Raw Chocolate Cake

Andre end mig, som har hørt om raw cakes? Kager lavet kun på rigtige og sunde ingredienser. Det skal da prøves! Må faktisk indrømme, at på trods af, at der hverken er sukker eller mel eller noget i den stil i denne kage smagte den helt forrygende med en klat vanilie is eller hjemmelavet banan-is. 

Am I the only one who was tempted to try one of the popular raw chocolate cakes, made with natural sweeteners and no flour? This cake actually turned out really good, especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 


Ingredienser:

10 bløde, soltørrede dadler uden sten
1 moden banan
3 æg
4 spsk blødt kokosolie
1 dl stærk kaffe
2 tsk ren vanillepulver
50 g kakaopulver
1 tsk bagepulver
65 g alm. mandelmel
et nip salt

1. Blend dadler og banan til en cremet masse.
2. Mix det med en håndmixer sammen med æg og smeltet kokosolie og kaffe.
3. Tilsæt resterende ingredientser og hæld over i en springform.
4. Bag i ovenen ved 175 grader i 30 minutter.
5. Server lun med en klat is og frisk frugt.

Ingredients:

10 pitted dates

1 ripe banana

3 eggs

4 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup coffee

2 tsp vanilla

50 g cocoa powder (1 cup)

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1. Blend dates and banana until creamy.
2. Blend all ingredients with a mixer and pour into a pie pan.
3. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
4. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream and some fruit.

Gluten and Dairy Free Banana Coconut Cake w Chocolate Frosting

This cake is perfect if you are on a special diet and can't eat either dairy or gluten which gets more and more common today. Also this cake is completely free from any sugar and is sweetened with two of my favorite sweeteners: banana and honey.

Ingredients:

Banana Coconut Cake:

1/4 coconut oil 
2 ripe bananas
4 Tbsp honey
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. almond extract
100 grams (1 cup) oat flour
20 grams (2 1/2 tbsp) buckwheat flour
30 grams (5 1/2 tbsp) almond flour
40 grams (1/2 cup) unsweetened shredded coconut 
1/8 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup chopped dates

Chocolate Frosting:

1 cup fat free greek yogurt

1 cup melted chocolate chips

1/4 cup honey (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease two 6” cake pans with coconut oil. 
2. Melt coconut oil in the microwave for 40 seconds. Move to mixing bowl, add ripe bananas and honey and mix for about 1 minute. Add the eggs and extract and mix well.
3. In small bowl whisk together all dry ingredients. 
4. Pour dry mix into the banana batter, mix well, then add chopped dates.
5. Pour into your two greased cake pans and bake 25 minutes or until skewer test is clean. Cool in pans 5 minutes, then place on cooling racks. Before frosting the cakes it is a good ides to cool them in the freezer. This will make the frosting part a lot easier.
6. While the cake is cooling, prepare frosting by melting the chocolate chips in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time.
7. When they are all melted and cooled just a little bit so that they are not burning hot, add the yogurt and mix well.
8. Frosting should be perfect now, but if you want it a little bit sweeter go ahead and add the honey.
9. When the cake is cooled put frosting in between the two layers and on top or all the way around if you prefer. 

Paleo Pear Tart

Pear tart or pie is one of my favorites. My mom has this one she always makes, and I can't wait for her to make it again, but for now I found this other really good recipe. It is 100 % gluten free and also considered paleo and has lots of good nutrients from the pears, lemon, nuts etc. 

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

3/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup raw cashews, finely ground
2 tbsp coconut palm sugar (or other sugar substitute)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup coconut oil (solid state)
1/4 cup coconut cream, top part of canned coconut milk
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Filling:

1.5-2lbs pears (about 2-3 big ones)
juice from one lemon
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup honey 

Directions:

1. Blend the cashews until they are finely ground. Mix with the coconut flour and sugar and salt.
2. With a fork mix in coconut oil, coconut cream, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until it shapes a dough and set aside.
3. Grease a pie pan, and press the dough into the bottom and the sides as evenly as possible and place in refrigerator while your making the filling. About an hour.
4. Cut pears into slices. 
5. Combine lemon juice, salt, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, honey, and tapioca starch.
6. Gently fold in the pear slices and put in the fridge with the crust until it's ready.
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
8. When crust is ready, pour in filling and bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.
9. Reduce temperature to 350 and bake for another 20 minutes. 
10. Let it cool and serve with a vanilla yogurt or whipped coconut cream.

