Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake ~ Taste and Create

This is my first time joining in the fun of Taste & Create where we are paired off with another blog and we make something from each other's blog and post about it! My partner in Taste & Create this month was Bizzy B Bakes, when I checked out her blog she has many different and wonderful things going on there. I wanted to bake something and as you all know about my baking skills, but I wanted to try it. Besides Bizzy B started this blog to increase her baking...I thought it only right. I let my daughter help me choose since she was the one that was going to eat most of it! :D

She wanted to make the lemon poppy seed muffins...okay good choice, but since Bizzy B mostly makes gluten free recipes which this was, which is great, but I didn't have the gluten free flour it called for...so we went for something chocolate! Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake ...

Got all my stuff and ingredients ready to go...

Here is Bizzy B Bakes version of the recipe...

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake (adapted from All Recipes)
Ingredients :
1 cup canola oil minus one tablespoon
1 (8 ounce) package Tofutti cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup Rice milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Method:


In a mixing bowl, cream the oil, cream cheese and 1-1/4 cups of sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips. Pour into a greased 9-in. spring form pan. Combine cinnamon, 1 cup chocolate chips and remaining sugar; sprinkle over batter.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen. Remove sides of pan. Cool completely before cutting

I like how this recipe didn't have any dairy in it, but I didn't have any rice milk so I use coconut milk that I had. I also used some coconut oil and a little less sugar than it called for and I couldn't fit all the chocolate chips on it...so I had about a quarter cup left.

My daughter chose the color sugar to sprinkle on top...and here I used raw organic sugar in the cake. :) Oops where is the cinnamon...I sprinkled it all over the top before it went in the oven.

The other difference was I didn't have a spring form pan so I made it in an 11 inch stoneware baker that I did have. I was worried about it...

...but it turned out great! I did have to cut back on the baking time, and the toothpick did come out clean.

It was moist and delicious and I loved the texture...I was so surprised! Yay! Still a little sweet for me, but my family loved it. There is still a piece left... anyone?

I bet you can't wait to see what else I might bake up!

Microwave Chocolate Cake in a Cup

I know this recipe has been going around for awhile and I've always been meaning to try it. So this is another recipe we tried over spring break. Maranda made the whole thing, I put her to work. I figure if we are going to eat cake it might as well be one that I know all the ingredients that are in it. I used unbleached flour, organic sugar, organic eggs, and organic chocolate chips and my homemade vanilla extract. So we can splurge once in awhile...

Microwave Chocolate Cake in a Cup
Ingredients :
coffee mug
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
2 tablespoons whisked egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil (you can replace some of the oil with mashed banana)
3 tablespoons chocolate chips
a splash vanilla
a dash of cinnamon or instant coffee)

Method:
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well .
Add egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix again.
Stir in chocolate, vanilla.
Microwave for 2½ to 3 minutes for a 1,000 watt oven.

Remove from microwave.
Allow cake to cool a little, then tip out onto a plate.

Of course you can add toppings, like whipped cream, chocolate syrup(for those chocoholics) or powdered sugar. I couldn't find my powdered sugar so we just at it as is, and it was plenty for two..

I cut the sugar in half from what the original recipe called for, but it was plenty sweet with the chocolate chips. It was a little dense, maybe 2½ minutes would be fine. It was very good, but reminded me more of a chocolate muffin, than cake.

Super Easy Coconut Chocolate Bars

I have been a little preoccupied lately and have not been posting to my blogs or really had a chance to read many of your blogs. My parent have been down visiting for a month, and they were staying out on Siesta Key, just minutes from my house. It is always so nice to have them down, but sometime we have to schedule our time to see them. Their friends keep them pretty busy. Today they left to stay with my aunt and uncle in Bradenton for about a week. That is just about a half hour drive from us...but during peak season probably longer...lost more traffic this time of year!

