Page 41: Strawberry Shortcake

As I was plotting my recipe timeline to finish this book, I explained to my husband that I had kind of made this one before. Except I was out of spelt flour so I used wheat.  And I didn't have any frosting so we had it with vegan ice cream instead.  He thought it sounded close enough, but I felt that the frosting made a big difference and I lacked photo documentary proof of my last effort.  So... here it is... my second to last recipe: Strawberry Shortcake!

First of all, the biscuits. I love biscuits, especially sweet and scone-like biscuits such as this one. Fortunately it made twelve full size biscuits with enough dough left over to make two mini biscuits I ate immediately after removing the pan from the oven. 

I also made a rather successful batch of vanilla frosting - using half the soy milk called for really seems to make it manageable. Sure glad I figured that one out by the time I got to recipe 51. 

Oh well. The assembled shortcake was good. But it's not strawberry season and did I mention I love biscuits? I ate one as pictured, and then ate two more leftover biscuits plain on Sunday! The rest were consumed by friends in a post-chili-cook-off food coma.

And so, my friends, this brings me to it - just one recipe to go! And can you guess which one I left for the grand finale?  If you read my inaugural post you may have an idea. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait until this weekend.  Fortunately my friend Kim is hosting a holiday party and thus giving me the perfect occasion to bake and celebrate the final BabyCakes adventure from book one.

Watch for recipe 52 - coming SOON! 

Page 55: Jalapeno-Cheddar Corn Bread

We hosted a chili cook-off to watch the Notre Dame vs. USC game on Saturday (go Irish!), and I took the opportunity to pair this last cornbread recipe with a delicious array of chili cooked by me and my friends.

I'm not generally a fan of vegan cheeses, but I bought a block of Daiya Cheddar just for this recipe.  While entirely unimpressive on it's own, it worked well in the finished product.  The cornbread was sweet yet savory and was a perfect pair with the chili.

I also made this cornbread as directed in a loaf pan instead of in mini muffins like the plain version I attempted.  It caved in the middle a bit but was done through and was really moist.  I definitely like it better in this format!

Stay tuned for dessert: Strawberry Shortcake.  One of the last TWO recipes to go!

Page 128: Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Okay, now I really feel like a cheater.  Only when forced to sit down and document my progress did I realize that I've been taking a lot of liberties with the handful of remaining recipes. Let me explain...

I was down to four recipes and it was Thanksgiving - so I thought this pie would be the perfect recipe to knock out in honor of the holiday.

However, rhubarb was nowhere to be found at the three grocery stores I visited last Wednesday. Maybe this is because it's just not rhubarb season, or maybe it's because I live in one of the most remote places in the country. Regardless, it was simply not available.  After several minutes of google research whilst standing in the produce department of grocer number three (what did we do before iPhones?), I learned that cranberries can be substituted for rhubarb in strawberry-rhubarb recipes because they have a similar sour quality. One blogger also advocated the substitution of swiss chard simply because she bought it on accident and couldn't tell the difference (though subsequent google searches strongly advised against this particular substitution).  

It was Thanksgiving after all, and cranberries were so readily available... so I made the switch. I was a woman on a mission with just four recipes to go. So yes, I consider this recipe done.

I cooked the cranberries down with a half cup evaporated cane juice then used them as directed in the recipe.  This addition of sugar probably made the whole thing sweeter, but it turned out pretty good anyway. Besides, since when did extra sugar ruin anything?

I learned my lesson from last year and made the dough only when I was ready to make the pie, and even left it in the fridge for just a smidge under the 20 minutes suggested. It was so much more manageable this time and rolled out easily.  However, the final version still didn't really taste like a pie crust and certainly lacked the flakiness of traditional pie crust.  However, if you have eat gluten free it's probably a pretty good pie considering your options.

While I was at it I made a baby pie in a ramekin so I could sample without cutting into the pie before dinner.

The filling was a tart and sweet combination, and overall I thought it was pretty good.  Not as good as my Mom's pie crust for sure, but considering it doesn't have butter and is made from spelt, I'll take it.