Paleo Chocolate Chip Banana Bars

I have a love for chocolate and bananas. Banana is like the greatest natural sweetener of them all if you ask me. So if you have some ripe bananas go ahead and use them for baking and don't just throw them away!!! Also I really think you should try this recipe, because it's seriously one of the best things I've ever tried, and completely guilt free, also for vegans!

Ingredients:

2 bananas
1/2 cup almond butter
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in food processor and blend on high for 1-2 minutes. Scoop out batter into bowl and add most of the chocolate chips, gently mix to evenly distribute.
2. Press batter into 8x8 pan greased with Coconut Oil.
3. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips over top and bake for approximately 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
   
   
   
   

Pear Crumble Mug Cake

Are you looking for a delicious fruity and hearty dessert? And besides from that, do you love oats and paleo stuff? Well I do. And this treat is perfect for a night with crazy cravings for a sweet treat.

2 servings
Ingredients:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup almond meal/flour
1 tbsp honey (substitute with agave for vegan)
1 tbsp almond milk
pinch of salt
1 pear

Optional: Ice cream, yogurt

Directions:

Cut the pear into little slices or squares. In a separate bowl, mix oats, almond meal, and salt. Melt the honey in the microwave for 20 seconds and stir into the oat mixture with the almond milk.
Put pear slices in the bottom of two mugs and top with the crumble. Microwave for minute and serve with a scoop of ice cream or vanilla yogurt, or some plain greek yogurt, if you are craving something more sour than sweet.

Enjoy!

Cake Pops

Getting creative for easter? Well that's what me and some friends got this saturday, and ended up spending nearly 6 hours in the kitchen baking cake balls. It was a lot of work!! But hey, they are just the yummiest thing ever, right? And we had a lot of fun making them, even though the coating kept teasing us... 

We made two different kinds; banana bread and vanilla cake. Both were super good. Here is the recipe for the banana bread ones. We just used a vanilla cake box for the vanilla cake.


Banana Bread ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar 
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 
2 eggs 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1/2 cup sour cream 
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Mix sugar and butter in a mixer for a couple of minutes until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Mash the bananas and add those and the sour cream and peanut butter to the bowl. 
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. 
Slowly add this to the wet ingredients and continue mixing on low-medium speed. 
Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake in a preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes. 

Here are the steps to making the cake pops:

1. Put the cake in a food processor and process until all crumbled up. Take a little at a time, and put the rest in a bowl.
2. Add about 1/2 cup creme cheese frosting. Stir it all around until it gets kind of firm and forms into little crumbles. You need to be able to make little balls that does not come apart.
3. Shape the cake balls and put on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and freeze for about an hour. This step will make the coating process a lot easier.
4. Heat up, in a microwave, either chocolate chips or candy coating until melted all the way. Do it 30 seconds at a time and stir in between to make sure it doesn't burn. 
5. Stick a popsicle stick (or any other kind of stick) into a ball and cover with the coating. This can be kind of hard, but just be patient and take your time. This is also the fun part.
6. If you want to add sprinkled go ahead and add them now, before the coating hardens.
7. Let them dry upside down, if you want to make real cake pops. If you don't have anything to stick them into, as in out case, just let them dry on a baking sheet. 
8. Store in refrigerator, and enjoy! 

Another thing we made was Oreo Balls. They were super easy to make. Just purify the oreos in a food processor and fold in creme cheese. Let them sit for an hour in the fridge and shape to little balls or eggs and coat in chocolate. The best thing ever!

