Author: Lindsey Bareich

Categories
Cakes

The Best Carrot Cake

This soft and fluffy Carrot Cake is the best treat for almost any season! Full of flavourful spices and fresh carrots that give the cake a wonderfully moist texture, top this cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for the perfect dessert – or any other meal, since carrots make it healthy, right? Keep reading to find out how to make this Carrot Cake yourself!

The Story

In 2021, I decided that I wanted to make a cake for Easter. With the Easter Bunny on my mind, I chose to make a carrot cake, since bunnies eat carrots. But, I didn’t want to use a box mix as I had been starting to learn the intricacies of recipe development and scratch baking. So, I adapted my very best Raspberry Cake recipe to have grated carrots instead of a raspberry reduction, and boom! The Best Carrot Cake was born!

Sure, it’s not quite that simple. But that was basically exactly what I did to perfect the recipe for this insanely moist and flavourful cake.

My raspberry cake recipe is my tried and true base cake recipe for any cake that includes a natural flavour. The reduced fruit component keeps it insanely moist. As well, the texture is perfect (and the pure raspberry flavour is divine, but that doesn’t matter for a carrot cake!), making for the best adaptable recipe there is! Almost any fruit reduction works in this cake, including apple in my Apple Cider Loaf Cake!

Making the Best Carrot Cake

Eggs, Fats & Sugars

As this recipe follows my normal base recipe, it starts by mixing together the eggs, fats and sugars. Most cake recipes follow the creaming method, where you cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs. However, my recipe starts by mixing the eggs (but only the yolks as the whites are used at the end!), with the white and brown sugars.

Afterwards, you add in liquid/melted fats, including butter and oil. To give the cake more moisture, you then also add some sour cream for a richer texture from the dairy.

Dry Ingredients

The dry ingredients for the cake are crucial for the structure. They include flour and leavening agents such as baking powder and baking soda. To add great flavour, there’s also some warm spices that complement the carrot flavour perfectly: cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

Wet Ingredients

To give the cake a richer, but not overly rich since there’s already sour cream, this recipe uses both milk and water to thin the batter. And, as always, vanilla extract. I’d say it’s the most common use of the teaspoon measuring spoon, but does anyone really measure vanilla? I know I don’t!

Egg Whites: Stiff Peaks

One of the last steps before we’re able to put together and finish off our batter is to deal with the egg whites we left out in the first step. We will be whipping them to stiff peaks to get as much air in them as possible, which helps the cake rise even more.

To do this, get out your trusty mixer (I recommend a hand mixer since most stand mixers are too big for only 2 egg whites), and start whipping the whites. It will begin by getting bubbly and foamy, then the clearness of the whites will disappear and be replaced by a white fluffy cloud! When the cloud has streaks running through it, it’s getting near the peaks stage so this is when you need to test.

Lift your beater out and look at the tip that formed on the end of the beater and in the bowl. If they are standing mostly straight up without curling or bending much when the beater is flipped upside down, you’ve reached stiff peaks! If the peak is very droopy, you’ve only reached soft peaks. At the soft peaks stage, you need to keep beating for another minute or so, until the peaks are nice and stiff.

Mixing Together the Carrot Cake Batter

Despite beginning this recipe differently to the creaming method, we finish it off pretty similarly. Start by whisking together half of your dry ingredients into the egg, fat and sugar mixture, then follow up with all of the wet ingredients. Finally, finish it off with the rest of the dry ingredients.

Next, fold in the grated carrots and ground nuts (the nuts are optional: you can even add in your own toppings if you’d prefer, like raisins!).

Finally, lightly fold in those egg whites at stiff peaks, being careful not to entirely deflate them as we need the air for the nice cake lift.

Bake in a 335 oven for about an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. I choose to bake at 335 most times since 350 can make the outside cook much faster than the inside resulting in a hard exterior. Read the recipe notes for helpful tips on how to know when it’s done!

The Best Carrot Cake baked in pans

Pairing the Best Carrot Cake

To me, carrot cake ALWAYS goes with cream cheese frosting, so check out this link for a great Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. It’s perfectly sweet yet tangy, and delightfully creamy and smooth! However, if that’s not your thing, you can always top this carrot cake with an American Buttercream or any other frosting or flavour you’d like. Maybe you could even top it with this Espresso Spice Buttercream?

No matter the frosting you choose, I hope you enjoy this carrot cake recipe! Be sure to leave a comment below if you try this recipe!

Happy baking!

The Best Carrot Cake

Super moist and fluffy cake, full of warm and cozy spices and perfect carrot flavour! The best cake for any season, especially when paired with sweet but tangy Cream Cheese Frosting!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 10 slices

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs separated
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup neutral oil vegetable, canola, sunflower etc.
  • 1/4 cup melted butter
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3-4 cups grated carrots from 3-4 whole carrots
  • 1/2 cup ground nuts walnuts, pecans etc., optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 335 degrees fahrenheit. Grease and flour two 6" (3" tall) round cake pans. (*see notes)
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.
  • In a large bowl, whisk the yolks of the 2 eggs with the white and brown sugars. It will be crumbly and dry in texture. (Be sure to save the egg whites as we will need them later!)
    Add the liquid fats, oil and melted butter, and whisk until combined.
    Add the sour cream and whisk until combined. It should be basically the texture of a cake batter at this point.
  • In a measuring cup, stir together the milk, water and vanilla extract.
  • In a small bowl, whip the 2 egg whites to stiff peaks using an electric mixer. Keep mixing until it is completely white and fluffy, with streaks forming as you mix and so that there is a peak of white that stands straight with only a little curl at the end of the beater when you lift it out of the bowl.
  • Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients to the bowl of egg yolks, fats and sugar. Begin by pouring in half of the flour mixture and whisking until combined. Then pour in all of the milk mixture and whisk. Finally, pour in the remainder of the flour and whisk.
  • Fold in the grated carrot and chopped walnuts.
  • Lightly fold in the whipped egg whites, careful not to completely deflate them. It's okay if there are tiny streaks of egg whites left in the batter.
  • Divide the batter evenly in the two pans, and bake at 335 for about 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. (see notes*)
  • Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then flip onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

*this recipe can also be made in two 8″ (2″ tall) round cake pans.
*the first step to telling if a cake is done is to run the “jiggle test”. Quickly open the oven and move your cake pan slightly, watching for a slight wobble in the middle of your cake. If jiggly, it needs more time! If not, take it out and test with a toothpick. You can also check by seeing if the edges of the cake are lifting off the side of the pan, but the toothpick test is the best way to know for sure. 
Keyword cake, carrot cake, layer cake
Categories
Frosting

Espresso Spice Buttercream

Espresso Spice Buttercream (in stand mixer)

This Espresso Spice Buttercream is a delicious and creamy frosting that’s full of flavour! A classic American Buttercream that’s not overly sweet or overly buttery, but is instead complete with amazing fall spices and a hint of coffee! This frosting adds so much depth in flavour to your favourite cakes, especially when paired with my Pumpkin Cake, making a pairing that’s perfect for all of the pumpkin spice latte lovers! Keep reading to find out how you can make this super easy and yummy frosting!

The Story Behind the Frosting:

The ingredients: butter, shortening, powdered sugar, cinnamon & other spices, instant coffee, heavy whipping cream, & vanilla extract.

I came up with this idea for the frosting after making a pumpkin cake for Halloween. I was debating between doing a cream cheese frosting, or something with cinnamon, when I realized how cool (and tasty!) it would be if I could make the whole cake put together taste like a Pumpkin Spice Latte!

You know, like the fall staple drink? The Starbucks classic? Well, I may not actually be a huge fan of the drink, but I thought that it would be a really fun flavour to recreate in an even better form! And so I did, with this frosting!

The “Spice” Part:

Obviously I already had the pumpkin part (the pumpkin cake), but I needed the spice, so I added some amazing fall spices like nutmeg, allspice, and (like what any reasonable person would do) a pound of the best fall spice of all: cinnamon!

The “Latte” Part:

Next, I needed to find a way to get the ‘latte’ part of the frosting. Since I barely knew how to use my coffee machine, I didn’t want to brew coffee, plus I knew I didn’t want to add a ton of liquid to the frosting so that wouldn’t work. I know a lot of bakers use espresso powder, which is a stronger and more finely ground kind of instant coffee thing, but I don’t have that since it’s quite expensive. You can use it in this recipe though if you have it.

