Tag: Cake

• My Kind of Party

  Posted at 6:46 AM by Brittany, on February 16, 2015

  Just like that another year has been added to my timeline. Yesterday I celebrated my 26th year of life with a lovely morning shift at work full of coffee and good company, followed by a run, and ended with a mom cooked vegan meal.

  I like to keep it casual these days when it comes to my birthday, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t do fun things the few days leading up to yesterday. Birthday weekend.

  Thursday – Took a trip to Seattle to visit the Starbucks roastery again, and it was just as fun this time as the last. I made sure to stop by Pike Place Market for a muffin to pair with my coffee, because coffee tastings happen anytime, anywhere.

  

  I got a cup of west java preanger. When a coffee has tasting notes of milk chocolate you drink it. It’s the only milk chocolate flavor that will pass through my facial orifice.

  

  Friday – Ran 6 carefree miles and reflected on my years of life. Said goodbye to the dog, and settled back into life with my cats. Oh how I missed them.

  

  

  Saturday – Worked 5:30a-2p and was immediately whisked away for a valentines day adventure. We ate good food and saw a movie. I’ll let you guess which movie. 😉

  

  My hot date.

  Sunday – Birthday! Was greeted at 5:30 am by a cup of delicious Sulawesi Pango Pango (my Starbucks doesn’t sell this coffee, so it was a real treat.) Two chocolates in the shape of coffee beans, and a blueberry protein oatmeal courtesy of Starbucks.

  

  Came home from work, got my workout done, and prepared for my feast.
  

  

  My mom > Your mom. A side of steamed broccoli and raw bell pepper to keep room for all the chocolate.

  Homemade buns, burgers, and cake – all gluten free and vegan. My mom is the best.

  

  

  As you can see I’ve been hibernating in an attempt to become the next Snow White.

  

  That cake…ohhh that cake. We ate over half between three people. Chocolate w/a hint of lavender. I had my cake with strawberries, because that made it healthy.

  Tomorrow you can find me at the Seattle Symphony being serenaded by my future husband, rounding out the perfect week of events. Life is good.

  Q: What do you typically do for your birthday? I usually enjoy running a race for mine, but figured my half marathon next month was close enough. 

  

  | 93 Comments Tagged Birthday, Cake, Cats, Coffee, Run, Starbucks, Vegan

• Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

  Posted at 5:44 AM by Brittany, on March 20, 2014

  There is nothing quite like having a sweet, sugary, crumbly treat along side my morning cup of coffee. It takes my entire coffee savoring experience from an 8 to a 10. Mornings are my favorite, but mornings with coffee and cake are mornings started right.

  

  This recipe was a bit of an experiment. After combining all of my ingredients and making a dough that looked more like a cookie, I was hesitant and expected the worst. Thankfully, as things usually do when I expect the worst, these coffee cake muffins turned out great.

  Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

  

  • 1 cup vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tblsp apple cider vinegar
  • 4 tblsp melted coconut oil
  • 2 cups GF flour (I used this one)
    
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup xylitol
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tblsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup frozen (or fresh) blueberries

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix almond milk and vinegar together and set aside to sour/curdle. Do this first!
  3. Combine your flour, sugar, xylitol, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together. Combine well.
  4. Pour melted coconut oil into your vinegar/almond milk mixture, and then pour into your dry ingredients.
  5. Fold in blueberries.
  6. Pour into muffin tin and top with sugar crumble (recipe below)
  7. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

  Sugar Crumble

  

  • 3 tblsp GF flour
    
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tblsp melted Earth Balance vegan butter

  1. Mix dry ingredients together, and then add vegan butter.

  Notes: I used a 1 to 1 wheat flour replacement, which means I didn’t need to add anything alongside my GF flour. If you are using a different GF flour for the muffins, add 1/2 tsp xanthan gum. If you don’t have, or don’t want to use xylitol swap it out for regular sugar.

  

  A word of advice: These are best eaten in some kind of bowl, or plate with walls. This ensures maximum crumble consumption, and provides an excuse to be paired with ice cream. As with most of my treats, these tasted better as time went on!

  

  Q: What’s your favorite morning splurge? I used to be all about that cookie and coffee life, but these mini cakes rocked my face…hard.

