Chocolate cake balls with sea salt - Vegan and gluten free!

Yesterday I was invited to Fred talks, an amazing spin on Ted Talks, at my great friend Steve’s House (check him out in The Huffington Post - He was their Greatest Person of the Day yesterday! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/08/huffpost-greatest-person-steve-glenn-sustainable-homes_n_873343.html). It’s a potluck, so I decided to make my now famous gluten free, vegan, chocolate doughnuts with chocolate glaze. So I baked them. And then I was doing other things and didn’t take them out of the pan right away. In fact, I went to take them out of the pan about an hour later, once they were completely cooled. Not a good plan. They wouldn’t come out of the molds without breaking.


Oh crap.


It was 5pm, and I had 1 hour to make something work or else I would show up at Steve’s empty handed. No bueno, especially considering that Steve usually announces my mad baking skills to everyone both at the party, and directly on the e-vite! I had to have dessert, and it had to be good.


So I put my thinking cap on.


I had leftover vegan, sugarless vanilla icing. I had what was now baked chocolate crumbs from the doughnuts. I had vegan chocolate chips. By gosh, I had all the makings for gluten free, vegan cake balls, batman!


So into the kitchenaid mixer the crumbs they went. Paddle attachment? Check. Mix mix mix. Add the rest of the vanilla icing. Beautiful. The crumbs and the icing became a doughy mixture that can only be compared to heaven.

 

 

 

Things were looking up.


I rolled 1 tablespoon of the mixture into a ball. And then another, and another..you get the picture.

 

 

Into the freezer they went to set.


I melted the chocolate on my trusty double boiler.


Out of the freezer the cake balls they came. Dipped the toothpicks in melted chocolate and then into each cake ball to set. Back into the freezer for a few minutes to harden.

 

 

 

I then dipped the entire cake ball in chocolate, and put it back on the parchment covered pan. Once they were all covered, I put them back in the freezer to set.

 

 

 

I took them out and tried one, and almost keeled over.

 

 

Oh my. They tasted like chocolate truffles! I’m sorry, do you remember that these are vegan and gluten free?? Because in that moment, even I didn’t believe me!


But there was something missing. And then I thought of it: salt.


Salt brings out the flavor in everything. That’s why we use it in baking! That’s why salted caramel has become so popular: the salt makes the caramel taste even more caramely! What? I kid you not!


So I took the cake balls out of the freezer, and when they started to get a little condensation on them from sitting at room temperature (about 2-4 minutes), I dusted sea salt on top of each cake ball (the condensation helped the salt stick to them).

 

 

Off to the party they went. And, the nerve of them: they upstaged me! I had people looking at me with wide eyes going, “I need another one. Where can I get another one?” with a look that said if you don’t make one appear in front of me right now, there’s no telling what I might do. Despite fearing for my safety, I was flattered. Who knew my mistake would turn into my greatest masterpiece?!


Well, there is a great life lesson if I’ve ever heard one, friends.We’ve heard the expression that says when one door closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us (both Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell were credited online with this quote, so I don’t know who said it for certain). It’s all about choice, about choosing which eyes we’re going to look though.


I could have had a meltdown when I chose to believe 2 hours of work were ruined because my doughnuts were stuck in the molds. But, after I swore a lot and almost threw the doughnuts across the kitchen (oops - did I say that out loud?) I took a deep breath, swallowed down the panic, realized this was not a problem, but a challenge, and a fun one at that. Calm, cool and collected, I chose not to see ruined doughnuts, but glorious cake balls! So long closed door - hello opened one! And may I say, you taste delicious!


Love always,
Your crazy cake ball,
Lauren
xxx


P.S - update on my 40 4-inch cake challenge - I’m at 30 as of right now! Only 10 to go! Then onward to the fun stuff: decorating them! Stay tuned!


How to make Lauren’s gluten free vegan chocolate salted cake balls:

• Take your favorite gluten free vegan chocolate cake recipe - bake as usual.
• Make the gluten free vanilla frosting I gave you the other day.
• Buy some vegan chocolate chips.
• Put the baked cake in a food processor or kitchenaid mixer with paddle attachment. Mix until it’s all crumbs.
• Add about ¼ cup of vanilla icing (or really, as much as you want until you get a dough-like texture that actually resembles uncooked dough).
• Line pan with parchment paper.
• Scoop out the dough by the tablespoon and roll into balls. Place each one on the parchment paper lined pan.
• Put in the freezer to set and harden.
• Melt your chocolate in a double boiler. Just use a pot of water and a metal bowl: bring the water to a boil, then turn off the heat. Place the bowl over the pot. Add the chocolate chips and let them melt, stirring occasionally, though not too much. Vigorous stirring will create air bubbles - not something we want!
• Take the cake balls out of the freezer. Dip a toothpick in melted chocolate and stick it in the cakeball. Repeat for each one. This helps the stick stay on the ball.
• Put them back in the freezer to chill and set, about 2-4 minutes.
• Take them back out, and dip the fully into the chocolate, ensuring the entire ball is covered. Repeat for all.
• Place them back on the parchment paper, and back into the freezer until set.
• Take them out of the freezer after 10 minutes and keep them in the fridge until ready to serve.
• 2 minutes before serving, take them out, and once condensation starts forming on them, dust them with sea salt.