THREE recipes to go!

Page 135: Vanilla Shake

Oops. I really didn't realize this was supposed to be a vanilla shake. I just saw "shake" and that the ingredients contained "one pint vanilla vegan ice cream" and then apparently took some liberties.

Instead of vanilla, I made a chocolate peanut butter shake. However, the last thing I need is an excuse to consume another half-pint of ice cream, so I'm considering this recipe made.

I started with Luna & Larry's dark chocolate ice cream (which is so delicious on it's own by the way) instead of the vanilla.  The rest I did by the book - soy milk, agave nectar, and ice - and then added a heaping spoonful of peanut butter.  Erin McKenna suggests throwing in things like brownies, cookies, and even pie, so I don't think the peanut butter was that far off.  It's really the dark chocolate that made for the biggest deviation.

I know this picture doesn't look all that appealing.  And, honestly, I've made a better vegan shake myself (peanut butter & chocolate chip cookie dough shake anyone?).  But it was ice cream, agave, soy milk, and ice - so of course it was tasty.

Now back to the baking - just FOUR recipes to go!

Page 31: Zucchini Muffins

After being so underwhelmed by the Pumpkin Spice Muffins, I was not exactly excited about to make the zucchini version.  But I had picked up a couple of zucchinis at the farmers market and was banned from the beach the first weekend after LASIK, so I took the plunge.

I was sooo pleasantly surprised! They were sweeter then their pumpkin sibling (although I did learn from that experience and used an extra heavy pour of agave) and so, so, so moist. I think that was really the kicker with these - what sent them over the edge from "meh" to "good" - how crazy moist they were.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take photos before dishing them out among my friends.  Fortunately, my friend April loved them so much she texted me a picture of her breakfast the next day - so I am able to document my success!

Not bad. And... done with muffins! We're in the final countdown. Just FIVE recipes to go!

Page 110: Double Chocolate Crumb Cake

And here is the third and final recipe which was partially derived from the disappointing Red Velvet Cupcakes. I made the vanilla version of this cake for Easter, but since this one involved chocolate crumb base I needed to wait until I had leftover chocolate or red velvet cupcakes to crumble.

I also had a little help in the kitchen since my sister's family was visiting me last week. Even though my nephew Cooper isn't too fond of chocolate (yes, the child is a little crazy in that respect) he was a willing helper and even he could not resist to sneak a handful when I brought out the jar of chocolate chips.

Since Cooper was here his mommy was also here, and she is infinitely better than I at capturing an activity in photos. Therefore, the process was well documented (here's to you, Jess!).

Cooper doesn't like potatoes either, so when he found out the ingredient list contained potato starch, he was less than thrilled.

But the final product didn't look anything like potatoes! Unlike the Easter cake, I watched this thing like a hawk to prevent over-baking it and drying it out. The end result was a pretty moist cake and the extra sweet and salty crumb topping was yummy. 

The recipe calls for chocolate sauce, but since I've severely failed in my attempts to make that previously I opted for a layer of chocolate chips. Sauce would probably be better, though, I have to admit (but probably not the way I make it!). 

I served it for dessert ala mode - the real stuff since I had guests and did not have any non-dairy ice cream!

Despite the chocolate and the potato starch, even Cooper had some.

Seems like it was a hit. Now... just SIX recipes to go!

Page 27: Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I finally made the Apple Cinnamon Muffins. We hosted the Notre Dame game watch last Saturday (which here means guests arrive at breakfast time instead of lunch time) - so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try out this recipe.

They were... okay. Once again I think I overcooked the first try; it's always sad when the bottom of the muffin is slightly burned and dry instead of moist and delicious.  But I adjusted the cooking time down so the second batch turned out better.

I love making the apple items in this book because the smell of the apples roasting in the oven is nothing short of delightful. That being said, these muffins were not as good as the Apple-Cinnamon Toastie which also uses the roasted apples.

I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but I probably will not be making these again.  So far, the blueberry version remains my favorite BabyCakes muffin. But I still have that pesky zucchini recipe lurking so perhaps it will surprise me!