Instead of the espresso powder, I did have instant coffee! I didn’t want to add it straight into the frosting since that would make it grainy and have bites of strong coffee flavour, so I needed to dissolve it first. Since it’s a butter-based frosting, I don’t like using water as a way to thin it out. I’ve only tried using water once when I needed a frosting that could sit in a hot car for 6 hours, but it made the whole frosting separate and almost curdle which was not very good.

I prefer using cream, specifically heavy whipping cream (35%), but you could probably use any kind of dairy (milk, coffee cream etc.). You then heat the cream and the instant coffee and mix it together to make an espresso syrup-like liquid. I like to have a stronger coffee taste, so I use a larger amount of instant coffee than cream which results in a dark syrupy liquid. You can always tone down the strength of the coffee by using less coffee, adding more cream, or by omitting this step entirely to just have a spiced buttercream.

Tips for the Best American Buttercream:

As for the buttercream itself, my favourite kind of buttercream is American. It’s super quick and easy, literally anybody can make it if they have a mixer! Honestly though, at first I didn’t like American Buttercream because it was always sickeningly sweet. But, once I developed my own recipe of it (which I now always measure by eye and taste!), I came to love this kind of frosting!

Here are a few of my tips:

Butter & Shortening:

My first tip is to use a mixture of butter and shortening. I find that all-butter buttercream can taste too buttery, so use a bit of shortening in addition to the butter! I definitely wouldn’t suggest using an all-shortening frosting though, as then it tastes very strongly of shortening which is heavy and just kind of gross.

Cream the butter and shortening together for a long time! You need it to become paler in colour and very creamy before adding in the powdered sugar. And don’t forget to scrape down the bowl before adding in the sugar!! My mixer always ends up with some butter stuck to the bottom, which if not caught in this first step, will result in lumps in your frosting which is not appealing!

The Sweetness Factor: Powdered Sugar

When it comes to the powdered sugar, use less powdered sugar than you think. Then, taste it, and if it needs more, add more! Everyone has different tastes when it comes to buttercream, so taste test it regularly to know when to stop adding sugar and get your perfect sweetness.

If you want to cut back on the sweetness, you can add a tiny splash of lemon juice! I don’t use this trick normally since I know when I like to stop with the powdered sugar, but if you add too much, you can cut back a little with the lemon juice. Another trick for this is to add a tiny pinch of salt, but I’d only do this in the very beginning (or use salted butter) since I once did this at the end, and it did not mix evenly. Let me tell you, salty buttercream is not very tasty!!!

Once all of your powdered sugar is mixed in, add in your spices, espresso syrup and vanilla extract (who doesn’t love vanilla extract?!).

The final trick is that once your frosting is completely done, use a rubber spatula to mix it by hand. Your mixer will have incorporated a lot of air into the frosting, so it will have a lot of air bubbles, which can make smoothly spreading and piping very difficult. Mixing vigorously by hand can help get some of these pesky air bubbles out!

Pairing the Espresso Spice Buttercream:

Pumpkin Cake with Espresso Spice Buttercream image. Full cake exterior, not sliced.

Now that you’re all done your frosting, spread it onto your favourite cake! It goes best with my Pumpkin Cake (again, makes it taste like a literal Pumpkin Spice Latte!), but you could also put it on vanilla cake, or even chocolate cake (if you’re into the chocolate spice flavour).

Thanks for reading this recipe! If you give it a try, don’t forget to leave a comment below! Happy baking! Enjoy!

Espresso Spice Buttercream (in stand mixer)

Espresso Spice Buttercream

A delicious and creamy frosting that's full of flavour! This classic american buttercream is not overly sweet or overly buttery, but instead got an upgrade with amazing fall spices and a hint of coffee! This frosting adds so much depth in flavour to your favourite cakes, especially when paired with pumpkin cake for all of the pumpkin spice latte lovers!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 1 6″ inch 2 layer cake

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temp
  • 1 cup shortening room temp, I prefer Crisco`
  • 4-5 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp instant coffee
  • 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp allspice

Instructions
 

  • In a small, microwave-safe bowl, add the heavy cream and instant coffee. Microwave for 10-20 seconds or until the coffee has dissolved into the cream. Stir. *See notes*
  • In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the room temperature butter and shortening until lighter in colour and smooth. Scrape down the bowl (don't miss the bottom!!) and beat again for another few minutes until all lumps are removed.
  • Add in a cup or 2 of powdered sugar and mix. Start by beating on low so that you don't spray powdered sugar everywhere. Once it's mostly combined, turn up your mixer to high and beat for a few minutes until smooth. Scrape down the bowl.
  • Add in another cup or 2 of powdered sugar and repeat the process above. Once you have 4 cups of powdered sugar mixed in, taste your frosting to see if it needs more powdered sugar. If it still has a bit of a buttery taste or if you feel it's not sweet enough, add more powdered sugar, a 1/2 cup at a time until you reach your desired sweetness.
  • Pour in the vanilla extract, coffee syrup, and all of your spices. Beat until smooth. Give the frosting another taste test to see if there are enough spices, and feel free to add more or add in different spices if you'd prefer.
  • Once your frosting is done, use a rubber spatula to hand beat it for a few minutes to get rid of some pesky air bubbles.
  • Spread it or pipe it onto your cake, and enjoy!

Notes

Once you’ve stirred together the coffee and cream, it should appear like a darker coffee syrup. If it does not appear like this, add more instant coffee and dissolve it again in the microwave. You can also adjust this part of the recipe to your liking. If you want a stronger coffee flavour, add more instant coffee; if you want a weaker coffee flavour, add less instant coffee, or add more cream. If you add more cream, keep in mind that this can make your frosting a bit thinner, so don’t add more than a few tablespoons more at maximum. 
Remember, everyone has different tastes when it comes to frosting, so adjust the amount of powdered sugar, coffee, and spices to your liking!
My favourite use of this delicious frosting is on my amazing Pumpkin Cake! It makes it taste exactly like a pumpkin spice latte! Check out the recipe here: https://albofbutter.com/pumpkin-cake/
Keyword buttercream, espresso, fall desserts, frosting, spice

Categories
Cakes

The Best Pumpkin Cake

The best pumpkin cake you’ll ever try! With warm spices and an insanely moist and soft texture, you’ll want a slice of this fall cake every day of the year! This pumpkin cake, packed with pure pumpkin flavour, is so easy to make, you can have it out of the oven in just over an hour! Keep reading to find out how!

The Story Behind the Cake:

Last year, I knew I wanted to make a pumpkin cake for Halloween. I wanted it to have the perfect texture, taste, and overall flavour to fully embody the fall and Halloween spirit. So, since I had successfully developed the absolute BEST apple cake recipe (Cinnamon Apple Cider Loaf Cake), I was hoping I could convert it to a pumpkin cake by subbing out the apple reduction for pumpkin puree.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. The cake turned out a bit too dense for my liking, so I knew I had to try something different.

A Treasure was Found:

Luckily for me though, I went searching through my family’s recipe box and found this recipe. I don’t know who we got it from, but it must have been some family friend who wanted us to try it. And so I did try it.

For Halloween this year, I followed the recipe-box-recipe to make the cake layers of my Halloween Cake (check out the Gallery to see the finished cake!). Before it was even in the oven, I fell in love with the recipe. Why? Because it is seriously so easy to make!! It’s a 2 bowl recipe, where you just mix ingredients together, then mix those bowls together. Don’t tell any other baking bloggers this, but you could probably skip the step with whisking the dry ingredients first and make it a one bowl recipe instead if you want it even easier (or are like me and hate washing extra dishes!).

Once the cake came out of the oven though, I was even more in love. The second I cut into it to level off the domes, I knew it was going to be the softest cake ever. And I was right.

I bet you thought the texture couldn’t get any better. But it does; on top of the softness, you get something even more important when it comes to cake texture: the moistness. My apologies for using that word, but this cake is seriously so moist!!! It is quite literally melt-in-your-mouth, can-hear-the-moisture-if-you-press-on-it moist. AKA: the. Best. Texture. Ever.

After finding that amazing recipe, the only thing I did was slightly tweak some flavours to get it absolutely perfect, and there you have it folks: the BEST Pumpkin Cake!

