Vegan Chocolate Cake

Half way to work this gloomy, rainy Monday morning, my phone beeped to show I had a work email. Since I was stuck in standstill traffic, I checked to see what the header of the message was. To my dismay, it was an announcement that a co-worker whom I was joking with on the previous Friday, passed away that Saturday. Not the news I wanted to hear on a cloudy rainy Monday morning.  The rest of the day became a blur. I KNEW that I had to bake something to cheer myself up.

Tomorrow is my monthly Mommy Pokeno game night and I have to provide dessert. I asked couple of co-workers for some quick ideas which they provided, however, I ended up going with something vegan because we have two vegetarians in our group and didn't want to have to provide two separate options.

Who doesn't love chocolate right?

Ok, DS can do without it but that doesn't mean he doesn't like it.

 

Anyhow! The real test was if  DH would figure out that it was vegan. When he asked what I was making, I said chocolate cake.

 

Process is simple enough: Flour, sugar, cocoa, oil, water, vanilla, baking soda etc. What surprised me was no baking powder BUT you add balsamic vinegar. WHAT? VINEGAR in cake? OH YES. Apparently, balsamic vinegar goes really well with chocolate.

 

Wet and dry ingredients ready for mixing. No machine needed

Took two minutes

 

The recipe said to bake for 45mins at 350 degrees. It took longer to bake and I had to turn the oven down to prevent burning. I made one with vegan cocoa chips and the other without (mainly because I forgot while mixing the first batch). I could  have doubled the recipe, but that didn't work well for me the first time I tried with a new recipe.

 

With cocoa chips

One on the left without

While they were cooling, I made the icing. Also vegan.

 

Side note on the icing. I felt so silly at the store. I starred at the cake section for a while looking for traditional icing containers to no avail. The kind lady that came to help pointed them out to me and I stated "no, that's cake mix". Duhhh, reading is fundamental. My excuse, I had a bad day. She then went into telling me about how she doesn't like the smell of real butter. They just happened to have the vegan butter out with some fresh bread for tasting. I was sold at first tasting.

 

 

After I made the icing, DH walks in to "taste". Talked about how good it was and wanted to do a tasting with cake. He still didn't know it was vegan.

 

Outside is a bit crispy but inside is super moist. DH liked it and stated that the cake would have gone really well with whipped cream. I then kindly told him that it wouldn't since I needed it to be vegan.  Ah ah, was his reply and finished with, well it's still good.

 

SCORE!!! Now hopefully everyone else at Pokeno likes it.

Beginner's Bread

I am so excited about this bread. It's the easiest recipe and just as easy to make. I haven't been able to get a yeast bread to come out so good in a long time.  I decided to go back to the basic white bread and bam, success!

I haven't had white bread in a very long time, as I was insisting on trying wheat which wasn't working. Maybe it's because I didn't have a mixer, maybe it's the temperature, maybe it's me rushing the process, maybe, maybe, maybe.

By now you know I used a mixer and let the dough hook do the work. If I have it, I might as well use it right?  I couldn't take pictures of the process because the kiddies were in a "mood" and were very clingy. I usually bake at night after they've gone to bed, but that causes my pictures to have shadows. Plus I needed the bread for dinner. I made tomato soup (my DS's favorite).

This is after the first rise, I fell asleep and it ended up sitting for two hours vs. one. Maybe that was my saving grace.

After second rise, which was about 35mins.

 

The sides are nice and crunchy. Not sure what caused the slight crack there, but it didn't matter. Then it was onto the taste test.

 

 

The inside is super moist and it tasted buttery even though there is only one teaspoon of vegetable shortening.  DH enjoyed it with a bowl of soup. I'll definitely make this again.

Oreo Cookie Cheesecake

The DH's birthday was fast approaching and I had not asked him what kind of cake he wanted. He must have been thinking I had forgotten or that he wasn't getting any. However, when you have two toddlers who are obsessed with blowing out candles, there is no choice on if there is a cake or not.  In my case, I rather make one than buy one.

When he was asked, his typical answer came out.... CHEESECAKE PLEASE!!!

Last time I made a cheesecake, it cracked right down the center and even though I wasn't too unhappy about it, I wasn't looking forward to doing it again just yet.

Anyhoo, I searched the cloud and found a Cheesecake Factory copycat recipe. There were lots of negative reviews but I went with it anyway. This time around I made sure I did a water bath and decrease the oven to slow down the cooking process.

A friend that has wanted to bake with me for a while was visiting and it was perfect time to put her to work.

 

 

Even though this cracked a bit, the cookie on top covers it pretty well.

 

Hubster enjoying his cake..







Egg McMuffin and Hash Brown

My favorite cooking show on TV is The Chew. I absolutely love Carla Hall, she is my inner funky sister.  For Christmas dinner we made Michael Symon's Turketta with Salas Verde, I'll post pictures separately. It was too die for. Everyone enjoyed it and wanted seconds.

