Ah it's Pancake Tuesday! What a wonderful holiday, I simply cannot let it go by without celebrating it. This year, I wanted to try something different so I scoured my recipe books and found so so many pancake recipes. One stuck out to me, not only because it sounded incredibly different from regular pancakes, but also because it required a few weirdo ingredients that somehow I had on hand?? Including 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin of which I had almost that EXACT amount just chilling (heh heh) in my freezer waiting to be made into something... So I like to think the universe chose these pancakes for me to make. I got up early, went for a swim, picked up some milk on my way home from the pool. Made some coffee, and got to work making these pancakes. The best part is that one of my roommates was working from home today, so I had a brunch buddy to help me eat up! My other roomie will be home later, and there are plenty of leftovers for her... which I think she will enjoy because A) she loves pancakes and B) she is trying to eat more gluten-free things. I am not bothered one bit by gluten but I sure love experimenting with different flours... This recipe calls for "whole-grain medium grind cornmeal". This is important to note that not all cornmeal is created equal! Just like whole grain flour, you can buy whole grain cornmeal. This means that it includes the entire grain: bran, germ and endosperm. (Regular white flour and cornmeal only contain the endosperm.) I'm sure you could make these with regular cornmeal, but the whole grain stuff is sure nice and adds more flavour. It requires a bit more searching in the grocery store, but I found it with all the "Bob's Red Mill" brand flours and grains, often in the health-food section if your grocery store has one. Good old bob, he's done it again. This is also where you will find brown rice flour and quinoa flour, if you don't already have those in your house like this weirdo... **If you buy strange flours like these and don't use them super often, I recommend storing them in the freezer! This way they will last a long time and not go rancid, which is indeed something you must be concerned about especially with these high-protein flours. Right now in my freezer I have: brown rice flour, white rice flour, quinoa flour, buckwheat flour, whole wheat flour, pastry flour, rye flour, almond flour... Yup, I told you I like to experiment! Gluten Free Pumpkin Cornmeal PancakesRecipe barely adapted from The Vegetarians Complete Quinoa Cookbook
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Never have I ever actually celebrated valentines with one significant romantically inclined other... The valentines that I have known and loved all my life involves baking cute things and sharing them with my mother, my friends, and my coworkers. This year was no different. However this year for the first time I hosted a bunch of my grand old pals for a "Pal-entines" party. There was a LOT of snacks and wine, lots of laughs, and lots of valentines themed stuff... including these festive cupcakes! What a fabulous treat to make for your pal's during this wonderful month of love! I used these cupcakes as an excuse to eat chocolate covered strawberries... one of my favourite little delicacies that I never ever seem to have, despite them being so incredibly simple! I suppose they take a little bit of effort... but there is something wonderfully festive about setting yourself up to dip a whole basket of bright red berries into a bowl of velvety chocolate. It's like making cookies at christmas. It helps to set the mood if you play some old-school love songs. Gosh I love Valentines!!! Chocolate Strawberry CupcakesRecipe slightly adapted from Food Network Magazine Chocolate Cupcakes
Do I really need to provide you with instructions for chocolate dipped strawberries? Probably not. But here you go.
**for the cupcakes pictured above, I used my favourite chocolate swiss buttercream recipe which you can find in this recipe post... just swap the white chocolate for dark chocolate as necessary. I did this because I had it on hand, so much of it, and it begs to be used, and how silly it would be to not use it! However if you do not have your favourite frosting kicking around in your freezer... maybe try the recipe below. It is the one that comes from Food Network Magazine, though I have not made it. If you do, let me know how it goes!
Happy February! Roses are red, Velvet is too, This cake is made with beets, So it must be good for you. We all know that a cake for February, AKA Valentines MONTH (not sorry) was gonna be a red/pink deal. For me, that means whipping up one of my favourite recipes: BEET red velvet. That's right, BEET! This is a historically correct red velvet cake, in that the colour comes entirely from the magical power of beets, not a trace of food colouring. ALTHOUGH I confess that food colouring was used in the frosting. But I'm in charge here, so, it's okay. Did you know that back in the day Red Velvet was named thusly due to the velvety texture imparted by beets? It's true. If you're like, "for real, beets in cake?" then I say hey, if carrot cake is so common then why not beet cake! You've gotta try it, I've converted a lot of non beet-lievers. (Yikes that was bad) But seriously even the skeptics loved the flavour of this cake! Even a friend who says he "doesn't like beets". The beets add flavour, colour, texture, and a little drama. Nice and tangy, especially good with cream cheese frosting... I made this recipe in cupcake form for Higher Ground Cafe for some valentine-themed treats. I always get so stoked to see how vibrant the colour is! I called these "Heart-Beet Cupcakes" heh heh As this is part of my monthly cake challenge, I needed to try something new. This month I attempted the technique of painting with frosting! It turned out not exactly as I envisioned in my mind... to be honest my first thought was "WOW epic fail" like when you see something on pinterest and then in reality it just is laughably awful? But after walking away and coming back with fresh eyes, I actually liked what I created! Like so many of my art experiments, really! This one really felt like painting. FUN. Perhaps painting with buttercream might yield better results as opposed to cream cheese frosting... But this cake really requires cream cheese frosting. It's just non-negotiable. This bowl here contains the liquid ingredients for our beet-cake-batter. WOW amiright? I swear I didn't edit this! Life is this magical! I love veggies. And here is our cake batter, all trayed up and ready for the oven. But first, a glamour shot. This batter deserves it. You may notice that I often bake cakes as a flat sheet tray, and then cut them into circles for stacking. This way the layers bake flat and evenly, the baking time shortens, you can cut them into any size you want, and it gives you lots of scraps for snacking :) Also, if you just moved and don't currently own a round cake pan, this technique really comes in handy... Garnished with toasted red-velvet crumbs (good use of those cake scraps!), beet chips (store bought from costco!), and gold sprinkles because oooh lala. To February! The short but sweet month of love, cold weather, and chocolate that goes on sale. What a grand time of year. Time to sneak some veggies into dessert! It's practically health food! Right? All-Natural Red Velvet CakeRecipe barely adapted from Yossy Arefi
Cream Cheese Frosting
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