  

  | 35 Comments Tagged Cake, Coffee, Recipe, Vegan

• Virtual Vegan Potluck: Cake That Can’t be Beet

  Posted at 12:01 AM by Brittany, on November 16, 2013

  I’ve been bringing my desserts to the Virtual Vegan Potluck for over a year now. This bi-annual tradition is becoming something I look forward to. You would think I would want to bring a dish other than dessert, but it’s now my own tradition to share my sweets with the world. In May 2012 I brought Oreo covered brownies, November 2012 I brought chocolate chip cookie dough bites, and this past May I brought some classic chocolate cupcakes. Chocolate, chocolate, and MORE chocolate.

  When I discovered there was a secret ingredient us bloggers were being challenged to use in our dish, I was immediately sold. Initially I was going to attempt something with chocolate, but I decided to deviate from that and go with something more fitting for the fall holidays. Something with apples, something with cinnamon, something with..beets?

  Apple Cinnamon Beet Cake w/a Classic Cinnamon Glaze 

  

  For the cake:

  • 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup Earth Balance Vegan Butter (softened)
  • 1 1/4 cup raw sugar
  • 1 cup homemade (or store bought) applesauce
  • 1 cup of beet/apple puree (recipe below)
  • 1 vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

  For the beet apple puree: chop one large beet and one large (cored) apple into small cubes and place into a sauce pan with enough water to cover. Top with a lid and bring to a boil. Simmer the cubes until the beets are soft and easily poked with a fork (about 20minutes.) Once softened, drain the water and puree the apples and beets in a food processor or a blender. I used my blender. Cool to room temperature before adding to cake batter. Drink the remaining puree, it’s delicious.

  

  For the cake: Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease an 8 in pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, mix your flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt until well combined. In a separate larger bowl, use an electric mixer to combine your butter with your sugar until fluffy. Pour in your applesauce, vanilla, and beet puree and continue to mix. The mixture will look a bit curdled, but that is OK. Gradually pour in the flour mixture and continue to mix until the batter is smooth. Pour batter into your pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  

  For the glaze:

  • 1-2 tblsp almond milk
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup powdered sugar

  In a small bowl pour one tblsp milk and combine your cinnamon and half your sugar. Whisk together and then add the remaining sugar. The glaze will be a bit thick, so add a bit more milk as needed or for desired consistency.

  

  A few notes: I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup of cake flower because that’s what I had on deck. If I were to make this again I would use chia eggs instead of applesauce. I thought the extra apple would help the flavor, but it made the cake a bit more moist than I would have liked.

  Despite the mushy texture towards the middle the overall cake was a success. It tasted delicious and you’d never know there was an entire beet mixed in! Besides, once you add ice cream it gets a bit mushy anyway!

  

  To view the desserts before and after mine, click the pictures below. Click here to start at the very beginning of the potluck. Happy eating!

  

  

  Q: Do you like beets as much as I do??

  

  | 69 Comments Tagged Cake, Recipe, Vegan, Virtual Vegan Potluck

• Balance

  Posted at 11:27 AM by Brittany, on September 12, 2012

  There’s been a lot of running talk on these streets lately, and for good reason. I just finished my first half marathon and am still jazzed about it. (And thank you all for your kind words on my half marathon post!) In order to live by my favorite word, I need to balance this blog with a post dedicated to some food! While I was in California I went on a last minute trip to LA (GIGI I LOVE YOU I’M SORRY!) I had my heart set on trying some of the famous cupcakes made at Babycakes NYC. I have been DYINGGG for a good cupcake, and being vegan tends to limit the options.

  

  This place is 100% vegan so I just haddd to try their goods. Driving around LA was sketch..I mean..SKETCH. There were transients everywhere and I was having a hard time imagining a cute cupcake shop in the parts I was driving through. Fortunately the location I made it to was less sketchy than the first. Once I arrived I was shocked by the prices..$4.75 for a cupcake the size of my pinky toe?! Then my hawk eyes found a two for one deal on day old cupcakes. Two cupcakes for $4.25…deal.

  

  Red velvet and Vanilla banana

  Visually I was not impressed. How hard is it to make the icing look nice? Foul number one. Texture was that of a muffin..UGH. All I wanted was a MOIST, fluffy cupcake! These cupcakes sucked, and were NOT worth the money. They flavor was mediocre, but my biggest complaint was the density of the cake. I could have made these at home for $0.25 each. Fail.

  

  Thankfully I found a cheap vegan restaurant that saved the afternoon.

