{October Love-Wedding Cake}

We are in the final count down! With less than a month to go, my Love and I are working on the fun details now.  Our little home is also coming together as bits and pieces are added.  I have been in a major nesting mood.  I'm just so eager to make our space a relaxing place that my Love can't wait to come home to every day.  

As the details emerge, one in particular has my attention and focus.  Unlike many brides, I cannot order a  standard wedding cake.  My guests, at least most of them, could eat it, but not me.  Fortunately, I have some things going for me.  First, I love simple small cakes 6-8" to be exact, second, I LOVE baking my own desserts and lastly, my Love LOVES to eat my desserts! How perfect is that! 

Soooo the great experiment and hunt has begun.  I have scoured my many...many...cookbooks and magazines, as well as my many past creations, in order to create a trial list of 6 cake varieties.  These include vanilla, chocolate, carrot and maple cakes with all sorts of coconut, buttercream, rich chocolate and vanilla frosting options. I'm in heaven!  The only slight negative is the amount of tasty batters and cakes I will continually have around me....  I will try to keep you all posted as I try and experiment with these fun recipes.  My plan is to bake mostly one or two layers just to try.  For the actual cake I would like to create a 3-layer 6 inch cake.  I love 6 inch cakes; they are the perfect little size!

Email me if you want recipes and I will direct you to the cook books I used so that you can give it a try too! Come bake with me!

My round 1 went very well.  It was picture worthy, as you can see.  I baked a rich chocolate cake with a sweet vanilla, butter cream frosting.  My Love enjoyed the flavor, found the texture a bit springy, but as we all know that is much better than dense (which was the result of round 2) and overall found it quite delicious.  I must admit the frosting paired well and I spread some blackberry preserve in the center, which really sealed the perfection. 

Rating: 7 out of the perfect 10

{A Sweet Mistake}

Group-on coupons started it all.  A dear friend who knows of my cooking obsession signed my mom, my Love and me up for a cooking class with the wonderful Freddi Parker.  I fell in love with her immediately.  She is a marvelous and creative chef that loves the people she is around just as much as the food she makes for them.  I just received the opportunity to help her prepare food for a few of her classes in June.  I cannot wait!

It was one of her desserts from that class that inspired me.  She creates a fabulous three ingredient, flourless and decadent chocolate cake.  Unfortunately two of the ingredients are eggs and butter, which as we know is not welcomed by my tummy.  I quickly knew I had to attempt to recreate it without these two of the three.  The challenge was on.  I gave it two solid tries in one night and well, it was quite a failure.  Most well trained Chefs would laugh at my notion to even try as eggs are quite difficult to replace in such a recipe.  I can only explain the attempts by my simple desire to create the impossible.  Perhaps someday I will....

So, sadly I do not have a recipe for you today.  You're probably wondering why are you blogging then Silly? Well, the reason I'm sharing this with you is because I want you to know that I fail.  For some reason, you all seem to think I only experience success.  Well I must correct this myth, because honestly, I fail all the time.  Just ask my family, my close friends and most of all my sweet Love.  He, brave man, will even venture to taste test my failures.  His response to the food, my distraught look and sad kitchen moans typically goes something like this..."well, I'm sure it would be great with some ice cream?" To which I either laugh or at times hold back tears.  These are difficult mistakes to swallow, expensive {everything-free} food is not the easiest to throw away.

Cooking is an art, but it is also a science.  A calculated experiment that can really go wrong.  Yet, do not be discouraged.  There is always room for a good solid rescue.  As my man would say, add ice cream or restructure the result and create something entirely new! This second option is exactly what I did with my failed flourless cake.  I scooped it out of the cake pan and pressed it into little cookies.  I froze them, added some leftover, vegan frosting and created little chocolate, cookie sandwiches.  They were DIVINE.  As a past girlscout  cookie lover, these tasted just like my favorite thin mint cookies! I could not believe it.  This kitchen adventure left me with a different, delicious chocolatey goodness and a renewed hope to continue my chemistry experiments.

Take this as a little cheers, do not give up my dear friends, enjoy the learning process and never stop experimenting in the kitchen.

Bon Appetit!