Vegan Gluten Free Sugarless Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Vanilla Icing

True to my word (or is it my sweet tooth?) I experimented with pumpkin spice muffins this week. But, as you may have guessed, these were not just any pumpkin spice muffins. These were vegan, gluten free and sugarless pumpkin spice muffins! Who needs sugar when you have moist pumpkin puree? No one, I say. No one. Or at least, not today.

The great thing about this recipe, compliments of the Babycakes NYC cookbook, is that there are no scary ingredients that risk sending you into a frenzy of worry over where the heck you are going to find them! You can find all of these ingredients at your local grocery store in the baking section. Even easier, you can order the ingredients you don’t normally have in house from Amazon!

Yes, you will see xanthan gum on the list. Please don’t be scared. It’s just another powder that will make your vegan and gluten free baking stick together. Just because you can’t pronounce it doesn’t mean you have to be scared of it (no - I still can’t pronounce it properly. Don’t laugh).

 Hello pumpkin puree. No longer just a fall flavor!

 Dry ingredients - mix them all together!

mmmm....

Bake beautifully, little ones!



Thank you :)



Final product? DElectable!

Up next: I'm baking 40 4-inch red velvet cakes for a 50th birthday party on Sunday. In my tiny kitchen. I start today - 6-8 cakes at a time! I see a week of laughing, crying, crying some more, and being so in my glory that I cannot even believe this is my life. Today also happens to be day one of my P90X challenge - 6 days a week of workouts, and a healthy diet that certainly doesn't include red velvet cake, not to mention donuts. I smell a challenge. Perfect!

Sending all my love,

Lauren
xxx

Babycakes Pumpkin-spice muffins with Vanilla icing from Babycakes NYC

2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All purpose baking flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
2/3 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup rice milk
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
1/2 cup hot

Preheat over to 325F and prepare your silicon muffin cups or line muffin tin with papers.

Whisk all the dry ingredients together. Add all the wet ingredients except fro the pumpkin and water. Once mixed, fold in the pumpkin puree and water with a rubber spatula until just combined.

Fill each muffin cup with batter just over 3/4 full. Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate and bake for another 12 minutes, or until done. Let them cool in the pan until easy to handle. Then cool them on a wire rack until completely cold.

Vanilla Icing

I must warn you - my vanilla icing is still a work in progress. I'll give you the original Babycakes recipe here, but I added more agave and coconut oil until I got the consistency I wanted. So use this as your base, but play around... a lot.

1 1/2 cups unsweetened soy milk
3/4 cup dry soy milk powder
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups coconut oil (melted)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Blend everything except the oil and lemon juice together in a food processor or blender for 2 minutes. Slowly add the oil and juice with the blender/processor on low speed. Once fully blended, pour into a container, seal tightly, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Now, the coconut oil should solidify and give you a nice creamy icing. This didn't happen for me. So I added another 1/2 cup of coconut oil. I got a stiffer icing, but as you can see, it still wasn't the stiff buttercream consistency I wanted. So stay tuned, but do try this one and experiment as you see fit!

Home made sweet potato fries

Hello friends! Happy second day of June!


Fear not - I have another baking project in the works for today, but in the meantime, I thought I would share my go-to dinner with you:

Home made sweet potato fries and mixed greens with walnuts, cranberries, and quinoa with honey dijon dressing. You might note that sweet potatoes and cranberries have sugar, albeit natural, in them...such a coincidence that sugar made it into my savory cooking. Weird.

Ok, so start with some sweet potatoes - however many you want (I find 1 big potato can easily feed 2 people) cleaned, but skin on. Be sure to cut off any eyes or roots and rough spots. This is where solanine lives (a poison that is found in potatoes - it's only toxic in large doses, but best to avoid consuming if possible).

Cut them into desirable sized matchsticks - I like them to be on the skinnier side so they crisp up better in the oven. Sweet potatoes have a lot of sugar in them, which makes them bad candidates for deep frying because the sugar causes them to burn too quickly. If the potatoes are cut too thick, they will cook, but will be more mushy than crispy.

Put the potatoes on a pan in a single layer. You can line the pan with aluminum foil if you want to. I tend not to do this. Ever since Chef Carole, my food safe instructor and amazing Chef, told me there is some debate about cooking with aluminum foil and it's correlation to alzheimer's, I have decided to err on the side of caution. The choice is yours!

Toss the potatoes with 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil (just enough to coat), and salt and pepper.

Put the potatoes in the oven at 400F for about 25 minutes. If the fries aren't crispy enough, turn the oven on broil and crisp them up!

For the salad, just place mixed greens, walnuts and cranberries in a bowl (amounts depend on how hungry you are - I use half a bag of pre-washed lettuce, which is about 2.5oz, 1/4 cup of walnuts, and 1/4 cup of cranberries). Make your quinoa according to the instructions on the bag, and season with salt and pepper. Add about 1/2 cup-1 cup to the bowl, depending on your preference (but make sure it's not piping hot or it will wilt the salad). Mix the dressing (recipe below) and pour over the salad. Toss. Enjoy!