  

  I shared a Pineapple “chicken” burger, and a Seitan wrap. Both of which were deeelicious, and the bill was a whopping $14.

  

  

  
  So. Good.

  That night I then feasted at the Spaghetti Factory to carb load for my half marathon. I got up the next day, ran 13.1 miles, went to the hotel to get cleaned up..and set out to find some more food. This is about to be my favorite part of this post. Prepare yourselves. After the run, I was walking like a wounded wildabeast. I was emotionally hurt from the cupcake experience the day before, and I was desperately needing something douched in chocolate.

  In order to prevent cramping or muscle tightening, we went to walk around some shops to keep the movement in our legs going. It just so happened we went back to whole foods for some more PB. This is where I saw it, the most magical sight I have ever laid my eyes on. The most gorgeous vegan cupcake with a simple, but CLASSIC icing job.

  

  

  The icing to cake ratio was perfect..simply perfect. The cake was MOIST, chewy and tasted just like a naughty grocery store cupcake! THANK YOU WHOLE FOODS! I have been gawking at these pictures for a week now, I just can’t stop thinking about this cupcake. I am lucky the closest WF is over an hour away, or I would purchase one daily. The moral of the story is, if you find a shitty cupcake don’t give up hope..just go to WF!

  

  Q: What’s one experience you’ve had with recently with food that left you with disappointment on your face and pain in your heart? Sorry Babycakes, your muffin cakes aren’t for me.

  

  | 29 Comments Tagged Cake, California, Food, Half Marathon, Running, Vegan, Whole Foods

• Rice Rice Baby

  Posted at 10:24 AM by Brittany, on April 3, 2012

  For the past week, many of my meals have revolved around rice. Brown rice of course, specifically the brown rice medley from good ol’ Trader Joe’s.

  

  The protein/fiber content is great, and the addition of the radish seeds gives a nice crunch to the mix. Of course I don’t pummel spoon fulls of just rice into my mouth, I make a rice pile and fill the sides with tree’s and bushes.

  

  This meal happened a few times: Rice, asparagus, red bell pepper, vegan sausage, zucchini, Brussels, beets, and broccoli.

  Another ricerific meal that was duuhh-lish-ous included this..

  

  I really only bought this to have an excuse to say “punjab” multiple times in one hour, but this stuff was so good. I didn’t like the packaging, and I didn’t like the heating option. Instead of heating the foil like packet in water on the stove, I emptied the contents into a pot and then put it on the stove. Heating foil/using a microwave are two warming options I avoid. I need to get an invincible hamster to run hours on a wheel to produce heat for my food, that would be ideal.

  The final product..

  

  This time I made a rice mote, and filled the punjab in the center. Then surrounded the outside with trees and plants.

  Moving forward. I have found a veggie (and vegan) friendly peanut sauce to make up for my oops moment, when I bought peanut sauce with anchovies in it. Unfortunately the sauce I bought this time lacked in flavor and punch.

  

  Fortunately I had enough peanuts to make up for the sauce.

  

  As you can see, I put my math studies to good use by using geometry on a daily basis to make a circle out of my meals. That’s really all it’s good for.

  As for my vegan update, I have successfully completed one week eating a vegan diet, and I have to say the week FLEW by. I only thought about cheese once and that was the first day of being dairy free. Since then it’s been easy (given it’s only been a week) and I plan to continue eating vegan for a little while longer. I will write a post dedicated to my thoughts and physical state after a bit more time.

  I’ve also completed one week cutting out sweets (except the extra jelly I’ve been adding to PB&J’s) and this was a bit more difficult. I thought about cake multiple times throughout the week, but I persevered. I deserve a medal for this I swear. I might even go longer than the week. I’m exuding God like strength with this task.

  Running is great, Saturday I ran 5 miles at a 9:52 pace and each mile felt better than the one before it. Cycling is good, Thursday night spin classes are becoming my favorite. Monday nights not so much. Those are all the updates I have for now!

  Q: How do you eat your brown rice?

  

  | 52 Comments Tagged Brown Rice Medley, Cake, Food, New food, Running, Spinning, Trader Joes, Vegan

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• BRITTANY- Self proclaimed minimalistic nomad striving to maintain a balanced, healthy life with good food, long bike rides, deep connections, exploration, and lots of cucumbers.

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• Contact: blissfulbritt@yahoo.com

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