Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting: Baked Sunday Mornings

Okay, okay I know I said I wouldn't be back until May 24th... but I just had to bake something for my coworker who is leaving this Saturday.  

I know she likes chocolate chip cookies, so I think she would like these cupcakes.  This is suppose to be a cake, but when I bring something to work I like to make it into easy and manageable portions...so cupcakes it was!  

I did have some batter left, so I made a small 

cake ( hubby will be happy again!) 

This cake is from the Baked Exlorations cookbook.  I missed this one too for some crazy reason or the other.  They describe it as a coffee cake that tastes like a chocolate chip cookie.  I can't say if it does because I have not tasted this one.  (Still juicing...4 more weeks to go!) It looks like a snack cake to me, very much like a carrot cake texture and crumb.  

It looks damn good!

 

The oatmeal that goes in the cake not put in dry, you hydrate it with boiling water and melted butter....oh my!  I love butter in my oatmeal.  That right there made me more hungry than anything else!  Anyway, the oatmeal is added to an egg mixture with the sugars, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Then the flour is added in.  You put vanilla over the chocolate chips and give it a mix, then sprinkle on a little flour and get them all nice and coated. ( I learned this trick from the Barefoot Contessa with the Outrageous Brownies...it is so the chips don't sink to the bottom!) The coated chips are added to the batter.

These are really easy to make.  I baked my cupcakes for 20 minutes and left the cake in for another 10.  The frosting is just your typical cream cheese frosting.  They say you can opt to not frost the cake if you want, but I can't pass up cream cheese frosting...that's just not how I roll.  I made some chocolate chip cookies for decoration.  

I think they look pretty good!  

Recipe is here

The group is making a buttery pound cake with a salted caramel glaze....Oh my!  The sounds so sinfully good.  

Until next time,

Be sweet and Enjoy!

Everyone loved this cake!  I took a taste and yes, it is a keeper! 

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones: Baked Sunday Mornings

Every Easter we go to my sisters house for Brunch and I make scones.  The Baked group is scheduled to make a delicious sounding coconut cake this week so I just had to go rogue because cake, as good as it sounds doesn't fill the bill!  So I scoured through the past Baked recipes that I did not get a chance to partake in and I found these scones.  They are from the Baked Elements cookbook and I remember wanting to try them...not sure why I didn't, but it gave me the perfect excuse to bake them up for Easter.  And so I did!  Everyone enjoyed these yummy treats.  I will definitely add them to my favorite scone recipes!

The recipe only makes 8 scones but I made them smaller because I make two or three kinds then everyone can taste them all.  I only made two kinds this year, the other was a lemon blueberry scone which was delish also!

The oatmeal scones were your typical scone recipe with oats, brown sugar, chocolate chips and chunky peanut butter added to it.  Get the recipe here.

You really should try it...so easy and so delicious!

If you are curious to see what the other bakers did with the Coconut Cake...well, just take a peek here. 

Until next time,

(Which will be awhile....I am on one of my infamous juice fasts and I am taking it all the way into May.  I will be back for the Red Wine Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Glaze....

How good does that sound!!!)

Be sweet and Enjoy!

Fudgy No Butter Brownies: ABC

The Avid Bakers are getting their challenges from Scientifically Sweet a beautiful baking blog by Christina Marsigliese.  This is my second bake from her recipes, while I was disappointed with the lemon loaf, I was very hesitant to try this recipe not only because of my first failed attempt but because this recipe although it has no butter it has a ridiculous amount of sugar!  I was intrigued because these brownies are made with almond flour so they are gluten free but the 2 cups of confectioners sugar really turned me off.  Well, I love brownies so I thought that I would give it a shot.  I really thought that I would add less sugar 
but I decided to follow the recipe as written. 

Yes, these brownies did turn out very dense and fudgy which I liked.  I even liked the little bits of almonds throughout the brownies from the almond flour, but I should have followed my instinct...these are way too sweet!

I won't be making these again. I wasn't as disappointed with this recipe as I was with the lemon loaf but there was way too much sugar and I missed the butter. Sorry...nothing can beat Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies.  

I will try the next recipe...Brown Butter Banana Bread.  Sounds delicious.  

We will see!

Until then

Be sweet and 

Enjoy!

Fudgy No-Butter Brownies (gluten-free, dairy-free)

Scientifically Sweet

Makes 16 brownies

2 cups (300 g) icing/confectioner’s sugar

2/3 cup (56 g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder

200 g (about 2 cups) ground almonds/almond meal

½ tsp salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 large egg white

2 tbsp water

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

5 oz (about 2/3 cup) best quality dark chocolate chips or chopped bittersweet chocolate, plus extra for topping

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch pan with parchment paper, letting it hang over the edges of pan.

Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a large mixing bowl. Add almond meal and salt and stir to combine. Add whole eggs, egg white, water and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. The batter will be thick. Stir through bittersweet chocolate.

Scrape batter into your prepared pan, smooth the top and scatter extra chocolate over top. Bake until a shiny crust forms and a skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few moist sticky bits, about 25-30 minutes.

Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool slightly. For neat slices, let cool completely before slicing.