Recently I've gotten back into baking cakes The other week I made Chocolate Devil's Food Cake for the teacher I work with. It was kind of a random idea, our students came up to me and said it's going to be her birthday March 1st and we should do something and I threw out that I can make a cake and they all agreed it was a wonderful idea. Problem is I only get home 8 pm earliest. I also have to get up at 5 am to get to work on time.

Still I stayed up till 1 am in the morning and got up at 4 am to finish the icing. I have to say it was a great cake...if I'm not blowing my own horn here

Next monday I'll bring over three cakes to celebrate my birthday which was last Friday. I've already decided that one is going to be a chocolate chip cake, I'm still making up my mind about the other two, but I think I'll go with spice-cake and probably apple and cinammon.

Wild Rose, I'm looking for a good chocolate cake recipe! Would you be able to share yours?

I can't say that I have a favorite chocolate cake recipe in my arsenal of recipes, Valiant_Nymph, but I did make this black bean chocolate cake recently and I thought it turned out pretty well. That may be not at all what you're looking for, though.

I also made a yellow cake with white beans the other day and tried something new for the frosting — I used pureed beans for that as well instead of the customary truckload of confectionery sugar. I know buttercream made from beans sounds really weird from an American standpoint, but white bean paste is actually commonly used in Korean desserts and is the key ingredient for making the intricate icing flowers that top Korean cupcakes. It's called baek ahng geum and it's very simple to make.

I used navy beans in my batch because that's what I had on hand, but next time I'll try the traditional cannellini beans. I didn't know quite what to expect from the flavor, but using plenty of vanilla extract resulted in a nice, not-too-sweet buttercream. Even my brother liked it, so I'd say it was a success.

I can't say that I have a favorite chocolate cake recipe in my arsenal of recipes, Valiant_Nymph, but I did make this black bean chocolate cake recently and I thought it turned out pretty well. That may be not at all what you're looking for, though.

Ha, that's not what I had in mind, but I might try is out!

Does any have a good recipe for chocolate chip cookies? I'm trying to make some for my mom's birthday

I know this is strange JillPoleFan, but I find the recipe on the back of a particular brand of chocolate chips to be really good. Not sure if they have this brand in your area, but here is the recipe:
https://www.hersheys.com/kitchens/en_ca ... ecipe.html

I have a great chocolate cake recipe, but I can't remember if I am allowed to share it. It's my great-grandma's recipe. Somewhere in this thread I posted my favorite buttermilk brownie recipe that is a lot like a chocolate cake.

This recipe was one of my birthday pies, other pie was sour cream blackberry and I am sure I have posted that recipe already.

Mocha Chiffon Pie (adapted from Better Homes And Gardens New Cook Book copyright 1965)

1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup water (I used shots of espresso)
2 BRCC instant coffee sticks (maybe 2 teaspoons of instant coffee)
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 or 2 T. coffee grounds (could use coffee grounds from making coffee listed above)
1/3 cup sugar
3 stiff beaten egg whites
baked pie shell

Soften gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water. Heat 1/2 cup water (or coffee) to boiling; add instant coffee and chocolate; dissolve. Add softened gelatin, stir until dissolved. Cool.

Beat egg yolks with 1/3 cup sugar till light; add chocolate coffee mixture, salt, vanilla, and coffee grounds. Cool at room temperature.

Gradually beat 1/3 cup sugar into beaten whites; fold into chocolate mixture. Pour into pie shell. Chill until firm, about 2-4 hours. Trim with whipped cream and chocolate curls.

SnowAngel

I told a couple of the gals on the forum that I would post my family's turkey stuffing casserole recipe and I still intend to, however my mom just kinds throws the stuffing part together and I can't figure out the measurements to write down. I will figure it out and post it this year.

In the meantime, I have been replacing white sugar with the truvia baking blend in some of my favorite dessert recipes. Would love to use just xylitol or erythritol, but that's not in the currently in the budget. Anyway, I used the truvia blend in the sour cream berry pie (skipped the topping in favor of whipped cream) and chocolate chiffon pie, both recipes turned out great. I already make a pie crust without sugar, I am very happy to be able to significantly reduce white sugar and still have a delicious dessert.

Recently I tried a wheat thin recipe I found on pinterest, so yummy. I try really hard not to eat store-bought crackers, and so finding this cracker recipe that doesn't use a ton of butter was awesome. I have made it several times, the last couple batches I added worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, dry mustard, and more salt for a classic party mix flavor. Still working on the measurements for the spices and the liquid for the recipe, our wheat flour is kinda course and seems to need more liquid.

SnowAngel

Found a recipe for Black Bean (chocolate) Lava Cakes that I plan to try

Wednesday I'll find the link again and post it. Decided to inventory all our canned/dry goods on Friday, and found 17 cans of black beans spread all over the place...this has got to stop...not only the 'hoarding', but nothing between categorized properly and just put wherever there's room. I got so frustrated, I quit taking stock and started organizing instead. Hence my spring cleaning taking place early this year. Lots of stuff will be thrown out this year!

