Dessert Obsessed Recipe Index is Up! August 18, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in bread, cake, chocolate, cookies, cupcakes, vegan.Tags: banana cookies, brownies, chocolate chip cheesecake, dessert recipes, lemon pound cake
10 comments
I went through the entire blog and indexed all the recipes featured on the blog so far for your convience. Just click the ‘recipe index’ tab on top or click here. I’ve got everything from cupcakes, muffins, cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies, frostings, and even vegan dessert recipes there. I only post tried and true recipes here, so check them out!
Here are some of my personal favorites:
Coconut, Banana, and Chocolate - Tropical Brownies
Kahlua Cheesecake Swirled Brownies
Best Ever Banana Butterscotch Cookies
Lemon Sunday Pound Cake
Cinnamon Hazelnut Rolls
Super Chocolate Chippery Cheesecake
Dorothy Uncooks Vegan Sushi May 13, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in information, vegan.Tags: almonds, any phyo, healthy sushi, raw food kitchen, raw food recipe, raw food sushi, raw foodism, raw recipe, sushi, uncooking, vegan sushi, vegan sushi recipe
19 comments
I did it!
Uncooked Vegan Sushi Rolls
I cooked! Well, more like Uncooked, but the point is I made an edible something other than a snack or dessert! I love to bake, but I rarely, rarely ever cook. I just don’t really like dealing with washing things, cutting up produce, and then tasting flavors and heating it all in a big pot. Sugar, flour, and a mixer is so much easier.
Uncooking is pretty simple though, since you don’t cook anything! Just toss all your ingredients into a food processor and then put together . I’ve been really interested in raw foods lately, which is where this vegan sushi comes in. Raw foodies live off uncooked, unprocessed, organic foods and try to consume everything in their natural form and maximize the health benefits. There is no way that I could live off raw food and become a raw foodie (since I hate salad and love processed goodies), but its super interesting.
This recipe is superb! These are the Ginger Almond Nori Rolls from Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Kitchen (great book, by the way). The sushi “meat” is delicious, especially for someone like me, who doesn’t really enjoy raw fish or regular sushi, unless its been tempura-ed. I definitely encourage everyone, whether raw foodist, vegan, dessert obsessee or junk foodie, to try this recipe. I can’t wait to try more raw recipes, especially for desserts!
I’ve changed the recipe a bit; here’s the original.
Ginger Almond Nori Rolls
for the sushi “meat”:
1.5 C whole, raw, almonds
1 clove garlic, grated
2 tsp ground ginger
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp water
Process ginger, garlic, salt, and almonds until mixed well in a blender or food processor. Add the lemon juice and process more. Add water only as needed for a hummus-like texture.
For the Nori Rolls (Ani’s original recipe calls for mung bean sprouts, burdock root, and spinach):
3 nori sheets
3 c spinach leaves
1 c grated carrots
Lay 1 c spinach leaves on half of one nori sheet. Add 1/3 of the sushi “meat” over the spinach. Add grated carrots. Roll up, cut into 6-8 sushi pieces, and EAT!
Martha’s a Genius. But we already knew that. May 5, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in chocolate, cupcakes, vegan.21 comments
Who loves Martha Stewart?!
I do! Most Dessert Obsessees I know have a love/hate relationship with Martha and her recipes, but I completely adore her! I believe anyone who can build a successful career and home empire, and then destroy said successful career (by lying and ending up in jail, in Martha’s case), and then rebuild that career and become even more successful after imprisonment and public humiliation is a Genius.
So of course, she came up with these Genius super easy one-bowl chocolate cake recipe! I can’t believe it took me so long to try this recipe, as dessert lovers everywhere have been raving about this recipe for awhile. I’ve been using this vegan recipe as my go-to chocolate cake recipe, but Martha’s are slightly better! (But the vegan ones are healthier!) And Martha’s cupcakes baked up gorgeously, with perfectly domed tops.
This recipe is supereasy and results in moist, chocolatey, cupcakes. Perfect! Top with some Cream Cheese Frosting or Cookies and Cream Frosting and you’re in cupcake heaven!
Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting
Martha’s One – Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely and then frost. Makes 24 cupcakes.
Cream Chese Frosting
1 8 0z. package cream cheese
1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)
2 c powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Beat all the ingredients together until creamy. Add in 1/2 C crushed Oreos for Cookies and Cream frosting.
And did you know Martha was a teenage model?
Martha the Model
So she’s been a model, chef, tv personality, publisher, author, decorator, actress, homemaker, stock broker, went to college on a scholarship, etc etc etc and still going! She’s done everything! That woman is amazing. If one day I could be even a smidge as successful as her, I would be beyond satisfied with myself.
Gluten Free Decadence – a gluten free/dairy free/egg free cake with breakfast toppings April 19, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in cake, chocolate, information, vegan.Tags: breakfast, cherrybrook kitchens, chocolate, chocolate cake, dairy free cake, egg free cake, gluten free, review, strawberries, syrup, vegan baking mix
14 comments
Ace is one of those ”bakers” that only bake with cake mixes and canned frostings. We all know one of those. We have this habit of baking a dessert together whenever we hang out in her gorgeous vintage Town & Country kitchen and then enjoying it over TiVo-ed episodes of Hannah Montana.
baking in the vintage kitchen
Usually, I bake us something simple and sugary, or Ace will whip up one of her boxed cakes. This time, we did something different. We made a fancy (well, fancier than usual, for us) cake mix cake. And this wasn’t the usual cake mix! No Betty Crocker/Duncan Hines/Pillsbury – we used a Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free cake mix! Cherrybrook Kitchen specialize in making baking mixes that are gluten free/dairy free/peanut free/egg free.
