The Ninja Baker - #cake

Gluten-Free Grateful Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcakes

NinjaBaker — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 06:40:58 +0000

Gluten-Free Glutino Turkey Cupcakes are at the top of my Thanksgiving gratitude list.
1. The cupcakes are fun to make kid-friendly projects.
2. The turkey cupcakes are festive.
3. Rich chocolate cake can be shared by all in cupcake form by all. (Nobody ever guesses they are gluten-free!)

You'll need Nutter Butters for your Thanksgiving turkey cupcake decorations. Here's a link to a recipe for gluten-free peanut butter sandwich cream cookies.

Ingredients:

Glutino’s Gluten-Free Pantry Decadent Chocolate cake mix
Gluten-Free Nutter Butters
Chocolate Frosting
White Chocolate Chips
Strawberry Licorice, cut into small strips
Candy Corns

Directions:

Bake chocolate cake cupcakes per package instructions.
Cool completely.
Frost the cupcakes.
With a sharp knife slice the cookies in half.
Microwave white chocolate chips for 20 seconds or just until soft.
Place the soft chips onto the cookies as eyes.
With a toothpick place a tiny bit of chocolate frosting onto the white chocolate chips.
Again, using chocolate frosting, stick strawberry licorice strips as Thanksgiving turkey cupcake wattle.
Place each decorated cookie half into the frosted cupcakes.
Insert candy corns around the cookie for turkey feathers.

Gluten-Free Raspberry Surprise Matcha Mini Cakes

NinjaBaker — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 07:39:03 +0000

Moist light cake embraces a baked raspberry blended with bits of white chocolate chips. The recipe is super easy to make and would be a wonderful way to introduce kids to the flavors of other cultures.

Like The Daily Meal in the US, CookPad provides a plethora of recipes for any palate. My Gluten-Free Raspberry Surprise Matcha Mini Cakes are adapted from a recipe by “Guru-Guru” on CookPad.

Yields: 24 Gluten-Free Raspberry Surprise Matcha Mini Cakes

Ingredients:

Mounded 1/3 cup (72 g) butter
2 eggs
1 egg white
Slightly less than ½ cup (82 g) sugar
Conservative ½ cup (100 g) gluten-free hot cake / pancake mix
2 heaping tablespoons matcha green tea powder
Generous ½ cup (92 g) white chocolate chips
48 fresh raspberries (I used Driscoll’s Organic Raspberries)
1 heaping tablespoon powdered sugar

Directions:

Wash and drain fresh raspberries.

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit or 170° Celsius.

Place mini cupcake cases into a mini muffin tin. Spray the cases with coconut oil. (Makes it easier to unwrap the mini cakes.)

Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave for 33 seconds on high. Be sure to cover the butter in the bowl to avoid splatters. Cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs together. Whisk in the sugar. Add the gluten-free pancake mix. Stir in the melted butter, followed by the matcha. Sprinkle in the white chocolate chips.

Drop a single raspberry into each mini muffin case. Pour a tablespoon of matcha batter over the raspberry.

Bake for 24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centercomes out clean.

Cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and garnish with a fresh raspberry. (There is no such thing as too much of a good thing...espcially when it comes to raspberries!)

Gluten-Free Caramel Pretzel Crumble Chocolate Almond Butter Banana Cake

NinjaBaker — Tue, 26 May 2015 06:39:32 +0000

Salted caramel pretzels presents the perfect foil for the beautiful balance of moist cake punctuated by banana, almonds and chocolate. Peanut butter is interchangeable with almond butter in this recipe. Almond butter may be a healthier choice. Whichever way you bake up this loaf cake, I do believe your lips will discover one luscious bite of deliciousness!

Inspired by Iron Chef Michael Symon's recipe as featured on ABC TV's The Chew.

