I Can't Believe It's Not Caramel

In my quest for healthier alternative sweet treats, I wondered what I could spoon over my frozen yoghurt at the weekend.

I love caramel sauce, but as we all know, this contains a lot of cream, butter and sugar. As I’m trying to be good, I thought I would try and knock up a more virtuous version to slather over my dessert.

I cast my mind back to a recipe I did a couple of years ago for raw coconut fudge. This was a ‘fudge’ made from dates, coconut and vanilla extract. It tastes just like toffee.

I wondered if using similar ingredients in different proportions would taste as good?

I popped dates, coconut oil, vanilla extract and water in my Optimum 9400 from Froothie – such a cracking blender – and whizzed it up until it was smooth.

This took no time at all and when I took the lid off, it smelt amazingly divine!

I did sieve the sauce as I wanted it to be as smooth as I could possibly get it. I tried a little spoonful and decided that a teaspoon of something would be needed just to give it that extra sweet shot. Instead of going for granulated sugar, I opted for a teaspoon of maple sugar which I had in the cupboard. You could use a teaspoon of maple syrup instead or even honey or agave nectar.

I transferred the sauce to a small bowl and popped it in the fridge. As it chilled it thickened slightly and took on the texture and consistency of caramel.

I spooned mine over my frozen yoghurt and it tasted so indulgent!

Okay, this is not caramel sauce, but I think as a healthy alternative this sauce is delicious. The addition of the vanilla extract really changes this from blended dates to something more dessert like.

Why not try adding some salt for a take on salted caramel sauce as well?

Here’s how I made it…

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Healthy Alternative Caramel Style Sauce

by S Vettese June-6-2016

Blended dates, coconut oil and vanilla make this surprisingly healthy alternative to caramel sauce.

Ingredients

• 200 grams pitted dates
• 150-200 ml water
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon maple sugar (or syrup)

Instructions

In a blender place the dates, 150 ml of water, the coconut oil and vanilla extract. Blitz until smooth and add some more water if it looks too thick.Strain the contents of the blender through a sieve and add some maple sugar or syrup to taste.Transfer to a small bowl or jar and refrigerate for a couple of hours to let it thicken slightly.Enjoy spooned over a bowl of frozen yoghurt, or straight from the bowl with a spoon!

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: Total time: 10 mins Yield: 1 small bowl

Disclosure Statement: I received the Optimum 9400 free to review and make recipes with.  Any opinions expressed are my own.

Spicy Beef Tortilla Pizza

I really am in a more savoury mood these days. My sweet-tooth is taking a bit of a back seat. That doesn’t mean I can’t still be creative in the kitchen.

This recipe was inspired by some recipes that I came across for tortilla pizzas. Essentially a flour tortilla used as the base for ingredients you would find on a regular pizza.

If you like your pizzas thin and crispy then this is one for you. When baked in the oven, the edges of the tortilla go all crispy and toasty and the ingredients cook very quickly – only around 7 to 8 minutes in a 200C oven.

I made a spicy beef topping for the pizza, simply browning some lean steak mince beef, adding a couple of generous squirts of tomato puree, a generous squirt of sriracha sauce (the spicy part) and grated in a clove of garlic. This took less than 20 minutes to cook, in which time you can get your oven pre-heated and your tortilla bases prepped.

I added another generous squirt of tomato puree to each of the tortillas and spread this out leaving a gap at the edges, as you would a regular pizza.

I then spooned the spicy beef over the tomato puree bases, added some frozen chopped onions and peppers which I had in the freezer, tore up some fresh mozzarella, scattering this over the top along with some shavings of parmesan,

Quickly into the oven and 7 to 8 minutes later you have piping hot tortilla pizzas. I scattered some fresh peppery rocket leaves over the top of each pizza and squirted over more hot sauce to finish and that was that.

This is such a quick and easy meal to make. The spicy beef could be made in advance, making this an even quicker recipe.

Go grab some tortillas now!

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Spicy Beef Tortilla Pizza

by S Vettese June-2-2016

Tortillas used as pizza bases and topped with spicy beef

Ingredients

• 4 flour tortillas
• 250 grams lean steak minced beef
• 1 clove of garlic
• 6 heaping tablespoons tomato puree
• 1 tablespoon sriracha (or more if you like it really hot)
• Assorted frozen veg
• 1 small ball fresh mozzarella
• A few parmesan shavings
• To garnish rocket leaves

Instructions

In a saucepan, brown the steak mince with 50 ml of water and add two tablespoons of tomato puree and the sriracha once browned.Grate in the clove of garlic and turn the heat down to let the mince slowly simmer and absorb the liquid.Pre-heat the oven to 200C.Take the tortillas and place on baking sheets. Top each one with a tablespoon of tomato and spread with a knife, leaving a border around the edge.Spoon the spicy beef over equally over each tortilla, then top with as little or as much veg as you like.Add the mozzarella and parmesan to each pizza and place in the oven for 7 to 8 minutes.Once the cheese has melted and the edges have turned lightly brown, the pizzas are ready.Remove from the oven and place on your serving plates, scattering each pizza with lots of rocket leaves and a dish more sriracha sauce if so desired.Enjoy!

