The Egg Free Mug Cake I Have Been Looking for all My Life....(or at least since like 2011)

Mug cakes look great on pinterest and sound fabulous in theory, but mine always seem to taste and feel like biting into a natural sea sponge.

Table For Two Moistest Chocolate Mug Cake Ever

A.m.a.z.i.n.g

gooey, chocolately, velvety, incredible.

I didn't have any chocolate hazelnut spread on hand, so I just dropped a Tbsp of frozen chocolate chips in the center.

So good!!!!  and a perfect quick treat when we don't have an egg free dessert on hand for B.  Tomorrow I am going to try the vanilla version.

Egg-Free Pecan Sticky Buns!

For what feels like forever, I have been trying to find a soft, rich dough for sweet rolls that doesn't use eggs. I have come close in the past, but this time...this time I found magic.  It is rich and yummy and stays soft even after a few days. I may have exploded my butter in the microwave when melting it, and used coconut cream instead of heavy cream b/c we had none in the house, and made my own buttermilk with the last dregs of a gallon of milk and a questionable lemon I found in the fridge, and I almost burnt the caramel, but we didn't care one bit when these gorgeous buns came out of the oven!

Filling and Caramel adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Dough loosely adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Dough:

1/4 cup buttermilk 

6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter or coconut oil

3/4 cup yogurt (I used Indian style yogurt which is not quite as thick as greek yogurt, but thicker than regular)

4 ¼ cups flour (plus about a 1/2 cup for kneading)

¼ cup  sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons active yeast proofed in 1/4 c warm water with a tsp of sugar

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

Caramel:
1/2 cup  unsalted butter
3/4 cup  brown sugar
3/4 cup  heavy cream or coconut cream (the solid white part in a can of coconut milk)
1/3 cup  honey
1/2 tsp kosher salt (I may have liked up to 1 tsp)

Filling:
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
11/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp coarse or kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter or coconut oil
1 cups toasted and cooled, chopped pecans

2 cups toasted and cooled pecan halves 

Make the dough:Proof yeast in sugar water for 10 minutes

Stir together buttermilk, butter, yogurt in a medium sized bowl

Stir together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, pour in the yogurt mixture and the proofed yeast mixture

Stir together and then when a dough starts to form, turn out onto a silpat and knead

Knead for 15 minutes

Alternately,dump everything into a stand mixer with a dough hook and mix for 10 minutes until you have a supple ball of dough 

lightly coat dough ball in butter or oil, place back in bowl and let rise in a warm place until double (1 1/2-3 hours)

When the dough is doubled, make your caramel base: Melt butter in a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar, cream, honey and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until caramel is golden brown and glossy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Pour into a the bottom and up the sides of a deep 9×13-inch baking dish and let the dish cool down in the fridge while you assemble your rolls.

Roll out and fill buns: In a small bowl, stir sugar, cinnamon and salt together. Remove slightly cooled caramel base from fridge and sprinkle it with 2 cups pecan halves. Roll dough into an 18 x 12 rectangle.Brush the dough with melted butter. Sprinkle it with the filling and then 1 cup chopped pecans. Roll dough into a tight 18in long spiral (like a jelly roll). Using dental floss or a sharp serrated knife, cut into 16 sections. Arrange the buns evenly spread out over pecan-caramel base.

Proof buns: Cover with plastic wrap and proof at room temperature for another 1 to 2 hours, until they press tightly together in the pan and look puffed again. Or, you can refrigerate the buns overnight, and up to 16 hours. If chilling overnight, remove from fridge 1 hour before you’d like them to bake. Heat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Bake buns: Bake your buns until they’re puffed and golden (my internal temp was about 180 degrees F), approximately 30 minutes. 

Let rest in pan on cooling rack for 2 to 3 minutes, then carefully and quickly invert onto a large serving tray, nudging any caramel left behind over the tops and sides. Eat warm. Store any leftovers in the fridge, rewarming slightly (like 30 seconds in microwave).

