Apple Cinnamon Cake with Whole Wheat

Ok, I know this cake looks awful, but it was actually fantastic. This is what I get for waiting to take a picture until the cake was practically demolished. I made this for my dad's birthday. I had looked for a relatively healthy recipe and since this had fruit, whole wheat flour and not a ton of sugar (I substituted about 1/4 cup with Splenda), I decided to go with it. Delicious... there was hardly any to bring home!

Adapted from: www.muchmorethanahomemaker.blogspot.com

INGREDIENTS
Oats-1 cup, powdered (I put old fashioned oats in a blender)
Whole wheat flour- 3\4 cups
Cinnamon powder- 1tsp
Baking powder- 2tsp
Baking soda- 1 tsp
Butter- 5 tbsp
Sugar- 1 cup
Egg whites- 4
Milk-1\4 cups
Vanilla extract- 1\2 tsp
Apples- 2, peeled and chopped

DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the baking dish with oil and dust with flour. Mix flour, cinnamon powder, baking powder and baking soda together. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl till soft and creamy. Add egg white and mix well.
Add flour in this mixture spoon by spoon. Add milk. Add oats powder, vanilla extract and apples. Transfer the batter in the baking dish (I divided the batter in to two dishes). Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes (If you have the batter in to two dishes , then bake for 30-35 minutes) Remove from oven and let it be in the pan for 7-8 minutes. Take out from the pan and cool on a cooling rack. I also mixed low-fat cool whip with cinnamon to put in between the cakes. Since there was some left over, I added it to the top as well!

Lemon Berry Crumble Bars

These bars were nice to make because they were pretty versatile. Any type of berry could be used (I used raspberry) and I also only made half of the recipe in an 8x8 pan. They were quick and easy and pretty tasty!

Adapted from: http://www.willowbirdbaking.wordpress.com/

INGREDIENTS
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter
1 egg1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons cornstarch

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a 9×13 inch pan with parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.
In a separate, small bowl, beat together the egg, lemon juice, and vanilla. Using a pastry cutter or food processor, cut the butter and egg mixture into the flour to form a crumbly dough. Press half of dough evenly into prepared pan.
In two additional bowls, mix together 1/4 cup sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch. Gently mix blueberries into one bowl and raspberries into the other. Sprinkle berries evenly over pressed dough — I did half the pan with blueberries and half with raspberries, but you could alternate or even mix the berries if you’d rather. Crumble the rest of the dough over top of the berries.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until slightly brown. Cool completely (and even chilling a little helps to ensure they’ll hold together) before cutting into squares.

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

These were really good. They had a creamy taste to them, much like strawberry shortcake. :) I rarely bake with strawberries since my sister is allergic to them. It seems I'm baking a lot for family functions so I avoid them at all costs! But I really love strawberries and baked these on a random afternoon with no intention of bringing them to my family's place. It worked out well!

Adapted from: www.buddingbaktress.blogspot.com

INGREDIENTS (Yields 3 dozen cookies)
12 ounces strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces (2 cups)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup heavy cream
Coarse sugar, for sprinkling over the cookies

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, stir together the strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of the sugar; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon zest and remaining sugar. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips until moist and fragrant.
Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the zest/sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Using a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have coarse crumbs. Add the cream to the bowl and stir until the dough starts to come together, then gently fold in the strawberry mixture.
Use a small cookie scoop (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) to drop dough onto the prepared baking sheet, evenly spaced apart. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the pans to wire racks and let the cookies cool. The cookies are best the day they're made, but can be kept in an airtight container for 1 day.

Chewy Low-fat Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Healthy? Whaaat?! That's right. I'm looking to make healthier desserts (sometimes) since 3 out of 5 in my immediate family are diabetic. I usually feel that if you're going to eat (or bake and eat) dessert, it has to be fantastic and most "healthy" desserts are far from that. Since we were going to my parents' for a Father's Day BBQ (my dad being one of the diabetics..) I figured it was a good time to make something like this. They were REALLY good. Very chewy and bursting with banana flavor. I know, I should actually be getting into low-sugar recipes, but I had to start somewhere! The sugar in this recipe is not actually that high compared to a lot of desserts that I bake.

Adapted from: www.skinnytaste.com

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unpacked brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup mashed ripe banana
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups quick oats

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a large bowl with a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars on a medium speed. Add the egg, followed by the mashed banana and vanilla extract.