How to Make the Best Pumpkin Cake:

As I said above, this recipe is super simple, so let’s take a deeper look at exactly how simple.

Dry Ingredients:

You start by whisking together your dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder and baking soda (your leavening agents to make it tall and fluffy), and all of your spices. This includes salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a bit of ginger, but you could also add in some allspice, pumpkin spice (which is essentially just the above spices already mixed together), or any other spice that you would want it your pumpkin cake!

Wet Ingredients:

Then, you mix the wet ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer. I prefer using my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer since it’s really easy and efficient, but you could also use a hand mixer if you prefer. The wet ingredients include the sugar, pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.

After you mix these together for a few minutes, it should look like a thinner consistency batter. This is the only point in the process where you can beat the batter for longer since as you mix, air gets incorporated.

When flour mixes with liquids, gluten starts to form and this process is accelerated with the addition of air. So once you add your flour, you don’t want to mix for too long since the longer you mix, the more air that gets incorporated and the more gluten that’s developed, which results in a denser cake. However, before adding in the flour, no harm is done by mixing forever, so feel free to beat for those few extra minutes to get it even fluffier!

Mixing & Baking:

Finally, as you probably anticipated, you then add in the dry ingredients. Mix these together until just combined as explained above.

Pour the batter into your cake pans (if you are not planning on using the 6″ round 3″ tall pans that I used, see the recipe notes for suggestions on other pan sizes) and bake at 350 for almost an hour. Then, once the cakes are done, the toothpick has only a few moist crumbs, and your house smells like pumpkin spice heaven, take them out of the oven and let them cool.

Pairing the Best Pumpkin Cake:

Since pumpkin spice lattes are a fall staple and such an iconic flavour pairing, I frosted this Pumpkin Cake with an Espresso Spice Buttercream. The recipe for that frosting is here: http://Espresso Spice Frosting and it goes so perfectly with the Pumpkin Cake. It brings out all of the right sweet and spicy flavours and is so reminiscent of a coffee run to Starbucks.

However, if pumpkin spice lattes are not your thing, you could pair this cake with a vanilla buttercream, cream cheese frosting, or practically anything else you want! I’m not a huge fan of chocolate and pumpkin together, but some people are, so if that’s your thing go ahead and frost it with chocolate buttercream! Other great frosting flavours you could play around with are brown sugar, caramel, maple and more!

If you give this recipe a try, don’t forget to leave a review below. Enjoy!

Bite being taken out of pumpkin cake slice that's standing up

The Best Pumpkin Cake

Moist, soft, and full of fall spices and pumpkin flavour, this Pumpkin Cake is not only super delicious, but super easy to make as well!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 12 people

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1 3/4 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup canola or vegetable oil (or any other neutral oil)
  • 2 cups pumpkin puree (16 oz., canned or fresh) See notes*
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour 2 6" round cake pans (3" tall). See notes*
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and all spices.
  • In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla, and pumpkin for about a minute until light and fluffy. It should resemble something close to a batter at this point.
  • Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and beat until combined.
  • Divide your batter evenly into your 2 pans, and bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean with only a few moist crumbs.
  • Allow to cool, frost, and enjoy! See notes*

Notes

If using canned pumpkin, make sure that it is not Pumpkin Pie Filling. It needs to be pure pumpkin. 
This recipe uses 6″ round pans that are 3″ tall. If your 6″ pans are only 2″ tall, you will most likely need to use 3 pans, and bake for less time, starting with 40 minutes and adding more time as needed. This recipe can also be made in 2 8″ round pans (2″ tall), but again, start with less time (40 minutes) and add more time as needed. 
This amazing pumpkin cake is even more delicious when paired with my Espresso Spice Buttercream! Exactly like a Pumpkin Spice Latte but in cake form (which makes it even better!). If PSL’s are not your jam, my American Buttercream or Cream Cheese Frosting also go perfectly with this yummy cake, and you can even add a few tsps of cinnamon to those frostings to really bring out the sweet fall flavours!
Keyword cake, fall desserts, layer cake, pumpkin
Categories
Cakes

Zucchini Bread

This is the best zucchini bread you’ll ever try! Soft, moist, and speckled with sweet green flecks and your favourite add-ins, this zucchini bread will make you wish it was zucchini season every day! Trust me, you’ll be tempted to eat this whole loaf in one sitting! Keep reading to find out how to make this delicious zucchini bread!

Zucchini Bread History:

I love zucchini bread. I always have.

But actually, when I was a kid, I loved it because I 100% thought it was banana bread. I was a chocolate fiend back then, as I am now, so I was always too focused on the melty chocolate chips to have noticed a difference when I was served banana bread as opposed to zucchini bread. I was so totally convinced that they were not two separate things that I actually grew to believe that banana bread always had green flecks in it!

It wasn’t until I was probably almost 10 that I finally figured out that zucchini bread and banana bread were different. I clearly did not have very good taste buds since I never noticed the banana flavour or lack thereof.

I grew up with this recipe. It was my Zia’s recipe (Zia means aunt in Italian so that’s what we called all of my great aunts), and it was passed onto my mom along with all of her other recipes. In fact, the majority of our recipe box is either one of my Zia’s recipes or a cut-out from a magazine, food product packaging etc.

Unfortunately, my Zia passed away when I was a kid, long before I developed a passion for baking, so I never got to bake with her, at least not that I remember. She was an amazing baker and cook, so we’re all thankful that we still have these pieces of her with us today, hidden in all of these recipes.

Speaking of hidden…

My mom always made this zucchini bread for us when I was growing up, and no one ever complained about the hidden vegetables. I was never too picky as a kid and I always loved vegetables; all vegetables including the stereotypically hated broccoli and Brussel sprouts. Basically the only vegetable I was picky about were mushrooms, mostly due to their weird rubbery texture when cooked, and even now they’re still only tolerable. So having zucchini in the bread was never a problem for me. It did help though that I thought it was banana.

However, if you do have picky kids, they can definitely earn their servings of vegetables without even realizing it with this zucchini bread! You don’t taste the zucchini at all, and it only adds to the moisture of this delicious loaf! If they do question the green flecks, just tell them it’s green apples, food colour gone wrong, or even little pieces of luck from the leprechauns! The success of convincing them of the last one will most certainly depend on the age of the kids and how far away from St. Patrick’s Day it is!

I bet it won’t be an issue trying to convince them to eat it though, as they’ll probably be hypnotized by the sea of chocolate chips in front of them like I was.

Now, onto the recipe.

How to Make Zucchini Bread:

The best thing about this recipe is how simple it is. You can mix it about a hundred ways and still have it turn out super soft, moist, and delicious! I myself have done it at least 2 ways, and it always ends up perfect.

Not only is it simple to mix, but it has super simple ingredients too!

All that you need is:

  • Flour
  • Sugar
  • Cinnamon
  • Salt
  • Baking powder
  • Baking soda
  • Eggs
  • Oil
  • Zucchini
  • Add-ins (chocolate chips, chopped nuts, etc.)

You don’t need to do anything special to these ingredients either; no need for room temperature, whipped to stiff peaks, or for it to be at precisely 104 degrees. None of that crap. It’s perfect for when you don’t have much time to throw it together.

The only thing that takes time is baking it, which I know is impossible especially when it makes the whole house smell heavenly good! Don’t mind me impatiently waiting for the beep and drooling in front of the oven! 🙂

Dry Ingredients

You start by mixing together all of your dry ingredients. From flour to baking soda. None of the ingredients are surprising, and you should already have them all in your pantry! I find that the cinnamon adds a delightful spice to the cake that really adds to the flavour. The rest of the ingredients are common cake ingredients including leavening agents, sweetness balancers and the structure of the cake.

Wet Ingredients

Then, you mix together your wet ingredients. You can do this by whipping your eggs with the oil until it’s lighter and fluffier, then add in the zucchini. Or you can follow how I wrote it in the recipe since I find it even simpler.

This way, you mix the eggs then oil into the dry ingredients. I do this directly in my stand mixer since I don’t really like my hand mixer (it was a cheap stand-in before I got my KitchenAid so it screeches after being run for more than 2 minutes). This is actually how I discovered that this method works. I accidentally threw my dry ingredients into the stand mixer first to whisk, and didn’t feel like transferring it out or using the other mixer to whip the eggs and oil, so I just added them directly to the dry ingredients.

