Tag Archives: Cake

Grain Free Apple Cobbler Cake

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I wasn’t sure what to call this dessert. My intent was to make a healthified apple cobbler. It came out more like a cake – but yet not really like a cake. So it’s an apple dessert. A grain free, maple sweetened apple dessert. This recipe uses minimal, whole ingredients. It uses: almond flour, eggs, pure maple syrup, coconut oil, some salt, vanilla extract, lemon juice, baking powder, and apples. That’s it. It’s simple to put together and we have been loving it as a weeknight dessert or snack.

This apple cobbler cake has an incredibly moist and dense crumb. It is perfectly sweetened and the touch of lemon juice comes through pleasantly. The apples soften just right – they’re soft and pillowy yet still hold some crunch. You can eat this while it’s still warm, but I wouldn’t recommend it – it falls apart a bit when it’s still warm. It’s texture becomes amazing once completely cooled and that is how we’ve preferred to enjoy it.

Something to note. I absolutely love this dessert. It’s delicious and it makes you feel good + nourished after eating it. That being said, if you’re looking for a decadent, indulgent fall dessert, this is not what you’re looking for. This is for anyone who wants a dessert that’s grain free and naturally sweetened. We haven’t always eaten grain free and I don’t know that we always will, but right now that’s what we’re going with. As far as sugar, I’m doing all of my baking these days with either pure maple syrup, honey or dates. I love classic homemade desserts using all out sugar and flour, but this just isn’t that. This is whole food nourishment that tastes like dessert and I am loving it :).




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Grain Free Apple Cobbler Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 medium apples, sliced
  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8 or 9 inch baking dish by rubbing it with a bit of coconut oil.

  2. Layer most of the sliced apples on the bottom of the baking dish, saving a few apple slices for the top, if desired. Set aside.

  3. In a small bowl, mix together almond flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut oil and maple syrup. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and lemon juice and whisk until well combined.

  5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Pour batter into baking dish, covering the sliced apples. Top with remaining sliced apples.

  6. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before cutting and eating.

 

Celebrating with Cake

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Lately, I’ve had a lot to celebrate, and I did so with this cake.

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This cake helped me celebrate:

Another full year of my life.
A weekend spent with my family.
Greg and I’s first batch of homemade beer (more on that later!).
Another full year spent with Greg.
Six full, happy months at an apartment and job that are both loved.
 Almost one full year of The Dreaming Foodie!
And everyday, I’m celebrating being one day closer to spring!

I don’t make cakes often, but I’ve decided that when I do, they are going to count. Just like the cake I made to celebrate the new year, much thought and time went into this one. I took parts of this recipe, from Sweetapolita, for vanilla cake with homemade blackberry filling. I followed the vanilla cake recipe exactly, followed the blackberry filling recipe exactly, and made the vanilla frosting but used regular sugar and added a vanilla bean. Warning though, if you use regular cane sugar in frosting, the frosting will be crunchy! Although it sounds delicious, I left the vanilla mascarpone filling out for reasons of simplicity.

I simply made two 5-inch vanilla cakes, let them cool, topped one with both vanilla frosting and blackberry filling, placed the other cake on top, and spread vanilla frosting roughly all around.

This cake was so delicious, but was made better by the people who I shared it with. Isn’t that the best? It’s so great to celebrate with cake.

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A Cake + A New Year

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Happy 2014, everyone!

I hope that your holidays were delightful!

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Now, let’s talk about this cake + this brand new year.

I made this cake on Monday. I don’t know why, I just wanted to. And so I did. This cake was to me, so beautiful and also so delicious. This cake is a combination of two wonderful ideas. I used this recipe, for lemon cake, from Always With Butter and this rosemary buttercream, idea from My Name is Yeh. While this is an unconventional cake flavor combination, trust me when I say it’s delicious. For what I like in a dessert, it is close to perfection. Not overly sweet, not overly common and the flavors are meant to be together.

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Let’s do more of that in this new year. Let’s do things just because we want to. We do so many things because we (feel like) we have to. Let’s do more of the stuff that makes our hearts happy.

What are you looking for in the new year?

I’m looking at the new year as a way to refocus my ideas, visions and the things that I want to do. I don’t quite know yet exactly where I want to be one year from now, or what I want to have accomplished, but I am slowly working through having a more concrete idea in my mind.

I am now a college graduate, and have been for 8 months. I made it through the end of 2013 often struggling to know exactly what the future will look like for me. I resolve to embrace the blank canvas ahead of me this year, rather than concern myself with the unknown. I resolve to keep doing what makes my heart happy, and trust that I’m doing the right thing. 

As far as my blog goes, I know I want it to improve, but in what exact ways I am not sure yet. The word improve is very vague, but that’s all I’ve got so far. I read this interview yesterday on The Huffington Post, with Sarah from The Vanilla Bean Blog. I absolutely love the advice she gave to bloggers. She said:

“Discover your voice and be true to it. It’s okay to learn from others and emulate them while you’re learning and practicing, but figure out what unique things you want to bring to your photos, your words, your recipes, and always be moving towards them. Also, quality over quantity is important.”

That’s about as concrete a goal as any for me right now. I want to do what she said. I want to find out what exactly it is I want from this blog and for this blog. I want my intentions to be clear in my head. I potentially want this blog to lead me to something someday. What that something is, I have no idea at this point. But as I see it, to be completely in love with what I put on here and for it to be a complete representation of me is the first step to getting to that something. 

