Page 58: Apple-Cinnamon Toastie

What is a "toastie" you may ask? I wasn't sure either, but it appears to be a sort of streuselesque tea cake. And this one, as with most BabyCakes goodies (save all cupcakes attempts to date), is fantastic. Toastie is now and forevermore part of our household vocabulary.

The batter for this goodness included applesauce and cinnamon, and you also fold in some roasted apples.  Then you make a separate batter derived from the original batter with some extra cinnamon, sugar, and water. You pour the second batter on top of the original batter and swirl it in, thus creating a delicious swirl of streusel throughout the loaf. And a yummy and sweet crunchy streusel top.

Although I think I baked it at least 50% longer than called for, I was patient this time and left it in until the toothpick came out clean. My patience was rewarded and, unlike the banana bread fiasco, it came out perfect. Fluffy, with a lovely balance of apple, cinnamon, and sweetness. And the crunchy streusel top was the best part.

It was wonderful warm... right out of the oven... but we didn't stop there. For dessert we warmed a couple of pieces in the toaster oven and added a scoop of ice cream (soy for me, dairy for the hubby, who actually requested coconut milk which I didn't have but the request still made my day). It tasted similar to an apple crisp and was quite yummy!

The next morning, I stole an idea from the St. Regis Princeville and fried up some slices in a pan with a little bit of earth balance (that's a butter substitute for you not in the vegan-know). This created a sort of apple cinnamon french toast. And it was amaaaazing! Slightly crunchy on the outside but still soft inside with a roasted apple peaking through every once in awhile. I topped it with a homemade cinnamon butter syrup using a recipe from my favorite vegan recipe genius, Morgan at Little House of Veggies. The combination was nothing short of delectable.

We definitely made the most out of the this toastie this weekend! And it's definitely going in the "to make again" category.

Page 87: Chocolate Cupcakes and Page 93: Chocolate Frosting

Oh, cupcake... why do you torment me so?

I gave the cupcake another chance, and it once again got the best of me.

I incorporated all my lessons learned this time.  I didn't fill the cups too full and baked them for a significantly shorter time. When they were still warm out of the oven I sampled and was so excited because they seemed much lighter and fluffier than all prior versions. "I MADE CUPCAKES!" I declared! "Not muffins, not tea cake, CUPCAKES"! Even hubby thought they were more cupcake-like and commented how much lighter they felt just by weight.

See how they even look more cupcake-like? It was wonderful. And I strutted around the house the rest of the day thinking I finally mastered the gluten free/dairy free BabyCakes masterpiece.  But by the time they all cooled and I frosted them, not so fluffy anymore. And... once frosted I keep them in the fridge because the frosting is so fragile and by the next day they were pretty much as dry and dense as all previous attempts. Maybe not refrigerating them would help, but then my frosting would just be a disaster. Perhaps the trick is to make and frost them immediately before serving (oh sure, that's not inconvenient at all...).

Sigh. There are two more cupcake recipes in the book, so I'll keep trying with Red Velvet and Meyer Lemon and Bing Cherry versions eventually. But if I fail there too it may all be over. There are just too many better things going on in that book to keep making disappointing cupcakes!

In related news, I continue to learn and master the intricacies of frosting making. I had to make a couple adjustments to this batch.... I had almond milk instead of soy milk, which won't hold up as well in the frosting, so I substituted canned coconut milk - which made it very creamy. I also ran out of agave nectar (I have been burning through that stuff like crazy... thank goodness they sell it at Costco) about 1/8 of a cup shy of what was required, so I substituted maple syrup for the remaining amount which seemed to work out just fine.

The texture was pretty good after chilled, but I wanted it a bit thicker so tried the food processor trick and added a little coconut oil to the chilled frosting. DISASTROUS! It all clumped up like curdled milk and I nearly cried. But I let it warm up to room temperature again and put it through the blender a second time in small batches.  This seemed to do the trick and got it back to the original texture, and after it chilled all was right with the world again.

Looks better than it tasted. Oh well.