Page 136: Hot Chocolate

Yes, there is a hot chocolate recipe in the BabyCakes book.  Mind you, hot chocolate is not something I crave very often when the overnight low is 74 degrees. But I said every recipe so this one had to go too.

This cocoa is sweetened with agave and flavored with vanilla.  I started with almond milk because I didn't have any soy milk on hand, but the soy version is likely a little creamier.

At first taste, I thought it wasn't sweet enough to compensate for the cocoa powder.  However, after a couple more sips I came to appreciate the darker chocolate flavor that wasn't overly sweet.

In all honesty, I think I prefer Alicia Silverstone's Hot Cocoa recipe from The Kind Life book. She sweetens it with maple syrup instead of agave and adds chocolate chips. But I made this recipe, and that's what counts. EIGHT to go!

Page 30: Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Somehow, I'm down to just ten recipes in the book and still have three muffin recipes to try.  I find this odd because I love muffins. However, two of them are pumpkin and zucchini and those are both very uninspiring to me.  There is a reason the blueberry version happened early in the process.

Anyway, at some point in the past year I had the foresight to purchase a can of pumpkin puree that was sitting in my pantry. Since it's technically fall now, I thought I might as well give these a shot.

Somehow, the BabyCakes muffins always turn out so moist - a quality that is totally opposite from the cupcakes and was a huge relief to me having just come out of the Red Velvet fiasco.  However, these muffins just didn't have a lot of flavor. They were sweetened with 2/3 cup of agave for the whole recipe, but I think they needed more. If I made these again (and I probably won't...) I would add more sugar and/or some chocolate chips.

I tried to redeem them a little bit by brushing extra agave on the top after they came out of the oven, but it made them only slightly better.

With this recipe done, I am now in the single digits! Just NINE recipes to go before I'm through book one!

Page 136: Red Velvet Crumb Base and Page 74: Volcanoes

I had an ulterior motive for making the BabyCakes Red Velvet Cupcakes.  Turns out this other recipe, the Volcanoes, is one of those "make three things before you get here" recipes and I knew that by knocking out the cupcakes I'd have the starter (i.e. cupcake crumbs), to make two more recipes, the Red Velvet Crumb Base and the Volcanoes.

How do you make Volcanoes? Step one, make Red Velvet Cupcakes. Step two, crumble cupcakes and add oil and agave to make the Red Red Velvet Crumb Base.  Step three, shape crumb base into balls, create an indentation for frosting, and bake. Step four, fill with frosting.

Mind you that the cupcakes have already been baked, and I think I've made it clear they were rather dry. So imagine how much they were improved by being baked again. 

That's right - they weren't.

They had a certain burned quality to them, even though I took them out of the oven early. They were hard and not really tasty at all... even after piling as much frosting as possible on top.

Oh well - I am now TWO recipes closer to the end of the book!

Page 97: Red Velvet Cupcakes

Velvet? Not exactly.

As expected, these cupcakes turned out dry and dense and were only marginally improved by the addition of BabyCakes vanilla frosting.  

They weren't "ick! spit it out!" bad, but they were so dry they just crumbled when you tried to take a bite. I found that eating the top half only made the frosting ratio higher, and therefore made them slightly more enjoyable.

The good new? THAT WAS MY LAST CUPCAKE RECIPE! Hooray! I have to admit I'm rather sad that in the entire book there was only one cupcake that I would even consider making again (see Meyer Lemon and Bing Cherry Cupcakes), but I totally blame the gluten free flours and not the absence of eggs, milk, or butter.  

Another silver lining to the story? I took leftover cupcakes and finally had the chance to try out these cake balls I hear so much about (I'm looking at you, Angie and Amy). I crumbled the red velvet cupcakes, added a generous amount of BabyCakes vanilla frosting, and rolled them into balls before dipping them in melted chocolate chips.

Now these... they were downright good. Definitely the best use of a BabyCakes cupcake so far!