During their visit my sister and niece came for a week visit, which is always fun. I took a couple of days off from work to spend some time with them. Even with all this going on ...in the back of my mind I knew I had to schedule a time for me to take the ParaPro Assessment test before March 1. YIKES! Now you have to know that it has been quite some time since I've been in school (as a student that is) and taking a test on the computer is a little daunting. The state required all classified employees of the school board to pass the test to keep their position. We are supposed to be considered "highly qualified" as paraprofessionals to work in a classroom. Well I took the test on Thursday and passed it just fine! Whew! I was worried because I finished with and hour left...I was thinking...oh oh, that was too quick, what did I do wrong? :D With that off my mind and family gone now I can get back to my blogs!

I have made several things and have many photo (I hope I can remember what they all are) and I will start to share them with you...even what I made for the super bowl party!

This is such an easy recipe I am almost embarrassed to post it! I thought I would start back with an easy peasy recipe! It calls for:

1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs (I used low fat)

1 1/2 cups of coconut flakes (I used what I got from Tropical Traditions)

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

1 can sweetened condensed milk ( I think they come 15 oz size)

That's it! Four ingredients!

Mix it all together and press it in a prepared 8" square baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes until golden. Let it cool before cutting it into bars.

The hardest part is waiting for it to cool!

Maranda asked if she could have one for breakfast!

I think maybe next time I try adding some crystallized ginger. You could probably add nuts if you like!

So here are a few pictures from what we've been doing.

This is looking under the draw bridge that take you out to the key. We can hear the cars driving over this from our house. That's Midnight Cove II my parents condo, taken from our boat.

Where we have to launch the boat we have to travel quite a ways in a no wake zone to get anywhere...but it's a nice ride.

Always a nice view over looking the Gulf of Mexico on a sunny day!

Hope everyone will come back and visit me again. I will be back with more soon. Spring break is coming up soon and I will have a week off! Yay Spring!

Chocolate Fruit & Nuts Mooncake?

I first heard about mooncakes from my friend Kristy on her blog My Little Space. She is a wonderful baker and is very creative with the things that she bakes. This is not your grandma's baker here, she adds her own pizazz to many of her creations. She is also full of information on the local holidays, festivals, legends and Chinese customs. I love to learn all about it.


The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. It is a date that parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.

When I saw her mooncakes I was determined to try my hand at making them. I had difficulty finding some of the ingredients, like red bean paste and lotus paste. I ended up making my own red bean paste, but never use it to make mooncakes, but another dessert. Then she gave me a tip on making mung bean paste which would be a little easier, and I was going to try it until I saw her Chocolate Mixed Nuts Mooncakes. Bingo! This is what I wanted to try, I liked the fact that I had all the ingredients and it wasn't as sweet as some of the other mooncakes.


I made a few changes in the nuts (just a little) and dried fruit (couldn't find the candied kumquats and melons, but I love crystallized ginger and dried cranberries) and added some almond paste, and Cointreau. I would of used my Michigan dried cherries, but I they're all gone, now I have to wait until my parents come visit again to bring me some more.

So... this is my version of attempting to make mooncakes (sorta) for the up coming Mooncake Festival on September 22nd.

Ingredients for Mixed Nuts filling :
1/2 cup whole almonds, chopped & roasted
1/2 cup hazelnuts, roasted then chopped
1/2 cup pistachio, roasted
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped candied ginger
1 cup mixed seeds, roasted (I used pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tpsn salt
1 cup cooked glutinous rice
1/2 cup almond paste
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp rum
1 tbsp Cointreau (orange liquor)

Method :
- combine all ingredients in a big bowl and mix well.
- then stir in 4 tbsp corn/olive oil and mix till well combined.
- divide into 40gm balls each for mini size mooncake.


Ingredients for Chocolate Skin Dough :
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup corn oil

Method :
- simmer chocolate and oil over a double boiler until melted.
- stir chocolate mixture into flour and mix to form a thick paste.
- leave the thick paste to rest for an hour.
- then divide pastry dough into 35gm each (for mini size) .
- start wrapping the mixed nuts filling with the dough and slightly coat the dough with flour.

arrange moulded mooncake onto baking tray and spray water onto each of it
- bake at 400 degrees for 5 minitues and then remove mooncake from oven.
- slightly brush with egg glaze and continue baking at 350 degrees for another 10 minitues or until golden brown.
It's best to serve this one day after.