Once these are mixed in, you’ll find a doughy consistency that’s quite similar to cookie dough. But with oil instead of butter. Don’t worry about it being so thick though, the zucchini has A LOT of water content so it’ll thin it out to a batter consistency.

Zucchini

Now, let’s talk about that zucchini.

Wash it. Chop off the ends. Don’t peel it. Throw it in a food processor to grate it. That’s it. That’s all you have to do.

Add it into the dough mixture and mix until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl as you go.

Baking

This recipe actually makes 2 loaves. Perfect for sharing or freezing for a later date. Although, if you’re anything like my family, the first loaf won’t last long, so you might need that second loaf much sooner than you think!

Pour your batter evenly into 2 greased and floured loaf pans, and bake at 350 for 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours. The recipe actually called for 1 1/2 hrs, but after only about 40 minutes I could smell it, so I checked it about 20 minutes early and it was done, so I would recommend checking using a toothpick after an hour and going from there. You also know your oven better than I do, so bake accordingly.

Once it’s out of the oven, let it cool a bit before slicing into it! I know it can be challenging to wait after you’ve just waited for more than an hour, but it’ll save you from having it fall apart when slicing and from burning your entire mouth. Especially the chocolate chips can get very hot, so beware.

Happy Baking!

If you like cake for breakfast, you should definitely give my Banana Bread a try as well! And if you’re a fan of all things baked in a loaf pan, you need to make my Cinnamon Apple Cider Loaf Cake, it’s the moistest and softest apple cake you’ll ever taste!

Let me know in the comments what you think of this recipe! Enjoy!

Zucchini Bread

This is the best zucchini bread you'll ever try! Soft, moist, and speckled with sweet green flecks and your favourite add-ins, this zucchini bread will make you wish it was zucchini season every day! Trust me, you'll be tempted to eat this whole loaf in one sitting!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Servings 2 loaves

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup oil canola, vegetable or any other neutral oil
  • 2 cups grated zucchini about 1-2 large unpeeled zucchinis, *see notes
  • 1 cup chopped nuts pecans or walnuts, optional
  • 1 cup chocolate chips optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.
  • In a large bowl (I prefer using my stand mixer with the whisk attachment for this), combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
  • Add in your eggs and oil and mix until combined. It will be thick, almost like the consistency of cookie dough. Don't worry though, the zucchini will add a lot of liquid.
  • Mix in your grated zucchini and remember to scrape down your bowl.
  • Stir in the chopped nuts and chocolate chips, and feel free to add in any of your favourite toppings!
  • Pour evenly into the greased loaf pans. I like to sprinkle a few more chocolate chips on top.
  • Bake at 350 for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
  • Allow the loaves to cool in their pans for about 10 minutes, then remove from pans and let cool on a wired rack until cooled completely.
  • Slice and enjoy!

Notes

*For this recipe, I use about 1 very large zucchini. All you need to do is wash it and chop off the ends, no need to peel it. I like to use my food processor to grate it, but you could also grate by hand if you prefer. 
*To store the zucchini bread, you can leave it out at room temperature, but it is best to wrap it with plastic wrap or place it in a bag to keep it from drying out. Since this recipe makes 2 loaves, I like to wrap one of them tightly and freeze it for up to 3 months so that I can have a delicious loaf even when zucchini is out of season!
Keyword loaf cakes, zucchini, zucchini bread
Categories
Frosting

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

A raspberry frosting that’s perfectly sweet and fluffy, balanced with tangy cream cheese! This super creamy buttercream uses fresh raspberries to get the delicious flavour and the cute pink colour! You can use this amazing raspberry cream cheese frosting to top vanilla, chocolate, or even my favourite Raspberry Cake!

This frosting is absolutely amazing: pure raspberry flavour, sweet-but-not-overly-sweet, light fluffy and creamy texture, and of course, a gorgeous natural pink colour! Using the American Buttercream method, this half-buttercream, half-cream cheese frosting, fully delightful icing will make you fall in love with raspberries – even more than you already are!

How to Make Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting:

Well, clearly you’re going to use raspberries and cream cheese in it. But what else?

Creaming Butter, Shortening & Cream Cheese:

Start with your solid fats; I like using a mixture of both butter and shortening so that it’s not super buttery tasting. Also add in your cream cheese at this point. Using a mixer (I prefer my KitchenAid stand mixer for making frosting), beat this until smooth and creamy.

It’s super important that all of these ingredients are at the same room temperature, since if one of them is slightly colder, you’ll end up with chunky frosting, which isn’t too appealing when you get a bite that’s just a clump of butter. Trust me, I speak from experience of this happening with both butter and cream cheese! Temperature is key.

Adding Powdered Sugar:

Then, you gradually add in your powdered sugar. This ingredient is key to both volume and sweetness in frosting. Since we’ll be thinning this out with the raspberries, I like to add a bit of extra powdered sugar than I normally do to make it a thicker consistency. The more powdered sugar you add, the thicker and sweeter the frosting gets, so it’s always a delicate balance. However, it’s an art not a science, so you can adjust the amount of powdered sugar to your liking.

When adding in powdered sugar, I normally do about 1-2 cups of it at a time. After you add it to your mixer, mix on low speed at first to avoid getting a puff of powdered sugar that nicely dusts your mixer, counter, clothes etc.

Once it’s mostly incorporated, work your way up to high speed. I normally end up running mine on the highest speed for a few minutes since that’s what makes it perfectly incorporated, no lumps, and super creamy. It does however incorporate more air bubbles, but running your mixer on low speed at the end, or folding it violently with a spatula (my preferred method of getting rid of air bubbles and getting in my arm workout of the week), usually works.

Raspberries Come Next:

Next, we make our raspberry component. In my Raspberry Cake recipe, I cook my raspberries to make a reduction. Unfortunately, when you cook raspberries, they release a purple colour, so I knew I didn’t want to do that for this frosting. I did luck out in the end because I got a beautiful pink colour instead when using the other method. No need for any food colouring this time – everything’s all natural!

So if you don’t cook the raspberries, what do you do? Since I needed to add the raspberries to the frosting in liquid form, instead of reducing them, I blended them. I blended a bit longer than I thought was necessary for the raspberries, just so that the raspberry seeds would get chopped up a little in the process. You could also strain out the seeds if you prefer, but I found them okay since they were very small. Plus then you know the frosting was made with real raspberries!

Putting it All Together:

Once the butter and powdered sugar mixture is super creamy and smooth, basically like a normal buttercream at this point, you add in your liquids. This is both the blended raspberries and a splash of vanilla extract. Once you mix these in, you’ll see your beautiful pink colour come to life and your frosting will be done!

Of course, I encourage you to sneak a little taste test at this point to see if you need to add slightly more of one ingredient. If it’s not sweet enough, you can add in a bit more powdered sugar. If it’s too sweet, try adding in a splash of lemon juice, or a tiny pinch of salt; but be careful when using the salt method as you need to mix it very well to not get bites of salt. Again, trust me, I speak from experience and salty frosting is not appealing! Remember, frosting is always an approximate, and everyone’s taste is different, so adjust wherever needed!

Pairing This Frosting:

Raspberry Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

If you haven’t tried my Raspberry Cake recipe, I highly recommend it! It is insanely moist and packed with fresh raspberry flavour – an absolute dream come true! And if you’re a raspberry lover like me, then you would adore this pairing! But if raspberry on top of raspberry doesn’t seem like your jam (get it? lol!), this frosting would also pair amazingly well with either chocolate or vanilla cake!

Let me know in the comments if you try this frosting! Enjoy!