Page 125: Ice Cream Pie

I hosted another dinner party recently (okay, it was two months ago - I'm a bad blogger, I know).  As per usual, I used the gathering as an excuse to make another tasty BabyCakes recipe. I like to make the pies and cakes when I know we will have a larger group to help consume them, lest I have leftovers still tempting me when I arrive home from work after a particularly stressful Tuesday.

This ice cream pie starts with a crust made of BabyCakes double chocolate chip cookies.  Then you layer on two pints of vegan ice cream (I used the delicious Island Vanilla flavor of Luna & Larry's coconut milk ice cream), chocolate sauce, and more crumbled cookies.  If you look closely you'll also notice I took the creative liberty of adding a layer of crumbled cookies in between the pints of ice cream.

As you can see, we were all far too distracted with eating the pie to bother with taking pictures.  

This pie was good and relatively simple. You could go all out with different flavors of ice cream, too. I think a version featuring peanut butter would be genius.

So far, so good on the pies and cakes! Unfortunately, a cupcake recipe still remains on my "to bake" list so I fear failure looms in the near future. Stay tuned.

Page 136: Arnold Palmer

As it turns out, I did manage to acquire some tea and knock out the Arnold Palmer Recipe with the same batch of lemonade. I'm just posting it two months after the fact. Yes, I am that bad at blogging. Oh well.

But anyway... back to the point. Agave Lemonade + Yerba Mate Tea = The BabyCakes NYC Arnold Palmer.

It was pretty yummy. I mean we started with that yummy lemonade and added the unique flavor of yerba mate - so I can't say I'm surprised. I would definitely make this again. Well, that is if I ever have a dozen extra lemons sitting around my house that I need to use. Hey... it could happen.

Page 133: Agave Lemonade

I love lemonade!  Especially when it's more tart than sweet, and this agave-sweetened lemonade recipe is my idea of perfect beverage! Some might find it a bit sour, but you could always add more agave.  I thought it was delicious and so refreshing on this warm and sunny July afternoon!

You start with lots of lemons!

Squeeze them...

Add water and agave...

And enjoy over ice!

I'm sipping on it as I write and it's so lovely.  There's also a BabyCakes Arnold Palmer recipe I could so easily knock out right now, if only I had not just run out of yerba mate tea.  Hopefully I can squirrel some lemonade away until tomorrow so I can pick up some tea and check off yet another BabyCakes recipe.  I'll keep you posted!

Page 73: Sugarplum Cookies

I'm on a roll... back already with a new BabyCakes recipe!  Actually two, but I'll get to that later.

These Sugarplum Cookies (apparently also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies) were my last cookie recipe in the book and I've been putting them off for a long time because, quite frankly, they just didn't inspire me.  I've never had sugarplum cookies before and have to admit this is a recipe that I never would have made if I hadn't committed to working my way through the whole book (I mean, there are donuts waiting in book two, friends - DONUTS).  But... since I have committed... here they are.

The underlying cookie is a pretty simple but pretty sweet spice cookie with cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg.  After baking, they're coated in powdered sugar and filled with plum jam.

I was pleasantly surprised by these cookies.  First by the dough, which I ate plenty of in the baking process. Then by the finished product, because the plum jam is subtle and goes oh so well with the spice of the cookie and the super sweet powdered sugar coating.

Not sure these will make it on the staples list at my house but they were a nice treat.  And they are so cute!  Tasty AND cute.  What more could a girl ask for?

While I was in the kitchen I decided to knock out a BabyCakes drink recipe.  My post on BabyCakes Agave Lemonade coming soon!

Page 100: Meyer Lemon and Bing Cherry Cupcakes

It's cherry season!

I always know this because Whole Foods has their annual one-day cherry sale.  I now consider this day one of my favorite holidays of the year.  Last year I purchased five pounds and tried the BabyCakes cherry cobbler.  This year, I own a dehydrator... so I bought ten pounds!

How did I use ten pounds of cherries you may ask?  Well first, after I pulled out a bowl for us to munch on over the weekend, I spent the better part of Friday night standing over my sink pitting the remaining cherries.  And despite the purchase of a cherry pitter since last year's sale, my fingers remain slightly stained. 

