When I saw this recipe over at France’s Beyond the Peel, I knew I would have to make it! I love that it uses wholegrain flour, has honey in the icing, and 3 whole cups of zucchini! Not to mention the chocolate and espresso combination has to be one of my favourites!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake (adapted from Beyond The Peel)

• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil (or softened butter)
• 1 1/4 cup raw cane sugar (1 3/4 cup coconut sugar)
• 4 eggs (*I used Ener-G egg replacer for 4 eggs)
• 1/2 cup full fat yogurt (*I used Greek yogurt)
• 2 cups sprouted whole wheat flour (*I used whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1/2 cup raw cocoa
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups grated zucchini (peel left on)
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 tsp orange zest
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 Tbsp espresso or really strong coffee

On Friday it was my friends birthday and I was super stoked to be able to make her birthday cake for her. Since she is turning 21, I thought a Vegas themed birthday cake would be appropriate.

The big bottom layer was a white cake with maraschino cherries and white chocolate chips. It was frosted with my favourite Italian buttercream, flavoured with vanilla bean and white chocolate.

The dice were both a devil’s food cake layered with a delicious chocolate cocoa fudge icing, and chocolate ganache.

I woke up the next morning with chocolate on my forehead and red icing on the front of my jacket. Typical.

I know I’m a healthy-food blogger, but I really do love to bake. I like the process of baking much more than I like eating baked goods. I would rather bake a bunch of things and give them away. I just find that baking is so calming- I bring my laptop to the kitchen (yes, it is coated in flour and has flecks of icing over the keys), turn my itunes on as loud as possible, zone out, and bake. A half hour or so later, I have made something out of nothing!

Over the past few months I’ve been asked to make a couple of cakes for family and friends. It started off with this flower cake.

Followed by a wedding shower cake,

and then of course the wedding cake and cupcakes.

The latest cake I’ve made was a birthday cake for a family friend and I was so glad that I could help out. He is diabetic and very allergic to eggs, so he has never had a birthday cake before. It was a surprise cake for him this year. I was asked to use Splenda in place of sugar and absolutely noooo eggs. I would never ever normally use Splenda (I don’t believe they are beneficial, healthwise), so that was a bit difficult because I find that artificial sweeteners have such strong aftertastes. The no-eggs things was a piece of cake, as I generally bake vegan.

I tried out a few cake and icing recipes, and I tried to come up with one with the least amount of aftertaste possible- it was difficult!!

I made a chocolate cake and flavoured it with coffee. I made a chocolate icing for between the layers and piping around the cake. For the outside I made a whipped cream icing flavoured with orange juice, orange zest, and a splash of orange brandy. For decoration I candied some orange peel. This was such a tough challenge, but I’m so happy to have been able to help someone have their very first birthday cake.

Chocolate Splenda Cake (adapted from here)

• 1 3/4 cups (430 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) SPLENDA^® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) SPLENDA^® Brand Brown Sugar Blend
• 3/4 cup (180 mL) cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp (7mL) baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp (7mL) baking soda
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
• 1 1/4 cups (310 mL) low-fat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) vegetable oil
• Ener-G egg replacer for 2 eggs
• 2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla extract
• 1 cup (250 mL) hot strong black coffee

Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C). Grease 2 cake pans with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.

Blend flour, SPLENDA^® Granulated, SPLENDA^® Brown Sugar Blend, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large mixing bowl.

Combine buttermilk, oil, eggs replacer mixture, vanilla extract, and coffee in a small bowl.

Add dry ingredients to buttermilk mixture, using an electric mixer on medium speed, mix until smooth (about 2 minutes).

Pour batter into cake pan.

Bake for 35 minutes, until an inserted toothpick in centre of cake comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for 5 minutes.

Sugar- Free Chocolate Icing

• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 cups Splenda
• 3 tablespoons sifted cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cook flour and milk in a pan on top of the stove until thickened. Cream the Splenda, shortening & vanilla together. Add the milk mixture to the creamed mixture blend with a mixer until smooth and creamy. Makes enough icing for 1 9″ round cake or a 9″x13″ oblong cake.

Whipped Cream Icing

• 35% whipping cream
• splash of orange brandy
• tbsp cocoa powder
• splash of freshly squeezed orange juice
• orange zest

Whip cream until stiff, fold in cocoa powder until evenly brown, fold in brandy, orange juice, and zest to taste.