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 8 mins Total time: 28 mins Yield: 4 individual pizzas

Fit for a Queen! Treat Petite June 2016

Thanks to everyone who took part in May's picnic infused Treat Petite with Kat at The Baking Explorer. Check the round up now.

June is here and the sun is really shining - could we be in with another scorching summer like we had 40 years ago in 1976, as the newspapers keep saying? Probably not, but we can always dream...

June is also the continuation of the celebration of Queen Elizabeth the Second's 90th birthday which has sort of prompted the theme for Treat Petite this month...

Fit for a Queen! I'm thinking treat petites fit for a garden party, a 'posh' do, anything which you interpret as a royal inspired treat.

BUT....

I'm also aware that not everyone shares enthusiasm for the Royal family, With that in mind, Treat Petite comes into two forms this month.

Gay Pride is also celebrated this month, so you can dig into your inner diva and bake something fit for a queen also!!

Rainbow bakes, unicorn inspired treats, anything as 'camp as Christmas' is game here.

Let your imagination run wild! We'd love to see your take on 'Fit for a Queen'...

Here's the guidelines...

1. Add your petite treat to the Linky Tool at the bottom of the current month's post by the 25th of the month, midnight at the latest

2. Post your bake onto your blog and link back to Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer, stating who is hosting this month

3. Follow Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer blogs on Google+ (see sidebar links), if you haven't already.

4. If you tweet use #treatpetite and mention @MrCakeyboi and @BakingExplorer - we will retweet

5. Add the challenge logo to the post and 'Treat Petite' as a label to the post

6. Use any recipe as long as the source is noted

7. If you like, add your photo to the 'Treat Petite' Pinterest board (request access from me, Cakeyboi)

8. Feel free to enter old posts as long as you update the post and meet all the requirements above!

Banana Maple & Walnut Raw Energy Cookies

These Banana Maple and Walnut treats are not naughty at all...

I have to be honest and say I’m trying to be healthier. When I started Cakeyboi back in 2012, I had recently lost about 3 stone and was feeling great.

I loved baking, and it seemed at the time I could bake (and eat) pretty much anything I liked and I stayed thin. But over the years the pounds have piled back on and my energy levels have dipped.

As much as I enjoy my sweet treats, I always say they are sometimes treats and not every day eats! I am getting married later this year and want to lose a few pounds before the big day. Orka the whale would not look good in wedding photos.

I will bring you more about the big day in months to come, but in the meantime I am going to try and make some healthier treats for us all to enjoy.

I’m not abandoning my sweet-tooth altogether. There will still be plenty of sugar-infused mayhem between now and then, but I shall try and balance this with some healthier spins on sweet treats.

And to start with I am sharing with you a favourite of mine – banana, maple and walnut energy cookies. I say cookies as they are disc shaped, but you could make these in any shape you wanted. Bliss balls are very popular, bars or triangles whatever you can mould the mix into.

I made these discs in my Optimum 9400 blender from Froothie. I cannot recommend this blender more, it really copes with any old sticky stuff I shove in it. As you have probably seen in previous posts this blender can even crush concrete!

But for this recipe  I am using dried banana which I found in a local health food store. It comes in a block and looks a bit suspicious in it’s raw state, but blended up with other ingredients can become so much more.

We are getting married in Canada, and I love the country’s main export - maple!  I stop myself from saying maple syrup as I also have maple sugar in the cupboard which is amazing stuff. Crystallised maple syrup, maple sugar has equal amounts of flavour.

In these raw cookies I pack dried banana, dried dates, maple sugar AND syrup plus walnuts. These are so tasty and provide you with plenty of energy before a session at the gym or a long ramble. Not too sinful at all!

They taste just as good as your breakfast waffle topped with bananas and syrup but are not quite so naughty!

(I got my dried banana from Holland and Barrett, but are easily purchased online).

Here’s how I made them…

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Banana Maple and Walnut Energy Cookies

by S Vettese May-26-2016

Dried banana, maple and walnut in these healthier take on cookies.

