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!