A Long Weekend of Birthday Baking

Gaaaah, this post is about one month late but I still wanted to share three recipes I had tested out during the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Over that long weekend, I baked goodies as presents to three birthday girls: a childhood friend, a church friend, and my beloved grandmother. Without further ado, some eye-candy for you to indulge in.

Building the Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Layer Cake

Once I confirmed that my childhood friend, Tiff, was a fellow fan of pumpkin, I decided to go all out for her birthday cake. We were celebrating her 'entrance into adulthood' with a 'baby turkey' (aka Costco rotisserie chicken) dinner, Disney movies, and a sleepover. Sounding epic? Just wait until you hear about this Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Layer Cake I made her. Alternating layers of chocolate pumpkin cake and crustless pumpkin pie, glued together with whipped coconut cream. I could eat the whole cake and feel [almost] guiltless. I just got some teasing from my best friend, looking down on the cake just because I mentioned it's vegan. Whoa whoa now, don't hate on vegan food! Vegan food can be de-lish, as proven by this cake.

Completed Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Layer Cake

It was my first time using and eating whipped coconut cream, oh my goodness, Coconut Crumpet went on a vacation to heaven. I stuck a can of Rooster Brand Gold Label Coconut Milk into the fridge overnight for the vegan whipped cream. I highly recommend using this particular coconut milk because of its high, high, high fat content. It's super rich, thick, and coconutty. All the coconut whipped cream recipes I've seen online use the 'full fat' cans of coconut milk, which yield about half a can of whip-able coconut cream. The Gold Label Coconut Milk yields more than 3/4 can of coconut cream!! It was enough to frost this loaf-sized cake. 

As for the actual cake part of the cake, I used a pumpkin chocolate brownie recipe and adapted this crustless pumpkin pie recipe. While the brownie turned out fine, I took my Rachel-ifying a little too far for the pumpkin pie layer. It was bubbling in the oven like a cauldron and rose about five times the height that it should have, then I almost burnt it, and all that height collapsed as it cooled and some batter stuck to the sides of my loaf pan. Thankfully, the taste was fine and it would be ready to become a cake with a bit of a trim.

On the same day as I decorated this cake, I baked up two more birthday presents. Some Cranberry Orange Ricotta Muffins for my grandma and Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies for a church friend, who is a lover of peanut butter and chocolate.

Cranberry Orange Ricotta Muffins

These muffins follow the same recipe as this Blackberry Lemon Ricotta Muffins I already have on the blog. This ricotta muffin recipe yields the fluffiest muffins ever; it is a must-try! I replaced the blackberries with cranberries, lemon zest and juice with that of an orange, and sprinkled the tops with turbinado sugar before baking. The raw sugar gives a beautiful sparkle and delicious crunch to the finished muffins. It's just unfortunate the the sugar will dissolve by the next day...so no more crunch :(

Soft Baked Peanut Butter Cookies

And finally, a batch of soft-baked peanut butter cookies, packed with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips of course. These were soooooooooooo good~~ Totally my type of cookie: soft, thick, chewy, peanut-buttery... I'm drooling again. You probably want to know what recipe I used right? Well head over to Sally's Baking Addiction; she has a plethora of cookie recipes with a good mix of healthy recipes too! 

I altered a few ingredients as softened (not melted!) coconut oil replaced the butter and Reece's peanut butter chips and chocolate chips instead of M&M's. The base of the cookie can be made vegan with the use of coconut oil. 

Soft Baked Peanut Butter Cookies

Even though many peanut butter cookie recipes recommend sticking to the regular creamy peanut butter stuff that is laden with sugar, I went ahead and used my natural peanut butter. The trick is to make sure the separated oil is very thoroughly re-incorporated (stir it every time you open the jar) and the jar is kept in the refrigerator. By keeping the natural peanut butter cool, the texture becomes creamy instead of runny.

