Quick Treats (eggless) - Microwave Chocolate Cake and Peanut Butter Cookies

As final deadlines are looming and my list of unfulfilled recipes grow longer, quick treats to cook in minutes are the order of the day!  I have recently turned to healthier versions of some favourite treats to keep me sustained through this mad time.  I don't know about you, but I definitely turn to sugar when I am stressed out, so having these smaller portion and lower sugar/fat recipes is a godsend.

Can you hear the angels singing? (Or that might just be my stomach o.O)

Let's briefly talk about this microwave chocolate cake.  The version that I am sharing is my go-to version - and I have tried several in my travels through the food blogosphere!  It is based on a Chocolate-Covered Katie recipe, tweaked significantly for my preferences.  It is a dark, chocolatey variation that puffs nicely even without the addition of eggs.  It also has a somewhat fudgy consistency, so I would put it halfway between pudding (in the British sense, not the Jell-o sense!) and cake territory.

Ah, the supercomfort of peanut butter :D

The peanut butter cookies are pretty awesome.  For some reason, I've found it difficult to track down a good eggless version until now.  However, it was worth the wait as this is a healthier version that only yields 4-5 cookies per batch (essential for when stress would lead you to eat a full 36 cookie batch, if given the opportunity!)  It is still a rich-tasting cookie - I definitely recommend that you try this one :)

Microwave Dark Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Chocolate-Covered Katie blog
Makes 1 single-serving cake

• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp plus 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp packed brown sugar (add up to 1 tbsp more if this is not sweet enough for you)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil (canola is my preference)
• 3 tbsp water (substitute milk for a richer, more cake-like taste)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Mix flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and baking powder in a small bowl. Use a fork to mash out any lumps from the cocoa powder or sugar.
2. Add oil, water, and vanilla to the dry mixture. Mix until combined.
3. Transfer batter to a ramekin or mug that is approximately 3 inches in diameter.  Make sure that it is deep enough so that the batter does not fill it more than half way.
4. Microwave for 45-60 seconds. I find that 55 seconds is perfect for me, but keep an eye on yours as it will depend on the microwave and the ramekin/mug that you use.
5. Let cool to a safe eating temperature and serve (directly into your mouth from the ramekin ;P)!

Peanut Butter Cookies
Adapted from Mix it Up blog
Makes 4-5 cookies

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt (omit if using a pre-salted peanut butter)
• 3 tbsp 100% peanuts all-natural peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp unsweetened applesauce

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. Mix flour, baking sodea, and salt in a small bowl.
3. Add peanut butter, vanilla, honey, and applesauce to the dry mixture. Mix until combined.
4. Drop the mixture in spoonfuls on the lined baking sheet.  Alternatively, if you want the cookies to be nicely rounded, roll the spoonfuls into balls before dropping on the baking sheet and press down lightly with a floured fork.
5. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes until puffy and edges are just turning golden brown.
6. Let cookies sit on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.  Cool to room temperature and serve!

I hope you enjoy :)

French Apple Cake with Caramel Icing (eggless)

Now back to our regularly scheduled post about sugar-packed, butter-slathered noms.  But there is fruit in this recipe, so it's cool. (Don't try to tell me otherwise, I ate half of this cake in one sitting when it was warm out of the oven and I am still in denial. Telling me otherwise would just be a fruitless [LOL! ...sorry.] endeavour.)

Yes, very...um...French...

I'm not really sure how "French" this apple cake is.  In fact, I would be willing to bet that it is decidedly not French.  However, I was inspired to make this by one of my favourite loaves at a local coffee shop and French Apple Loaf was how they chose to style it.  Regardless, the apples, cinnamon, raisins, and butter come together beautifully in this cake.  The base is adapted from my eggless marble cake.  Caramel icing is the perfect topping, although I have not yet found the perfect recipe.  The one that I used was lovely, but it didn't have the same richness as the one from the coffee shop.  Also, texture is a really hard thing to achieve with any caramel based confection.  I would still recommend the frosting (pictured) from Beyond Kimchee because it was delicious and everybody was happy with it - just reduce the icing sugar to one cup and add a couple more tablespoons of whipping cream in at the end.

Truth be told, I would never turn down caramel and apples!

I will update this post with some better pictures and a richer caramel icing, if I can find one.  If anyone has any recommendations for a rich and creamy icing, please send them my way!  Here is the recipe:

French Apple Cake(eggless)

Makes 8-10 servings

• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 medium apple, chopped
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup plain yogurt (I've used a few different types and they've all worked, but 3% M.F. has produced my favourite result)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 and 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (canola is my preference)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 cups sieved all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 400F.  Grease a 9 inch cake tin and line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Mix sugar and yogurt in a medium-sized mixing bowl until sugar is dissolved.
3. Add baking soda and baking powder and mix well.  Leave aside for 7 minutes.  Small bubbles should appear on the surface of the mixture.
4. Mix in vanilla and oil.  Add flour in small portions and mix each portion in gently until incorporated.
5. Add apple and raisins. Transfer batter to prepared cake tin.
6. Bake for 10 minutes then lower oven temperature to 350F.  Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Cool in pan for at least 15 minutes. 
7. Cool completely at room temperature before frosting.  Top with a caramel icing and serve!

