The Cake Merchant

Chocolate Smoothie Bowl Cake

Smoothie Bowl Cake

Confession: I’ve never actually tried a smoothie bowl. They are just one of those things that continually pop up in my instagram feed this time of year, and I love looking at all the brightly colored concoctions with fun toppings. The idea to make a smoothie bowl inspired cake has been in my head for a while now, and I wanted it to be something like a hybrid of the two- not as healthy as an actual smoothie bowl (because it’s cake) but healthier than the sugar/butter bomb that cake traditionally is. Unfortunately, my first attempt turned out disgusting (you can see it here). This green smoothie bowl look-alike was spinach cake with avocado frosting. It was also the first time I tasted something I baked and immediately gagged and spit it out, so needless to say it never made it to the blog.

Smoothie Bowl Cake

However, I wasn’t ready to give up, and decided that a chocolate smoothie bowl might be more appropriate cake inspiration. This cake almost didn’t make it to the blog either because after I finished taking photos, the SD card to my camera broke and I lost everything! But I took one bite of the cake and decided I had to post the recipe, so I snapped a few quick pictures in mediocre light because I was dying to share it.

Smoothie Bowl Cake

Like any smoothie bowl, the toppings are fully customizable. You can even replace half the flour with white whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, or whole grain spelt flour. Coconut flout won’t work though. I opted for a less sweet frosting and added a bit of maple syrup, but you can adjust it to your taste by adding more or even adding powdered sugar.

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Vegan Blueberry Almond Crumb Muffins for Two

Small Batch Vegan Blueberry Muffins

Two years ago, I started my new year with a month of being vegan. I thought it would be a good way to detox during the new year and try implementing some new habits. I even invited my meat loving husband to join me, but wasn’t surprised when he declined. This year, you can imagine my shock when he announced that he was also going to try being vegan for a while. I didn’t really believe it until I offered him a piece of cheese and his normal response of “cut me a bigger piece” was replaced with “no, I’m vegan!”

Even though he’s been eating mostly healthy unprocessed food, I can tell that he gets the occasional sweet craving because I think he’s asked me if dark chocolate M&Ms are vegan about a million times, so I’m trying my best to be a supportive wife and bake him moderately healthy treats.

Vegan Small Batch Blueberry Muffins

This blueberry muffin recipe makes a super small batch (just two!), so they satisfy the need for carby goodness but also for moderation. I’ve used maple syrup to replace some of the sugar, so they aren’t super sweet. They also satisfy my slightly snobbish need for freshly baked muffins just out of the oven, because I much prefer them to muffins that have been sitting around for a couple of days.

Small Batch Vegan Blueberry Muffins

You can make this recipe healthier by leaving out the crumb topping altogether and they are still delicious. I’ve also some different versions using of these other flours in case you want to add whole grains, as well as a few flavor variations down below. This way, you can make a batch every day of the week and have them be slightly different (but perhaps that defeats the purpose?).

You can replace up to half of the all-purpose flour with whole grain spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour. Regular whole wheat flour will work too, but your muffin may be a little dense.

Update: I’ve been making these lately with 100% sprouted spelt flour and liking the results!

Flavor variations:
-Strawberry pecan
-Peach hazelnut
-Apple walnut
-Cherry cashew

Cheers to moderation and the occasional indulgence in 2017!

Small Batch Vegan Blueberry Muffins

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Mint Chocolate Chip Marshmallows

Mint Chocolate Chip Marshmallows

Merry Christmas Eve! I should be wrapping last minute gifts, packing for my trip to Indiana, and preparing for my concert tonight (because Christmas Eve is a working day for a musician), but instead I’m posting one last recipe because I just had to share these with you. If you would have asked me a few years ago or even a few weeks ago if homemade marshmallows were worth the effort, I would have said, “meh” or some other grunt-like syllable. But I was so wrong, because after making my first batch I just couldn’t stop. They are so darn fluffaaay!

Mint Chocolate Chip Marshmallows

Even though I’m no expert at candy making and boiling sugar syrup usually scares me, marshmallows are surprisingly easy and fun to make. I tried a couple of different recipes, and after I found my one I liked, I used it as a base to go crazy with flavor combinations- vanilla, coffee, gingerbread, and my favorite- mint chocolate chip!

Mint Chocolate Chip Marshmallows

I packaged them up and shipped them to my friends with my favorite hot cocoa mix recipe, but yesterday I made a big batch for the blog and also for myself since I wanted to have marshmallows on hand for all the hot chocolate drinking I plan to do after Christmas. It hasn’t been all that cold here in Dallas, so I’m going to bring them to Indiana with me where I will drink mugs of hot chocolate while sitting by the fire and watching the snow.

Mint Chocolate Chip Marshmallows

Even though marshmallows are fairly simple to make, you will need a candy thermometer to do it. I use this one, since it’s cheap and it works well. A stand mixer is also really helpful. It’s possible to make them without one, but you’ll probably need another person to help you since the mixing process takes a while.

Mint Chocolate Chip Marshmallows

My first batch of these tasted great, but the chocolate chips melted when I put them into the marshmallow mixture so I ended up with a swirl effect. It wasn’t bad, but not what I had in mind. The secret to getting the chocolate chips to stay in tact is to freeze them first, and then add them in the last few seconds of mixing.

Mint Chocolate Chip Marshmallows

Here are a few other helpful hints for marshmallow making.
-Measure out all of your ingredients before you start since you’ll have to work quickly in certain stages.
-Grease your pan well and dust it with powdered sugar, but don’t bother to line it. I’ve found that foil or parchment gets in the way when you are trying to spread the marshmallow mixture.
-Don’t try to get every last bit out of the bowl. If you do, your marshmallow mixture will start to set and you won’t be able to spread it.
-Have two greased spatulas on hand- one of getting the marshmallow mixture out of the bowl and another one for spreading the mixture out in the pan. Once the marshmallow mixture starts to stick to the spatula, it’s hard to use that same spatula for spreading (you’ll see what I mean when you make them).

Happy Marshmallowing!

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