pumpkin carrot cake

This cake is awesome.  Do you like carrots, coconut, walnuts, pumpkin, vanilla, and pineapple?  Even if you only like one of those things you'll probably still love this cake.  It stays moist and delicious several days later (I'm really amazed we still have any left).  I love the flavor, it's a lovely mix of everything.  Jeff hates carrot cake, and nuts in baked goods and even he really liked this cake.  I love cakes like this.  It needs minimal hardware to make, and is so easy to make, it's almost impossible to screw it up.  Who doesn't love an easy cake?

Even with whole wheat flour, cornmeal, and protein powder in the batter this cake stays soft and sweet.  Yes, there is a lot of sugar, it is a cake after all.  But pretty much everything else in the cake has decent nutrients.  This is probably the most nutrient dense cake that you'll ever taste (and enjoy).  

This recipe is definitely a keeper.  I plan on making again soon.  It isn't sickeningly sweet, but is sweet enough to make the though of frosting completely unnecessary. 

Disclaimer: This is not my original recipe.  I tweaked it a bit from the original recipe found here at the Gold Medal flour site.

Pumpkin Carrot cake

 Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup vanilla whey protein powder
• 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated fresh carrots
• 1 cup crushed pineapple
• 1 cup pure pumpkin
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1-1/2 cups flaked coconut

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a bundt pan. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, protein powder, cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.

3. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. The dough will be very thick at this point.

4. Fold in the pineapple and pumpkin until well combined. Fold in the carrots and then the nuts and coconut until just combined.

5. Pour batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 50-60 minutes until the cake is browned on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Turn it out onto the wire rack and let cool completely.

  

Notes:

Keep leftover cake refrigerated.

coconut cookie pie crust

Happy Pi day!  Honestly, is there ever a better reason to bake a pie than today?  I forgot all about pi day last year until it was too late to make one and I was soo sad.  Seriously.  I'm really the only one in our house who likes pie, so I figured today was a great time to branch out and try a fun one!

I'm a bit obsessed with recipes from Tate's Bakery right now.  They are all amazing.  I really wanted to try their key lime pie recipe, but I thought I'd add a fun addition.  I made a coconut cookie crust to go with it.  Who doesn't love coconut lime?  No joke, I just drooled a little bit writing that.  I might also have to adapt this crust into cookies sometime because the kitchen smelled wonderful when the crust was baking, and Jeff was so bummed because he had thought I was making sugar cookies.

This crust really is just like a big cookie.  It is really easy to work with for crust because it is easy to mold and squish without being sticky.  Even if the crust dumps out into your pie pan as a huge mess, just push it around with your fingers until you have it molded right where you want it.

There could not possibly be an easier pie crust recipe (from scratch at least!).

 Add the coconut, eggs, flour, sugar, melted coconut oil, and vanilla into a food processor and pulse until a ball forms.

The ball can be soft, but push down softly with one finger to see if its is sticky.  If it is, add flour 1/4 cup at a time until it holds together and isn't sticky.

Place the crust between two large pieces of plastic wrap on the counter.  This will make rolling it out and cleaning up after soo much easier.  As much as I love baking rolling things out is the bane of my existence, but this crust is so soft it rolls out easily.

You really don't have to make this look perfect, just roll the crust out to a general circular shape the general size to fit the base and sides of your pie pan.

This part is a little more awkward, but easily cleaned up.  Peel off the top layer of plastic wrap.  Lift up the crust and bottom layer of wrap and flip it over the pie pan.  Peel off the remaining plastic and push the crust around until it lays evenly in the pan.

Bake the crust at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes until the edges are golden.  Cool before filling.

I used the Tate's Bakery Key Lime Pie filling with my coconut cookie crust.  I'm going to think up some other fillings soon.  Ooh?  Raspberry?  Chocolate caramel?  Dang it.  Now I need to go bake some more pies...

Coconut Cookie Pie Crust

ingredients:

• 2 C shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1 C + 1 tbsp AP flour
• 1/4 C coconut oil, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. All all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until a soft ball forms.  Check to make sure crust holds together and is not sticky.  Slowly add more flour if sticky.
3. Roll out dough between two layers of plastic wrap into a circular form the general size of the pie pan.
4. Peel off the top layer of plastic wrap.  Gently flip the crust and lower layer of plastic wrap over the greased pie pan.  Remove the remaining plastic wrap and gently push the crust into place.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the edges are golden.  Remove the crust and allow to cool before filling.

double chocolate coconut zucchini cookies

I love this recipe!  I adapted it from a recipe on Shape magazine's site, so between it that and the zucchini, oats, and whole wheat flour I generally feel okay lying to myself and saying they are healthy cookies.  Well, they are healthy for a cookie, but a cookie is still a rather sugary treat.  So what I'm saying is that I don't feel guilty at all eating two of these in a sitting and as I don't plan on doing that every single day its okay.  I love "logic" that allows me to do things like eat cookies guilt free, or buy a cute pair of shoes...

Mix together the ingredients, minus the zucchini, oats, and coconut flakes.  Then gently mix in the last three ingredients.  Use a packed cookie scoop to transfer the cookie dough onto parchment lined baking sheets.  The cookies must be tightly packed to insure the dough stays together.  These cookies are soft and might fall apart otherwise.

I always make sure to place my cookies (no matter the recipe) at least 2-3 inches apart.  Better safe than sorry.  No one wants cookies that are all stuck together.

Yum.  Fresh out of the oven.  This cookie holds its shape pretty well, but is soft.  LET IT SIT UNDISTURBED UNTIL IT HAS COMPLETELY COOLED.  Otherwise it might very well fall apart.

Doesn't that look delicious?  And if you want to serve them to people who might cringe at the thought of eating a "healthy" cookie, they honestly won't be able to tell.  The faint bits of oats and zucchini barely visible here are hard to see without bright direct light.  Just remember to tell yourself not to feel guilty eating these.

The longest these have lasted in our house is a week, and only because I made a double batch!  Store them in an airtight container in a dry cool place.

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double chocolate coconut zucchini cookies

by Liesl September-21-2014

let's pretend they are healthy, shall we?

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, room temperature
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups zucchini, shredded
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, coconut oil, sugars, cocoa powder, egg whites, and vanilla until smooth. Add in the zucchini, oats, and coconut flakes until barely incorporated.
2. Use a cookie scoop to drop packed scoopfuls of cookie batter onto lined baking sheets. Leave at least 2-3" between cookies. Bake for 15-18 minutes until the cookies look just set. Be careful not to overbake. Leave the cookies cool completely before moving as they are very soft.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 15 mins 
Total time: 30 mins 

Yield: 2 dozen