Several months ago my cousin asked me if I would be interested in making the cake for their wedding, along with some cupcakes- of course I jumped at the chance! I had never made a wedding cake before and was looking forward to figuring it out, and hopefully building something beautiful! It was a huge undertaking, and much of the last couple weeks have been spent deciding on flavours, baking, baking, baking, cutting out fondant flowers and of course, decorating. They really gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted- no flavour suggestions (except no fruit!), and one picture of a cake that they liked but didn’t want a replica of. I came up with something that I think is simple, modern, and pretty.

I made 3 white cakes, and layered each one with dark chocolate ganache and the richest vanilla bean Italian buttercream. I also added….Oreo cookies! I thought a cookies n’ creme wedding cake would be so unique and fun for this young couple.I cut out ribbon from fondant and painted it aubergine, just like their wedding colour. Lastly, I added more fondant flowers to the cake to tie in with the cupcakes. Here is the cake smothered in buttercream before I added the fondant.

Here’s a picture from the cake-cutting. They both look amazing!

I also made 100+ cupcakes- some vanilla, some chocolate, but all with a subtle caramel flavour and the fluffiest pillows of vanilla Italian buttercream. For added decoration, I topped them with a light dusting of purple sanding sugar, and a pearled fondant flower.

Check out all these flowers!

This was a great learning process for me, especially because I love to figure things out on my own! I’m proud of my cake and I’m soo happy that Spencer and Gen were pleased with the cake!!

After months of preparation, this weekend we held a surprise wedding shower for my cousin’s wife-to-be. There was plenty of decorating, and of course, FOOD involved. I also made a wedding shower cake, and I will be making their wedding cake in a few weeks time, as well. I thought I would share with you a little of what was served that night.

The spread: curried asparagus bites, tapenade tomatoes, prosciutto-fig roll ups, stuffed mushrooms, goat cheese-peppercorn potatoes, asian noodle salad, mexican salad, spinach salad, orzo salad, roast beef bunwiches, tortellini skewers, chicken wings, smoked salmon crackers, shrimp on melba toast, tomato tart, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, and a big veggie platter

The cake was a white cake layered with raspberry curd and chocolate ganache, with plenty of white chocolate Italian Buttercream.

Inside shot:

Look how surprised the bride was when she turned that corner and we all shouted surprise! (She thought she was coming over for a BBQ with my brother and I)

And my mama and I:

Sorry for the lack of posting in the past few days! It’s been a couple of stressful, not-so-fun weeks, but I’m back for a special post on…birthday cake! Birthday cake is an occasional indulgence, and more often than not I don’t even end up eating birthday cake, but I do love to make them. Today is my good friend Erika’s 20th birthday, and I will be turning 20 in exactly two weeks. Erika, myself, and a few of our friends are going to be celebrating our birthdays in Whistler for the weekend. We’re all super stoked, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. I sincerely hope that we wake up with a tiger in our bathroom (a grizzly bear would be more suited to Whistler, though) and a baby in our closet. (I hope you have seen The Hangover, or you might just think I’m nuts). I’ll post some pictures later in the week, and hopefully get a couple restaurant reviews done up there, too!

I decided to bake a cake for our birthdays and I used fondant. I don’t use fondant a ton because I’m not nuts about the way it tastes, and I find that lots of people don’t really know if their supposed to eat it or just leave it. Having said that, most of the coolest cakes are decorated with fondant, and fondant is totally ideal if the cake has to travel. In our case, this little cake will be taking a two-hour road trip and I really didn’t want to have to worry about icing getting messed up. The cake is a vegan yellow cake, soaked in a rum syrup and covered in vanilla Italian buttercream. The fondant didn’t quite get to the red I wanted….more of a pink, and it’s kind of funny because Erika and I were recently talking about how much we both hate pink bahah.

Ooh, and in case you’re wondering, I passed my bartending exam (and so did Erika!) Yaaaaaaaay!!!

And a pic of me and Erika at our grad for good measure. Ahh, the grad hat….

I wanted to share this with you guys because it’s super exciting for me- my first paid job! I had a friend approach me needing something as a special surprise for his girlfriend of two years (what a nice bf!). The only problem was that she ‘only likes boring vanilla cupcakes with boring vanilla icing’. He wondered if I had any ideas on how to spice this up. After some thinking, I decided to put a special twist on Pioneer Woman’s ice cream flower pot, and Bakerella’s cupcake pops.