{Golden Honey Coconut Carrot Cake}

Happy Thursday dear friends! Despite the forecast of rain on my birthday, Jesus brought me sunshine! A beautiful, vibrant blue sky greeted me Wednesday morning and I couldn't have been more surprised.  What a perfect and lovely birthday present to welcome in my golden birthday.

I love to bake.  Rarely ever pass up an opportunity to bake a cake, I just had to bake my favorite for my special day.  I truly dislike creating cakes without a reason, even though I could use the practice.  I like to have friends and family to savor my victory or eat the failure.  Cake needs company.  I chose one of  my favorites, a delicious Carrot Cake, and whipped up a heavenly Coconut Honey Frosting to complete this scrumptious dessert.  I just finished off a slice tonight and oh dear is it good.  Nothing like the moist and almost chewy texture of a good carrot cake on your birthday or the day after!

I used a delightful recipe that came out quite nicely in my new spring-form cake pans (thank you mom!).  The cake and frosting recipes came from other baking geniuses, but I added a few twists of my own to both and loved the results!  I'm starting to get the hang of frosting.  It's had me in tears multiple times, so I was pleasantly surprised when  it developed smoothly and tasted divine!  A pet peeve I have with frosting has made the process more difficult than it normally should be.  I just can't help this one.

I hate powdered sugar and shortening in frosting.  It gives me a major sugar rush (the bad kind) and a headache within minutes of eating.

If you are familiar with frosting ingredients, this eliminates just about every good thick, creamy frosting recipe known to man kind, well practically.  Fortunately, I found one that uses agave/honey and coconut oil.  Most I've tried melt after being pulled out of the fridge and create a gooey, oily frosting that looks and tastes terrible.  Not this one, it's actually thick and frosts nicely!

Thanks for celebrate a bit with me! I hope you enjoyed the yummy photos of my golden birthday cake!

{Linked to}

Gluten-Free Wednesdays

Vegan Raw Samoa Cookies

January, a month of beginnings and new resolutions.  By now many have already given up on those dreams and goals, allowing themselves to sink back into the well-worn trail of 2010.  It's easy to concoct beautiful visions of new and refreshing habits and lifestyles, but difficult to stay true to them as time passes.  Our daily life swirls around us, slowly wiping away the conviction, motivation and memory we had only weeks before.

Last January I took on a little dream of my own, which over time has built up this lovely Sweet and Salty Life of mine.  Creating this blog was the result of a few nudges, a bit of foodie-film inspiration and a deep desire to write about my culinary creations and experiences.  A year later, I am still here and loving every time I get to share a bit of my story. 

As a part of acknowledging my journey I just want to thank each and everyone of you that have encouraged me, sampled my tasty and perhaps not so tasty experiments, taken the time to read my thoughts, given feedback and most of all shown such a desire to love what has become my passion.  

So cheers to another year of culinary adventure and to all of you my dear friends!

To continue the adventure I bring you a girlscout-inspired treat, the Samoa Cookie! A delicious concoction, this recipe was a pleasant surprise thanks to my delightful, new food processor.  By far my favorite gift from my parents, I have had such fun playing with nuts, fruit, flour, etc. in my beautiful Cuisenart.  The cookie for today is completely Vegan with frosting that is both Vegan and Raw.  Could it be any better for you? 

{Vegan Samoa Cookie}

Ingredients:

Base

1/4 cup Raw Cashews

1/4 cup Raw Almonds

1 TBSP Raw Chia Seeds

1 cup Gluten-Free Oats

1 tsp Macca Powder

2 TBSP Raw Coconut Nectar (raw agave or honey might work as well...just haven't tried it yet!)

1 TBSP Raw Maple Syrup (again....your choice)

Frosting

3 TBSP Raw Coconut Oil

1-2 TBSP Raw Agave Nectar

2 1/1 tsp Raw Cocoa Powder

Dash of Cinnamon

Dash of Pink Sea Salt

Begin by processing the Nuts, Seeds and Oats together.  Add the Macca quickly after and continue to process.  Drizzle in the Coconut Nectar and Maple Syrup and pulse. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and pulse again until the Nuts, Seeds and Oats stick together.  Scoop out and place in a pan lined with parchment paper.  Spread the base pressing it outward  with clean hands until the surface is even and it's about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.  Place the pan in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes. 

