butter & eggs

Outrageously Fudgy Pretzel Brownies

June 3, 2013 by Erica

Outrageously Fudgy Pretzel Brownies

Call me crazy, but even with all the fresh summer produce jumping off the shelves, this is the combination I’m obsessed with right now.

Outrageously Fudgy Pretzel Brownies

Chocolate and pretzels.

I’ve been craving pretzels with everything recently. Hummus, cheese, chocolate. (All the major food groups right there.) And just to prove that I am taking very seriously the tragic lack of brownies (my favorite food) on this site, I decided to bake some pretzels into a batch of them for you.

For you, for me… let’s not split hairs about who is benefiting from this recipe.

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Meyer Lemon Curd

May 6, 2013 by Erica

Meyer Lemon Curd

I figured I would give you a break from Saladfest 2013 (a.k.a. this blog last week) to bring you this meyer lemon curd.

I’m pretty sure we will return to Saladfest later in the week, though, because I am going to Mexico in just 10 days (!!!) and, well, yeah… I’d be lying if I said the whole food blogging thing has been good for my waistline.

But it can’t all be salads, especially because lemon curd would not go very well on a salad. That’s my prediction, at least. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Meyer Lemon Curd

Have you ever had lemon curd? I hadn’t before I made it for the first time. It is a lemony spread with the consistency of a very light pudding. Like a lemon jam, but less overwhelmingly lemon than I imagine that would be. It’s like a little bite of sunshine! Don’t be scared off by the “curd” in the name – not really sure what that’s about, but nothing is curdled here. Just sweet, lemony, (uncurdled) sunshine. Perfect for days when it’s supposed to be spring, but is cold and rainy instead.

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Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

March 21, 2013 by Erica

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Happy birthday to meeee!

I turn 26 today. Probably not the most exciting age, but still one I hope will bring good things.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

25 was a great year. It wasn’t full of huge changes or excitement, but I’d like to think I started spending more time on things I enjoy over the past year. I’m definitely feeling happy at the end of 25, so I can only hope 26 brings more of the same!

No big celebrations planned for 26. In case you don’t know, I kind of dread being the center of attention, so I sometimes find my birthday a bit embarrassing. Weird, I know. Last year Nate threw me a surprise party, which was amazing – I was SO surprised! – but I asked him pleeeease not to do that this year, because I just can’t handle it! My last surprise party before that was my 16th birthday, so hopefully I have another 10 years or so before the next one. On the 9 birthdays in between, I prefer just a romantic dinner with my sweetie!

Something else I think I’ll want on my birthday for the next 9 years? These cupcakes.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Peanut butter cupcakes with a banana buttercream frosting. If that doesn’t make your heart skip a beat, I’m not sure what will.

I have been on a huuuuge peanut butter kick recently. Recently, like for the past year. Peanut butter dolloped on my oatmeal, spread on my fruit, melted over vanilla ice cream and a brownie (what?), and blended into my smoothies and salad dressings. And these cupcakes are pretty much my ultimate peanut butter lovin’ creation.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

As they should be; it took me THREE batches of cupcakes and FOUR batches of icing to perfect this combination. (Well, one of the batches of cupcakes was because I managed to double everything except the flour… details.) These cupcakes aren’t fussy or anything, it’s just that I wanted to make sure I had the perfect cake+icing combo to celebrate my birthday. At one point I tried to use a peanut butter frosting with the peanut butter cupcakes. I thought it was delicious, but was informed by Nate that we might as well be eating peanut butter straight from the jar. I told him not to be silly… these are much healthier than straight PB! Kidding. But I’m glad I listened, because these cupcakes and this soft buttery banana icing are meant to be together.

And as a compromise, I snuck a little extra smear of peanut butter onto each cupcake before I iced them.

Heaven!

But OMG the frosting. Let’s not forget to talk about it. It is buttery, banana-y bliss. I wasn’t too sure how a banana would fare in a frosting, but it turns out the answer is VERY WELL. As long as you use a ripe, fresh banana. First I tried using an overripe banana I had defrosted from my freezer (cause those are delicious in smoothies and banana bread), but it turns out that was the wrong choice. (Remember how I had to make four different frostings?) But use a fresh banana here and I promise you’ll want to bathe in this frosting. For real.

Also, I should mention that it seems to keep well. I was a little nervous about it turning brown as bananas tend to do while the cupcakes sat in my fridge for a few days, but that wasn’t the case. Just as purdy as on day one!

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Wishing I could reach into my computer and grab that little cupcake right now. It’s my birthday, so I can totally lick the frosting off, right?