First off, I removed 24 cherries to make the much anticipated BabyCakes Meyer Lemon and Bing Cherry cupcakes.  That didn't make much of a dent.  Next, I loaded my dehydrator - all five trays - with halved cherries and set it to dry.  We're set on dried cherries for awhile!

But I still had a couple pounds of pitted cherries looking for a delicious home.  So I began googling... and ended up making my first ever batch of jam.  Cherry jam!  Using this easy-peasy recipe.

It's so yummy ... and I love having jam in my fridge that I made myself.

But back to the highlight: the cupcakes.  I've been wanting to make these for quite awhile and finally got to check them off my list.

The cupcakes are lemon - made with both lemon extract and lemon infused agave nectar.  They are supposed to be Meyer Lemons but I couldn't find them on the island, so I just used regular lemons.

You add a cherry filling by inserting a layer of chopped cherries (bathed in the infused agave), between scoops of cupcake batter.

The frosting was the traditional BabyCakes vanilla frosting with some of the chopped cherry mixture folded into the frosting. Thanks to Jen, who recently left me a comment about the frosting - I used less milk this time which definitely seemed to help. I was short on coconut oil though so I need to give it another try and see if it sets up better with half the milk.

These were really good - definitely my favorite BabyCakes cupcake recipe so far - and likely the only one I would make again. They were still dense - but unlike other BabyCakes cupcakes they stayed really moist and were very tasty!  They also got rave reviews from the office-mates.  Hooray for a BabyCakes success story!

Page 79: Agave-Sweetened Brownie Gems

Today was another rainy day in paradise and I found myself with some extra time at home and an urge to bake.  My first inclination was to make the BabyCakes chocolate chip cookies, but as I continue my quest to bake every recipe in the BabyCakes book I thought I should try something new.  So I decided to try the second brownie recipe: Agave-Sweetened Brownie Gems.

Gems.  Sounds super cute and yummy right?  Wrong.  Bottom line: I think this is my least favorite BabyCakes recipe yet.  Pretty much everything I've made so far is not only better, but waaaaay better.  Let's disect...

From all accounts, these are apparently purposefully less sweet than the Brownie Bites I've successfully made before.  But the chocolate sauce is supposed to make up for this lack of sweetness.  It does not.  Maybe I did something wrong with the sauce, because as you'll see in the comparison below, mine looks very different from that shown in the picture.  Mine was not as dark and rich looking (or tasting), despite adding extra agave in attempt to get the "deep, rich chocolate" version of the sauce as described in the book.

The chocolate frosting "sauce" was pretty good - although I think the vanilla version is still better.  But even it could not bring these bites back to the level of yumminess I've come to expect from BabyCakes.  I'm taking them to work tomorrow where I plan to anonymously place them in the break room and remotely monitor how fast they disappear (this is what I do with baked goods not bad enough to throw out but not good enough to claim).

Oh well.  The upside: I'm one recipe closer to moving on to book two (and DONUTS!).  And... I have a bowl of leftover chocolate frosting in my refrigerator!  Surely I can think of a good way to put that to use.

Easter Brunch

Oh how I love brunch! It is my favorite meal - and what's not to love? It generally takes place on a weekend, holiday, or some other type of day off.  It's essentially breakfast fare but occurs later so as not to interfere with sleeping in on said day off.  And the menu is a perfect combination of savory and sweet that doesn't make it's way into our everyday breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.

On Sunday we hosted Easter Brunch for a dozen of our closest island-dwelling friends. Since adopting a plant based diet, going out to brunch has lost some of it's appeal for me because in most cases it means making exceptions to my normally egg and dairy free diet. Thus, I was beyond excited to host brunch where I could make the delicious favorites I enjoyed in my pre-veg days, but do so using plant-healthy ingredients! I also seized upon the opportunity to try out not one, but two new BabyCakes recipes. Read on for details on my menu.

