Carrot Cake with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

You know how whenever you're having a really bad day, and you say to yourself, "it can't get any worse" and then ten minutes later it gets worse?

Yeahhhh... That was Sunday.

This weekend was my mother and I's birthday weekend. I get told a lot that my birthday kind of gets shafted, you know, with my mom's birthday the day before mine and Christmas 6 days away. You'd think it'd be like, "oh cool! I get double the presents!" but that's totally not the case.

It's more like... "oh, cool! my birthday present is my Christmas present too!"

*Awkward silence*

"....waaaaaaaaitaminute."

Yeah.

Totally not bitter or anything like that. Nope.

Kidding, in all honesty, I don't really mind. After I turned 15 I got really weird about birthdays. I just never liked them after that. Call me crazy, but a whole day devoted to me is not something I'm too into. And no, it's not because I'm Ms. Humble ;) It's because that every time my birthday rolls around, something happens that ends up ruining my whole day. Don't believe me? I can pretty much list every single birthday since I was 14 where somethings gone wrong. It's crazy.

My birthday is like an excuse for the universe to play russian roulette or rather, "let's-press-all-of-alex's-buttons" day. So I prefer to skip the whole birthday thing. It just makes it easier.

However, this year, I decided to bite the bullet and do something.

Instead of being a "party-pooper" on my own birthday, I went ahead and planned to do something I actually wanted to do. What better excuse? It's my birthday. You gotta do it, or else you'll end up on Santa's naughty list and get no presents.

At least that's what I tell my nieces and nephews.

What? It's the only perk of having a birthday close to Christmas. ;)

Anyway, I decided I wanted to bake my own cake (aka the only cake I'll eat besides rum cake), have all my family members over to play a board game, and just really spend time with my family. Something that I have been lacking horribly the past 5 months.

The day didn't start off bad... In fact, it was great. Filled with new york crumb cake and lots of (caffeinated) tea. It was wonderful. Church was awesome, and everyone sang me happy birthday, which caused me to sink into my chair, turn into a tomato and run to North Korea.

Then, all it took was a text message. Our vacuum had broken in the middle of my mother cleaning the house back at home. "Ok, figures," I think to myself, "at least that's all it was".

That should've been the first sign.

Next thing you know, I realize I have no ingredients for the cake I want to make. Ok, another bump in the road, not too bad... Go to the store, get the ingredients, and then see that I forgot the most crucial part of carrot cake.

Carrots.

So, there goes another trip to the store. I start to get jittery at this point, watching the clock all the while. I get home and try to get going as quickly as possible. I get all my ingredients ready, set everything up, butter my cake pans, preheat the oven....

And then the oven catches on fire.

Yeah.

Fire.

Flames.

Fiery flamey flames.

Next thing I know the whole house is filled with smoke and my neighbors are asking if I'm letting Bob Marley stay at my house. The smoke is so dense I can barely see the other side of the kitchen, and as the oven stays on it's not getting any better.

It's at this point that the universe wins and Alex goes into breakdown mode.

"I knew this was going to happen," I cried, shaking an invisible fist to the universe. "This always happens!"

Thankfully, my mom was there. And since she can magically make everything better, the day didn't end in disaster and fiery flames. She helped me calm down, clean up the oven, keep baking, and get everything done in time.

And you know what? Everything came out perfectly. The cake. The frosting. The party. The everything.

Overall, I did have a good birthday. And I had a freakin' delicious carrot cake to go with it. I honestly adore carrot cake. Probably the only cake I'll ever eat. And the brown sugar cream cheese frosting was such a complement to the cake... I loved it. The best part about this cake is that it has virtually no fat in it. I had even used 0 calorie granulated sugar and it was still amazing. I kept it moist with 0% greek yogurt and REAL brown sugar. The taste was tremendous and just lightly spiced. Over all the cake came out great. Although there is no coconut in this cake. I'm seriously against coconut in carrot cake... Sue me.