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

A creamy and fluffy frosting that's packed with raspberry flavour! Perfectly sweet with subtle notes of tangy cream cheese, you'll want to eat this frosting straight out of the bowl! Makes for an amazing pair with chocolate and vanilla cake, or really bring out the show-stopping flavour by using it to top a Raspberry Cake! Enjoy!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 1 8″ cake (3 layers)

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 cups butter room temp
  • 1 cup shortening (I prefer Crisco)
  • 8 oz cream cheese (brick not tub, equal to 1 cup) room temp
  • 4 1/2 – 5 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (if frozen, thaw before using)

Instructions
 

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat your room temperature butter, shortening and cream cheese until light in colour and creamy. This will take a few minutes on medium-high speed. Scrape down the bowl well (there may be some non-creamed butter stuck at the bottom, so make sure you catch this now and re-beat to avoid clumps at the end).
  • Gradually add your powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time. *When mixing in powdered sugar, start your mixer on low speed until mostly incorporated, then whip on high speed until smooth.
  • Scrape down the bowl and then repeat step 2 until you've reached 4 cups of powdered sugar. Now is a good time to taste your frosting to see if it's sweet enough, but keep in mind the remainder of the ingredients will alter the sweetness. If it's too buttery, add more powdered sugar, about a 1/2 cup at a time until you reach your desired sweetness. (I ended up using about 4 1/2 cups).
  • In a blender, blend your raspberries until they become a uniform liquid. Be sure to give it a shake or a stir to make sure that there are no pieces left behind. I like to also blend for an extra minute or two at the end to chop up the raspberry seeds into smaller pieces since I don't normally strain them out. However, if you plan on straining out the seeds (it's completely up to you) you can skip these extra minutes.
  • Pour (or strain) the blended raspberries and vanilla extract into the frosting and mix on medium speed until incorporated. Your frosting should be a nice pink colour. Don't forget to scrape down your bowl to fully incorporate all ingredients throughout.
  • Taste test your frosting again to see if it needs a bit more sugar or even raspberries. Feel free to adjust as needed.
  • Using a spatula, mix your finished frosting by hand to try to squish out some air bubbles. This should take a few minutes, but it's worth it, especially if you're planning to pipe. If you left in the seeds and are piping, I would recommend using a bigger piping tip so that the seeds don't end up plugging the tip.
  • Frost your cake or cupcakes (make sure the cakes are cooled before frosting so that they don't melt the frosting!) and enjoy!

Notes

It is crucial that your butter and cream cheese are room temperature. If they aren’t, you could end up with clumps in your frosting, which doesn’t taste or look very good. I normally take my butter and cream cheese out of the fridge a few hours before I plan to use them. I would not recommend however leaving the cream cheese out overnight as it should not stay out of the refrigerator very long.
To store, place in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Be sure to thaw it completely before using it. When used on a cake, store the cake in the fridge as well. If you don’t like cold cake, I would recommend taking the cake out about an hour before serving, or if it’s last minute, warming up your piece of cake in the microwave for about 8-10 seconds. 
Keyword frosting, raspberry
Categories
Cakes

Fresh Raspberry Cake

This Raspberry Cake is insanely moist and soft! Made with a raspberry-based batter (instead of most recipes that just have raspberry pieces folded in), this cake gives you fresh raspberry flavour in every delicious bite! Keep reading to find out how you can make this amazing Fresh Raspberry Cake.

The Story Behind the Raspberry Cake:

The Occasion:

I created this recipe in July of 2021, when my grandparents visited for the first time since before the pandemic. My family moved houses during the pandemic and none of my relatives had seen the new house yet. So, once we were all fully vaccinated, we invited my grandparents to come visit; basically the first family members to visit in over a year.

It was definitely an exciting weekend. Not only was it the opportunity to finally show off our house to our family, but we also hadn’t seen them in forever! My family kept very Covid-safe, so the only time we saw our relatives in-person were during porch visits, which were very rare occasions since they live 3 hours away! I’m pretty sure we only had like 2 porch visits total in the entirety of the pandemic up to this point!

Now that all of us were finally doubled up on our vaccinations (and at least 2 weeks out from it), we had my grandparents visit. And, being the cake-maker I am, I had to make them a welcome cake.

The Decision:

I had an extremely hard time figuring out what kind of cake to make. It was only a few hours before I made the cake when I finally decided what flavour to go with!

The night before, we ruled out chocolate (we have it too often, apparently), vanilla (still haven’t found THE vanilla cake recipe and all the others are only meh), and practically every other flavour I could come up with! It’s summer so it can’t be apple cinnamon or pumpkin. Funfetti is too childish. Red velvet uses up too much food colouring…. The list goes on and on!

I also knew that I wasn’t going to make more frosting since we had leftovers from the past TWO cakes still sitting in the fridge. In addition, I had leftover Pineapple Curd from my mom’s birthday cake to use up. And we had plenty of other berries – and even frozen cherries – to choose from!

So, after debating what fruit goes in what component of the cake (Should we mix the pineapple curd in the frosting? Make a cherry cake? A raspberry filling?), I finally settled on this. A plain vanilla buttercream from the leftovers, the pineapple curd filling as it is, and a raspberry cake. It was probably the easy way out since the only new thing I had to make were the cake layers, but I was short on time.

Picture of the finished cake that debuted the Raspberry Cake recipe. Frosted cake with ruffle borders in a periwinkle colour.
The finished Welcome Cake exterior/the debut of the Raspberry Cake recipe.

Does Raspberry Cake Exist?

But, how does someone go about making a Raspberry Cake? None of the recipes I found in my google search were what I was looking for. I didn’t want raspberry pieces in a vanilla cake. I didn’t want a raspberry filling or frosting. What I wanted was a raspberry flavoured cake, made from the fresh raspberries that were going mushy in the fridge, and not from some weird raspberry extract that I definitely did not have.

So, I used my Apple Cake recipe. My amazing, absolutely perfect, insanely soft and moist Apple Cake recipe. If you haven’t checked it out already, you definitely should by clicking right here. But, obviously, I changed the apples to raspberries.

Raspberry Reduction:

To get the amazing raspberry flavour in this cake, you make a raspberry reduction. You do this by cooking the raspberries over medium heat with a pinch of sugar and a splash of lemon juice. This will take a little bit of time, probably about 20 or so minutes, so I usually start the batter while it’s cooking, and go back to stir it every few minutes. Afterwards, I strain out the seeds as I pour it into the batter.

Cake Batter Base:

All batter ingredients for the raspberry cake.

The batter starts by whisking the egg yolks with the sugars. Normally, cake recipes cream the sugars with butter, but for this recipe, we’re using liquid fats. I find that the creaming method results in a bit of a denser cake, and this method has always given me perfectly moist results. This mixture will be pretty dry since there’s more sugar than egg yolks, but don’t worry we’ll thin it out into a liquid. We’ll also be needing the remainder of the eggs – the whites – so be sure to hold onto those.

Cake batter base ingredients: egg yolks & sugars, and melted fats.

Next, you add the liquid fats. I use a mixture of various fats, and sometimes I even use melted Crisco. This time, I decided to use mostly oil since that provides cakes with a lot of moisture. In my apple cake recipe, the reduced apples, or apple mush as I call it, is much thicker than the reduced raspberries (which turns out to be mostly juice and seeds), so I use the oil to add in the moisture that the thinner fruit addition might reduce. The other fat is melted butter, which gives the cake more stability.

Cake batter base after mixing in fats. Next ingredients to be added: sour cream.

After that, we whisk in the sour cream, which helps give nice and rich dairy undertones, and adds more fat content to get the wonderful moist texture we’re looking for.

Cake batter base after mixing in the sour cream.

Normally, I’d also add in the reduced fruit at this point (like in my apple cake). However, since this is a much thinner liquid rather than a thicker paste, I fold it in at the end.

Dry & Wet Ingredients:

Now that our batter base is finished, we continue like most standard recipes by alternating whisking in the dry and wet ingredients.

Bowls of dry ingredients, wet ingredients, base, and egg whites.

Dry Ingredients:

For our dry ingredients, we whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. This takes care of our cake structure, part of our leavening agents (remember those egg whites we were talking about earlier?), and a little bit of a sweetness cutter that helps bring out the flavour of the cake. In my apple cake recipe, we’d also add in all sorts of delicious spices here, but raspberry flavour doesn’t go well with nutmeg. At least, I don’t think it does.

Dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

We first mix in half of these dry ingredients into our batter base. Then we pour in all of our wet ingredients.

Wet Ingredients:

For the wet ingredients, I use half milk and half water. Most recipes use milk, but since we already have sour cream, we don’t want to weigh the cake down with more heavy dairy. Instead, we use half water, which is very light compared to milk and thins the batter very well. We also have vanilla extract, which is a huge background player in the baking world. It provides each dessert with a subtle sweetness that may not play the lead role, but is still an important team player.

Once these are poured in and whisked together, you add in the remaining dry ingredients. And finally, we put in our last additions.