BabyCakes Blueberry Crumb Cake (Page 113)

Although slightly overdone (I really need to approach baking times with more skepticism), this was still pretty good. It contains three ingredients - blueberries, cinnamon, and lemon extract - that I never would have thought to combine in one recipe, but it was a genius combination that really worked.  The crumb topping is derived from the BabyCakes Vanilla Cupcakes, so I started the process by making a small batch of those.  I also had vanilla frosting, which had really turned out as a sauce, left over from the Gingerbread and it worked out perfectly for the icing.

Whole Foods Portobello and Asparagus Strata

While I enjoyed the vegan version below, I'm told this was delicious! Hubby helped me out with this one - apparently he is more experienced than I at adequately whisking eggs.

Vegan Portobello and Asparagus Strata

After finding the strata recipe at Whole Foods, I was left with the question of what savory dish to serve that I would eat, as well as something that would accommodate one of my guests who cannot eat dairy or gluten.  The solution: a genius named Sarah Farsh who converted the Whole Foods recipe above to be entirely plant based, and was kind enough to leave a link to her creation in the Whole Foods comments section.  I simply subbed the bread for a gluten free almond flour bread (with egg replacer), which was so easy to make and worked out great in the recipe.

Oven Roasted Herb Potatoes

One of my favorite side dishes - for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  This is a large recipe because I was feeding a dozen, but you can adapt accordingly.

5 pounds fingerling potatoes, cut in half lengthwise

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl until potatoes are well coated. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Spread potatoes on baking sheet in single layer and roast at 350° for 60 to 90 minutes, or until potatoes are tender and begin to brown.

BabyCakes Spelt Biscuits (Page 37) with Vegan Clotted Cream and Jam

I was so excited to make these biscuits and have literally been looking forward to this part of the brunch for weeks.  I love biscuits, especially with clotted cream and jam - a taste I fell in love with while visiting London a few years ago.  After giving up dairy, I thought my days of enjoying clotted cream were over. But then I bought a recipe book called Vegan Yum Yum and discovered it was incredibly easy to make a vegan clotted cream that was just as delicious! And the author has posted it online. Enjoy!

Unfortunately we missed a picture of the final product, so I only have the pre-baked version from my iPhone.  I initially failed to add enough water to the dough so the first few were very tough to get rolled out (notice the very "cracked" looking egg above).  But I kept going back and adding water to the dough so by the end they were looking more like proper biscuits.

I have room to improve on this recipe, specifically add a lot more water next time.  I also have leftover clotted cream and jam in my fridge as we speak so I just might have to try a remake sooner than later.

There you have it!  My friends were kind enough to add fresh fruit and a few other pastries to the table - it was an absolutely delicious spread and was in every way as magical as the brunch menus I so loved in my pre-veg days.

Happy Easter!

Page 62: Gingerbread

That's right friends, three ginger BabyCakes recipes in a row. Hey, I bought ginger. Why not?

As I said before, I was actually kind of excited to make the gingerbread because it involved a layer of BabyCakes frosting. But... it's BabyCakes frosting... and therefore it's temperamental. From what I recall, the last frosting attempt was in January with the Sweet Paradise cake when it turned out beautifully thick and set up perfectly. It did not do so this weekend for the gingerbread.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The gingerbread making itself was pretty uneventful. It's another teacakes recipe that has "extra batter" which I chose to use on cupcakes. Not very exciting - I definitely preferred the final product in teacake form and think I actually (gasp!) trashed six of the eight cupcakes by Sunday night. Mostly due to the frosting drama I'll discuss further below.

The final loaf, which I do not have a picture of because the camera battery died and we were already digging in, was very moist and definitely tasted of ginger and spice (and everything nice). The recipe also has one fourth cup of molasses. This seemed like a lot to me since I usually measure that stuff out by the teaspoon, but it added to the spice quality of the final product. And it gave me an iron boost for the weekend. Yay.

