• 2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or allspice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup light brown cane sugar
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 3 egg equivalent in Ener-G egg substitute
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup vegetable oil**

• 2 cups finely grated carrots
• 1 can (about 14 oz) crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 cup shredded coconut

• nuts and raisins optional

Faux Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 8 oz package of vegan cream cheese
• 1/3 cup vegan soy margarine (like Earth Balance), softened.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups vegan confectioners sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, spice, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer combine sugar and egg replacer until creamy.  Add vanilla, then add vegetable oil or applesauce.

Mix wet and dry ingredients together and add carrots, pineapple, and coconut.

Grease pan. Smooth batter into pan. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Be sure to let the cake adequately cool before frosting.

For a thicker cake, use a 9×9 glass pan. For a thinner cake with more servings, use a 13×9.  You can also make them in a cupcake pan or 2 loaf pans.

Faux Cream Cheese Frosting recipe:

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and margarine. Add vanilla, then add sugar.

This entire recipe tastes just like the real thing! It just made it last night and it is so delicious!

Makes: 9 servings, Preparation time: 20 minutes, Cooking time: 40 minutes

**Substitutions**

For the egg replacer – I used pineapple juice drained from the pineapple chunks instead of water.  I had it and I thought I’d give the cake an extra boost of flavor.

Again, I don’t use vegetable oil.  I subbed with applesauce as usual.

Since I had a young coconut in the fridge I used that instead of dried shredded coconut.  I just ran it through the shredder with the carrots.  I tried to run the pineapple chunks through as well, but that really didn’t work.  I ended up cutting up the pineapple chunks I had by hand instead.

I accidentally added 3 cups of carrots instead of the 2 called for – I mixed it up with another recipe.  It worked out pretty well though.

I also added 1 cup of chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup chopped dried cherries.

I don’t do soy-based cream cheese frosting.  Instead of that I used my trusty old standby Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting – wow, was it tasty!

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I am apparently in a baking mood today – zucchini bread and carrot cake back to back.  That or I’m just hungry   I found this recipe over at VegWeb.com where it was submitted by Tate.  I was looking at both this recipe and this one by Ina Garten so I’m sure that there are places other than just the extra cup of carrots that I merged them but I don’t recall them.

Just so you know, these muffins by no means need the frosting – and they are better for you without it – but what is a good tropical-inspired carrot cake without frosting?  I mean really.

So why did I pick a vegan recipe?  Well, I ran out of eggs but I have scads of egg replacer!  Shhh – don’t tell!

So yeah – that’s my version of this yummy cake!  And I would have to agree, next to the Oregon Farms boxed cake (now Sarah Lee), this is one of the best carrot cakes I have tried yet.  I’m still trying to duplicate that one though!  Yum…

Oh – and the kids LOVE it!

I promised a picture of the completed butterfly, and even though I don’t have all of the recipes posted yet, here is the finished cake!

The rundown:

I know, it’s missing the antennae, but we put 7 candles on it… 1 on each of the bottom 5 cupcakes, and 2 on the top one.  Antennae problem solved!

The top right heart is Red Velvet Cake, with a whipped cream cheese and cherry filling (oh yeah).

The top left heart is Swedish Butter Cake with whiped cream cheese and apricot jam filling.

The bottom wings are Fruity Carrot Cake.

The body is made from the Dulce Sin Leche cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The world – an amazing book.  We made these last year, and they were my favorite – even over chocolate cake.  Now that’s sayin’ something!

I’ll get the Swedish Butter recipe posted soon – it’s worth it.  This year, I’m really not sure which is my favorite – they are all very, very good.  The butter cake is similar to a pound cake – add the whipped cream cheese and apricot jam and it’s simply heavenly – but certainly NOT light!

The red velvet is dense… VERY dense (as a good chocolate cake should be) and the cherries gave it a black forest kind of feel.  So good.

The carrot cake was the one that was eaten the most – and most of the guests were ages 8 & under!  They loved it, as did the adults that had some.  Unfortunately, there just isn’t much of that one left.

Next time you are looking for a great cake, pick one of these (or try them all!)  There’s not a bad on in the bunch.

This is one of those cakes… you know, the ones that are reserved for really special occasions because it’s so *not* good for you! And I don’t just mean the food coloring *wink*

Background… the red color originally came from the reaction between cocoa powder and vinegar. And it does still make it somewhat red, but since dutch processed and more alkaline cocoas came on the market, it’s not as bright. What’s a home baker to do? Add food coloring to make it more red. Or add beets… but who wants to do that to chocolate?