For the first few months of The Dreaming Foodie, I was obsessed with posting something 5 days a week. I put so much work into creating those posts. While I don’t regret that at all (it’s all part of the process that Sarah talks about in her advice), that is not the direction I intend to go any longer. There was a period during the summer that I stressed about not posting enough. I stressed about not even being able to post twice a week. That’s going to be all behind me now. I intend to not even pick a number for how often I will post. Instead, I will work hard to develop ideas and to execute those ideas in the best way until I bring them to this blog. When they come, they come. Because of that and because I will still be working to make money, I probably won’t be posting as often. 

But know that I won’t be stressing about it. No more. I resolve for this blog to bring no stress, only happiness + growth. Know that when I do post, it will be a complete representation of me and what I want to bring to the world.

I do know that I love this blog and I love sharing ideas with all of you. Thank you, to all of you!, for reading, for your comments and for your support of The Dreaming Foodie.

Thanks for listening to my new year ramblings. Let’s make it a good + completely delicious year!  

 

Chocolate Cake + Raspberry Cream Frosting

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I made you a cake.

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I know. It’s the least I could do after disappearing off of this little blog for an entire week.

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I feel bad, I feel terrible for leaving for a week without a word. But, I am now a college graduate and resident of Philadelphia!

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My mom and I had a long week of moving out of a tiny apartment that seemed to accumulate a lot of stuff in just three years.

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But, that work is now over and I am back to making things to show all of you. 🙂

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This cake is special. It’s a celebration cake.

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It was made in my new stand mixer that I showed you a couple of weeks ago.

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It was such a wonderful surprise to get a mixer. I was with Greg, his mom and his stepdad. We walked into a store, and to my great surprise I went home with a brand new beautiful KitchenAid!

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It was and is so wonderful, sweet, thoughtful, kind and exciting. I got to make this delicious cake in my tiny apartment. I have made cake there before, but this time was better, it was easier.

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I love my mixer, and I know that I will put it to good use in my new tiny apartment. 🙂

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I used this recipe for chocolate cake, from my trusted baking source Sally’s Baking Addiction. The frosting recipe is below. This cake is amazing. It’s the the perfect cake to satisfy a chocolate craving. And an excellent summer dessert. Chocolate + raspberry in every single bite is just too good.

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Ingredients
1 stick of butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese (1/2 of a block), softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/8 cup raspberry schnapps

Using a stand or handheld mixer, beat together softened butter and cream cheese. Mix well, until they are completely combined and soft and whipped in texture. Slowly add powdered sugar and continue to mix until completely incorporated. Add in the raspberry schnapps and mix until just combined.

I used this recipe for chocolate cake. It made two 8-inch round cakes. I baked the cakes and let them cool completely. Once cool, I placed one cake on a dish, topped it with half of the frosting and then a layer of fresh raspberries. I placed the second cake on top of the first and then finished by spreading the rest of the frosting on top and adding more fresh raspberries.

Fresh Apple Upside-Down Skillet Cake

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I’m so excited about sharing this!

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This recipe, yes. I love upside-down cake. Especially peach upside-down cake. And I have been craving peaches lately. I can’t wait for them. Since peaches aren’t ready yet though, I decided to try an  upside-down cake with apples. Not only do apples top this cake, there are apples throughout the entire thing, too. It’s so good!

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But! What I’m really excited about is the skillet part of this cake. I made the cake in a skillet!

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I showed you last Saturday that I received a cast iron skillet as a sweet + thoughtful gift from Greg’s mom and stepdad. It’s just so perfect. I have been wanting a cast iron skillet and never did I dream that I would get an authentic, beautiful antique one! It is just so exciting!

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When I got it, Greg asked me what would be the first thing I made in my skillet. Sooo many options ran through my head and I just didn’t know how I would choose.

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The decision seemed so important and I felt like I needed to put so much thought into it.

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Well, this apple cake just happened. I wanted cake. I wanted apple cake.

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And I can say, I will always be happy that it is the first thing I made in my beloved cast iron skillet. 🙂

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I will always appreciate beautifully decorated cakes. But there is something comforting about throwing ingredients into a skillet, letting it bake, and then serving it without much thought to decorating. I would call it rustic. A cake that is “rough around the edges.” Beautiful, but in a very different way.

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And the taste. Oh my goodness the taste. I based the batter off of this cake from Sally’s Baking Addiction. I substituted apples for carrots and made a few other minor changes. It is such a good base recipe. It’s perfectly spiced, so moist. The brown sugar/butter/apple upside down part of this cake is soft, sweet and the perfect topping for the already soft cake.

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If you make this, be ready to want to dig in, right after the skillet leaves the oven.

Ingredients

1  3/4 cup brown sugar, divided
4 tablespoons butter
3 large apples, 1 sliced thin and 2 diced small
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk (I used almond)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350*. Place a cast iron skillet on the stove over medium-low heat and add the butter. Let the butter melt and then sprinkle 3/4 cup of the brown sugar over the butter. Place the one thinly sliced apple on top of the brown sugar and melted butter. Turn stove heat to the lowest setting and let sit while you prepare the cake batter.

In a bowl, beat the remaining 1 cup of brown sugar and vegetable oil. Add in yogurt and milk and beat well. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well between the addition. Add in the vanilla and beat well to combine.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. With a spoon, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Gently fold in the golden raisins, chopped pecans and diced apples until everything is just combined.

Spoon the batter over the butter/sugar/apples in the skillet. Smooth the top with a spatula. Place the skillet in the oven and bake 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Serve and enjoy!

*Notes:
-If you don’t like raisins, feel free to leave them out!
-If the batter is too thick at the end, add another splash of almond milk at the end, right before you add the batter to the skillet. It should be thick, but stir-able.
-Baking time could vary. I made this once and it took a little under 35 minutes and another time it took a full 45 minutes.
-I used an 8-inch cast iron skillet. It developed a very thick cake. A larger skillet would definitely work too.