In short: it was good. Similar to a spice cake but not as sweet as the ginger snaps... but not so good that I would be inclined to eat it plain. Thus enters the frosting. And the drama. I'll spare you the details (they've been written here before) but I ended up with vanilla sauce. Still so delicious - as always - but not beautifully spreadable. So to enjoy a slice we spooned the frosting "sauce" on top of the slices like so:



As I said, it was still delicious and really brought the gingerbread to life, but it was not the thick layer of frosting pictured piled atop the gingerbread in the book (and that I was really looking forward to). Sigh.

Enough with the ginger... partly because I've now made all three of the ginger centric recipes in the book. Next up: biscuits for my veggie-ful Easter brunch (unless I find something wonderful to make before then!).

Page 67: Gingersnaps

That's right - ginger again.  Maybe I don't hate it after all.  At least not in baked goods... I remain suspicious of the little pink shavings that incessantly litter my sushi platters.

I can't recall ever before eating a gingersnap, let alone making them.  As a child I generally shied away from the boring brown spice cookies in favor of those laced with chocolate chips or a certain candy coated chocolate.  These days, thankfully, I'm smart enough to know that if it's in the BabyCakes book, it's probably worth trying.  And these were no exception.

As it turns out, gingersnaps are really, really yummy.  As usual it's likely my version is chubbier and more cakey than the BabyCakes version, but I loved them anyway.  The chubbiness might be due in part to the fact that I got distracted when I was adding the flour and lost track of the number of scoops I added.  So, I may have accidentally added 1/4 cup too much.  I didn't stress about this possibility because Erin McKenna said in the description if you wanted a cakier cookie, add an extra 1/4 cup of flour.  My thought was that if I did overscoop it would work out either way, but now I don't know if this is the same cookie I'll get next time I make them by the recipe.  Oops - guess I really didn't think that one through.

As usual, I had to adjust the suggested baking time.  I've pretty much mastered the baking time for the chocolate chip cookies with my oven and climate, so I used the same standard for these - 10 minutes, rotating 180 degrees after six minutes.   This seemed to work out perfectly.

In addition to ginger, these snaps are loaded with molasses and cinnamon too - and the combination of flavors was delish.  In a warm spice, holiday, homey kind of way.  They are like the comfort food of cookies and they were perfect with a cold glass of almond milk!  Judging by how quickly they disappeared at work today, my coworkers were big fans as well.

Ginger does it again.  I'm now actually excited to make the gingerbread.  Not only because I'm sure it's amazing, but also because it's recommended served frosted with a generous slab of BabyCakes frosting.  I can hardly wait.

Page 28: Ginger Peach Corn Muffins

In reviewing my list of "yet unbaked" recipes recently, I realized I still have a lot of muffins to bake. I made the Blueberry Muffins early on in the adventure, but the rest of the chapter was still relatively unvisited.  This might be because the ones left to bake included Pumpkin-Spice Muffins, Zucchini Muffins, and these Ginger Peach Corn Muffins... all of which seemed best suited for fall baking.  Thus, I was very unmotivated to make them in March.

It didn't help that I don't care for ginger either - at least not in most forms. But I knew I had to make these eventually and invited over a few friends to help me bake who are bigger fans of the spice - just in case I didn't want to keep any of them when all was said and done.  Plus, baking with friends is more fun than baking alone (as long as you make plenty to share)!

I also had a hard time finding good peaches, particularly since it's March and I'm on an island where peaches have to be shipped a minimum of 3,000 miles before they reach me.  I was so proud of myself when I stumbled upon a handful of soft and yummy smelling peaches at my grocers. However, when we cut into them it was obvious they had been through some trauma - instead of soft peachiness inside it looked as though they had been partially frozen at some point.  Fortunately, these are tossed in agave and lemon juice and caramelized in the oven before topping the muffins, so the caramelizing served to both sweeten them up and disguise their scars.

In short, this corn, ginger, and peach flavor combination is amazing. And I'm speaking as someone who doesn't - or at least didn't - like ginger.  They were also incredibly moist, even when I enjoyed one for breakfast the next day. 

And so pretty, right?  I love the aesthetic quality the caramelized peaches add to the top.

After being pleasantly surprised by the flavor of these darlings, I'm suddenly much less hesitant to try two other recipes in the book: Gingerbread and Gingersnaps...  more opportunities to let ginger impress me!

