Tag: vanilla

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Cake

Well Dined | Vegan Chocolate Coconut Cake

This recipe I found claimed to be for vegan fudge brownies.  Let’s be honest – this is not a recipe for brownies.  It is, however, a delicious recipe for cake – even more delicious if you use coconut oil to give it some extra flavor.  Coconut oil is just the neatest product!  Good for your health, good for your skin and hair, it’s even good as a supplement for dogs!  It turns from solid to liquid with a very small difference in temperature.  Heat or chill for just a few seconds to achieve the different states.  Of course if you don’t like coconut flavor, use a neutral tasting oil and vegan spread instead.  Vegan friends and chocolate lovers in general – make this right now, you won’t be sorry!

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Cake
adapted from Southern In Law
makes 9-16 small servings

For the cake:
2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tbsp baking powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup coconut oil, liquid form
1 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze

For the frosting:
6 tbsp coconut oil, solid form
6 tbsp cocoa powder
2 2/3 cup icing sugar/powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-4 tbsp unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Preheat oven to 355°F; grease and/or line an 8×8 cake pan.

In a large bowl mix together flour, cocoa, baking powder, sugar, and salt.  Add in oil and almond milk and stir until combined.

Pour brownie batter into cake pan and bake for 25-35 minutes or until cooked through and a skewer inserted removes clean.

Cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the frosting: in a bowl combine coconut oil and cocoa powder.  Gradually mix in icing sugar, vanilla, and add almond milk as needed to create your desired consistency.

Frost the cooled cake.  Keep stored in the fridge in an airtight container and eat within 2 days.  If you want to top it with some shredded coconut or slivered almonds, I bet that would be delicious.

Curry Banana Ice Cream

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Curry.  Banana.  Ice Cream.  When I found this recipe, I flipped.  It sounded AMAZING.  One of the best truffles I’ve ever had was a curry banana flavor.

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And there aren’t just plain old bananas in here, either.  No – they are roasted bananas.  And not only that, but roasted with brown sugar and butter.  Is anyone else drooling right now?

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These smell incredible when they come out of the oven, covered in sticky brown sugar goodness.  You scrape all that sweet stuff into a blender with whole milk and your favorite sweet curry powder, then into the ice cream maker – simple as that.  I am seriously in love with this ice cream.

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I am also in love with this milkshake that I made with it, chocolate syrup, and Bailey’s.  Boozy milkshake for the win!

Curry Banana Ice Cream
adapted from Scoop Adventures

3 medium-sized ripe bananas, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp sweet curry powder (I used this one)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare bananas and toss them with the brown sugar and butter in a small (2-quart) baking dish.  Bake for 40 minutes, stirring once during baking, until the bananas are browned and cooked through.

Scrape contents of the dish (bananas and the thick sugar syrup) into a blender or food processor.  Add the milk, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, salt, and curry powder, and puree until smooth.

Chill mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (4 hours).  Pour into your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions.  Transfer to a plastic container, press wax paper onto surface, and freeze until firm (about 4 hours).

Classic New York Cheesecake

Creamy, rich, decadent cheesecake topped with sour cream and luscious cherries – yes please!

Press buttered graham cracker crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of a spring form pan (normally 9-inches, but all I have is 10).  By the way, they now sell pre-crushed graham crackers in the baking isle! (more…)

Anniversary Dinner

A few weeks ago, we celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary!  We went on a lovely trip to Texas over the weekend, but our actual anniversary fell on a Tuesday.  We had plans to eat at some very nice restaurants on our trip, so we decided to stay in on our anniversary and have a nice home-cooked meal.  I made steak with compound butter, spinach and Gruyere souffle, and vanilla bean panna cotta with mixed berries. (more…)