Symon made his version of McDonald's egg Mcmuffin and hash brown and I thought that would be something fun for a Saturday morning. I don't really care for the Mickey D's version but this was awesome because I knew what went into it and it was easy to fix.

I followed his recipes found here and hash brown's here.

Breakfast was a hit with two adults,  myself and a friend. My husband only eats soft fried eggs, so none of that for him. Kids didn't care for the hash browns, so they eat part eggs and bacon. Don't know if I'll try this one again for my family but it's a good quick breakfast for a brunch or something.

Chocolate Filled Cake

Today I felt like having cake, didn't help when I saw this while looking for coupons to get flour from the store. The cake immediately spoke to my sweet tooth and I knew it will be a hit with the kids.  I didn't use the three cups of chocolate chip as recommended, way too much for my kiddos. I only have a few pictures since it impossible to take pictures with a toddler sous chef.

 

Enjoyed by all.

 

 

Curry Squash Empanadas

For Thanksgiving, I was to bring the Turkey balls I did last year and I suggested pumpkin empanadas.  Two weeks prior, my sisters and I had gone to a Thai restaurant that had the most delicious curry pumpkin empanadas and I was determined to recreate some.  To my dismay, when I went grocery shopping, there were NO cooking pumpkins. What's a girl that loves to improvise to do, but to improvise and use the squash I had at home already.  I was a bit apprehensive taking it for Thanksgiving because they were expecting pumpkins and I was bringing squash that not too many of them like to eat anyway.

I cooked the cubed squash in the oven and then sautéed some onions on the stovetop and added curry powder and my seasonings. Sorry, no pictures. I was trying to work with two toddlers at the same time.

I then went searching for empanada dough recipes online. I found several and one that actually had squash as the stuffing. Authentic Suburban Gourmet's recipe was the easiest I could find.  Hers looked so good and simple, I had to try.

I made a little bit of her mint and cilantro chutney to go with it

 

 

All my worries were put to rest when DH eat a whole one from the first batch. Once I shared with the entire family during dinner, it was a hit. I've been asked to make them again at least three times now. I don't know if it's the crust or what, BUT they loved them.

Bacon Souffle

I had always wanted to try and make a soufflé. I love the ones that Panera sells, so I took on the challenge. The process isn't hard, but the it takes technique.  I burned the first try but will give it another try soon.

PS: Since I'm posting these late, I don't have the steps I took fresh in my head, so the pictures have to speak for themselves.

Brown and cool the pancetta

I thought I had it down, but I was working with a crappy oven and they burned

 It was still very flavorful, but the smoothness of the crust wasn't there

Quick Dinners - Couscous with Mahi Mahi

This meal took less than half hour to cook. Brown the Mahi Mahi in some olive oil and add salsa and let it cook till fish is flaky. I added some cilantro for flavor. Serve over couscous and you have yourself a quick but delicious dinner.

Chocolate Banana Bread

One of the breads I absolutely love is banana bread. A warm banana bread and a cup of tea always make my day. I should make it more often, but sometimes I get lazy. I almost always will have over-ripped bananas that do not get eaten in time. I usually freeze them until I muster up enough energy to make Ackara (a W. African finger food that I will blog about soon). My kids will eat it all up in one sitting if I let them.

Today I wanted to jazz up the banana bread, so I added chocolate. BTW, most of my recipes I get from the Joy of Baking website. I just love the videos and that the recipes have been tested. Their instructions are precise and easy to follow. However, being the person I am, I almost always change something in it because I sometimes don't like to follow directions. ha ha..

I lessen the sugar from 1cup to 3/4cup and instead of using chocolate chips, I used 3 blocks bakers chocolate that I chopped up. I didn't have chocolate chips and figured this would work. Didn't have any nuts on hand, so I forgo that as well.


Ingredients



I like my bananas a bit lumpy

 

As I was prepping, my DH was watching Master Chef and of-course in true form he starting timing me while using his best British accent. If you know us, you will know that I had to play along. I started using my Afri-Itali accent and he shot this video.

One thing I always worry about is the banana settling in the bottom and it breaking when taking out of the pan. This time I must say it is perfection. I love it.

The finished bread. Looks, smells and tastes delicious. Even DH who doesn't like banana said it is goooood and chocolaty. Exactly what I wanted to hear.

PopOvers

Last year we took a trip to Arcadia and had a blast. Several times we tried going to Jordan's Pond for popovers, but nap times kept getting in the way. To solve our popover disappointment, we bought two package of their popover mix. Well it's being almost a year and I had yet to bake them. Why you may ask? Well I discovered that the pans are not so cheap. Finally remembered to ask one of my neighbors to borrow theirs.

The instructions are not too clear for someone who has never made popovers before, but I went with my best guess.

They suggest you refrigerate overnight, which is exactly what I did. I thought it would rise like bread, but it didn't.

Off to the oven they went. I was worried because it says to bake at 450 for 14mins, then for 15mins at 350.

 

 These babies look good, not bad for my first go around.

 Add some butter and enjoy. The kids had it with jelly

 Of course I had it with some tea. Yummy