Batter after having added all dry and wet ingredients.

The first is our raspberry reduction. I prefer to strain out the seeds since they can take away from the cake if you get a mouthful of them that stick to your teeth in between bites. The second addition is pink and red food colouring, giving the cake a beautiful colour that resembles a real raspberry. You’ve probably noticed that after you mixed in the raspberry reduction, the batter turned into a weird grey colour. This is because raspberries actually release a purple colour when cooked. We fix this by adding in the food colouring. I use gel food colour because it’s super concentrated and only takes 1 drop to get a beautiful hue.

The last addition is the egg whites.

Stiff Peaks:

As you can tell from the header, we will be whipping our egg whites to stiff peaks. But, what are stiff peaks?

Stiff peaks are one of the many stages that egg whites go through when incorporating air into them. It’s practically the last stage, so I’d definitely recommend using an electric mixer (a hand mixer is probably best since a stand mixer will be too big for only 2 egg whites) on the highest speed.

You’ll know you’ve reached stiff peaks when the egg whites are completely white and look like a fluffy cloud. To tell if you’ve actually reached stiff peaks, and not just soft peaks, you lift the beaters out of the bowl and look at the peak of egg white on the tip. If it holds completely stiff, you’re good. If it droops, you need to keep whipping.

Once you’ve reached stiff peaks, you gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Be careful not to completely deflate them since those air bubbles help the cake rise.

Finished batter poured into prepared pans, ready to bake.

Conclusion:

And, that’s finally it for our batter! You might’ve dirtied a few bowls along the way, but after you pop this in the oven for about an hour, you’ll have a deliciously moist cake that’s full of raspberry flavour! It’s a super unique flavour that everyone will love and it shows off your skill and creativity in the kitchen!

Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments below! Be sure to check out some of my other recipes that use this same method: my famous Cinnamon Apple Cider Loaf Cake and my favourite Carrot Cake.

Looking for a frosting? I made a special Raspberry Cream Cheese frosting with the intent to pair it with this cake, and let me tell you, it is delicious! It is the frosting that is in all of the pictures. You can find the recipe here. If raspberry overload isn’t your jam (haha, jam), this cake also goes well with and American Buttercream frosting, or creates a more delicate pairing with a Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting. Enjoy!

Raspberry Cake

This raspberry cake is the moistest, softest cake you'll ever try! Made with raspberry based batter instead of vanilla cake with raspberry pieces or raspberry filling or frosting, you'll get fresh raspberry flavour in every bite!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours
Course Dessert
Servings 12 people

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups raspberries fresh or frozen
  • 1 tbsp white sugar
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup butter melted
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 egg whites
  • 2 drops red or pink gel food colouring

Instructions
 

  • Grease and flour 2, 6" (3" tall) round cake pans (*see notes).
  • In a small pot, reduce raspberries by cooking them over medium heat with the tablespoon of sugar and splash of lemon juice. This will take awhile, but every now and then, stir them with a wooden spoon and try to mush them down. Once it has become a red liquid with seeds, you can turn off the heat and let it cool.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  • In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the white and brown sugars. It will be very dry. Thin out this mixture by pouring in the oil and melted butter, and whisk to combine. Add in your sour cream and whisk.
  • In a measuring cup, stir together the milk, water, and vanilla extract.
  • Preheat the oven to 335 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • In a small bowl, whip the egg whites using an electric mixer at high speed until they reach stiff peaks. This will take a few minutes. (see article for help with stiff peaks)
  • Add half of your dry ingredients (medium bowl with flour etc.) into your large bowl with egg yolk, sugar and fat mixture, and whisk to combine. Pour in all of your wet ingredients (measuring cup with milk etc.) into the large bowl. Whisk to combine. Add in the remaining dry ingredients. You should now be left with a uniform batter.
  • Strain the reduced raspberries into the batter and fold it in with a spatula. Make sure to take the time to get all of the seeds out as the seeds can really take away from the cake. The batter should now look like an ugly grey colour. Add in your drops of food colouring (I use 1 drop of red gel colour and 1 drop of pink gel colour).
  • Gently fold in the whipped egg whites, trying your best not to deflate them. It's okay if there are a few small lumps of egg white left in.
  • Pour the batter evenly into your prepared pans and bake for about 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
  • Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then flip the cakes onto a wire rack to let them cool completely.

Notes

*You could also make this recipe in 2, 8″ (2″ tall) round cake pans. No need to double or triple the recipe, as long as your cake pans are the right heights. Bake time will be different than with the 6″ pans, so start with 45 minutes and test from there. Keep the oven at 335 since lower and slower ensures a nicer crust. 
Keyword cake, fruit cake, raspberry
Categories
Bites

Leftover Halloween Candy Cheesecake Bites

These Cheesecake Bites put all of your leftover Halloween candy to good use in a creamy, delicious, chocolaty way! Perfect for both kids and adults alike; combining the joys of your favourite Halloween candies and the elegance of a fluffy cheesecake, all in one bite-sized package! Keep reading to find out how you can make these fun treats, all from the comfort of your own home.

I created this recipe in the winter of 2019. Since it was that long ago, I really don’t know what made me think of making this recipe, except for the fact that we still had a lot of Halloween candy leftover. One specific thing I remember was that we even had some chocolate fudge still sitting in the fridge from the summer!

But I have absolutely no clue why I decided to turn all of those leftovers into cheesecake – cheesecake bites of all things! I could’ve added it into cookies, brownies, eaten it straight… and yet I chose cheesecake! I don’t even know if the goal was to use up bricks of cream cheese that were about to expire! Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that I don’t regret the decision in the least, since it turned into this.

Rich and creamy cheesecake. The sweet taste of candy bars. Buttery graham cracker crust. The crack of the chocolate shell when you bite into it. Are you drooling yet? I know I am.

Now let’s take a look into each of the parts that make this a drool-worthy recipe.

Graham Cracker Crust:

The first thing we do is make a crust. It’s a pretty standard graham cracker crust, made from melted butter and crushed graham crackers.

A fun thing to do with this crust is change up the flavour! I for one am a huge chocolate lover, so I love using chocolate graham cracker crumbs (or Oreo crumbs, if you will) instead of just plain old regular graham crackers!

With this recipe, I pre-bake the crust (also known as blind baking for all you pie bakers out there). This really lets it set up nicely before adding in the cheesecake batter. It only takes about 10 minutes, time that you’ll be using to make your cheesecake batter anyway, so it shouldn’t be that influential if you’re pressed for time.

Cheesecake Filling:

Now, you may know that my Mom is known for her cheesecake. But, up until this year, she hadn’t written out her perfect recipe, and just went from memory every time. So, when it came to making these cheesecake bites, I based the filling off of a different recipe that my brain unfortunately refuses to remember, instead of using my mom’s recipe.

In fact, this entire recipe was actually born from combining that recipe with a great recipe from Handle The Heat: https://handletheheat.com/chocolate-covered-cheesecake-bite/.

The cheesecake starts with the oh-so-secret ingredient: cream cheese. Make sure you use the brick-kind and not the tub-kind! Then we add in our sugar, kind of like how you would cream in your sugar in a standard cookie or cake recipe. After that, you whip in the heavy cream (which is key to the creaminess and fluffiness of the cheesecake) and the vanilla extract (is there any recipe that doesn’t use vanilla extract?).

Finally, and here’s the important part, you mix in the eggs. You need to be really careful not to overmix it once you add in the eggs. My mom stressed this a lot when teaching me her cheesecake secrets. You can mix the batter all you want before adding in the eggs (you could do it for hours on end for all I care), but once those eggs are added, only mix until they’re JUST incorporated. If there’s still small traces of egg in the batter, ditch the electric mixer and instead give it a few folds with a spatula to ensure you don’t overmix.

Lastly, fold in your chopped candy bars, which can be anything and everything you have lying around your pantry.

Assembling The Bites:

Now that your batter’s prepared, pour it into your pan and bake it.

Normally, for a cheesecake, you’d have all of these cautionary measures like water baths and slow temperature drops. However, since we’re cutting this cheesecake anyway, it’s fine to let it crack like your neck after a long day.

Once your cheesecake is ready, you then let it chill for what feels like, and is quite literally, hours. It needs to be cold for when you cut it, stab it, and dip it. After it has frozen, use your sharp knife and strong muscles to cut it into pieces.