So here is what I think: I love BabyCakes, but either I do not care for, or cannot adequately replicate her cupcakes. So, I'll continue to adore and remake many other BabyCakes recipes, but perhaps research a way to make a better gluten free/dairy free cupcake. I heard the woman who started Sticky Fingers Bakery in D.C. uses soda water to make them lighter, so maybe I'll start to experiment with other tricks like that. But for now, onward with other BabyCakes recipes!

Page 121: Cherry Cobbler

After remaking the Blackberry, Peach, and Oat Cobbler (see previous post) for dinner guests last week, I decided I really wanted to try the BabyCakes book's other cobbler, this one of the cherry variety. But cherries are always so pricey so I kept wimping out and going back to the blackberry and peach one. Plus, the Cherry Cobbler recipe calls for it to be made in eight 6-ounce ramekins, which, despite the fact ramekins are cute and I love cute things and my kitchen is full of lots of small prep and snack bowls, I do not yet own.

This all changed when I got an email from Whole Foods advertising their one-day Friday sale: organic cherries for $2.99 a pound. I was thrilled. And I bought five pounds. Still no ramekins but I figured at that price I could improvise and just make a large cobbler instead.

Also prompting my adventure was the fact that the hubby's birthday was Wednesday.  Since he was out of town on the actual day of his birthday, I made him his favorite meal last night and the cobbler was slotted to be his birthday dessert.

I learned one very important thing in making this cobbler: I need a cherry pitter. Granted, it didn't take as long as I feared to pit three cups of cherries by hand, but my right thumb is still stained dark red.

This cobbler is topped with pie crust like dough, as opposed to the crumbly goodness that tops the blackberry and peach version. By itself, I actually liked the crust better (and the dough was delish too) - but I think I prefer the crumbly topping over the fruit.

Still, it was quite good, and the presentation was a bit prettier than the other version:

We topped it with ice cream (the real stuff for hubby - it was his birthday dinner after all) and I added a candle, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture because he definitely thought the candle was somewhat ridiculous. He just doesn't get into birthdays the way I do.

Yum!

Also - I still have approximately three and a half pounds of cherries so I might have to break out some other cherry recipes later this week...

Page 80: Blondies

I was looking for the perfect treat to take to a beachside BBQ for the fourth of July holiday last week. The pre-BabyCakes me would have simply taken cookies or some other standby, tried and true recipe. But, in keeping with my mission, I picked a yet-untested recipe from the BabyCakes book (in this case one that was simple and did not require frosting... a girl only has so much time to spend in the kitchen...) and went for it - and these were yummy!

I've never made blondies before. Maybe because I am generally of the belief that chocolate should be used in as many desserts as possible. Why would anyone want a vanilla brownie? But these little bites were delicious and had many fans at the BBQ. It might not have hurt that their only competition was a bag of Chewy Chips Ahoy. Oh well, I'll take the credit regardless!

So, the typical players here - garbanzo-fava bean flour, brown rice flour, potato starch (it had been awhile since I had to break that stuff out, actually), arrowroot, etc. When I mixed it all up and tasted the batter I said to myself: "self, this really tastes like chocolate chip cookie batter...". As directed, I made them in mini-muffin tins (which I am beginning to love because they only bake for nine minutes and thanks to my 24-cup tin I'm done in two batches!).

They were delish - right out of the oven they were gooey little nuggets of sweet goodness. Indeed, the finished product was also similar to that of a cakey chocolate chip cookie.

I'm sorry - I am still very lacking in the photo documentation department. And yes, I have regressed to the iPhone. 

The recipe says that blondies are best served warm and you should actually leave them in the tins to preserve freshness. This was a problem for me on two levels: 1) I needed to reuse the tins for batch two (sorry, Erin - most non-commercial kitchens don't have that much bakeware!) and 2) I was going to a BBQ on the beach. Portability was key here.

So, as I tend to do with most baked goods, once cooled I popped them in the freezer to make them stackable in a portable container. Then they went into the cooler and off we went.

When I took them out to serve them after the grilling was finished, the chilled version was very reminiscent of balls of cookie dough! In a good way, though. Definitely a winner.

I apologize for my lack of photos. I didn't even get one of the BBQ. Although I do have one I took of my view from the BBQ, so I will leave you with that:

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!