Erika's Delicious Juicer-Pulp Cake

My good friend Erika came over for dinner and brought a DELICIOUS juicer-pulp cake. It was moist, tasty, and the perfect dessert to our yogi feast. I don't have a juicer, but I may have to get one just so I can make this cake with the pulp! She also made a ricotta-honey sauce that had the perfect level of tartness and sweetness to compliment the cake. This cake is gluten free and can easily be made paleo!

Erika's Delicious Juicer-Pulp Cake

(Makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:

2 C. Juicer Pulp 

1/2 C. Agave

1/2 C. Coconut Oil, Melted 

1 egg

1 C. Unsweetened nutmilk

1 1/2 C. Flour-- I split this between coconut flour and white rice flour

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 Tsp. Sea Salt

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees

2. In a large bowl, add the juicer pulp, agave, coconut oil, egg and nut milk, mix to combine

3. Add in flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt with wood spoon.

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean

Enjoy! Thanks Erika for sharing!

Best Birthday Cake Ever! Thank you Erica!

My awesome friend, Erica, who is currently traveling around South East Asia, made this delicious DELICIOUS birthday cake. It was a vanilla cake with light vanilla frosting and huge strawberries on top. Here is a picture of Erica petting a tiger. The tiger did not get any cake. We are going to have to wait for Erica to return home before we get the recipe for this cake.

Okay, enough friends and tigers - more cake pics! Cake with tulips:

Whole cake:

Making a wish...."i wish for more cake!....and world peace"

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

These little cupcakes are incredible moist and a stay that way for a good week! I wasn't sure whether to call these chocolate hazelnut cupcakes or chocolate hazelnut muffins. I'm not really sure what the difference is between a muffin and a cupcake but I think that a muffin is the same thing as a cupcake, but without the frosting and more likely to be consumed in the morning. I had some extra time and decided to make these as they would be the perfect excuse to go and pick up some delicious store bought frosting and use up some of the ridiculous amount of sprinkles I have randomly acquired over the years. In addition, it was my boyfriend's high school friend, Jon's, twenty something birthday and so I decided to decorate a portion of these in the colors of the Italian flag to celebrate his birthday. Jon comes from a massive (10 kids) Italian family so the flag seemed appropriate. I only had pale green sprinkles, instead of dark green unfortunately.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes
(Makes 20 cupcakes)

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cold water
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped hazelnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put cupcake liners in a muffin tin.
2. In a medium bowl mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl whisk the butter, water, oil and vanilla extract. Whisk in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold in the hazelnuts. Pour the batter evenly into the muffin tins.
3. Bake until a tester comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack for 25 minutes before frosting them. Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut Pear Upside Down Cake

I had some friends coming over for dinner and I wanted to make a delicious dessert. Normally, when searching for the perfect dessert recipe my challenge isn't finding one, but rather which one to make! I came across this recipe while browsing dessert cookbooks at Barnes & Nobel. I found the book Rustic Fruit Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson and came across this delicious sounding and even better looking chocolate upside down pear cake! I quickly scribbled down the recipe in my journal and I adapted it only slightly to add hazelnuts and more chocolate. This cake was a bit of an ordeal to make, or maybe that's only because it was my first time caramelizing sugar, but in the end it looked beautiful and tasted fantastic, especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I was also able to wrap the cake and have it for dessert over the next couple of days. I used one of those spring-form pans with the removable bottoms which made it a little easier to invert the cake at the end.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature, for the pan

Fruit Topping

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

2 firm but ripe pears, peeled and cored and cut into 12 slices each

Cake

1/4 unsalted butter

4.5 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

1 cup flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs, I used fake eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Butter a 9 inch round baking pan

2. In a heavy sauce pan, mix the sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, then cover and cook for two minutes. Uncover the sauce pan and continue to boil the sugar, gently and slowly stirring to cook the caramel evenly until it becomes a dark amber color. You will need to have a spatula on hand and a cup of cold water. Dip the spatula in cold water run it down the sides of the pan to prevent the sugar crystals from forming and clumping along the sides of the pan. This entire process can take a little while, in the ball park of 15-20 minutes with constant stirring. Below is a photo progression of the sugar caramelizing process:

3. When you have the dark amber color above, carefully and slowly pour the mixture into your buttered cake pan. The pan will instantly become hot so make sure to have oven mitts on.

4. Place the pear slices on top of the caramel in a circle and then filling in the center.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

6. Place the butter and chocolate in a small sauce pan and melt over low heat, stirring occasionally.

7. In a bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Pour in the melted chocolate and butter and mix with a whisk sort of rapidly for 5 minutes. (If you have an electric mixer, this would be the time to use it for 3 minutes). Add in the eggs, one at a time and scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated. Stir in the vanilla and buttermilk and lastly, stir in the chopped hazelnuts.

8. Pour the batter over the pears in the prepared pan and place in the center of the oven for 40-45 minutes.

9. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then invert the cake on a plate, leaving the pan on top for 5 minutes before carefully removing. Serve the cake with ice cream and prepare to be hurtled into chocolate heaven!