Carrot Cake with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup greek yogurt (fat-free works fine)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar (zero calorie sugar substitutes work fine for this cake)

4 eggs (I used 1 cup egg substitute)

1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained of most its juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts (I used more than this cause I love walnuts in carrot cake)

1 cup golden raisins

3 cups grated carrots (I finely grate mine to a pulp)

BROWN SUGAR CREAM CHEESE FROSTING INGREDIENTS:

8oz cream cheese, room temperature ( I used fat-free)

1/2 cup butter, room temperature (I used light)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice)

3 cups powdered sugar (add more as needed)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Preheat your oven to 350F degrees. Grease 1 9x13 inch pan or 2 8x8 cake pans with butter and flour.

3. Mix together greek yogurt and sugars until fully combined. Mix in egg substitute until incorporated (if using real eggs, beat in one at a time), and then proceed to mix in the crushed pineapple and vanilla extract.

4. Gently fold in walnuts, raisins and carrots, being careful not to overmix.

5. Pour into prepared cake pans and bake at 350F for about 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean and the cake is a slightly dark golden brown.

6. While cake is cooling, make the frosting. Blend together the cream cheese, butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon until smooth. Add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until you've reached a stiff, smooth frosting. In other words, if you use a spatula to pick up the frosting from the bowl and the frosting is dripping off your spatula, you need more powdered sugar. Set the frosting aside or put in covered container in the fridge until cake is cooled and ready.

7. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a plate. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to frost (this is also helpful for cooling the cake down quicker so the frosting does not melt). Once cake is cooled, frost with brown sugar cream cheese frosting any way you'd like.

Roasted Banana Muffins with Brown Sugar Topping

Bananas.

Gwen Stefani and I can relate to them.

Because apparently, a lot of things make me bananas.


For example, when I walk past the kids section of our bookstore on a saturday night after a family of six have been sitting there for 3 hours.

I go bananas.

When it's 8 in the morning and I am ready for my cuppa coffee only to find that the coffee bin is bone-dry empty,

I go bananas.

When my bank decides to withhold 300+ dollars from me for 2 weeks just 'cause they feel like it,

I go bananas.


When I'm in a public bathroom and at the last possible second I realize that there is no toilet paper left for the stall,

I go bananas.

And then I panic and start having violent convulsions and delusional thoughts about how I am going to get said toilet paper without coming into another humans contact or leaving the stall with my pants on the ground.

But mostly I just go bananas.


The point is, bananas and I have a long history together. I know how bananas feel. Which is why I couldn't help but feel just a little bit bad when I threw them in the oven, roasted them until they were caramelized and then mashed them all together to make a muffin.

But then I ate them with some coffee, and I didn't feel bad anymore.


These muffins are incredibly moist, low in sugar, and really not that bad nutritional wise for you. Especially if you skip the brown sugar topping (but that might drive you bananas). Since I didn't completely mash them up they have little chunks of banana sticking out here and there making them really visually pleasing when you open them up. Made with mostly whole wheat flour, no eggs, 3 lovely black as night bananas and 1/2 cup sugar, they are an appropriate breakfast item especially if you schmear some all natural peanut butter on top. Mmm.

Try 'em out. Their delicious, and roasting them doesn't take too long and certainly makes all the difference.

Roasted Banana Muffins with Brown Sugar Topping

Banana Muffin Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat, 1/2 cup all-purpose)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup white sugar or brown sugar (I used white)

3 very ripe bananas
1 egg, whisked (optional, I omitted and it came out great)
1/3 cup fat-free sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brown Sugar Topping
1 tablespoon quick cooking oats
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
dash of cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425F

2. First, make 3 in. slits into the bananas skin. Place them into the oven (or a conventional oven) for 15-20 minutes or until juices start flowing out of the slits. Remove from oven and let them cool down a bit. Reduce oven heat to 350F.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg)

4. Briefly mash bananas together with the sugar, sour cream, vanilla and egg if using until it just combined and still chunky in some areas.

5. Fold flour mixture with banana mixture until there is no trace of flour left. Do not overmix.

6. Pour into prepared muffin tin about 3/4th full.

7. In another small bowl mix the topping ingredients together. Sprinkle evenly over all muffins.

8. Bake muffins at 350F for about 10-15 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes 12 regular sized muffins and 16-17ish mini muffins.