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

5.0 from 1 reviews

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Hands-on time

25 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

Author: Erica

Yields: 10-12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the peanut butter cupcakes:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2/3 cup milk (I used plain unsweetened almond milk)

For the banana buttercream:

1 ripe banana, mashed (not overripe!)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
3 cups powdered sugar

To top (optional):

Peanut butter
Finely chopped toasted peanuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 and place liners in cupcake tins.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar for several minutes until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.
In a separate medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture, alternating with the almond milk, beating well after each addition.
Spoon batter into lined cupcake tins, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out with moist crumbs, 18-20 minutes. Remove and cool completely before frosting.
While cupcakes cool, make frosting. With a hand mixer (or stand mixer if you have one!), cream together the banana, butter, lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Beat in the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until you have a creamy and spreadable frosting.
Once cupcakes are completely cool, spread each with a thin layer of peanut butter, about a 1/2 teaspoon (optional). Spread or pipe with icing and sprinkle immediately with crushed peanuts, if using.
Enjoy!

Notes

Adapted from Eat, Live, Run and AllRecipes.com.

Peanut Butter Birthday Cupcakes with Banana Buttercream Frosting

Blood Orange, Rosemary and Pine Nut Upside Down Cake

March 1, 2013 by Erica

blood orange, rosemary & pine nut upside down cake

Nate is going out of town this weekend, and I plan on taking full advantage.

blood orange, rosemary & pine nut upside down cake

Starfishing in my bed. Drinking the whole pot of coffee. Parking in our one covered parking spot. And cooking all his least favorite foods.

Now, you can’t get much more easy-going than my partner in crime. He’s an adventurous eater, and happily eats anything I put in front of him. He never once complained during my 6 months of strictly vegan cooking – I think that pretty much says it all. But there are a few flavors he doesn’t prefer… and some of them happen to be my favorites.

blood orange, rosemary & pine nut upside down cake

That’s why I’ve had my weekend blog cooking menu ready since Monday. I won’t give it all away, but the general idea is this:

– Something with tahini.

– Something with horseradish.

– Something super spicy.

(Those are going to be different dishes, by the way. Not looking to make anything with so much horseradish that I cry.)

Anyway, I can’t wait. For the cooking, that is! I’ll miss Nate while he’s gone :)

But I’m getting ahead of myself… that tends to happen on Fridays when anticipation for the weekend is running high. In the meantime, I give you this glorious cake.

blood orange, rosemary & pine nut upside down cake

This was inspired by my mom, who has taken to emailing or texting me whenever she eats something that I need to try. (Thanks Mom!) A while back, she emailed me a picture of a blood orange upside down cake she’d made, saying that she loved the idea of it, but didn’t think the recipe she’d followed had ended up looking or tasting as good as expected. She was sure I could do better! I wasn’t as sure… but I too loved the idea, and really, any excuse to cut into one of these beautiful blood oranges is enough to tempt me. Challenge accepted.

Blood Orange, Rosemary & Pine Nut Upside Down Cake | coffeeandquinoa.com

Mom said the recipe she used wasn’t flavorful enough. Luckily, I had long ago bookmarked a rosemary, pine nut and orange cornmeal cake to try at some point. This seemed like the perfect opportunity! And so this lovely cake was born.

blood orange, rosemary & pine nut upside down cake

If blood oranges aren’t available where you are, by all means use regular navel oranges. Opt for ones with thin peels, if you can, since you’ll be putting orange slices, peels and all, on the bottom of this cake. The peels do add a touch of bitterness, so you can cut them off before slicing if you’d like, but I do think the look with them on just can’t be beat. So pretty!

Blood Orange, Rosemary & Pine Nut Upside Down Cake | coffeeandquinoa.com

And if you’d prefer to use the oranges just as a garnish, you don’t have to eat them. I kind of like peeling them off and eating them first :) But be warned: you may want a sharp knife to cut this cake. Otherwise you run the risk of dragging the oranges all over like you’re eating a slice of pepperoni pizza. Just sayin’.

