The Cake Merchant

Vegan Whole Wheat Pumpkin Coconut Bread

Happy day after Halloween! I made you some whole wheat vegan baked goods to celebrate. You’re welcome.

Vegan-Pumpkin-Coconut-Bread

We had one trick-or-treater last night, and enough candy for at least 100. This is the first Halloween in a really long time that I’ve been in a house and not an apartment, and I was sure we’d get trick-or-treaters, so I wanted to be prepared. Now we have about 10 pounds of leftover candy, some of which I may or may not have already indulged in. I think my tolerance for sugar has gone down significantly since I was of trick-or-treating age, and I definitely feel a bit of a Halloween hangover. It’s time for some detox.

This version of pumpkin bread is actually pretty healthy. I replaced the vegetable oil in the original recipe with coconut oil, and replaced the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is a great way to sneak in whole grains in cakes and breads, since the texture is more delicate than regular whole wheat flour. You could also try a half and half combo of the whole wheat and all-purpose flours.

Vegan Pumpkin Bread Ingredients-2

I’ve made a few batches of this, and decided that I could do without the white sugar completely. It didn’t affect the texture negatively when I left it out, and it was plenty sweet. I did, however, add a sprinkling of crystal cinnamon sugar to the top, which is my new favorite thing. You can find the recipe for that here.

Vegan Pumpkin Coconut Bread

Oh, and the best part about this recipe? It’s easy, only requires one bowl, and no mixer is needed. A dump and stir recipe is pretty much all I can handle while I’m still recovering from sugar coma anyway. Serve this with a pat of vegan butter and a side of coffee. Or a green smoothie. Happy detox!

Read The Post

Dark Chocolate Speculoos Truffle Cake

Dark-Chocolate-Speculoos-Truffle-Cake

Speculoos cookie butter. Also known as Biscoff spread. Also known as the greatest creation on earth. I’m not sure why it took me so long to jump on the Biscoff bandwagon. Maybe because it’s because I’m not a bandwagon jumper by nature, and I tend to resist fads. This fad, however, is totally not a fad. It’s here to stay, and it’s going to make me fat because I can stop eating it right out of the jar.

Cookie-Butter

I first tried this stuff just a few months ago in the form of a candy. If you’re a Trader Joe’s fan, you may know what I’m talking about. They make these dark chocolate bars that are filled with cookie butter, and to make matters worse, they put them right by the checkout. This means that every time I go to Trader Joe’s, I have to pass right by them, which is just too much for my willpower to handle. And if you don’t think that cookie butter and dark chocolate go well together, I dare you to try this candy and not love it. It was this little bar that inspired me to make this cake.

Dark-Chocolate-Speculoos-Truffle-Cake

I made several versions of this cake, but the one I’m sharing with you today actually did justice to the candy bar. I’m so excited about this recipe, that I want to tell you all about the process of making it, but if you don’t care to know, just skip down to the recipe. Ok, let’s start with the cake. I’ve shared a few recipes for dark chocolate cake on this blog, but I needed something really fudgy and truffle like. I ultimately chose a sour cream chocolate cake from one of my favorite cake books, Sky High. Not only is it super moist (I know, I hate that word too), but it’s an easy one bowl recipe that doesn’t even require a mixer! It’s also 3 layers, and I totally have a thing for 3 layer cakes. It’s my favorite cake profile. And yes, in case you’re wondering, I’m a cake nerd.

Next, the filling. My first cake attempt began with a quick and easy American buttercream, but the cookie butter itself is sweet, so by the time I added enough powdered sugar for it to hold up, it was sickeningly sweet. I ended up settling on a Swiss meringue buttercream. If you’ve never made SMB before, please don’t be intimidated. It’s a little bit more work than American buttercream, but totally worth it. I’m pretty lazy when it comes to frosting, so I tend to fall back on American buttercream, but whenever I make the Swiss variety, I’m glad I went the extra mile. I adapted a recipe that I found on BraveTart, and if this is your first time making SMB, I recommend reading her original post as well as this post.

The filling recipe makes enough for 2 thick layers in between each layer of cake. One of the reasons I love Swiss buttercream is that you can get away with having a thick layer of frosting without it being too sweet. If you don’t want a thick layer, the leftovers can be frozen. Or, you can grab a spoon and eat the leftovers directly out of the mixing bowl (not that I did that, or anything).

For the frosting, I tried both a sour cream chocolate frosting and a chocolate ganache before settling on this one from Sweetapolita. It’s intensely chocolaty, but not so rich that you can’t eat a whole slice of cake. There’s a pound of chocolate in this frosting, so use the best quality you can find (I used Callebaut). I live in a warm climate and the frosting was a bit too runny just after a I made it, so I put it in the fridge for about 10 minutes until it reached the right consistency (just don’t let it sit for too long or you won’t be able to spread it).

Read The Post

Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

Peanut-Butter-Rice-Krispies

Let me start out by saying that I had no intention of sharing this recipe with you. It’s not that I was hoarding it, I just didn’t think it was blog worthy. You see, when I plan recipes for the blog, I try to think of desserts that are creative and original, but that also look pretty. These chocolate covered peanut butter rice krispie treats meet none of these criteria.

Since I make so many desserts for the blog, I rarely ever make sweets based on my own cravings anymore, but this was an exception. I really wanted peanut butter rice krispie treats the other day, so I whipped up and devoured them before I even thought about photographing them, but when I made a second batch to send to a friend in a care package, and managed to get a few quick photos. They may not be fancy or original, but sometimes the simplest recipes are the best.

Peanut-Butter-Rice-Krispie-Treats

This easy no-bake recipe is originally from here. The only change I made was to make a slightly smaller batch (for the sake of my lack of willpower) with a thicker layer of chocolate on top, because more chocolate is always better.

Update 9/24/15– Since I shared this recipe almost two years ago, this is probably still my favorite recipe on the blog, and the recipe I make the most often. Since I’ve been known to eat an entire batch in one sitting, I’ve created a small batch version. Follow the directions in the recipe below, but use these measurements- 1/4 cup corn syrup, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter, 1 1/4 cups rice krispie treats, and 2 ounces chocolate. This small batch recipe fits in a 4 inch x 4 inch pan.

Read The Post