I know it’s way past Christmas time but I wanted to share this cake with you all–it’s soooo good! I made this coffeecake in early December for a party and it turned out to be a favorite holiday dessert for my husband and I.

I got the recipe from the genius mind of Jessica of How Sweet It Is. I just love her dessert recipes!

I used Silk eggnog for the cake, and it came out very well. I’m normally not a huge fan of soy-based drinks but their eggnog is really good! The eggnog flavor in the cake is not very strong at all, so you can please both the eggnog lovers and haters in your life. In fact, most people had no idea it even had eggnog until I told them.

If you can still find eggnog around, make this cake! Don’t wait until next holiday seaon.

Eggnog Coffeecake

From How Sweet It Is
Makes a 9x13 dish

Ingredients:

For the cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon + an extra 1/4 teaspoon
1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar + and extra 1/3 cup
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup eggnog

For the cumble topping:
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the eggnog glaze:
1/3 cup eggnog
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash of nutmeg

Directions:

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray/grease a 9×13 baking dish.

In a small bowl, combine 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. In a seperate bowl combine the flours, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, Stir the butter and sugars together. Mix the eggs in, one a time, until completely combined. Stir in vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until combined. Pour in the eggnog and stir until smooth. Pour half of the batter in the baking dish and sprinkle the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture over top. Cover with the remaining batter, spreading it around as best you can. Top with the crumble recipe below.

For the crumble topping:
Combine eggnog, sugars, vanilla, and nutmeg in a small bowl and stir well. Sprinkle evenly over the batter.

Bake cake for 30-35 minutes.

For the eggnog glaze:
In a saucepan over medium heat, mix together all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the mixture to a simmer for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and let set until cake is finshing baking. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, poke holes all over and pour the glaze over top.

He was a Christmas gift from my husband. We had been talking about getting a dog for awhile but I had no idea he was getting me one for Christmas!

The picture above is on Christmas Eve when Ryan gave me Murphy. He’s the cutest dog ever. Not that I’m biased or anything.

He’s also the reason for the lack of posts. He’s been keeping me busy but I’ll be back soon with posts of what I’ve been baking.

I know it’s super late but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!

This year I participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap put on by Lindsay of Love & Olive Oil and Juile of The Little Kitchen.  I sent a dozen homemade cookies to three bloggers and received three dozen delicious cookies in return.

I baked up these delicious molasses cookies to send to Kelley of Mountain Mama Cooks, Leah of The Primrose Bird, and Kelly of Sallaboutme.

I received chocolate chip cookies make with sunflower seed butter from Michele at Foodbrarian. She also sent me these cute “Cookeys.”

Emily of Life on Food sent some delicious peanut butter, toffee, and pretzel cookies. I took shared these with me co-workers and they disappeared really quickly. Suzanna of Kokocooks send me the most beautiful Lemon Almond Springerle I’ve ever seen.

I chose to send these molasses cookies because they remind me so much of the holidays. My mom made them every year growing up (and still does!) and they taste like Christmas in your mouth. The recipe is really easy and can be made in one bowl. Win!

I sent the bloggers both a thin and crispy, and thick and chewy version of the this recipe. I prefer the thicker, chewier recipe which is the one posted below.

Everyone needs an easy holiday cookie recipe like this!

To learn more about the cookie swap and to sign up for next year’s even, click here.

Molasses Cookies

Makes 2 dozen cookies
Adapted from Grandma's Molasses (it's on the side of the molasses jar!)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger

Additional sugar for rolling.

Directions:

In a large bowl beat the shortening, sugar, egg, and molasses on medium speed until well blended and smooth (about 1-2 minutes). With the mixer on low, mix in the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325. Roll the dough into heaping tablespoons (I used a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop) and dip the tops into the sugar. Place the cookies sugared side up onto a greased or silpat lined cookie sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are brown. Cool cookies on pan for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Now that the weather is really cooling off I can only think of one thing: pumpkin.

Okay, okay, that’s not the only thing I think of but it does have me craving all sorts of pumpkin flavored things! Lattes, cookies, bread, and the like.

This was my first time making pumpkin cornbread and I can’t believe I haven’t made it sooner! It’s perfectly sweet, prefectly savory, and is as good for breakfast as it is with chili.

Also, the cornbread is fairly moist and keeps well for several days–if it lasts that long!

Pumpkin Cornbread

Makes about 6 servings

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup pumpkin
1/8 cup canola oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Grease an 8-inch or 9-inch loaf pan.

Mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl mix together the maple syrup, almond milk, oil, and pumpkin. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined.

Spread the batter into the prepared plan and bake for 15 minutes.

A few weeks ago I discovered the Duncan Hines caramel cake mix at my grocery store. I’m not sure how long it’s been out but I was glad to see a quick alternative to my scratch caramel cake, which takes me HOURS to make!

I baked half of the mix into cupcakes but was, unfortunately, disappointed with the flavor. The cake only had a slight caramel flavor which tasted really fake (gross). So, not wanting to let the rest of the mix go to waste, I baked it into cookies. I added lots of cinnamon chips and topped them generously with caramel buttercream to try and cover up the fakey caramel flavor. And you know what? They tasted pretty good. Pretty darn good, in fact.

The cinnamon chips and frosting do an excellent job of distracting you from any fake caramel you may taste. I mean, how can you go wrong with adding more butter and sugar to cookie? You can’t.