Page 49: Johnnycakes

If you're like me and have never before heard of something called a Johnnycake, do yourself a favor and make them for breakfast this weekend.  Especially if you live in a place where it still feels like winter.  You'll thank me, I promise.

Full disclosure: I don't think my Johnnycakes turned out anything like those coming out of the ovens at the BabyCakes bakery.  From the photo in the book, they are supposed to look more like a cookie or small pancake - flat and golden browned to perfection before being smothered in delicious agave nectar.  Despite my repeated attempts to thin the batter (I feared drowning out the flavor I was adding so much hot water), I couldn't get them anything close to flat-as-a-pancake.  They do contain coconut oil (an ingredient with which I have a love-hate relationship at this point), so it is possible I did an inadequate job of melting the oil before adding it to my batter.

Nonetheless, these were a perfect breakfast treat on a rainy Saturday morning.  Rather than resembling a pancake, mine turned out somewhat scone like (you know how I love scones) with a distinct cornbread-esque quality.  It reminded me of the cold winter days my mom would make chili and cornbread, and I would proceed to drown piece after piece of cornbread in maple syrup.  The cornmeal in the cake and the agave poured oh so generously on top is a similar flavor, but is lighter and somehow comes across perfectly suited for breakfast.  Like I said, do yourself a favor and try them yourself.

As I mentioned, don't forget to add generous amounts of agave nectar.  Yes, it's breakfast, but I'm sure you deserve it!

We will definitely be making these again - maybe next time I'll do a better job with the batter and we will get a flatter version.  If not, I'll still be happy.  Just pass me the agave.

Also - HOORAY! I just passed the half-way mark in my little adventure: 26 down, 25 to go.

Page 45: Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas

As you may remember, my dear friend Jess introduced me to the BabyCakes cookbook (inaugural post found here) and, therefore, is responsible for my BabyCakes enlightenment.  She's done it again: for my birthday she gave me the second book written by Erin McKenna: BabyCakes Covers the Classics.

It was like Christmas morning for me.  The book contains gems like Thin Mints (I literally gasped), S'mores with homemade graham crackers, Whoopie Pies, and an entire chapter of gluten-free vegan donuts. Not to mention a recipe in honor of my very favorite holiday: "Valentine's Day Overboard Cookie Craziness". I love this woman.

Being the committed and orderly person that I am, I have a new found motivation to complete the remaining 27 recipes from the first book so I can move on to this sequel of BabyCakes bliss. So... it's quite likely you will see more frequent posts from me henceforth.

Now, on to today's adventure: Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas.

I have been scared of this recipe for awhile, because it's one of those lovely items that involves pre-baking -  specifically baking chocolate cupcakes for a crumb base. However, I happened to have a few cupcakes in my freezer from past adventures so I got to skip a step. Bonus!

The recipe is actually a scone that you cut in half and sandwich with 1) vanilla frosting and 2) caramelized bananas.  The first step is the baking the bananas, and they filled my house with a fragrance that was nothing short of divine.

As the bananas caramelized, I whipped up the scones. You know the drill... spelt flour, coconut oil, and other vegan magic. The chocolate crumb base and chocolate chips are folded in and become marbled through the slightly milder chocolate scone batter.

As the scones baked I confronted a new challenge: trying very hard not to eat all the then-cooling caramelized bananas.

Once the scones had baked and cooled I cut them, slathered them with vanilla frosting, and added a layer of caramelized bananas as directed.  The end result:

In a word: DELISH.  The scones are a tiny bit salty and just mellow enough to serve as a perfect backdrop for the sweet frosting and velvety rich bananas, without making the combination overly sweet.

I know, it looks like bacon. But I promise it's just caramelized bananas! You can also ignore the half eaten scone on the lower right - I couldn't help myself.

Another BabyCakes winner for sure. After setting aside a couple for us, I'm off to divvy out these treats among friends so hubby and I do not end up eating all twelve of them over the weekend. After all, I have to save room for the next adventure. Just 26 to go!