Well, I almost have the stuffing casserole recipe figured out. My mom made again a few weeks ago and she made an ingredients list with sort of measurements, only now I'm not sure where the list is.

I've been wanting to crackers again, but a part in the oven broke and had to be replaced. Since it is now fixed, I will hopefully have sometime this weekend to make a couple batches of crackers, they freeze really well and taste good right out of the freezer. This is recipe I used: https://smittenkitchen.com/2012/09/home ... eat-thins/

While there was no oven, I decided to make Healthy Thin Mints and not bake the cookies. I used a cookie scoop and made them into "cakeballs" (without frosting) and I refrigerated the cookies for a while before putting on the melted chocolate. I used equal parts coconut flour, almond flour, and flaxseed in place of the THM baking blend. It was so good. But then chocolate and mint are always good.

SnowAngel

Aw, best of luck with finding the ingredients list, SA. And those thin mints look good!

If you still have coconut flour and almond flour in the kitchen after your oven is repaired, I highly recommend King Arthur Flour's Strawberry Almond Flour Cake recipe. I made it for my birthday last year, sans strawberries, and it might be my new favorite cake recipe. (Sorry, hummingbird cake. ) I've been looking for an excuse to make it again ever since, but I haven't had the time to do any baking lately. It's also a little more involved than some recipes because it requires whipping and folding in egg whites as the leavening. It's well worth it, though! When I made it for my birthday, I paired it with this cream cheese frosting made with granulated sugar, which I also really liked because it's not overly sweet. Next time I'll try almond-flavored buttercream.

I really want to make another batch of the cakeballs, but my mom is doing a Trim Healthy Mama fuel cycle this week and that recipe doesn't fit that part of the plan.

We have a nice size container of coconut flour and several cups of almond flour still in the pantry. That cake looks so yummy. I've been wanting to try some more healthy cake recipe, but the THM FP recipe I want to try calls for oat fiber which we don't have. Hopefully next time a Vitacost order is place the oat fiber will be in stock. I do have the ingredients for your cake recipe, Rose, perhaps if it's fits into the THM plan I will have the opportunity to try it soon.

Thanks to Scarlet's library books we have several cookbooks in the house that the siblings have been raiding for new recipe ideas. Yesterday they made a flatbread from an African cookbook, it had a funny name that escapes me at the moment. It was very tasty. But since they made it, I didn't get to make crackers.

SnowAngel

I found the list for the stuffing! Now I need find the instructions for the recipe, I think I might have typed it out on evernote.

I needed a cupcake for a celebration and so I tried a new coconut flour recipe found via pinterest: https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/choco ... luten-free Delicious paired with vanilla whipped cream. But I wish the chocolate flavor had been stronger, maybe more espresso powder next time. Although I did already increase the espresso powder to a tablespoon. Overall the recipe was tasty and the texture excellent which is hard to get with coconut flour.

SnowAngel

I've gotten into baking recently, now that I have a kitchen with an oven. It's quite a challenge, to be honest, trying to find the right ingredients out here in the middle of nowhere (at the moment I live in a village in rural Zambia). Some stuff is hard to find, some stuff is impossible, still I love the challenge I call it "Baking in the Bush"

Anyway, my birthday just passed recently, at it so happened that I found myself looking after the orphanage alone, both directors had left for buisness, and so I decided to spoil myself and the kids and bake up some cakes.

Because butter is expensive, I looked up recipies that didn't call for butter in the cake, saving some butter just for icing. I made layered cakes, chocolate and vanilla and covered it with icing. On one cake I just decided to be foolish and put as many cookies and candy and gum as I could. It came out looking lopsided but I gave it to the kids and they loved it, tore it apart piece by piece (as I expected), but thankfully there was enough candy to please everyone.

This is what it looked like

The other cake was simpler and I shared it with the nannies and staff, but it came out looking a lot nicer and neater (I think) I don't have a picture of it though.

I've also been into muffins and cupcakes lately. I made fifty cupcakes the other day to feed the entire orphanage (33 kids, plus staff). I'm not sure what I want to try next but I hope to come up with something fun

What a fun cake, wild rose!

With the weather warming up it's the perfect time to make blueberry whip. This is a recipe my sister created last year and it's kind of like frozen yogurt or ice cream.

Berry Whip
2 cups kefir cheese
16 oz. frozen berries or fruit
1 tsp. NuStevia (may need more depending on the kefir cheese)
1/4-1/2 cup cream or milk
Salt

Place all ingredients in food processer and blend. I like it best served immediately, but whip can be refrigerated until ready to serve. Also any leftover whip can be refrigerated for several days.

It's good with all kinds of berries, family also likes it with mango.

SnowAngel