Ingredients:

1 package golden oreos
1 8oz package creme cheese
Chocolate chips for coating

Paleo Chocolate Mug Cake

Am I the only one who is craving a chocolate cake with some sweet vanilla bean ice cream every once in a while? I don't think so, cause it really is one of the best treats on earth if you ask me! There is just one problem... Baking a whole chocolate cake and spending hours in the kitchen, just because you wanted a treat for the movie? No, there must be an easier way, and I found it. Just make a cake in a mug. It's so easy, and it doesn't even make a mess! This recipe is enough for two mug cakes, but if you don't want the extra mess of the ONE bowl you make it in, go ahead and split it in half and just make directly in the mug!

By the way, did I mention that this cake is paleo? If you want it strict paleo, go ahead and make a homemade ice cream.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp coconut flour

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp almond milk

Vanilla bean ice cream (optional)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and pour into two mugs. Microwave for 2 minutes, and let it cool down just a little bit. I like my chocolate cake just a little lukewarm still when I put the ice cream on top so it melts just a little bit.

Enjoy!

Lemon-Raspberry Cups

Having cravings for lemon-raspberry cake? Then you should really try this clean version of a raspberry-lemon pie. Made with a crust of almond meal instead of flour, and made in a cup instead of a pan. These would be considered both paleo and low carb, but are still super yummy.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 cup finely chopped pecan nuts

2-3 tbsp melted coconut oil

3 tbsp honey

1/2 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

Filling:

3 eggs

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp melted coconut oil

About 1/2 cup raspberry jam

Directions:

Chop pecan nuts, and mix with almond meal, coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and salt. Fill in a small muffin pan, so it's shaped as a little cup with space for the filling in the middle. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. 

Make the lemon custard by whisking eggs. Then add lemon juice and honey and heat up over medium high temperature on the stove. Slowly add the coconut oil. When the mixture starts to harden  and feel like a cream, hurry and remove from the heat and keep stirring with a spoon. 

Fill about half a teaspoon of raspberry jam in each cup, and top with lemon custard. 

Enjoy!

Cake Decorating

So today we had the Sweethearts Dance at my high school, and we had in my group agreed on cooking food together as a part of the date. Because my host mom has been in the wedding cake business for a lot of years she promised me to teach me some cool skills with decorating and just making pretty cakes etc. So I thought I wanted to make us a nice desert for the dinner party, and they actually turned out really good, and they were a ton of fun to make!

The cake was just made out of a normal box of vanilla cake, I just added a little bit of raspberry jam. The frosting is also just a normal creme cheese, butter, and powdered sugar with a little bit of raspberry jam as well.

The decorating is made of chocolate gum paste, and normal white gum paste.

Flødeboller / "Cream buns"

Okay, så her i Utah had de som regel en dag om ugen, som de kalder for deres aften hjemme med familien, hvor de har en slags lektion, om et eller andet. Mine gode venner, og naboer, spurgte så, om jeg ville komme over her på søndag og give en lektion om Danmark. De synes nemlig det er super spændende at have en Dane, og så kommer deres familie også oprindeligt fra Danmark, så de ville gerne lære noget mere om Danmark osv. Fordi "moren" i den familie har gluten-allergi, og jeg ville lave en eller anden dansk treat, så tænkte jeg, at jeg ville give mig i kast med hjemmelavede flødeboller. Det var noget af en udfordring, men resultatet blev super godt, selvom det var lidt en prøvelse at få oversat de danske mål, men de endte med at blive rigtig gode!

This Sunday my good friends and neighbors asked, if I wanted to come over and make some kind of family home evening lesson for them about Denmark, because their family is originally from there or something like that. So as I was thinking of what to do, it came to my mind that I had to make some kind of Danish treat. The Mother in that family happens to be allergic to gluten, so I had to think about that as well, and then it came to my mind that I should make these cream buns, as you would call them directly translated. It's basically just a crust of marzipan and then with a whipped cream of egg whites and sugar, and covered in chocolate. Super delicious, but kind of tricky to make!!

Bunde:
150 g. sukker
70 g. past. æggehvider
350 g. ren rå marcipan

Hindbærskum: 
250 g sukker
75g vand
110 g glykosesirup
140 g past. æggehvider
15 g sukker
20 g hindbær (evt marmelade, gerne mere end 20 g)
evt. kornene fra 1 vanillestang

Overtræk:
Omkring 300 g chokolade
Frysetørrede hindbær til pynt.