While it's hardening, combine all the frosting ingredients in the processor and process until smooth and lightly warm.  Pull out the base and frost your cookie! Return the pan to the refrigerator (for longer preservation put in freezer) until frosting is hardened.  When ready, cut into bars and enjoy! They soften the longer they are out of the fridge or freezer, but you'll eat each so quick you probably won't even notice!

Good luck with your 2011 dreams, may they be just as sweet as this simply delicious treat.

{Linked to}

Whats for Dinner Mom
My Sweet and Savory:Meatless Mondays
A Southern Fairytale
Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays
Gluten Free Wednesdays

Vegan Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is one of my favorite desserts, so need I say more?  Creating the perfect recipe has been a dream of mine.  I’m nowhere cocky enough to say that this recipe is the best recipe you will ever find, but I am rather proud of the result! It’s a tasty, healthy and allergy-friendly version of grandma’s decadent carrot cake.  You will want a second slice and you'll still feel great after having it!

When it came to frosting this cake, I was determined to find that perfect vanilla frosting.  I have a difficult time so far because I want to create a recipe without sugar and butter.  I was fortunate to find a great candidate at Elana’s Pantry.  Elana has fabulous, allergy-friendly recipes that will inspire you, so maybe head over there after you give this recipe a try!  She has a great frosting recipe that I used for this carrot cake and it really turned out well.  My only complaint (if you can really even call it that) is its need for refrigeration, but that's just the nature of the ingredients I suppose! 

So dear friends, here it is.  This lovely carrot cake is my own little creation, full of my favorite, safe spices and unique twists!
Enjoy!

{Vegan Gluten-Free Carrot Cake}

Ingredients:

~ 1 two-layered cake

1 cup Brown Rice Flour

1 cup Chickapea/Garbanzo Bean Flour

½ cup Sorghum Flour

½ cup Coconut Flour

1 TBSP Ground Ginger

1 tsp Ground Cloves

2 tsp Cinnamon

1 ½ tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Xanthan Gum

¾ tsp Sea Salt

1/3 cup + 1 TBSP Ground Chia Seed
(I would recommend 1/4-1/3 cup for a fluffier cake, reduce water to ¾ cup if you do so)

1 ½ cup Warm Water

1 TBSP Vanilla Extract

1 cup Grapeseed Oil

1 cup Light Coconut Milk

1 cup Agave

1 cup Sucant

1 ¾ cup Grated Carrots (about 4 medium carrots)

1 cup Raisins

To begin, preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9inch cake pans, layering the bottoms with parchment paper.  Mix all the dry ingredients listed first, in a medium bowl.  In a small bowl, combine the Grounded Chia and Water; mix it and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.  While your waiting, grate your Carrots.  Pull out another large bowl and whisk the Vanilla, Grapeseed Oil, Coconut Milk, Agave, Sucant and Grounded Chia mixture.  Then, slowly begin to add the dry mixture to your large bowl. Stir well and fold in your Grated Carrots and Raisins.  Pour into prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes (can vary slightly depending on your oven).  The surface of your cake should be a dark golden brown and a toothpick should come out clean. 

{Vegan Coconut Cream Frosting}

*compliments of Elana’s Pantry

Ingredients:
~frosts 1 two layer cake or 24 cupcakes

1 cup Light Coconut Milk

1 cup Agave

pinch of Sea Salt

5 tsp Arrowroot Powder

1 TBSP Water

1 ¼ cup Coconut Oil

Pull out a saucepan and pour Coconut Milk, Agave and Sea Salt into it and let it simmer for 10 minutes.  Combine the Arrowroot and Water in a small bowl until it becomes a paste, then add to saucepan.  Whisk the ingredients vigorously until it’s shiny. It really does become shiny!  Turn off the stove and gradually blend in the coconut oil.  Let it cool for 10 minutes, then place it into a container for refrigeration.  Refrigerate the frosting for at least an hour and a half, until it turns white and solidifies. I refrigerated mine overnight.  When you are ready to frost your cake, pull it out and whisk until it’s fluffy.  Sample a bit… and frost your cake!

{Other Great Links}

Sightly Indulgent Tuesdays

Gluten Free Wednesdays