I hope you enjoy :)

Healthified Banana Cake Truffles (eggless)

 Full disclosure: I take all of the pictures of the food that is posted on this blog.  However, my sister was kind enough to help me out with my busy schedule this week by photographing the food for this post.  She is a professional graphic designer and photographer - so enjoy the high quality photos in this post before we get back to our regularly scheduled service of my amateur work!  Thanks sis, you are the best <3

What real photography looks like!

The recipe in this post is innovative and tasty, although I can't take credit for the original idea.  These are a healthified riff on Inquiring Chef's Chocolate-Dipped Banana Bread Truffles I can only assume that her version is 5 times more delicious given that it uses traditionally decadent ingredients.  I was intrigued by her recipe because it uses more natural ingredients than your typical candy-coating, store-bought frosting cake-pop/truffle recipe.  Plus, the banana-cream cheese-chocolate combination is a fantastic idea in my opinion!  However, I needed a treat that was a little more moderate in terms of fat and sugar, since I have been baking some fully sinful treats over the past couple of weeks!

You could definitely have some fun dressing these up.

This recipe for banana bread truffles uses my healthy New Year's Muffin recipe, light cream cheese, and dark chocolate.  The result is a cake-pop like treat that tastes like real food (I have a real issue with many cake pop recipes, but I'll save that rant for another time :P).  You may find that these are not sweet enough for your taste.  If that is the case, add 1-2 tablespoons of powdered sugar to the mixture after you have mixed in the cream cheese and cinnamon.  You could also use a chocolate with a lower cocoa mass percentage.  Play around with this recipe!  Even though these aren't tooth-achingly sweet, when I took them in to work I received several requests for the recipe - so it has been approved by the hordes ;)

Healthified Banana Cake Truffles (eggless)
Adapted from Inquiring Chef blog

 Makes 35-40 truffles

• 1 batch New Year's Muffins, raisins and almonds omitted
• 6oz light cream cheese (the brand I used had 15% M.F., I can't vouch for how lighter cream cheeses would taste in this recipe)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 12oz dark chocolate (I used 72% and it was perfect for my taste)

1. Crumble the muffins into a large bowl, you want the consistency of small-medium crumbs.
2. Add cream cheese and cinnamon to the crumbled muffins.  Mash the mixture together with a fork until all ingredients are combined, the consistency is smooth, and it holds together.
3. Line a couple of baking trays with silicone baking sheets or wax paper.  Scoop out tablespoon-size portions of the muffin mixture and roll into balls with your (clean!) hands. Place each ball on a baking tray.  Once you have finished making all of the balls, place the baking trays in the refrigerator and leave to chill for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
4. Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a (makeshift) double boiler.  Stir frequently and remove the bowl from the heat once melted.  If you have used a large bowl for the double boiler, transfer the chocolate to a bowl in which it just fits.  This will make it easier to coat the balls.
5. Dip the chilled balls in the melted chocolate (one at a time!).  My preferred method was to transfer the ball via fork into the bowl of chocolate, push it around until coated fully with chocolate, fish it out on the flat edge of the tines of the fork, and then gently shake the fork until the excess chocolate dripped off through the tines.  Transfer the coated truffle back to the baking sheet.  If you find that your bowl of melted chocolate is starting to re-solidify, microwave it on high for 5-10 seconds, and stir.
6. Let the truffles firm up at room temperature and then transfer back to the refrigerator to chill for a few hours.  Keep them stored in the refrigerator.  If desired, place truffles in liners. Serve!

I hope you enjoy :)

Buttery Miso Mushrooms

Life has been crazy busy.  So here is a short stop-gap post while I get my work and brain in order.  Don't make the mistake that thinking the following recipe is any less tasty as a result!  Even when I get into crazy spirals of near all-nighters and wanting-to-hide-under-my-covers-and-eat-5-chocolate-bars-in-one-sitting, I still crave delicious home-cooked food - even vegetables (okay, admittedly they are buttered vegetables)!  These buttery miso mushrooms definitely hit the comfort food spot.

Salty, buttery, easy deliciousness for one.