I forgot to press down on the cookie dough before baking, which is why my cookies look a lot smaller and fatter. That isn't really bad at all as there will just be more soft cookie inside to enjoy!

Well, I hope that these little posts of "what I've been baking" is interesting. Halloween is over and now we're charging full force into Christmas. While I had a fun Halloween dressing up as a minion (I have a slight obsession with those yellow pill-shaped creatures), Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. No arguing. I cannot wait for Christmas and all the festive deliciousness that happens during December; hopefully I'll be able to post about my successful recipes! Pumpkin pie anyone? The perfect Vegan Pie Crust can be made by following my recipe here. I'm still working on a perfect pumpkin pie filling so please check back soon! The Crumpets will try our best to post as often as we can between our busy schooling ;) We have lots to accomplish before we wander into the scarier-than-Halloween land of university...dundunDUNNNN..


Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

A Blackberry Breakfast of Pancakes and Muffins

Fresh Blackberries

August, the month for blackberries. These delicate, plump berries that resemble raspberries aren't around for long. Their expensive price tag at the supermarket make it a 'once in a while' special treat worth splurging on. The fresh flavours of blackberries + lemon + ricotta create wonderful light summer treats. I have incorporated this combination in two recipes: pancakes and muffins.

Blackberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Last week, I made some Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. I loved those light-as-air pancakes so much I had no troubles deciding on what to do with the leftover ricotta cheese. More pancakes! (If you've read my Hawaii post, you may know I have a weakness for pancakes) Blackberries work just as well with lemon and ricotta and best enjoyed in the form of these fluffy pancakes. Using the pancake batter recipe linked above, but just replacing the blueberries with blackberries in the sauce.

Blackberry Lemon Ricotta Muffins

For the sake of trying a new recipes some of the ricotta went towards a batch of muffins. Same three flavours, but in a completely different form.

Healthy Carrot Morning Glory Muffins

Healthy Carrot Morning Glory Muffin

This is the one and only carrot muffin recipe you need; it's flavourful, healthy, and jam-packed with delicious ingredients. Truly a glorious way to start the day (I'm so poetic).

I can rest assured knowing I've gotten my daily intake of veggies. This muffin includes all my favourite things: coconut, nuts, fruit, and veggies. It's filled with fibre too, as you can use whole wheat flour or add flax seeds like I chose to do. Remember the importance of scrubbing the colon everyday!

My mom always complains about my muffins that barely reach the rim off the muffin liner. No need to worry about that with these muffins; they rise nice and tall and have a beautiful dome-shaped top. Smear a little frosting and top with some toasted coconut flakes like Ambitious Kitchen's photo and you've got a presentable gift!

Enough of my blabbering, just go and make these muffins nowwwww~

Healthy Carrot Morning Glory Muffins

Adapted from Ambitious Kitchen

Yield: 12 full muffins

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups flour
• ½ cup ground flax seed
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• Pinch of nutmeg
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup milk (try coconut milk!)
• 2 ½ cups shredded carrots (about 1 jumbo carrot, or 2 ½ medium carrots)
• ½ cup unsweetened applesauce (or date paste)
•  ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ cup coconut flakes, toasted*
•  ½ cup chopped walnuts, toasted**

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line or grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, flax seed, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.
3. In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, vanilla, oil, and eggs until combined. Add in the milk and mix again.
4. Mix the carrots, applesauce, and raisins into the wet mixture.
5. Add all of the dry mixture, coconut flakes, and walnuts into the wet mixture. Fold until just combined. Be sure not to over mix!
6. Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups with your handy-dandy muffin scooper. Top with some walnut bits or coconut shreds if it pleases you to do so.
7. Bake for 23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out dry.
8. Cool on completely on a wire rack before attempting to peel the paper liners off, they stick a little bit.

*Toast coconut flakes in a preheated oven at 350°F for 2 minutes. Stir once and bake for 1 more minute. It smells ah-may-zing~

**Please refer to this recipe for directions on how to toast walnuts

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