Sådan gør du:

Bunde af kransekage:
Bland sukker og æggehvider i en lille skål og lad det stå og trække i en times tid, så sukkeret opløses i æggehviderne.
Ælt marcipan med sukker og æggehvide blandingen. Kom kransekagemassen op i en kraftig sprøjtepose, og sprøjt bunde ud på ca. 5 cm. i dia.
Bag dem i en forvarmet ovn på 190 grader i ca. 10 minutter. 
Køl dem af i fryseren eller køleskabet.

Flødebolleskum:
Kom vand, glukosesirup, 250 gr. sukker og vanille i en helt ren gryde. Kog massen op til det når en temperatur på præcis 117 grader.
Når massen har en temperatur på ca.110 grader, piskes æggehviderne og 15 gr. sukker, så det er klar når sukkermassen er klar.
Mens maskinen kører på fuld speed, hældes den varme sukkermasse ned til de piskede hvider og sukker i røreskålen. Sukkermassen hældes ned i skålen i en lind stråle og nu skal flødebollemassen bare piske et sted mellem 7-10 minutter, til den er helt stiv.
Laver man hindbærboller, så tilsæt hindbær syltetøj nu.
Sprøjt toppe ud på alle bundende med en sprøjtepose.
Lad flødebollerne stå og trække i minimum 1 time inden de overtrækkes med chokolade. 

Smelt/temperer chokoladen, dyp flødebollerne i chokoladen eller brug en ske til at overtrække dem.  Drys med pynt og stil dem på køl indtil de skal serveres. 

In English

Ingredients:
Crust:
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup egg whites
1 1/2 cup marzipan

Cream filling:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup light sirup
2/3 cup pasteurized egg whites
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup raspberry jam
1 tsp vanilla

Coating:
About 1 1/3 cup of chocolate
Freeze dried raspberries


Directions:

Crust:
Mix sugar and egg whites and let it sit for about an hour in refrigerator. Mix in the marzipan and fill in a pastry bag. Squeeze out on a baking sheet in small flat circles. Bake about 10 minutes at 350 F. 
Take the "cookies" of the baking sheet and let cool down for about an hour in refrigerator while you make the cream filling.

Cream filling:
Put water, sirup, sugar, and vanilla in a small pot and heat to 242 degrees F. It's very important that it reaches this temperature so that it gets the right texture when you mix it with the egg whites. 
Whisk egg whites and sugar when the sugar mixture is almost ready, and pour in the sugar sirup mixture slowly in a straight line into the stiff egg whites. Whisk it for another 7-10 minutes until it has a creamy texture. 
If you want it with a raspberry flavor, put raspberry in now. 
Fill mixture in a pastry bag and squeeze on top of the individual crusts. 
Let them sit for about 1-2 hours before you cover them with chocolate.

Melt chocolate in microwave or over water steam, and coat the "cakes". This part can be kind of tricky. What I did was just put them on a baking rack and simply just pour the chocolate over with a spoon. 
Sprinkle with freeze dried raspberry or shredded coconut.

Enjoy!

Kransekage

Every year on New Year's Eve we get this cake called kransekage when the clock strikes 12 in Denmark. It is actually very simple to make. The icing was a little tricky in the beginning, but you will soon get the hold of it! 

Ingredients:
1 lb marzipan
150 g powdered sugar
2 egg whites

Icing:
2 cups puwdered sugar
1 tbsp water

Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions: 
1. Marzipan and powdered sugar kneads together in a mixer or by hands. Pour in egg whites on at a time to get the wanted consistency. 
2. Place in fridge a couple of hours or next day.
3. Separate the mixture into 4 different portions and make long "sausages", every one a little smaller, and connect to make circles. Make one ball for the top. 
4. Place the circles and the ball on a baking sheet and carefully press on the circles to make a surface. 
5. Bake the circles at 350 F about 15 minutes. 
6. Make the icing and decorate the circles making "stripes" on the top. 
7. Melt chocolate chips in microwave and dip the circles in chocolate. 
8. When the chocolate has hardened you can assemble the pieces to make a tower. 
Enjoy with some kind of sparkling wine or cider at midnight!