Spiced Buckwheat Pancakes with Sautee'd Apples

Oh yeah. You heard right. Buckwheat. It happened.

Don't worry, I'm not gettin' all fancy and organic on ya.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not typically a pancake person. Sure, they are good... but I only get a craving for them maybe once or twice a year. Preferably on thanksgiving morning with a tub of whip cream, maple syrup and bacon on the side. Other than that, I'm not really into the whole pancake obsession thing. But after today, I think I might be.

I forget whose blog I was looking at, but I had seen pictures on foodbuzz for buckwheat pancakes, and they looked so beautifully brown and sounded so good I vowed that very moment that at some time of the week, I was going to track down buckwheat flour and make them. And after four trips to the store turned up nothing, I had pretty much given up. It seemed that this flour had disappeared from the world, even in organic supplied markets. I was a sad panda.

But then, last night, at a last minute trip to the store for some milk and chocolate covered pretzels, I thought 'eh, hey, why not' and trudged over to the flour aisle. Surprise, surprise! What did I see? Buckwheat flour.
I was a very, very happy foodie.



While I'm not personally vegan, vegetarian, or anything like that, I am obsessed with this pancake recipe. And with buckwheat added in, it's a lot better for you health-wise than most pancakes. Not that that's going to stop you (or me) from drenching it in maple syrup but hey -- you only live once. And maple syrup... it makes everything better. Except, maybe, brussel sprouts (no offense to any maple syrup brussel sprout lovers out there). I also have an aversion to dairy so this recipe is easily adaptable so that I can make my cake and eat it too (Hah, cake, pancake, get it?).

If you have time, and you can find it -- make these pancakes. Make them with buckwheat flour. Make them with sautee'd apples. Make them with blueberries. Heck, If you're feeling extra decadent, make them with chocolate chips. I won't judge you.

Just don't leave out the maple syrup. Seriously. Maple syrup. Pancakes. It's essential.



Or, if you're my brother, serve yourself a pair with a generous scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream.
It'll be our little secret.

Spiced Buckwheat Pancakes with Sautee'd Apples
(makes about 8 medium sized pancakes, and around a dozen silver dollar sized ones)

INGREDIENTS:

Pancakes
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1-2 tablespoons sugar (depends how sweet you like your pancakes)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
3/4 cup almond milk mixed with 1 teaspoon lemon juice (or 3/4 cup buttermilk)
1/4 cup water (or additional milk)
1 egg white, beaten until foamy
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons unsalted vegan butter, melted (or regular butter) and cooled completely

1/2 cup add-ins (optional, such as blueberries, nuts, chocolate chips, etc)
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, for sprinkling (optional)

Sautee'd Apples
1 large apple, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine dry ingredients and any mix-ins (such as blueberries/chocolate chips/nuts) in a large bowl with a whisk, set aside.

2. In a large liquid measuring cup, combine almond milk, water, egg white, vanilla extract and melted butter. Whisk together till just combined.

3. Slowly pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, stirring gently with a spatula or wooden spoon. Stir JUST UNTIL there are no signs of flour left. Don't worry if it's lumpy. It's suppose to be. Do not overmix.

4. Heat up a skillet to medium heat and spray lightly with cooking spray. When skillet is hot enough, test the heat by sprinkling water on it. If the water drops start to sizzle and dance, it's hot enough. If they evaporate immediately, turn down the heat a notch. If they don't evaporate or dance, turn the heat up.

5. Drop by 1/4 cupfuls (use a 1/4 measurement cups or 3 tablespoons) onto skillet. When the top of the pancakes start bubbling (it shouldn't take very long), flip pancakes over with a spatula and cook just a minute longer. Take off skillet and continue until there is no batter left. Makes about 8 medium sized pancakes, or a dozen silver dollar sized ones. Sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon mix if using.

6. To sautee' apples, take a seperate skillet and melt 1 teaspoon of butter over low heat. Throw in sliced apples, cinnamon, and sugar, and stir together until apples are coated. Cook until apples are soft, but still slightly firm.

7. Serve pancakes warm with sautee'd apples, real maple syrup, whip cream and freshly brewed coffee. And vanilla ice-cream, if you're feeling particularly naughty.