As you may know, I really enjoy birthday cake.

(sorry for the lack of pictures, I just wasn't able to get them onto my computer)

It doesn't have to be my birthday, or a holiday, or anything like that, I just like cake.  My favorite kind is just a plain, simple, vanilla cake with chocolate frosting.  And that is what I made.  YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM.

I know I have posted a pretty similar recipe before, but this recipe is SO much better than that one.  It's 10,000x moister, fluffier, and just altogether more delicious.  Believe me, it took me a while to finally get this recipe together.  I'm SUPER forgetful, so I used the wrong kind of oil and messed up the proportions a couple of times before I finally got it right.

Also thank you to Elana's Pantry for the delicious vegan frosting recipe... I had to eat a couple spoonfuls before it went on the cake.

Here is the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flower
• 1/2 cup raw turbinado sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 egg whites
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 cup + 2tbsp canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
• Combine all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
• Combine all wet ingredients in a small bowl.
• Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until combined.
• Pour into a small pan. (I mean small.  This is a TINY cake.)
• Bake for 25-30 mins.
• Cover with this frosting!

Yummy yummy!  I hope you enjoy your cake!

Don't be scared of these cookies just because they are whole wheat and vegan.  You could never tell, they just taste like sugar cookies!  They were even taste tested by my little sisters- they loved them!

And, with it being Christmas Eve and everything, they are the perfect cookies for cutting into pretty shapes, decorating, or even leaving for Santa!

They are also quick and easy to bake, and don't make that much of a mess.

Here is the recipe!

I love the holiday season.  I love the snow, and the trees, and the music, and most of all, the COOKIES.

So I decided to make some today.  Not just the usual sugar cookies with the little designs on them, or some gingerbread cookies like last weekend, but rich, delicious, minty cookies filled with ACTUAL CANDY CANE BITS.  Yum.  The perfect combination of soft and crunchy and altogether delicious.

These are the perfect cookies for the holiday season and I can promise you that I will make these over and over and over again.  They are also actually pretty similar to my Dark Brown Sugar Cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 tablespoons skim milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp mint extract
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 8 crushed mini candy canes

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
• Combine all ingredients except candy canes in a medium sized bowl with an electric mixture.
• Stir in the candy canes.
• Bake for 20 mins.

Enjoy your delicious cookies!

I have said it a million times, and I will say it again.  The chocolate and peanut combo will never be beaten.  Ever.

I mean, just look at these cookies I made.  Don't tell me that they don't look good, or I'll know that you're lying.  They are fluffy, chocolatey, and filled with salty, crunchy peanuts.  Yum.

You know what would make them even better?  If they were dipped in peanut butter frosting.  I'll have to get on that.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup raw turbinado sugar
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup (or more) roasted salted peanuts

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
• Whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, then slowly add the rest of the ingredients except the peanuts, beating the mixture the whole time.
• Stir in the peanuts.
• Pour the batter onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet into the shape of a cookie.
• Bake for 15 minutes.

Yummy.  You have to make these.  They are delicious.

It was a snow day today.

NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, beats a snow day.  You can go outside, watch Christmas movies, sleep in, and best of all, BAKE COOKIES.

So that's what I did today.  Make a ton of gingerbread men.  Here is my recipe!

Ingredients:

Cookies:

• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 3 tablespoons applesauce
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons egg whites
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tsp vanilla

Glaze (from the Chocolate Covered Katie blog):

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons skim milk
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.
• In a small bowl, combine ingredients 1-7.
• In a large bowl, combine ingredients 8-10 using an electric mixer.
• Add molasses and vanilla.
• Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours.
• Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, then put more flour on top.
• Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
• Cut out cookies with cookie cutters.
• Put cookies 1 and 1/2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Bake for 7 minutes.
• Cover with the glaze or other icing!

Yummy!  These cookies are so good I can't even talk about it.  And don't even get me started on the glaze!

There is absolutely nothing better than birthday cake.

Especially when it's covered in sprinkles and frosting and it's your birthday.

But it's not my birthday today.  It was just snowing and cold and I wanted cake so I thought why not and baked myself a cake that only serves two people.  No that's not weird.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flower
• 1/4 cup raw turbinado sugar (more for a sweeter cake, but no more than a half cup)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (if increasing sugar, increase to 1/2 tsp)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
• Combine all dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
• Combine all wet ingredients in a small bowl.
• Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until combined.
• Pour into a small pan. (I mean small.  This is a TINY cake.)
• Bake for 30 mins.

Well, there you have it folk

I'm sorry.  I needed to bring the pumpkin back one last time.  And this might arguably be the best pumpkin recipe that I have ever created.

(Sorry for the lack of a picture...I accidentally ate them all before I remembered to take one.)

The cookie is actually a take off of my recipe for Dark Brown Sugar Cookies.  And it is stuffed with a mixture of pumpkin, sugar, and spices.  Yum.  Stuffed cookies.  The possibilities are ENDLESS.

How about a peppermint cream stuffed cookie for the wintertime?  I think yes.

Here's how to make these delicious little cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup regular oats
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 7 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons pureed pumpkin
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons skim milk

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
• Combine ingredients 1-7 in a medium sized bowl.
• Combine ingredients 8-12 in a small bowl.
• Spray a mini cupcake pan with oil.
• Press some of the oat mixture into the bottom of 8 of the grooves in the pan firmly.
• Drop some of the pumpkin mixture into the middle of each of the cookies.
• Add the milk to the oat mixture left over in the bowl.
• Press the oat mixtures into 8 thin, flat pieces and place over each of the cookies.  Secure them firmly.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes.

There you have it everybody!  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving is officially over.  That means that all of the pumpkin flavored foods that are so popular in the fall are starting to be replaced with other things.

But that also means that another one of my favorite flavors gets to come back.  The flavor that is always associated with winter and Christmas.  Yep, you guessed it: peppermint.  I love it in everything, whether it's gum, or candy, or DARK CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT BARK.

Yes, that is what I came up with when I was deciding what to make this morning, because it combines two of my favorite things in life, dark chocolate and peppermint.  Yum.  There is nothing else to say.  So here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 bar of dark chocolate
• 1 teaspoon peppermint flavor
• 1 crushed up candy cane

Directions:

• Melt the chocolate over a double boiler.  (Or in the microwave.)
• Once the chocolate is melted, stir in the peppermint extract.
• Stir in the candy cane.
• Spread the chocolate mixture onto a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and freeze

There you have it everybody!  This takes about 2 seconds to make and is absolutely delicious!  Enjoy!