I didn’t follow this exactly, because I ran out of food coloring. So I added some red gel coloring as well. It seems to have worked well.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (OK, shortening if you have to)
• 1-1/2 cups evaporated cane juice (sugar)
• 2 eggs

• 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder – heaping
• 1-1/2 -2 oz. red food coloring

• 1 tsp. salt
• 2-1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk (or kefir)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter 2 9-inch or 3 8-inch cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper and butter it. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time, beating well.

Make a paste of the cocoa powder and food coloring. If you (like me) bought the small bottle of food coloring, either suffer through a less red cake, go buy another one, or add some gel coloring. Add this paste to the butter mixture.

Combine the salt and flour, and alternate it with the buttermilk and vanilla, making sure that it is well combined.

Sprinkle the baking soda over the vinegar – it will react. Pour this over the batter and stir until thoroughly mixed.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove to cool in the pans on racks. Loosen the sides if necessary, and, laying another rack on top of the pans, flip them over. Remove the pans and parchment paper and allow to completely cool.

The basic recipe calls for a cooked white frosting. Some people like a cream cheese frosting, some like whipped cream. I’m going to try putting a filling of cherries in a whipped cream frosting – sounds delish!

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I was using heart-shaped pans, so I ended up with a little bit of extra batter. So, I baked 2 4-inch round cakes, added a filling and frosted them. We will eat these tonight in honor of my dad’s birthday today. It seemed to take a bit longer to bake these… but eventually the toothpick came out clean. I think it was closer to 40-45 minutes. I’d check them at 25 minutes though, just to be safe!

Again, I combined a bunch of recipes. Most had the same basic ingredients, but some left out the vinegar. Some had more sugar or food coloring, or much less chocolate. I have had red velvet cake that was so dry you needed a glass of milk – I didn’t want that. This has a little less flour and I really heaped the cocoa powder (there’s probably close to 3.5 Tbsp. in these!) because I like chocolate. I know… shocking. I also added a touch more buttermilk for moistness. We’ll keep tweaking it I’m sure. After all, it IS chocolate.

Yes, I am calling this a fruity carrot cake, because it tastes, well, fruity!  It’s also very moist, and very delicious.  It’s also kinda good for you, but I won’t tell if you don’t!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup almond meal or whole wheat flour (I did a combination)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginge

• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 cup evaporated cane juice
• 1 cup buttermilk (or kefir, if you’ve got it)
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extrac

• 2 cups finely grated carrots
• 1 cup (8 oz) drained, crushed pineapple
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup chopped dried cherries
• 1 cup flaked coconut (if desired)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter 3 (8-inch) or 2 (9-inch) cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper and butter it.  Set aside.

Combine the flours, soda, salt and spices.  Set them aside.  In your mixer bowl, combine the sugars, buttermilk, applesauce, eggs and vanilla.  Mix until well combined.  Add the flour mixture, carrots, fruit and nuts, stirring until just blended.

Pour the batter into the cake pans, spreading to the edges.  Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven, and cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes.  Loosen the edges with a knife if necessary.  Lay a second rack on top of the cake pans and flip them over.  Remove the pans and parchment paper.  Allow to cool completely, covering with a towel if needed.

Spread your favorite cream cheese frosting in between the layers and on the top and sides.  A wonderful garnish is to use halved walnuts or pipe on some frosting carrots.

Cover and refrigerate overnight before cutting.

Enjoy

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So, since I was using a food processor to shred the carrots, I also tossed in the cherries and pecans (I didn’t have walnuts on hand).  They came out minced – not quite ground, more than chopped.  It worked really, really well – especially since I have a kid around here who hates nuts.  I personally don’t much like coconut, so I left it out, but since so many people like it, I left it in the recipe.

For the whole wheat flour part, I was pretty much out, so I used almond meal for about 1/2 cup of it, then added the little but of whole wheat that I had and it came out wonderful.  It holds up pretty well to substitutions.

Next time I may try it with kefir instead of buttermilk, because I always have that on hand.  Since I am making a few cakes this week, I bought the buttermilk – it’s also in the Red Velvet Cake.

I combined a few different recipes for this one… I found so many with the same basic ingredients, but I wanted something a little different.  I swapped cherries for the usual raisins and used pecans instead of walnuts (but just because that was what I had on hand).  I wanted to make it a little more healthy without sacrificing taste, so I went 50/50 on the flour.  It seems to have worked.  The pineapple is a must though – so yummy!