Onward to the next project: vegan, gluten free pumpkin spice muffins with soy vanilla icing. Stay tuned!!

Lauren

xxx

P.S. If you want to learn more about the social intimacy event I told you about last week, check out this article in The Huffington Post: 


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liza-utter/social-media-tips-_b_868078.html

Lauren's Honey Dijon Salad Dressing

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 tablespoon honey

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup canola oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all together and serve! You can keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Potata Salad with Dill, onions and celery!

Tuesday May 24 I was invited by Liza Utter, a restaurateur who happens to be one of the most inspiring women I have ever met, to a private event for bloggers. What I found there was a family. What I found there was motivation. What I found there was love. I met women who have taken their passions, gone online, blogged about them, and as a result, have been able to earn a living, and in my opinion, have created small yet impactful revolutions within their communities. I left feeling not only moved and inspired, but also like I had tapped into something that would leave me forever changed. Please take the time to meet Liza: America’s Host (and in my opinion, America's Sweetheart), Gaby: personal chef and food writer, Andrea: ultimate savvy sassy mom, Heidi: personal chef, Rachael: world traveler and food writer, Liz: owner of Room at the Beach in Malibu, and, in my opinion, director of beautiful things in your home, and Michelle: fabulous mama and host. There are a few lovely ladies I am forgetting, not because they weren’t amazing, but simply because my memory escapes me and I cannot find their business cards! But do yourself a favor and check out the sites of the ladies I did remember below:

http://lizaamericashost.com/ for Liza

www.lifefamilyfood.com for Heidi

www.lafujimama.com for Rachael

http://www.savvysassymoms.com/ for Andrea

www.whatsgabycooking.com for Gaby

http://michellerivera5.wordpress.com/tag/mommyhood-to-hollywood/ for Michelle

http://www.roomatthebeach.com/ for Liz

As if the excitement of Tuesdays' event wasn’t enough, my computer decided it was time to move on to computer heaven on Wednesday, hence my tardy post.

In the absence of my computer, I found myself in the kitchen more than usual. Funny how that happened.

My vegan, gluten free icing is still a work in progress (though I’m so close!) and as I felt my organs shifting around nervously, wondering how many cupcakes they would have to maneuver today, I decided to go savory for a minute. Of course, the fact that I’m having trouble zipping up my jeans was also a contributing factor. Just saying. Here’s a friendly reminder, friends: gluten free and vegan baking does not mean you can have 5 cookies or cupcakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They may not contain as many ‘bad’ ingredients, but they certainly aren’t a replacement for fruits and vegetables either. I know, I know. I’m sad too. Moderation still reigns supreme: only 4 cupcakes a day! Ok fine. 3. And maybe 1 chocolate chip cookie...

...And only after my first trip to Babycakes NYC in L.A.!!! Check it out!

The bag! Very exciting!!

Look what's in the bag!

Chocolate chip cookie, donut, and agave sweetened brownie. Enough said.

I'm sorry, did you ask me if I ate all of those?

The answer, my dear friend, is yes. Yes I did.

Vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. Hello.

Chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting. At last, we meet.

Up close and personal.

The taste test - mine vs. theirs.

Outcome? Their icing - much better than mine.

Their cupcake - not as moist as mine. Hm...

I seriously could eat their icing with a spoon. So good!

Ok, enough of that excitement!

Onward to savory cooking:

I’ve had a bag of small potatoes sitting on my counter for a week now, staring at me, begging me to get creative and use them (yes, in my world, produce can speak, and can actually be quite demanding). So instead of creating a potato cupcake or donut, I bought some dill, salvaged some yellow onions, and saved the bag of celery that was near death in the crisper in the fridge (why does that always happen with celery? It’s like we know it’s good for us so we buy it, and then once we get it home, we look at it when feeling like a snack, but inevitably move onto something more exciting. Or maybe it’s just me?).

Anyway - Chop, chop, chop, add some dijon (I add this to everything that isn't a donut or cupcake), some apple cider vinegar, a touch of canola oil, some salt and pepper, toss it all together, and you’ve got a potato salad to die for. Check it out!

The recipe:

1 pound small waxy potatoes, washed and skin on (I used yellow dutch)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

3 tablespoons dijon mustard

1 tablespoon canola oil

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3 stalks of celery, chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste (remember: salt brings out the dominate flavor in any dish!)

Put the potatoes in a pot of salted cold water. Bring to a boil. Cook the potatoes until tender. Strain.

Once cool enough to handle, chop the potatoes into desired sized pieces. Place in a bowl. Add the chopped dill, celery, onions, vinegar, oil, and dijon. Toss to coat. Add salt and pepper to taste. If it's not coated enough, add more dijon and vinegar until you get the consistency you are happy with. Don't forget to adjust your salt seasoning if you adjust the dijon and vinegar!

You can enjoy this simple dish right away, or, put in the fridge to chill and enjoy later. This is a great dish to prepare ahead for a party, dinner, or even to take in a hurry for lunch on a busy day!

Happy Sunday :)

Lauren

xxx