Layer cake with large amounts of frosting.  Not cupcakes with delicate little swirls, but an entire cake that I could frost with an offset spatula and mass quantities of buttercream.  I really wanted to frost something, it's a very calming experience.

However, the dilemma was what cake recipe to use?  Instead of looking for hours through multiple food blogs and getting incredibly distracted I decided to modify a Martha Stewart recipe I had for pumpkin cupcakes.  Like I said, I really wanted to frost something.

The result was pumpkin layer cake with chocolate cinnamon buttercream.  It was rather delicious!

Enjoy!

mix your dry ingredients together.  cinammon, ginger and nutmeg make me instantly think of fall.

mix your sugars with your (lake) of melted butter.  add the dry ingredients and mix.

mash the pumpkin and add it to the batter.  it becomes the most beautiful orange colour - and tastes rather delish!

spread the batter evenly into two circular cake pans.  I ran out of flour so I dusted my pan with cocoa.

bake until set and let cool.  because of the pumpkin and whole wheat flour the cakes won't rise very high.

place one cake on a cake stand/plate and frost the top with a good amount of buttercream. 
place the second cake on top.

frost the top and sides with an offset spatula and the remaining frosting.

 As mentioned above this cake recipe was modified from this Martha Stewart cupcake recipe.  I changed around some of the ingredient measurements and also swapped in some whole wheat flour.  I was slightly hesitant that it would make the cake really dense and heavy but it didn't and it slightly balances out the large amont of butter used!

pumpkin layer cake

modified from Martha

1 cup flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup salted butter, melted and cooled

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups pumpkin puree

milk

Whisk together the flours and spices.  Since I was a bit afraid how the whole wheat flour would react I sifted it to remove some of the bran/hull so it would be less dense.

In another bowl whisk together sugars and melted butter.  Add eggs.  Add dry ingredients a little at a time and mix until batter is smooth.

Stir in pumpkin puree.  Batter will be quite thick.  I slowly added small amounts of milk to the batter to bring it more to the consistency of brownie batter.  Start with a tablespoon, mix, add a bit more (I think I used 1/4 cup) and keep going until its not as dense but is nowhere near soupy.

Grease and flour (I used cocoa powder because I was out of all purpose flour) two 8 inch circular pans.  Pour an even amount of batter in each and smooth over.

Place in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or unitl tops of cakes are golden and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool in their pans for about 20 minutes and then turn out, running a knife along the edges of the pan to loosen the cake.

The cake will be short and dense and kind of sticky from the oil in the pumpkin and the butter but I promise you that its cooked!

Let cool and frost.

chocolate cinnamon frosting - chocolate and cinammon is my favourite combination, and I thought it would go especially well with the flavours in the pumpkin cake.

modified from my favourite frosting recipe.  I use the same base for every buttercream but this time the flour is replaced by cocoa powder.

3 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

a lot of cinammon

Mix icing sugar and sifted cocoa powder.  Add butter and beat until it begins to get smooth.  Add milk a little at a time until its thinned out but is still quite stiff, you don't want it running off the cake!  Add the cinammon.  I started with a tablespoon and kept adding more because I really wanted to taste the cinammon.  In the end I probably used 3 tablespoons but definitely start with one and add a bit at a time tasting along the way because it will quickly go from just right to way too much spice!

Frost the cake!  You can leave it in the fridge while your cake cools and let it come to room temperature before frosting.

Slice yourself a lovely little piece, sit in the warm almost-autumn sun and get very excited about the lovely cool weather, leaves and boots that lie ahead!  xo.

summery evenings and exciting engagements.

Happy September! 

Now that work is finished the past week and a half have flown by with getting things together for school, baking, kayaking trips (photos to come!) - and wedding related events.  yes.  weddings.

Last weekend specifically was full of wedding loveliness, with two friends very sweet wedding day in Morden - pictures of which do not exist because I was too busy dancing around with glow sticks.  yes.  mennonites love glowsticks - and then my very beautiful cousin's engagement party the following evening.

It was a gorgeous, sunny evening at Assiniboine park, sitting on a tucked away little patio with family and watching the sun set through the lovely prairie grasses.

It was a delightful, calm summery evening with the best food and cake and a chance to spend time with my lovely girl cousins, who just happen to have matching nose piercings - you can tell we're related!

Needless to say I'm pretty pumped for their wedding.  As a general rule I'm pretty pumped for anything that invovlves pretty things, dresses and dance parties.  I'm quite certain Andrea introduced me to Tyler's parents as "this is my cousin, she's super excited for the wedding."  yep.

So, so very lovely!

They have the sweetest engagement story, something involving surprises, explosions, hills and an inevitable yes!  Although I think it happened a little more gracefully than that all sounds.

And finally, everyone's favourite part, cake!  They did a very lovely job of humouring everyone cutting it, since this will be the only cake photo op!

The cake was amazing - and I have high cake standards - chocolate with raspberry buttercream in towering slices.  So very delightful!

I cannot wait  for their wedding, and all the lovely little things leading up to it.  Next up is the shower, and mass amounts of cupcakes and other treats, perhaps you'll get a peek at it too!  xo.