Ingredients:

2 cups crushed Glutino Gluten-Free Salted Caramel Pretzels
(almost one bag)
3½ tablespoons almond butter, melted
(for about one minute in the microwave)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon instant Italian Roast or freeze-dried coffee
1 cup Glutino Gluten-Free Pantry All-Purpose Flour
½ cup almond flour
¼ cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 or 5 super ripe ones)
½ cup stevia and sugar blend OR pure cane sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 whole egg
2 egg whites
½ cup almond butter
¾ teaspoon almond extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips (½ cup for batter, ½ cup for crumble)

Directions:

Set the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 9” x 5” loaf pan with baking spray. Set aside.

Crumble pretzels in a food processor. Add 3½ tablespoons melted almond butter to the gluten-free salted caramel pretzels.

Constantly stir while melting the 6 tablespoons of butter over low heat in a saucepan for about 5 minutes. Take the pan off the stove when a nutty aroma emerges and the butter is golden brown. Whisk in the instant coffee powder. Allow the coffee butter to cool while sifting the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together the melted butter with coffee, sugars, egg, egg whites and almond extract. Scraping the bowl often, stir in the flour mixture. Sprinkle in a ½ cup of mini chocolate chips. When well combined, pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Top with the crumbled caramel pretzel and melted almond butter combination. Garnish with the remaining ½ cup of mini chocolate chips.

Bake covered with tin foil for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Green Tea Honeysuckle Minis

NinjaBaker — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 07:44:04 +0000

Japanese green tea matcha powder mingles with honey in a moist, tender-crumbed cake. More matcha flavor is an option by adding tablespoonfuls to your favorite frosting.

The original recipe from The Southern Cake Book is here.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 cup butter, softened
½ cup vegetable shortening (I used the kind without saturated fats)
2½ cups superfine sugar
¼ cup honey
6 large eggs at room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup French Vanilla Coconut Milk
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon matcha green tea powder

For the glaze:

1 cup cane sugar
½ cup butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup Triple Sec liquor
3 tablespoons Cointreau
1 teaspoon yuzu juice

Garnish:

Your favorite frosting + 2 heaping tablespoons of matcha green tea powder

Directions:

For the cake:

Set the oven to 325 degrees. Coat mini cake pans with coconut oil. (Lots of coconut oil to ensure easy release.)

Whip up the butter and shortening in a kitchen stand mixer. Slowly pour in the sugar. When the mixture looks light and fluffy, add the honey. Drop in the eggs, one at a time.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Alternately incorporate the flour mixture with the milk into the butter bowl.

Pour the batter into the mini cake pans. (2/3 full)

Bake at 325 degrees for 26 to 30 minutes depending on the “mininess” of your cake pan. Do use the toothpick in the center method to determine if the cakes are done. A few clinging crumbs are fine. (But not a whole bunch.)

For the glaze:

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Constantly stir (as to avoid burnt sugar) for about 8 minutes.

Garnish:

Whip 2 heaping tablespoons of matcha green tea powder into your favorite frosting.

Sunshine Cake

NinjaBaker — Sun, 05 Apr 2015 08:02:37 +0000

A slice of sunshine cake is like having Mom’s moist, dense homemade birthday cake with fluffy frosting. Perfect for a snack or Sunday supper dessert!

The Pejoy biscuit sticks and Oreo sunshine add a welcome crunch. The cookie and biscuits are also marvelous contrast to the tangy apricot spread in between layers of cake and buttercream.

Adapted from Averie Sunshine's recipe for Easy Yellow Cake with Buttercream Frosting.

Ingredients:

Sunshine Cake:

2 cups flour
1½ cups (½ sugar, ½ stevia) Sweet & Lite
(You could also try ½ Erythritol - another healthy granulated sugar substitute with regular sugar.)
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup Greek yogurt
6 tablespoons canola oil
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
Drops of yellow food coloring

Sunshine Buttercream Frosting:

1½ Earth Balance (or similar non-dairy, non-GMO butter substitute) or butter
6 teaspoons vanilla powder
Pinches of salt
4 cups of powdered sugar
Drops of yellow food coloring

Optional Filling:

2 to 3 tablespoons of organic apricot jam or your favorite jam (to spread on top of the buttercream in the middle - between the two layers of cake.)