Keeping it completely frozen, dip it into your melted chocolate. If the chocolate is too thick, feel free to add in a few tbsp of oil to thin it out.

When I first tried dipping, I was using a toothpick to hold the cheesecake bite, but it kept sliding off. I then tried a fork, but it would sometimes break my bite into pieces, which is only partially due to the fact that they weren’t entirely frozen anymore.

Finally, I took a chance on the spoon, gently dropping each bite in the chocolate and using the spoon to roll it around and cover all the sides. Go ahead and try whatever method you’d like, but take it from me and just dive right into spoon dunking.

Or, if you don’t feel like going through the process of all that hassle, do it how I did when taking pictures of them. Place your cold bites on a wire rack in a baking sheet and just pour all of your chocolate on top. It may not be the prettiest by the end since the chocolate doesn’t fall perfectly, but it gets the job done quickly and easily.

Another way you could decorate them, which, if done well, will give you the prettiest results, would be to drizzle the chocolate on top. You can even mix it up with different kinds of chocolate, like the white chocolate drizzle in the pictures!

Last but not least, you chill them. I know, again. But this process is what gives it that delightful snap of the chocolate when you bite into it and break the shell. And it would feel kind of weird to have a mix of temperatures; who would want to have warm chocolate on one side of their mouth and ice-cold cheesecake on the other? It’s not a microwaved meal!

Conclusion:

It may seem like a lot of time and effort to make something that looks so cute and simple in the end, but trust me you’ll thank me when you’re done. Even more than that, your taste buds will thank me when you’re done.

If you liked this recipe, leave a comment below, and check out some of my other similar recipes, like Mom’s Famous Cherry Cheesecake or Pumpkin Cake Pops! Happy Halloween and happy baking!

Leftover Halloween Candy Cheesecake Bites

Use up all of your leftover Halloween candy in a deliciously sophisticated way with these Cheesecake Bites! Perfectly creamy cheesecake filled with chopped Halloween candy bars, atop a buttery graham cracker crust, all coated in a chocolate shell!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Chill Time 4 hours
Total Time 5 hours 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 36 bites

Ingredients
  

Graham Cracker Crust:

  • 9 whole graham crackers crushed into crumbs (*see notes)
  • 1/2 cup butter melted

Cheesecake Filling:

  • 16 ounces cream cheese bricks room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cup candy bars chopped (*see notes)

Chocolate Coating:

  • 16 ounces semisweet chocolate (*see notes)

Instructions
 

Graham Cracker Crust:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Line an 8"x8" square pan with tin foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
  • In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter with a fork. You may need to add more crumbs or more melted butter to get the correct consistency.
  • Press mixture evenly into prepared pan.
  • Bake the crust for 10 minutes or until lightly golden (you should be able to smell the crust in the oven when it's ready).

Cheesecake Filling:

  • Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth in a large bowl.
  • Add in the sugar, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla, and beat until combined.
  • Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating lightly between each addition until just combined. It's very important not to overbeat the batter once the eggs are added; however, you can beat for as long as you want before this addition.
  • Stir in the chopped candy bars, chocolate, fudge, or whatever other ingredient you'd like.
  • Pour the batter into the cooled crust.
  • Bake for anywhere between 30-60 minutes or until set. You will know it's set once it's slightly golden and the middle is only slightly jiggly. The key here is to keep a close eye on it after the first 30 minutes, you don't want to overbake it, but you definitely don't want to underbake it! (*see notes)
  • Keeping the cheesecake in the pan, let it cool completely on a wire rack, then move it to the freezer and let it chill for at least 3 hours.

Chocolate Coating:

  • Once frozen, lift the cheesecake out of the pan and gently peel away the foil.
  • Using a sharp knife, cut the cheesecake into 36 bite-sized squares. If the bites become too soft, put them back into the freezer until chilled again.
  • Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1-2 minutes in 30 second increments, stirring in between each increment, until the chocolate is melted.
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • Dip each bite into the melted chocolate, coating them completely. I use a fork to do this process, since the bites just fall off of a toothpick. It's very important that the bites are cold for this so that they do not fall apart as you are coating them. Let the excess chocolate drip off and place the finished bite on the baking sheet. You could also coat them by pouring the chocolate over top (place the bites on a wire rack with a baking sheet underneath to catch the drippings), or by drizzling them with the chocolate.
  • Refrigerate or freeze until the chocolate is set.
  • Enjoy! Serve chilled, or store in a container in the fridge or freezer.

Notes

*I usually buy my graham crackers in pre-crumbed form. I usually measure the amount of crust needed by eye, so start by adding in about 1/4-1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs to about 1 tbsp of melted butter and go from there. I also love to use chocolate graham cracker crumbs, or oreo crumbs, to get a chocolate crust!
*Feel free to use whatever candy bars you like! I use any mixture of things I have leftover, but make sure they’re chocolate candy bars and not straight up candy, because I bet having gummies in cheesecake would not be very good! For example, some things I use are: kit kats, aeros, mars, reeses PB cups, M&M’s, coffee crisps, chocolate fudge pieces etc. You could even use just regular chocolate chips if you want to make this during non-Halloween candy season!
*I use bakers chocolate bars since they’re the best for melting, but feel free to use any kind of chocolate (bars, chips, morsels etc.), keeping in mind the fact that they all melt differently. The best way to melt them is to go in short intervals, or to be even more careful, set your microwave to 50% power. You could also melt the chocolate in a double boiler/bain marie if you know how to, but I prefer to just use the microwave since it’s less of a hassle.
*It’s okay if you’re cheesecake comes out with cracks! You’ll be cutting it anyway, so for me personally, I find the cracks completely fine, I just try to cut along the cracks. If the cracks bug you a lot, feel free to try baking in a water bath, or even just adding a bath of water in the bottom of your oven to add more moisture in the oven and even out the temperature. Keep in mind that if you are using a water bath, it will take longer to cook since the water will retain the heat and cook the cheesecake slower and more gently. 
Keyword bites, cheesecake, leftover halloween candy
Categories
Cakes

Cinnamon Apple Cider Loaf Cake

This is the only apple spice cake you’ll ever need! Insanely soft and incredibly moist, this loaf cake is perfect for chilly, fall days when all you want to do is drown yourself in apple cider and fill your nose with the smell of cozy, warm spices. Keep reading to find out how to make yourself the cake that’s sure to cure all of your autumn cravings!

The Story:

This recipe came to life when I was in the middle of testing recipes for my vanilla cake, in the fall of 2020. I still to this day haven’t found THE vanilla cake, but around that time, I needed to make an apple cider cake. I had apple cider to use up, leftover buttercream and no-bake cheesecake filling from the pumpkin cake I had made for Halloween sitting in the fridge, and a few cinnamon oatmeal cookies that had gotten crushed (probably in a school backpack) that now no one wanted to eat. Using a failed vanilla cake recipe as the base (modifying one of the 9 test recipes I had tried by that point), this apple cider cake was born.

The first time I made it, using up all these leftover ingredients, it was in the form of a layer cake. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good layer cake, but it got overpowered by the frosting and filling. The main thing you ended up tasting was that no bake cheesecake filling, with the crunch of a cookie piece every few bites. However, in between those flavours of cream cheese, sweet frosting, and cinnamon oatmeal, you’d find the softest, moistest cake you’ll ever try. So I knew I just had to try it as a loaf.

When I made it next in the loaf pan, I swear the minute it came out of the oven smelling like cinnamon apple heaven, we cut into it and started gobbling it down like the hungry-hungry-hippos we are (except for my mom, of course, since she likes to savour each bite as she calls it). If I’m being completely honest, I’m pretty sure I had at least 3 slices of this cake that night, and I’m 100% sure we ate more than half of it. It’s just that good.

But what makes this cake that good, you ask? Well, it’s super soft, incredibly moist, not dense at all, has all the right spices, and has apple flavour from 3 different sources! I could go on and on about how amazing this cake is, and unlike some people, I would eat this cake no matter what season it is! (When debating what flavour of cake to make one day this summer, trust me when I say I was sad that my suggestion of making this cake was rejected.)

Now, let’s take a deeper look into this cake.