Working by hand, stir in the flour mixture and oatmeal until just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 10 - 12 minutes or until cookies are light brown at the edges.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake

I wanted to find something light and spring-like for Easter dessert (in addition the the chocolate pudding cake!). This cake was originally from Cooking Light and it was wonderful. It was almost like a dense blueberry lemon muffin. Yum! I altered the icing/glaze....quite a bit. I actually have no idea what I did to come up with the end result. I tasted the lemon juice mixed with powdered sugar and honestly I thought it was awful. So I added some sugar.... still no good. Maybe some flour to thicken it up... nope. So, I googled a cream cheese frosting recipe and then added some of the lemon glaze (already significantly modified at this point) to that. It turned out really well! My suggestion would be to make a cream cheese frosting and add some lemon juice. You'd think I'd take more notice as to what I was doing since I knew I'd be posting this recipe!

Adapted from: http://www.morethanamountful.com/

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup lower in fat cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs
Zest of 1 lemon (about 1 Tbs)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (8 oz) carton non-fat lemon yogurt (I use vanilla if I don't have lemon on hand!)
Cooking spray
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
4 tsp lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350º. In a large bowl beat the sugar, butter and cream cheese at medium speed with a mixer until well blended (4-5 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. In a smaller bowl measure the 3 cups of flour. Remove 2 Tbs and sprinkle over the blueberries, gently stirring and tossing to coat. To the remaining flour add the baking powder, baking soda and salt, stir to combine. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture alternately with the yogurt, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, being careful not to over-mix. Gently, fold in the blueberries. Pour the batter into a bunt pan coated (VERY coated!) with cooking spray. Sharply tap the pan once on the counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350º for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. (about one hour). Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove cake from sides of the pan. Cool an additional 15 minutes on a wire rack, then remove the cake from the bottom of the pan. Allow to cool completely.

GLAZE (I did not use this and could not tell you how I made mine! Cream, powdered sugar and this icing were involved...)
Combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over the cake.

Chocolate Pudding Cake

The name accurately describes this dessert. It's gooey, but not quite pudding... but not enough to be just called cake. It was very chocolaty and not as much sweet. This was also a "healthier" recipe, supposedly. I saw quite a few recipe for Chocolate Pudding Cake and this definitely had less of the unhealthy ingredients (like lots of butter!). I was bringing this to my parents' for Easter and knew there would be perogies, mac & cheese, cauliflower casserole.... I had to keep the desserts not entirely bad for you! ;)

Adapted from: www.honeywhatscooking.com

INGREDIENTS
All Purpose Flour - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Cocoa Powder - 1/2 cup, divided (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
Baking Powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Low Fat 1% Milk - 1/2 cup
Canola Oil - 3 tbsp
Brown Sugar - 2/3 cup
Semisweet Chocolate Chips - 1/4 cup
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Hot water - 1 1/4 cups

DIRECTIONS:

Boil 2 cups of water. Grease a round baking tray with a teaspoon of Canola Oil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine white flour, white sugar, 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add milk and oil. Mix well and then spread out in prepared pan. (The original directions had you combine this in the same round baking tray. However, the canola oil stuck to all of the ingredients as I was mixing, then it was as if you didn't grease the bottom of the pan, so I wouldn't suggest this method.) Evenly sprinkle the brown sugar on top. Evenly sprinkle 1/4 cup of cocoa powder on top. Evenly sprinkle semisweet chocolate chips on top. Add hot water and vanilla in a measuring cup. Combine. Pour the hot liquid over the batter. DO NOT MIX! Carefully place this in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. Mine baked for 30 minutes exactly.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies

I was hesitant to try this recipe - spicy chocolate? Sure, anything chocolate can't be BAD, but I'm not big on spicy. I don't like the aftertaste it leaves in my mouth that ruins the taste of other foods. However, I've seen many recipes for cayenne brownies or cayenne cookies so I figured I'd try it out. If I gave bacon cookies a shot, I might as well try this too! They were awesome! So fudgy with a nice kick at the end. I had tasted the batter for the spicyness after adding the minimum amount of cayenne (1/2 tsp) and it didn't taste much different than regular brownie batter, so I went ahead and added the extra 1/4 tsp. Honestly, I could've added a little more (that is, if you like spice)....and that's a lot coming from me!


Adapted from: www. jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride

INGREDIENTS
For the brownies
1 1/4 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 – 3/4 tsp ground cayenne
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 oz unsweetened chocolate
12 Tbsp butter, cubed
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla

GANACHE
6 oz semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup whole milk

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325. Grease the bottom and sides of a 13×9 pan. Whisk cake flour, salt, baking powder, cayenne, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside. Place chocolate and butter in a bowl. Microwave for 1 minute and in 30 second increments, stirring in between until chocolate has completely melted. Pour into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add sugar and mix on med-high until combined. Turn mixer to low and add 1 egg at a time and mix completely. Add vanilla. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for ~30 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let cool ~15 minutes. Heat semisweet chocolate and milk in the microwave for 30 seconds and then in 15 second increments, stirring in between until chocolate has completely melted. Pour over brownies. Let cool completely before cutting.