I made a large vanilla bean cake and cut it into rings to fit inside the flower pot. I made a vanilla bean simple syrup and brushed it onto each ring of cake, to add extra vanilla flavour and moistness. I made a vanilla bean buttercream to fill the flower pot between each ring of cake, and then topped it with Oreo cookie crumb ‘dirt’. I used one real flower in the display, encased by a straw to keep the stem from touching the cake. I made 3 cupcake pops using the same vanilla bean cake and icing mixed together and formed into miniature cupcakes, and then dipped them in milk chocolate and coloured white chocolate melts. With some colourful sprinkles and a red Smartie, these look like the real thing! Resting on the Oreo ‘dirt’ were two chocolate covered strawberries rolled in coconut- one in pink chocolate, and one in milk chocolate.

I was super stressed out and anxious to see how the couple would like this, and it turned out that they really enjoyed it! I was so happy to do this for them

Something else that is super exciting is that my dad made me business cards! YAY! Don’t ask me what my business is though….I’ll figure that one out later (haha!) He made me 6 different cards to choose from, and I was hoping to get your opinions on which one you guys like the best. I know which one I am leaning towards, but it would be nice to have some input, as well. Just leave your favourite (top right, middle left, etc) in the comments. Thanks!

*Don’t mind the blurred out parts….I just thought maybe not everyone on the internet should have access to my address

I’ve been interested in raw foods for a while now but I hadn’t yet dabbled into the actual ‘cooking’/eating of it- until now. I decided I would make a raw cheesecake. As I study to become a holistic nutritionist, I think it is very important to experience many different ways of eating, in order to be able to give effective information to my future clients. I’ll definitely be trying more raw foods but I will probably stick to savoury recipes. I was thinking of purchasing a pack of cookbooks from Kristin’s Raw. Has anyone tried these?

I noticed that most raw foodists use cashews as their cheese and I was curious as to how the flavour would be, especially in a dessert raw food. The crust tasted quite like a Larabar- just fruit and nuts blended throughly. The cashew cheese was actually quite nice and I really felt like it wouldn’t be difficult for me to adjust to. All in all, I think this would probably be a delicious recipe as a treat for any raw foodies out there, and it’s definitely an interesting dish to try. I think smashing some of the berries into a sauce of sorts would be quite nice on top!

The recipe came in my e-mail from Vegetarian Times.

Raw Cheesecake

2 cups macadamia nuts

1 1/2 cups cashews

1/2 cup pitted medjool dates

1/4 cup dried coconut (I used unsweetened of course)

6 tbs coconut oil (liquid)

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 raw agave nectar

1/2 of a sundried vanilla bean (I just used a regular vanilla bean…not sure if it was sun dried or not)

3 cups mixed berries (I used blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cherries)

Place macadamia nuts and cashews in two seperate bowls. Cover each with cold water and soak for four hours. Rinse, drain, set aside.

Pulse the macadamia nuts and dates in the food processor to a sticky, crumb-like consistancy. Sprinkle dried coconut on the bottom of a 8 inch pie plate. Press macadamia nut mixture onto it, to form a crust.

Place cashews, lime juice, agave nectar, coconut oil and 6 tbs water in the food processor. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into the food processor. Puree until smooth and then pour onto crust. Freeze 1 to 2 hours, or until firm. Slice while frozen, but defrost on counter or in the fridge. Top with berries and enjoy! (*I think the mixing some of the berries into the cashew mixture could be neat as well, but I have not tried it!)

What better way to welcome Spring than with a lovely Hummingbird Cake! This was my first time trying a hummingbird cake and I must say….DECADENT. LUSCIOUS. WONDERFUL. It was delicious! This cake was polished off in no time at all! It was densely packed with the goodness of bananas, pineapple, pecans and spices and the addition of cream cheese frosting just made it to die for! I was curious as to how this cake obtained it’s name, but it seems there are about a zillion explanations for this question. Some say Southerners would hum as they ate this yummy cake, others say that the hummingbird represents sweetness and this cake is just that. I’ll be posting this recipe a bit later, and just so you know, I have updated the post below with the recipe for the warm lentil salad.

In September it was my boyfriend’s birthday, so I really wanted to make a special cake. I decided it was time to try out rolling fondant. For this cake, I decided to cover it in white fondant and then ice the logo of the BC Lions football team in coloured buttercream. My boyfriend has seasons tickets for the lions so we had been to a few games together and watched the rest on TV. I was really proud of how it turned out, as it was my first time using fondant and attempting to ice a design like this.