The Cake Merchant

Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond Clusters

Cherry Chocolate and Almond Clusters

I ate my weight in cherries this summer. Seriously, I ate them like they were going out of style. Maybe because they were. Don’t get me wrong, I love pumpkin and apples as much as the next food blogger, but cherry season is way too short. Luckily, dried cherries are available all year long. If you’ve never had a dried cherry, you’re really missing out. They taste like candy, but they’re healthier.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond Clusters

These dark chocolate, cherry, and almond clusters are probably the healthiest dessert on this blog, and they’ll only take a few minutes of your time. In fact, the only appliance required to make these is your microwave, and depending on what chocolate you use, they can easily be made vegan. Have I mentioned that they’re also delicious? Seriously, folks, make these. You won’t regret it.

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Homemade Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Peanut-butter-dog-treats

This is Bigsby. He’s my bestie. Isn’t he cute?

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Bigsby loves peanut butter. He also loves chasing cats and chewing on my shoes, but I just can’t condone those things. The peanut butter, however, I can get on board with, so I decided to bake him some treats. He’s always by my side when I’m baking and taking photos, so I thought he deserved something for being such good company.

I’ve been a crazy cat lady for years, so adding crazy dog lady to my list of qualifications isn’t too much of a stretch. I figured I’d just be an all around crazy animal lady and call it good. But seriously, just look at that face…

Bigsby-2

To make these treats, I looked at some books and websites to see what ingredients were safe for dogs to eat. I used wheat flour, oats, eggs, peanut butter, and unsweetened apple sauce, which were all ingredients that I had in my pantry anyway. I dumped them in a bowl, stirred them up, rolled ’em out, baked them, and voila! If your dog is allergic to wheat, you can use all oat flour instead, but it might change the texture (your dog probably won’t care). Your dog probably won’t care if you use a bone shaped cookie cutter either, but I thought they were cute. I used the little one to make treats for my 10 lb. dog, and the bigger one to make treats for a friend’s 85 lb. weimaraner.

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dog-treats

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Dark Chocolate Brownies with Espresso Chocolate Chip Frosting

Espresso Brownies

Several Valentine’s Days ago, before I learned how to frost and decorate cakes, I decided that I was going to make dessert. My boyfriend took me out to dinner at a lovely restaurant with equally lovely desserts, and while I enjoyed the dinner, I was determined to make dessert at home. In my head, it was going to be beautiful. Two mini chocolate cakes, filled with espresso chocolate chip frosting, and topped with chocolate ganache. Unfortunately, the end result did not turn out as planned. It tasted good, but seriously, if a cake could look like a hobo, it would look like what I made that day. However, my then boyfriend (now fiancé) happily ate my lopsided cake and decided he wanted to marry me anyway. We look back on that day and laugh, but that espresso frosting has become his favorite, and he requests it every chance he gets.

Dark Chocolate Brownies with Espresso Frosting

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