Ace and the gluten free cake mix
This was exciting, as Ace had never had a gluten free dessert before, and I’ve never tried a gluten free cake mix before!
The best part about gluten free and dairy free baking? You can eat all the raw batter you want, without any fears of getting samonella from raw eggs!! And its much easier and cleaner to mix together since it has less ingredients.
I really should try to bake gluten free more often. Its so much better for your digestion system than baking with gluten.
gluten free cake with waffle toppings
So how was the Cherrybrook Kitchens gluten free mix? Well… to be honest, it kind of tasted like cardboard. By itself, it didn’t have much flavor and had a strange texture. The only good parts were the chocolate chips scattered throughout the batter, but those were few and far between. We added LOTS of chocolate frosting and all the breakfast toppings we could find in the fridge to save it. We ended up adding strawberries in syrup (waffle topping), fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup in addition to the chocolate frosting – basically all my favorite breakfast toppings! It was delicious for me this way, but I’m used to gluten free desserts. Everyone else thought the cake was still cardboard-y and weird even with all the added toppings.
I don’t think I would ever buy one of these Cherrybrook Kitchens mixes again… but I haven’t tried any of the other flavors. Maybe those are better. I must try some other brands of gluten free mixes… I hope they’re not all cardboardy. I really like gluten free desserts by scratch, though.
To make this cake, take a boxed chocolate cake mix of your choice and prepare according to directions on the box. Once the cake has baked and cooled, frost it generously with chocolate frosting. Then spoon strawberry waffle topping over it. Add sliced fresh strawberries on top for garnish. Generously decorate with whipped cream and then drizzle with chocolate syrup. Yummy and pretty!
And don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the Quest! Will post on that later 
New York City Dessert Tour – Part 2 March 6, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in cake, chocolate, cupcakes, information, sweet eats, vegan.14 comments
Let’s get to more desserts on the second part of my NYC dessert tour! This part features more of the “healthier”, organic, and vegan desserts available in the city! YUM!
Dessert Stop #1: Kyotofu
Kyotofu
the dessert: chef’s five course dessert tasting
our assessment: Amazing! Everything was superdelicious, and it was all made with soy or tofu so it was healthy! I loved this place, but it is a bit pricey for the tiny portions you get. We shared the five course dessert tasting, each course hand chosen by the chef. This included a tiny square of sweet potato cheesecake, chocolate/strawberry soy ice-cream, rice pudding, flourless chocolate cake, and two macaroons (ours were black sesame and lemon-ginger). Our favorites were the cheesecake and chocolate cake. We just wished the pieces were bigger!
chef's five course dessert tasting
And you get tiny tiny mini chocolate souffle cupcakes with your check! These were perfectly dense, and reminded me of Nizza’s flourless chocolate cake from the night before. These mini chocolate souffle cupcakes were voted NYC’s best cupcakes, and I have to agree (although I didn’t have too many chocolate cupcakes while I was in NYC…)! And I didn’t even miss the lack of frosting!
mini chocolate souffle cupcakes
Dessert Stop #2: Babycakes
the dessert: gluten/dairy/soy free carrot cupcake and gluten/dairy/soy free red velvet cupcake with spelt
vegan red velvet cupcakes with spelt
our assessment: Babycakes makes me feel great, because every single one of their desserts is either gluten-free or vegan or dairy-free or something else alternative, but yet they are insanely popular! And they are sweetened with agave, not refined sugar. The bakery is supercute and homey, and has the cutest cupcake doorstep ever! Helen and I thought both cupcakes were moist and delicious, and tasted as good as regular cupcakes! We enjoyed the “cream cheese” frosting, too. But Colleen, who is not used to vegan sweets, did not enjoy the cupcakes 
– Helen and I regularly enjoy vegan sweets, so these did have too much of a difference to us.
Dessert Stop #3: Union Square Greenmarket
Honey Crisp Apples at the Greenmarket
the dessert: organic pumpkin pie and Honey Crisp apples
our assessment: SO GOOOOOOOD!!!! The organic pumpkin pie was AMAZING! We ended up eating it the day after we bought it (at least 24 hours) but it was so DELICIOUS! Not overly sweet, a perfect blend of spices; so perfect! The crust was soft and chewy, and definitely not dry or flaky. The pie tasted very clean and pure, and didn’t make me feel greasy or bloated like some desserts do. Loved it!! There was also a wide selection of muffins, pies, and breads at the Greenmarket, which we didn’t get to try.
We also had a couple of the organic Honey Crisp apples from the Greenmarket, which were also perfect. Juicy, crispy, and not too sweet! The Greenmarket was perfect!
assorted jellies
My overall assessment is that NYC has great organic/ “healthy” desserts!
Colleen, Helen, and Dorothy at Babycakes NYC
Photographs courtesy of Helen, the best photographer I know!