Ingredients

• 150 grams dried banana
• 70 grams pitted dates
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon maple sugar
• 50 grams walnuts

Instructions

Place the dried banana, dates, maple syrup and sugar plus 30 grams of walnuts in a blender and blitz until the ingredients resemble a smooth substance.Remove the blend and place into greaseproof paper and chill for an hour.After the hour, remove from the fridge and roll between two sheets of greaseproof paper until about a quarter of an inch thick.Cut out circles about 2 inches in diameter.Blitz the remaining walnuts in the Optimum 9400 until they resemble breadcrumbs.Dust the discs in the walnut crumbs.Chill the circles on greaseproof paper, about 2 hours more.Enjoy!

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 2 hour Total time: 2 hour 10 mins Yield: 20 cookies approx.

Disclosure Statement: I received the blender free to review. Any opinions expressed are my own.

Brownie Batter Swirled Cookie Dough Fudge

Do you like it raw?

By that I mean, raw cake mix. If you are like me, you lick out the bowl once you have made your cake or cookies (and perhaps even leave some over on purpose) just because raw cake mix tastes so good!

Go on, admit it I bet you do.

This treat will satisfy that fresh from the mixing bowl craving...

I’ve made some cookie dough based treats here on the blog before, and then I started to notice some raw varieties of fudge on Pinterest. Cookie dough fudge and brownie batter fudge. Both sounded equally delicious, so I thought why not combine the two?

I experimented in the kitchen swapping some of the ingredients in the original recipes as they were more American friendly (half and half is something we don’t get in the UK). Boxed brownie mix is quite easy to come by here, I used ASDA's own, but any brand would do.

The result was a very sweet and tempting fudge. Not something you would eat a lot of in one go, as it is very, very rich, but something you will love, if like me, you like it raw!

The fudge did taste just like when you scrape out the mixing bowl when making chocolate chip cookies and brownie batter, but all in one.

A wee tip: When ready to serve, stud the fudge pieces with some little chocolate chips, just so they ‘pop’.

(There are no uncooked eggs in this recipe, so anyone who may be concerned about eating these, need not fear.)

I've adapted recipes from Buns In My Oven blog and Kedar Hower blog. Here’s how I made it…

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Cookie Dough Swirled Brownie Batter Fudge

by S Vettese May-23-2016

fudge that tastes like cookie dough and brownie batter swirled into one!

Ingredients

• COOKIE DOUGH BASE
• 113 grams unsalted butter, softened
• 55 grams granulated sugar
• 50 grams light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons full-fat cream cheese
• 50 grams plain flour
• COOKIE DOUGH FUDGE
• 65 grams light brown sugar
• 75 grams unsalted butter
• Pinch of salt
• 75 grams full-fat cream cheese
• 450 grams icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• BROWNIE BATTER FUDGE
• 340 grams granulated sugar
• 165 ml evaporated milk
• 30 grams unsalted butter
• Pinch of salt
• 100 grams mini marshmallows
• 150 grams chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 30 grams Brownie mix

Instructions

Line a 9”x13” baking pan with kitchen foil and set aside.Firstly make the cookie dough by creaming together the butter and sugars until creamy. Add vanilla, salt and the cream cheese and beat in until smooth. Add the flour and stir until incorporated and then set aside.Make the cookie dough fudge part by firstly placing the sugar, butter, salt and cream cheese in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until everything has melted and is smooth.Take off the heat and stir in the icing sugar a bit at a time until it is thick in consistency and smooth. Add the cookie dough mix to this and with brute force stir them together (this will require elbow grease). Quickly start making the brownie batter fudge by placing the sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in a saucepan. Place it on medium heat and let it come to a full boil and stir for 5 minutes whilst it bubbles away.Take off the heat and stir in the mini mallows, brownie mix and vanilla.Stir until all combined, you will need more elbow grease for this.Lastly, dollop mounds of this brownie batter on to the prepared cookie dough fudge in the baking tin and with a knife, swirl it through. Press down FIRMLY. Place this into the fridge for at least a couple of hours, but overnight if you can avoid temptation.Cut into squares with a sharp knife and prepare to enjoy!

Details

Prep time: 40 mins Chill time: 2 hour Total time: 2 hour 40 mins Yield: 60 pieces approx.

I'm entering this 'bake' into this month's Alphabakes hosted by Caroline at Caroline Makes and this month Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker. The letter is F - (for fudge here)...

Eurovision Cake 2016!

If you are a regular Cakeyboi reader you will know that the Eurovision Song Contest is a special time of year for me.

Much like someone may get excited about a Wimbledon final or a footie match, I get extremely het up for the yearly Grand Prix D'Chanson!

In it's 61st year now, my friends and I all gather for a Eurovision shindig, usually at my friend Ewan's. This year however, so we could show off our new abode, we held the Euro Pops Party.

We have a sweepie, all putting in 50p per country and everyone brings along food and drink from a participating country.

And I always make a cake - normally the flag of the host nation. Well, it was Sweden this year and Sweden only won a few years back when I made a Blue Velvet Cake for the occasion.