While I’m not entirely sure I would buy this mix again, the cookies were quite delicious and were a big hit at work.

Caramel Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Makes about 12 cookies

Ingredients:

For the cookies:
1/2 box Duncin Hines Caramel Cake Mix
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup cinnamon chips

For the frosting:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 sticks butter
1/8 cup half and half
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350.

Mix the cake mix, egg, and oil until well blended. Stir in the cinnamon chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoon-fulls onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes.

For the frosting:

Combined the water and granulated sugar in a heavy saucepan. Heat over medium until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar dissolves, bring it to a boil until the mixture is very dark amber, swirling the pan every now and then, to cook it evenly. Watch closely so the mixture doesn't burn. Remove from heat and stir in the half and half. Let cool (I put mine in the freezer and stirred every few mintues to make it faster).

In a large bowl. Cream the butter on medium-high until pale and fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar and beat on medium-high for 3 minutes. Mix in the caramel and beat on medium-high for an additional 5-7 minutes, until the frosting is very fluffy.

Top cooled cookies with the frosting. Sandwich them together if you prefer. Eat!

Okay everyone, I finally have a recipe for you. And boy is it worth the wait.

When I pulled the pan out of the oven I was worried this recipe was yet another failure because these are ugly.

See? Look at that ugliness!

Until you cut them…..

…and then they look amazing. These blondies are peanut butter flavored and stuffed with chocolate cream filled cookies and chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels. YUM!

Do yourself a favor and make these. Today.

Stuffed Peanut Butter Blondies

Makes 16 blondies

Ingredients:

For bottom layer:
3/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter (stirred really well)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup+ 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (or extract)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

For filling:
9 chocolate cream filled chocolate cookies (I used Newman O's)
2 cups chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels

For top layer:
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

Directions:

Heat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 pan.

In a large bowl, mix the peanut butter, oil, and sugar on medium for 2 minutes. Next, mix in the milk and vanilla. Add in the flour, salt and baking powder and mix until incorporated.

Spread 1/2 of the mixture in the pan. Top with the 9 oreos (I laid mine in a 3x3 pattern) and sprinkle with pretzels.

Mix in the 1/4 cup milk to the other half of the batter. Pour the batter evenly over the top. Bake for 25 minutes.

Last weekend my friend Meghan and I headed into D.C. for VegFest 2011.

It was way more crowded than we expected, which made getting around to all the vendors a little difficult. However, we did manage to see some awesome vegan goodies.



I was excited to see Sticky Fingers there since I had heard such good things about them.

They has a nice selection of cupcakes to choose from, so Meghan and I split a cookies ‘n’ cream one. I was dissappointed with the taste of it though. The cake was dry and the frosting was just okay. Everyone seemed to be buying their stromblies, so maybe we should of gone with that.

Bakeshop was there too and had some delicious looking coconut cupcakes.

I have no idea what this is but it sure looks good!

Vegan Treats Bakery, which is located in Pennsylvania, had an amazing selection of vegan goodies to choose from!

I really wanted them all, but ended up with the s’mores cake and a cowboy cookie (it was the size of my face–no joking) to take home.

I am offically in love with this bakery.  My husband and I shared the cookie and the cake and thought they were amazing! I wish they weren’t so far away!!

Overall, Meghan and I had a good time and walked away with some yummy freebies and a few coupons. Hopefully, we’ll get to go again next year!

So, I haven’t been posting because there really wasn’t much to post about. Today, while looking through my picture archives, I noticed this peanut butter banana bread that I made waaaay back and had yet to post.

I got all excited thinking I finally had something to post. But then I thought: ‘maybe the reason I didn’t post the recipe was because it didn’t taste good?’ Although the bread looks delicious to me in the pictures, I’m not exactly sure how it tasted. To avoid giving out a horrible recipe, I leave you today with only pictures. I’ll eventually get around to making this again and will have a recipe for you then!

Boy, let me tell you, with 3 earthquakes and a hurricane all in the same week, I’m a little stressed. And when I’m stressed I eat.

Enter: Cinnamon roll cake.

This cake is super comforting as well as easy since it is made with a can of pre-made cinnamon rolls. Perfect for crazy weeks like this.

I made this cake by layering the cinnamon rolls with cake batter. I made the cake from scratch but only because I didn’t have a box mix lying around. If you have a box mix, by all means, use it. I’m all about making this simple.

Now, excuse me while I go eat a slice of this cake with a cup of vodka coffee to ease my nerves.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Makes 1 8-inch or 9-inch loaf

Ingredients:

For the cake batter:
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup +1 tablespoon milk
1 egg
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon vanilla

OR

1/2 box cake mix prepared according to package directions (remember to 1/2 the ingredient amounts!)

1 can of refrigerated cinnamon rolls

Directions:

Heat oven to 375.

Grease an 8 or 9-inch loaf pan.

In a small bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together for 2 minutes. Add in the egg and beat for another minute. Mix in the milk and vanilla until incorporated.

Slowly add the dry mix into the wet and mix until combined.

Cut each cinnamon roll in half and place 8 halves, staggered, on the bottom of the pan. Pour the cake batter evenly over the cinnamon rolls. Place the remaining halves, staggering again, on top. Bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Top with the frosting that comes with the canned cinnamon rolls. Top with additional powdered sugar icing if you feel it needs more (I did!).