This cake is sure to impress, on both looks and flavor. The rosemary, pine nut, and orange combo in the base of the cake is delicious, and then topped with more oranges, butter and brown sugar? Don’t mind if I do.

blood orange, rosemary & pine nut upside down cake

5.0 from 1 reviews

Blood Orange, Rosemary and Pine Nut Upside Down Cake

Hands-on time

20 mins

Cook time

3 hours 40 mins

Total time

4 hours

Author: Erica

Yields: 8-12 pieces

Ingredients

1 stick plus 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 blood oranges, sliced 1/4-inch thick, including peel (I recommend buying a few extra oranges in case you're a messy slicer like me!)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 Tbsp finely grated blood orange zest
2/3 cup full fat Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper.
Melt 3 Tbsp butter in the microwave. Stir in brown sugar until melted. Spread in the bottom of the cake pan.
Arrange orange slices in an overlapping circle on top of the brown sugar mixture, with a few slices in the middle.
Sift the flour into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add the cornmeal, baking powder, salt, pine nuts, rosemary, and orange zest and stir to combine.
Add the Greek yogurt to a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking thoroughly between each addition. Whisk in the sugar.
Using a wooden spoon, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in two batches, mixing until homogeneous. Melt the remaining stick of butter and mix in.
Pour the batter over the orange slices in the cake pan. Bake 40-45 minutes, until edges of cake are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.
Run a knife around the edges of the cake. Cool completely on a wire rack. Once completely cool, invert onto serving dish and peel parchment paper away, if necessary.
Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Adapted from FineCooking.com. Cake will keep for several days in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Red Velvet Beet Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

February 4, 2013 by Erica

Yes, it tastes like beets.

Had to get that out of the way.

On Saturday I mentioned that I had pinned many beet cake recipes in preparation for a post this week. Well, here it is! A bright red cake filled with roasted and pureed beets. Yum?

If you don’t like beets, I’m not sure if you’ll like this, to be honest. You can taste them, although if you didn’t know they were there, you might not guess it. If you’re OK with beets, though, you will absolutely love this cake, if for no other reason than the fun color.

In general, I’m not a huge fan of “secret ingredients” (a.k.a. hiding vegetables in things), but the beets aren’t hidden here. Boom, there they are! You can taste their earthy flavor and you can deeeefinitely see them right in front of your nose.

Can you believe there’s not a drop of food coloring in this whole cake?

We all know I’m obsessed with colorful food, so I just can’t get over this bright red batter. So beautiful! And perfect for a certain romantic holiday coming up.

And then there are the raspberries that make the frosting such a nice girly pink. Actually, these photos don’t even do the frosting justice. It was even pinker than this!

I made this cake on a snowy day, and learned the hard way that pink frosting is the most difficult thing EVER to photograph. Low blue light + reflective Barbie-pink surfaces = photography nightmare. Sigh. It tastes good, I promise.

Speaking of Barbie… I made this cake with Valentine’s Day in mind, but I can’t help but think that it would be adorable for a little girl’s birthday party. Or a big girl’s birthday party! As long as that girl loves pink.

So what do you think… will you allow some vegetables in your cake? I think these beets are pretty enough that they can get away with practically anything.

Red Velvet Beet Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Hands-on time

45 mins

Cook time

2 hours

Total time

2 hours 45 mins

This red velvet cake has a secret ingredient: beets! Topped with raspberry cream cheese frosting, it is bright pink from tip to toe.

Author: Erica

Yields: 1 cake, serves about 16

Ingredients

For the red velvet beet cake:

3 medium-sized beets
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature, divided
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
3 oz. dark chocolate (I used Ghirardelli’s 60%)
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup maple syrup
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg

For the raspberry cream cheese frosting:

12 oz frozen raspberries
juice of ½ a lemon (about 2 Tbsp)
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar

For garnish (optional):

fresh raspberries

Instructions

First, roast and peel the beets. This is my preferred method. Then roughly chop the beets and puree them in a food processor until smooth. You should have about 1 cup of beet puree. Set aside. (This can also be done ahead of time.)
Preheat oven to 375. Grease and flour a bundt pan (or any cake pan of your choice).
In a large bowl, beat together 3/4 cup of the butter with the brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Melt the chocolate with the remaining butter in the microwave in 30-second increments. Beat the melted chocolate mixture, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and beet puree into the butter/sugar/egg mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices. Dump into the wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. This took me about 40 minutes, but the original recipe says 60-70. The baking time will vary depending on which type of pan you use, so I would suggest starting to check at 40 minutes.
Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. After cooling, you can frost the cake immediately or wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for up to 2 days before continuing.
While cake cools, make the raspberry cream cheese frosting. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the frozen raspberries and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the raspberries have broken down. Pour through a mesh strainer into a small bowl and cool completely. This should yield between 3/4 and 1 cup raspberry sauce.
Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat until incorporated. Beat in the raspberry sauce. You can choose to use as much of the sauce as you want for a frosting anywhere from subtle to shocking pink!
Pour frosting over cooled cake and garnish with fresh raspberries.
The cake will keep covered for several days in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Notes

Adapted from Straight from the Farm and Verve & Sass.

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