I didn't have a mooncake mold, so I just rolled them in balls, and added some sesame seeds and some sugar crystals to try to make them look pretty. I probably could of used more filling, but since this was my first time I really had to get the feel of it. The dough was pretty easy to work with.

I'm not sure how close to mooncakes they are, but they sure did taste good. This is for you Kristy! Or I should say thanks to you!

I do like the amount of filling in these, it's like a nice stuffed, filled cookie.

But I have some filling left so I need to find a coffee cake, or muffin recipe to use it up...any suggestions?


I chopped the nuts a little more than she did, but I don't really want to compare the two because that just wouldn't be fair...hehe...she's had more practice. Next time I want to try some agar agar mooncakes...what do you think?


We had a long weekend for Labor Day and my husband was out of town. My daughter and I thought we would check out a different beach than we usually go to.


So we went to Lido Beach and walked around to enjoy the sunset and early evening. It was busy of course being the last weekend of summer, and living in a vacation spot. So we went to South Lido and it was a little more open.


It was nice and peaceful!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

As you all already know that it is spring break for us and I have a list of things that need to be done. I thought one would be to actually try some baking. I thought it would be fun for Maranda and I to make some cookies first, before I tackle some of the beautiful breads that Kristy makes from My Little Space. I will get to those later. If you visit her blog I just want to warn you to be prepared to drool!

So we searched the my grandma's old Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, with all her slips of paper with recipes and newspaper and magazine cutouts, she came up with snicker doodles. I said let's try something with chocolate, because I had just received a box of chocolates from my friend Pru from Perfecting Pru. She was so kind to send me some English chocolate, and she threw in some other great chocolate that we don't get here. Some that we do like the Kit Kat bar is their version. Maranda and I split that one and we both liked it better than the American one.

The first bar I tried was the Wispa, yum it was light and almost airy! Then the Galaxy bar was so smooth and creamy...I did add a little finishing sea salt to it. Perfect! But I wanted to use the dark chocolate bar in something so I could post about it for Pru. So this is what we did. Then after searching the "web" we found a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie that we both agreed upon. Maranda thought the one from The Instructables looked the best.

After trying some of the delicious dark chocolate I broke it in chunks along with some other "baking" chocolate that I had (why did I buy baking chocolate?).

The recipe said he had used chunk chocolate and semi sweet chocolate chips and they both work well. I wanted to mix the dark with the semi sweet for Maranda in this batch.

Ingredients:

1 c flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt / 1 c light brown sugar (I used 1/2 c) 1 c butter, 1 c peanut butter, 1 stick of butter, 1/4 c honey, 1tsp vanilla

Mixing in the chocolate. The batter was firm enough to roll into balls like they show. I didn't use as much sugar as called for and my peanut butter was all natural, not Jiff or other store bought.

I pressed the balls down a little which seemed to work better than leaving them in balls.

They want you to let them cool for five minutes before taking them off the baking sheet. Five minutes wasn't enough for my cookies, the first one I touched crumbles, and I mean crumbled so much I thought I really messed up.

On the website they do mention that it's a very delicate cookie. It almost reminds me of a shortbread in it's texture when you eat it.

They were very tasty, and turned out pretty. The chocolate chunks were wonderful in it. They would got perfect with a nice hot cup of tea or coffee, or a big glass of cold milk (if you like milk).

My only problem was the big mess I always seem to make when baking! I need to find a really big apron to wear to keep me covered. My shirt was a mess, not to mention the counter, I felt like a kid.

Maranda ended up going with Wade to our friends house while he fixed their scooter. They have the 2 Border collies that we dog sit for, we are like their God parents.

I will make sure to drag you all along with me while going through my list of "to dos".