P.S. I know it's been a while.  Apparently, chasing after a very active 1 year old (how did that happen?!?!?!) and an inquisitive 6 year old (why? what? how? when? who? which?...a.l.l. d.a.y. l.o.n.g!!!) and working full time, with a husband applying to medical school (a full time job in and of itself) and an apartment renovation all combined does not leave much time for blogging!  Life in our house consists of answering questions, reading through the Narnia series, rescuing keys/phones/remotes from the toilet and legos (as well as the aforementioned toilet-dunked items) from the mouth of E, and unsuccessfully attempting to get a handle on the ever-growing mountain of laundry! It's crazy and wonderful and exhausting and rewarding and we are embracing life with both hands as time is flying by.  less time for blogging, but more time for living!

Yay-Ababa and Yum-Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Yay-Ababa got a 4.0 on his first semester of science classes and his first time back in school since 1999!!!!!!!!  All that hard work and long nights paid off!!!!

Yum-today I made the best "Egg-free" recipe yet:-)  Most are coming to work, but B and I have already sampled them, and we saved one for Ababa to celebrate his awesome GPA!

I combined a few different recipes I found online, eliminated the egg, made a few other tweaks, and WOW!

I got 30 cupcakes, but B and I *ahem* "tested" a lot of the batter in the process, I think it would easily make 3 dozen.

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

CUPCAKES
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 very ripe large bananas, peeled
• 7 oz container Fage 2 % Greek yogurt (or as B says, "yor-gort":-)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I was out, so I used 1 tsp coconut rum and 1 tsp vanilla rum)
• 1 1/2 cup sugar (I would cut this down next time to 1 cup, maybe even 3/4 cup--also, I used half brown sugar and half white sugar)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

FROSTING
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (or as much as is needed to get the consistency you want)

8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter,  room temperature (I used Jiff as all the recipes online said old-fashioned or freshly ground wouldn't work, but I might try those next time anyway:-)

1 tsp vanilla (I used 1 tsp coconut rum)

CUPCAKES

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Mash bananas, yogurt, and vanilla together (I did this in my stand mixer first and then put in another bowl while I creamed the butter and sugar).  Stir or sift dry ingredients together. Alternately pour dry and wet into the creamed butter and sugar.

Bake in muffin tins at 350 for approx 20 minutes.

FROSTING

Toss everything but sugar into a mixing bowl and whip it together.  Gradually add sugar and whip until  desired consistency.

I was out of cupcake liners, so I made them myself (yes, I feel very Little House on the Prairie for doing that:-).

Fold a sheet of plain 8 1/2 x 11 paper to make an 8 1/2 X 8 1/2 square and trim off excess.

Fold 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch square of paper in half and in half again so that you have a 4 1/4 inch square stack.

trace a 4 inch circle and cut it out. (I used a ramekin, but then realized that the 8 oz tub of Philly cream cheese I was using in the frosting would work:-)

take the stack of 4 circles and rest on top of a 1/4 cup measuring cup.

press a slightly smaller bottle down onto the stack so that they pleat themselves into the measuring cup. (I used a bottle of kikkoman soy sauce)

Voila! Muffin liners, put in your cupcake/muffin pan and fill as usual.

They are a little looser than standard liners, but worked great!!!! Be careful when filling that you drop the filling into the center of each tin as these can slide around while you are filling if the batter is dramatically off-center.
And just for fun, here are some photos of B from memorial day, taken by our friend K.

The Theater:-)

Still busy, still can't find my camera cable to transfer photos to my laptop, still tired...but today was magic.

I wasn't working (yay!), I was just spending time with my baby while Ababa tackled Mount Laundry.  We all slept in, had a leisurely bottle/breakfast, got dressed, and then B and I took the A-train, and went to "the theater"!

We went to see a holiday dance tradition in NYC (not the one you are probably thinking of:-) and B LOVED it!!!!  He "looked with his eyes, listened with his ears, and whispered any questions to mommy".  He was a total champ!  ADORABLE to see him clapping after each piece, unable to hide his gleeful dancing and finger tapping in the seat with his eyes as big as saucers and a huge grin on his face.

And then...he got a backstage tour, got to meet some of the dancers, and got to walk out on to the stage.

Then...the day got even better.  We went to Whole Foods (his first time there and my first time there since before we went to Africa), we got vegan (Egg-free) chocolate chip cookies that are actually REALLY yummy and brought home the fixings for a delicious dinner:

Frozen organic pizza
arugula salad (that also used up some leftover mozerella cheese and apples we had at home)
the aforementioned vegan chocolate chip cookies

Yes, I feel like a total yuppie, but we had a great time!