The Ingredients:

Eggs, Fats, & Sugar:

Unlike a majority of cake recipes, which start by creaming the butter and sugar, then adding in your other fats, binding agents, and flavourings (e.g., oil, eggs, vanilla etc.), this recipe flips the order of this process. We still keep the dry and wet ingredients separated to alternate adding at the end, but instead of mixing the butter and sugar first, we mix the eggs and sugar, but more specifically, only the egg yolks.

With eggs, each part adds different things to the recipe. The egg yolks, on one hand, are used to bind the ingredients together, which helps provide structure to the cake, in addition to the nice yellow colour it adds. Egg whites, on the other hand, have this really unique characteristic that allows them to be whipped into fluffy white clouds, instead of staying in the clear liquid form it comes in. By incorporating air into the egg whites, until we reach a stage called “stiff peaks”, we give lift to the cake since the oven heats those air bubbles and they begin to rise. Which is exactly what we do in this cake recipe.

So, with one bowl of sugar and egg yolks, we then add in our fats. Unlike standard recipes that use solid fats like the butter that they cream with the sugar, I prefer using liquid fats, like melted butter and oil. I actually like using part Crisco as well (or any other kind of shortening) since all of these different types of fat give different results in a cake.

For example, all oil will have a lot of moisture since it’s already a full fat liquid. All butter will result in a heavier, denser cake because of the gluten that forms with it’s water content. And all Crisco, thanks to it’s higher melting point and no water content, leaves a taller, more tender cake. (If you want to learn more about the difference between these fats, read this great article by Wide Open Eats.)

Having a balance between all of these fats is key to having the perfect cake: enough moisture, enough structure, and enough tenderness. However, if you don’t have one of these fats on hand (e.g., if you don’t have shortening where you live), it should turn out very similar if you substitute it with one of the other fats. As long as you have about the same amount of liquid fat (about 9 tbsp), it should turn out fine.

Next, in this bowl with our egg yolks, sugar, and fats, you add in even more moisture: sour cream. Sour cream is an amazing moisture add-in, since it has both the necessary fat and the dairy to give the cake a smoother, fuller taste. After the sour cream, you’ll add in your apple mush as I like to call it.

Apple Mush:

This apple mush is the first of 3 sources of apple flavour, made from creating a sort of applesauce.

To do this, you reduce chopped apples with a splash of lemon juice and a spoonful of sugar. Sometimes, I even add in a splash of water to thin it out and make a more paste-like texture if it’s turning out quite thick and stringy (I’m not really sure how to explain this, you’ll just have to see for yourself and eyeball it until you get the apple sauce/paste consistency). This normally takes awhile to cook on the stove since you should be sure to keep it on a low temperature as to not evaporate all of the water content from the apples – you’ll need this liquid to turn solid apples into mush!

Once this mush is finished, let it cool a bit, then stir it into your fat and sugar base, which by now should have a consistency similar to a finished batter.

Dry & Wet Ingredients:

After this stage, you continue by following the steps of a standard creaming method: alternating the dry and wet ingredients.

For your dry ingredients, you’ll whisk together your flour (the structure of the cake), baking powder and baking soda (more leavening agents), and all of your spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and a pinch of salt, but feel free to add in whatever spices you’d like!).

For your wet ingredients, you’ll stir together your apple cider (source #2 of apple flavour!) and vanilla extract (the onion of the baking world). Start by mixing in half of the dry ingredients, thin it out with all of the wet ingredients, then mix in the last half of dry ingredients.

You may be thinking, finally, this recipe is over, but nope, not quite! We still have the egg white we were talking about earlier and the mysterious apple source #3!

The Many Stages to Stiff Peaks:

As stated above, you’ll be using an electric mixer (I use my hand mixer since my stand mixer is way too big for only 1 little egg white) to beat the egg white to stiff peaks, but before you reach that stage, you’ll see the egg white go through different levels of air incorporation first.

When you start, you’ll see bubbles of air being mixed in, and then after a very short while, you’ll reach the foam stage. This is where the surface of the egg white looks so bubbly that it has a bit of white foam on top. If you were making meringue, this is when you’d add in the cream of tartar, turn up the speed to the highest setting, and start slowly adding in sugar. Since we’re not making meringue, you’ll just keep treading along the path to stiff peaks without adding any other ingredients.

After the foam stage, with the mixer still on high, you’ll reach soft peaks. The entirety of the egg white is white foam by now, and when you stop your mixer and lift the beaters out of the bowl, you’ll see a peak that falls and flops back down. This is getting close to what we want, but you’ll still need to beat it for a few more minutes to reach stiff peaks.

The way to tell if you’ve reached stiff peaks is if when you do the beater test (stop the mixer and lift the beaters out of the bowl), the peak that forms on the tip of the beaters (you’ll also see another peak in the bowl from where you lifted the beaters from) is completely stiff and does not flop back down into the bowl or fold and fall at all.

The other way you can tell if you’ve reached stiff peaks is to flip the bowl upside down. If the egg white falls out of the bowl, you’re not there yet and now you’ve made a mess on the floor or counter. It is quite risky, but if the egg white stays exactly in its place and defies gravity like a DQ Blizzard, it’s reached stiff peaks.

Now, for the very last step, you’ll fold in both your egg whites (being extremely careful not to deflate them since we need those air bubbles!) and the final source of apple flavour, chopped apples.

And that’s it, folks! Pop that in the oven for a very short, 45 minutes (although, be sure to test it because the bake time will depend on your oven), let it cool, and enjoy!

More Like This Apple Spice Cake:

I’ve actually used this same base recipe as the starting point to a lot of my recipes since it’s just so amazing! By substituting the apple mush for almost any other fruit or vegetable, you end up with amazing flavour and the same perfect texture, case in point my Carrot Cake recipe and Raspberry Cake recipe (which uses fresh or frozen raspberries right in the cake batter!). Be sure to check those out and let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments below! Happy baking!

Cinnamon Apple Cider Loaf Cake

The best apple spice cake you'll ever try! Soft, moist cake, packed with apple flavour and warm spices. Sure to make you fall for this recipe!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 12 slices

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 3/8 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp butter melted and slightly cooled
  • 3 tbsp shortening melted and slightly cooled (I use Crisco)
  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 2 apples (I prefer peeled)
  • 1 tbsp white sugar
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1/2 cup apple cider
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 egg white

Instructions
 

  • Grease and flour a standard loaf pan, and line it with parchment paper (this makes lifting the cake out of the pan super easy).
  • Chop one of the peeled apples into smaller pieces and put them in a small pot. We will be reducing these apples into an applesauce-like-mush.
  • Over medium heat, cook the apples until soft and mushy, then add the tablespoon of sugar, splash of water, and lemon juice. Stir with a wooden spoon until they are blended together and resemble the correct consistency. Remove from heat and set aside.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt.
  • In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolk together with the white and brown sugar, until the lumps are gone (it will be thick). Pour in the melted butter, melted shortening, and oil, whisking to combine the mixture, but keep in mind that we don't want the melted fats to be too hot, otherwise it will start to cook the egg yolk. Add in the sour cream and the reduced apple mush (again, keeping in mind the heat).
  • Stir the vanilla extract into the apple cider (I find it's best to do this directly in the measuring cup as to not create so many dishes to wash!).
  • Chop the other apple into very small pieces. I do not usually use the entire apple, however it's up to you how much you want to add in since we will just be stirring this into the batter before baking.
  • Preheat the oven to 335 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • In a small bowl, whip the egg white with an electric mixer on high speed until it reaches stiff peaks.
  • Alternate adding the dry ingredients (medium bowl with flour and spices) and the wet ingredients (measuring cup of apple cider and vanilla) into the large bowl of egg yolk, fat and sugar, whisking in between each addition.
  • Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter with a spatula as to not deflate them. It's okay to leave the batter a bit lumpy with egg whites at this stage, since the air in the egg whites is what really helps this cake rise.
  • Fold in the chopped apples.
  • Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and bake at 335 for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes before lifting it out of the pan. Allow it to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting. Enjoy!

Notes

*To make this loaf cake into a layer cake, double the recipe and pour the batter into 2, 8″ round cake pans (2″ tall) or 2, 6″ round cake pans (3″ tall). Bake for about 40 minutes at 335 degrees Fahrenheit, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Frost with classic American Buttercream (I love to add a tsp of cinnamon directly in the frosting) or my favourite Cream Cheese Frosting.