Oh come on… you actually thought I’d follow a recipe word for word?  Riiiiight.  Occasionally I do that the first time, but not usually.  After all, where is the fun in that?

This is one of my favorite cakes… my mom made it quite often while I was growing up, and it has remained with me through the years since then.

3 egg whites (the yolks will turn it yellow, but don’t effect the baking
1/3 cup applesauce
1-1/4 cup soda water, ginger ale or 7-up
1 box pistachio pudding
1 box white cake mix

Combine all ingredients in a mixer.  Pour into a bundt pan, muffin tin or mini loaf pans.  Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, or until it starts to turn a golden brown – less for the cupcakes or mini loaves.  I usually follow the times for the cake mix & add around 5 minutes, as they vary.  The toothpick test works well for this cake.

The best topping for this is to combine another box of pudding with 1 cup heave whipping cream.  Whip until stiff peaks form.  When the cake cools, cover it with the whipped pudding – I always fill the center hole with pudding for an extra surprise!

I’m not posting a recipe, per se today. Instead I’m telling you about an amazing recipe that I tried out last week for Vegan Cupcakes!

I know what you are thinking “She’s gone off her rocker with this one!” but I ask that you hear me out…

My daughter turned 6 last week, and we had a party. One family is on a gluten free/dairy free diet, and another family is vegan. What does an understanding friend do in this case? Well, we made 3 kinds of treats!

First, we made the Vanilla Gluten Freedom cupcakes from the AMAZING book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and topped them off with the vanilla buttercream frosting at the back. Then we made a rich, dark, dense chocolate cake frosted with whipped ganache (sorry, but no one messes with the chocolate! This one was full of heavy cream!) However I have to say that my favorite were the vegan Dulce Sin Leche cupcakes from the Vegan Cupcakes book!

Wow… they are caramel-y,moist, rich and oh, so yummy! I think I have found a new favorite cupcake… We topped them with the suggested Dulce Sin Leche sauce, but since they were shaped like tulips we also frosted them with the vegan buttercream frosting. Divine!

If you know anyone who prefers a vegetarian or vegan diet and you (or they) are looking for a tasty treat to fix for dessert, snack, or just because, I highly recommend this cookbook! It’s available at amazon – head over there and read about it! You WILL want this book!

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World

Happy baking!

ps – yes, this foray into birthday baking has brought about a change in the look of our page – do you like the cupcakes pictured? Tasty treats abound!

This recipe was given to me many years ago. It is the perennial party favorite. We always make up a few & freeze them to have on hand for impromptu gatherings, or they make great hostess gifts! Just wrap in foil, freeze, and tie with a ribbon and gift tag.

Pumpkin Cake Roll
Preheat oven to 375 degrees

3 large eggs
1 Cup sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin
1 tsp lemon juice
3/4 Cup flour
1 tsp baking power
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Cup walnuts or pecans (optional)

Beat eggs 5 min, gradually beat in sugar. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice and mix in remaining ingredients. Line jelly roll pan with wax paper and grease. Pour mixture in pan and sprinkle nuts on top.
Bake 12 – 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Sprinkle towel with powdered sugar and roll . When cool add filling and refrigerate.

FILLING:
½ Cup powder sugar
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix together & spread onto the cooked pumpkin cake. Roll it up and chill.

This can be frozen, wrapped in parchment or waxed paper & aluminum foil, in preparation for the Holidays!

Ingredients:

1 package white cake mix
1 package strawberry gelatin
4 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1 cup fresh sliced strawberries
Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350∞F. Lightly grease two 8-inch square baking pans. Combine cake mix and gelatin in large mixing bowl. Add eggs, oil, water and half of the strawberries. Beat on for a few minutes until well blended.

Divide batter evenly and pour batter into baking pans. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until golden and baked through. Cool for 5 minutes in pans before turning over to wire racks to cool completely.

Top with remaining sliced strawberries and dust with powdered sugar.

Everyone knows that cheesecake is a special treat! This cheesecake recipe is not only tasty, but so easy too!
Ingredients:

16 vanilla wafer cookies
2 8oz packaged of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 21 oz cherry pie filling

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F and line a muffin pan with cupcake papers. In a bowl cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Place one wafer cookie in each cupcake paper then pour the cream cheese mixture over the wafer. Top with a little cherry pie filling and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until golden and set through.