B has been dancing around with a huge smile on his face all day...and...for one of the few days since I went back to work I actually feel relaxed and like I got to spend some real quality time with my son!

He was great, especially in terms of bonding/attachment stuff--held my hand (as opposed to me holding his), checked-in with me, watched me if I wasn't holding his hand, stayed near me when I let go of his hand to put something in our grocery basket...no tantrums, no whining, no brushing my kisses off, no tensing up when I touch him, even though he didn't have a nap and had a crazy, overstimulating day...just smiles, happy talking, eye contact, and giggles...I'm sure we'll have more tough days ahead, but today was just awesome!

So happy!!!

Thank you God for this amazing blessing!

(and Ababa had a relaxing day at home doing lots of laundry but taking a break from B which he was most ready for!!!)

Snow, birthdays, and ethiopian food...

Well, we have had quite the week...

B turned 3!!!

We wanted to catch-up on missed birthdays, so he had a few extra "parties":

Birthday candles in his egg-free pancakes at breakfast:

Birthday celebration at an Ethiopia restaurant (party of 4-Mama, Ababa, B, and Miss A-M)

Birthday celebration with his friend who turned 3 in August (B "helped" me make the cake:-)

Two of his favorite presents are a backpack (that he was given at our shower but we just now gave to him) and a scooter we inherited from a friend:

and then today...it snowed...A LOT...like ALL DAY...this was taken in the morning!

My awesome husband got some great shots of our precious little boy enjoying his first snow:-)

Also, B loves his new photo album of our Ethiopia trip so much that we're reading it about 20 times a day so, I ordered two more (with a few more photos in them).  Now he has one for now, we have one, and we have one for him for when he grows up.  I LOVE mypublisher, and if you wait for the BoGo codes, it's really affordable!

Awesome egg-free yellow cake from Madhuram's eggless cooking:

Eggless Vanilla Cake Recipe

Prep time: 15 Mins

Cook time: 27 Mins

Yields: 24 Cake Slices

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 and 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour2 teaspoons
•  Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 2 tablespoons Sugar
• 1 can Condensed Milk
• 1 cup Water (I used orange juice b/c I was afraid it would be really bland, but it was so good that next time I will try with just water)
• 2 tablespoons Vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Melted Butter

PROCEDURE:

1. Preheat the oven at 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch pan and line it with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix in the sugar.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the the wet ingredients one by one. Stir the mixture together using a whisk. Some lumps is okay.
4. Pour the batter in the prepared pan and tap the pan to even it out and break the air bubbles if any.
5. Bake it for 25-27 minutes.
6. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and remove the cake after 15-20 minutes. Place the cake on the rack for it to cool down completely before slicing it.

I baked it in a 9X13 pan lined with a silpat.  Cooled it in the pan and frosted with 1 batch of old fashioned chocolate frosting.  It was DELICIOUS!!!

Wacky Cake

YUM, the new go-to birthday cake in our house:

I've used this recipe since college.  In college I would sprinkle chocolate chips over the warm cake and spread them when they melted or just let them melt enough to stick to the top of the cake.  For birthday cakes, I frost with old fashioned chocolate frosting.

WACKY CAKE

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into an 8x8 inch ungreased cake pan. Make three wells. Pour oil into one, vinegar into one, and vanilla into one. Pour water over it all, and stir it well with fork.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes (until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean). Frost with old fashioned chocolate frosting OR sprinkle chocolate chips over the warm cake.

This cake is moist and delicious.  No one will EVER guess it's safe for egg and milk allergies!  

OLD FASHIONED CHOCOLATE FROSTING

Ingredients

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream butter, sift together dry ingredients.  Alternately mix in part of the dry ingredients, the milk, and the vanilla.

I don't even like frosting generally, I usually eat the cake and leave the frosting, but I LOVE this frosting (it tastes like a slightly softer, even more delicious version of the chocolate frosting at Buttercup Bakery).  It's amazing!  Seriously, tonight I may or may not have licked the beater and spatula and eaten some with a spoon...