Stay tuned for posts - I have some time for baking projects in the near future, so you will soon see some sugar-packed goodness on this blog.  I've got a fruit and caramel eggless cake in the works and plans to transform my healthy banana muffins into something special.  Yum :)

Buttery Miso Mushrooms

 Makes 1 serving

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 cups quartered white or cremini mushrooms
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tsp shiro (white) miso paste (try to stay away from pastes that contain MSG)
• 1 green onion, thinly sliced

1. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat. 
2. Add mushrooms and saute for 6-8 minutes, stirring every minute or so.  They should be starting to brown by the end of this stage.
3. Add half of the water and all of the garlic to the pan (careful - it will hiss and steam a bit!). Give it a quick stir and cover the pan.
4. After 2-3 minutes uncover the pan.  Continue to cook the mushrooms for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the water has evaporated and they are browned to your liking.
5. Add the remaining water and miso paste.  Stir mushrooms constantly until the water has evaporated and the mushrooms are coated with the miso. 
6. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the spring onion.  Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl and serve (preferably to yourself :-P)!

I hope you enjoy :)

Insane Oreo Cake (eggless)

Before I delve into why the cake recipe featured in this post is truly insane(ly fantastic), I have a very important question for the food blogosphere.  Does anyone have an honest-to-goodness deliciously delectable eggless lemon square recipe to share?  I would love one that has a creamy lemon topping - unfortunately I think that can be attributed to the egg in traditional recipes - rather than jelly-like.  The only potential candidates that I have come across contain tofu and I am a bit skeptical about the results.  However, if somebody can vouch for a tofu recipe, I am willing to try it (I am a tofu lover in savoury dishes, I have yet to bake with it)!  Let me know in the comments or email me :)

Are you ready for the insanity?

Making an insane Oreo cake has been on my radar for months now, ever since I saw a layered chocolate cake with an Oreo cheesecake centre at a local coffee shop.  Then I came across this post by Bakerita and was re-inspired to attempt this cheesecake/cake monstrosity masterpiece.  (The Bakerita cake looks like it would be much lighter, as it is a whipped-cream based centre and the cake is not fudgy.  It happens to be an eggless recipe too! I haven't tried hers myself, but I would recommend checking it out, she has some gorgeous looking dessert recipes.)  Basically my insane cake has three rich components that marry beautifully: fudgy chocolate cake layers, a cream cheese and oreo filling, and a sweet creamy frosting that attempts to mimic an Oreo's creme centre (but is actually several times more delicious).  As you can tell, I am pretty proud of this one ;)  Also, it is the kind of cake that you can have way too much fun decorating!

Way too much fun decorating. (Okay, okay... I admit that I'm no Picasso!)

 
Part of the reason I am so proud of this recipe is that I was finally able to adapt an eggless cake recipe to be fudgy and moist!  I originally made a larger cake (9inx13in tin) for this recipe but found that the ratio of cake to filling was too large.  The pictures for this post were taken with the larger size cake cut to a smaller size, but the recipe calls for a smaller cake (9in square/round tin), so expect to see a larger stripe of filling in your final product.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe (final disclaimer: it is rich):

Insane Oreo Cake (eggless)

Makes 10-12 servings

Cake
Adapted from Taste of Home

• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour, sifted
• 1/2 cup cocoa, sifted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup cold brewed coffee
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil (my preference is canola)
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling

• 500g/16oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 10 Oreos, chopped

Frosting
(double amounts to frost entire cake)

• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9-inch cake tin and line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. 
3. Combine coffee, oil, vinegar, and vanilla in a medium bowl.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until combined and smooth.  If desired, use a hand blender to blend out any lumps.  Pour into prepared tin.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes.  Use the toothpick test to confirm doneness.  You do not want to overbake this cake!
6. Cool cake for ten minutes in the pan and then let it cool to room temperature.
7. While the cake is cooling, make the filling.  Beat the cream cheese in a medium bowl until it is smooth.  Mix in the salt and vanilla extract.
8. Add the powdered sugar to the cream cheese mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time, mixing until incorporated after each addition.
9. Add the flour to the cream cheese mixture and mix until just incorporated. Mix in crushed Oreos.
10. Prepare the frosting.  Whip the cream with the vanilla until hard peaks form (the consistency of whipped cream).  
11. Add the powdered sugar to the cream a couple of tablespoons at a time, mixing until incorporated after each addition. 
12. Time to assemble the cake!  Carefully cut the cooled cake in half horizontally so that you have roughly equal sized, level top and bottom layers.  Spoon the cream cheese filling on top of the bottom layer and spread so that it covers the cake layer evenly.  Place the top layer of cake on top of the cream cheese filling.  Spread the frosting over the top of the cake (and along the sides, if you have doubled the frosting recipe).
13. Refrigerate the filled and frosted cake for at least an hour before serving. (Keep leftovers stored in the refrigerator.)  Serve!

I hope you enjoy :)