So, how could I up the ante this year? By not doing a traditional flag cake of course. Instead I made a white cake sponge (dying it luridly blue with blue extra food colouring) and sandwiching a lemon yellow cheesecake between the layers.

Sheer decadence, I was quite restrained on the outside and had a simple cream cheese and whipped cream frosting. I topped this with a few select coloured chocolate drops, topped with a Swedish flag and festivities began.

(I even made some savoury nibbles, which I thought were picturesque!)

It was a cracking show, the hosts Mans and Petra were hilarious and very, very talented. Then the results came in. It was a bit different this year in that the jury vote was shown first, then the public vote was added on at the end.

The UK were doing the best they'd done in years, until the telephone votes were added in and we plummeted to third last in the overall results. I wonder why the rest of Europe hates us so much?

Ukraine won (it was down to them and Russia at the end, who says it not political?!) and it was almost as if I had predicted the winning country through the colours of my cake. The Ukraine flag is below...

Not sure what I will do next year, but I think my experiment with blue extra was a one time thing(!).

There is no recipe as such for this cake - I used a simple white cake recipe I found on line, any would do. Just make sure it is 'blue extra' food colouring you use, as this gives the most intense colour, without too much needing added. I also used goat butter for this as it's very pale, almost white. And I used clear vanilla extract. This ensures that the batter stays a non-yellow colour which can make the blue turn greeny/teal.

The cheesecake recipe can be found at a Recipe Girl. I just added lemon extract instead of vanilla and added the zest of half a lemon.

My recipe for cream cheese frosting can be found at my previous Swedish flag cake post.

Here's to next year's song contest and the UK not winning (again!).

That's What I Call New #11

As a blogger, I am lucky enough to be sent some products from time to time, from companies who would like me to share my thoughts on their products.

My round up of products this time include, flavoured raw cacao powder, naturally good apple juice, some Dutch sweets and something that shares its name with a bush kangaroo. Read on…

First up Choc Chick, who are purveyors of delicious, ethically sourced ingredients for you to make your own chocolates, have launched a range of ‘Blissful Blends’. These are raw cacao powders with added flavour. I was sent two pouches to try – Heart Warming Cinnamon and Marvellous Mandarin. I have used Choc Chicks raw cacao before and find it great to use in hot chocolates, smoothies, shakes, baked into brownies and so on. The flavours in these blissful blends give a great twist to regular cacao powder and have so many uses, you will love them. They can be found in 240 Holland and Barrett stores across the UK. Grab them soon.

Next I was sent some fizzy apple juice called Newton’s Appl Fizzics. This is apple juice mixed with sparkling water. The ingredients are 100% natural and the drinks claims to have 40% less sugars than regular apple juice. The drink has no ‘e’ numbers hence there is no E on the end of Appl. The juice is crisp and refreshing and great chilled on a hot day. The drink comes in 330ml bottles (£1.29) and 750ml bottles (£2.49) both from Amazon.

I received some sweets from Hema to try. Hema is a department store which dates back to 1926 in Amsterdam. They now have stores all over Europe and sell just about everything. Including sweets! I was sent some pure liquorice, Old Dutch classic mix and some mini dutch waffles.  These were very tasty (although I’m not a fan of liquorice, Disneyboi enjoyed these tho). The mini waffles went great with a cuppa and the classic mix were good old fashioned ‘boilings’ as my mum would call them. Hema have an online store and these treats range in price from £1.50 to £1.75.

Now that kangaroo reference at the start...Who remembers 'Uptown Funk' from last year? A great tune, I’m sure you will agree and the song contains the lyrics ‘smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy’. Well, because of this, America’s famous peanut butter is 'now hitting these shores' for us all to enjoy (although I must admit I have enjoyed it for years from my local Sainsburys). It really is a deliciously smooth peanut butter which I love on toast with some strawberry jam. I also love baking with it. I was sent a jar of their super crunch, extra crunchy peanut butter too, which is equally as good, just with added bite! I get mine for £1.80 currently in Sainsburys.

I was not sent this last product, but it’s one I found in the freezer section of a supermarket and I love it. I love waffles, the sweet variety for breakfast, none of this potato nonsense for me. I remember being in America when I was 4 and being obsessed with the round frozen variety, which I duly slathered with pancake syrup. Well now Bird’s Eye have launched frozen breakfast waffles in the UK. These are so much better than the plastic wrapped toaster waffles for some reason. You can get them in classic variety or cinnamon. Both are smashing for your breakfast and take only 3 minutes in the toaster from frozen. Making your own is great, but for convenience sake, these frozen waffles are so handy and tasty (they are also selling frozen pancakes too!).

That's my round up for now. I'd love to know your thoughts on any of these products if you've tried them yourself.