Create your own sunshine centerpiece:

I used a Vanilla Oreo and Matcha Pejoy. (Pejoy is an inside out Pocky.)

Directions:

Sunshine Cake:

Line two 8 x 8 pans with non-stick aluminum foil. Spray with coconut oil. Place on cookie sheet (to protect from any splish-splashing in the oven.) Set oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in one big bowl.

In a smaller bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Gently whisk in the buttermilk, Greek yogurt, canola oil, vanilla and drops of sunshine yellow food coloring. Pour the mixture into the flour bowl. Stir with a spatula or big spoon until all ingredients are combined. No worries if you still see lumps.

Divide the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 34 to 38 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool. Frost with sunshine buttercream frosting.

Sunshine Buttercream Frosting:

In a kitchen stand mixer, beat the butter (or Earth Balance), vanilla powder and pinch of salt together. Add the yellow food coloring along with a cup of powdered sugar. Blend well. Gradually add the rest of the powdered sugar. For the frosting you do want a smooth consistency so put the mixer to work! Once smooth, frost your cake. For the middle filling, spread a bit of apricot spread or your favorite jam atop buttercream frosting.

Create your own sunshine centerpiece: I used a Vanilla Oreo and Matcha Pejoy. (Pejoy is an inside out Pocky.)

Gluten-Free Cranberry Ice Cream Bread

NinjaBaker — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 01:37:40 +0000

Delicate tones of vanilla, cranberry and almonds hit high notes of deliciousness in this oh-so-hard to believe it’s gluten free bread.

Ninja Note: High quality ingredients such as organic ice cream, sucanat sugar and Glutino Gluten Free Pantry All Purpose Flour do help to produce perfection!

This recipe is adapted from MyRecipes.com.

Ingredients:

1½ cups Glutino Gluten Free Pantry All Purpose Flour
2¼ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 pint organic vanilla bean ice cream, softened
1 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup thinly sliced almonds
2 tablespoons organic sucanat sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover the insides of two 5x3 inch loaf pans with coconut oil spray. Dust with Glutino Gluten Free Flour.

In a tall measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the Glutino Gluten Free Flour, baking powder and salt. In one large bowl stir together the flour mixture and ice cream. Add the cranberries.

Divide the batter between the two 5x3 inch loaf pans. Sprinkle the tops of the loaves with almonds and sucanat sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Ninja Note: For the best results rotate the loaves halfway in the baking process.

Plum Wine Cake

NinjaBaker — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 20:29:41 +0000

Buttery pound cake of the American South finds a friend in the ancient Japanese plum. The wine of the revered Japanese plum adds a touch of tart to the traditional Southern pound cake.

Adapted from The Southern Cake Book’s Amaretto-Almond Pound Cake recipe on page 217.

Ingredients:

1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
Lots of butter or coconut oil for greasing your bundt pan
1¼ cups softened butter for the cake batter
3 ounces softened Neufchâtel
2½ cups sugar
3 tablespoons Japanese plum wine
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Drops of rose food coloring
2½ cups all-purpose flour
6 large eggs at room temperature

Directions:

Set your oven to 325 degrees. Rub lots of butter or coconut oil in a 10” (12 cup) bundt pan to ensure release of the cake after baking. Sprinkle the walnuts onto the bottom of the pan.

Whip together the butter and Neufchâtel in the bowl of a kitchen stand mixer. In a steady stream add the sugar. Let the sugar, butter and Neufchâtel dance into fluffiness for about 5 minutes. On low speed, stir in the Japanese plum wine, vanilla extract and drops of rose food coloring. Slowly add the flour. Add the eggs one at a time. Pour the smooth batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a bamboo skewer or knife inserted in the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before flipping the bundt pan onto a plate.

Ninja Note: Oh, so gently insert a frosting spatula or thin knife along the edges of the bundt pan to encourage an easy release of cake.

Optional Japanese Plum Wine Glaze:

In a saucepan, over a medium-low flame, bring to boil: ¾ cup sugar, ¼ cup Japanese plum wine, 2 tablespoons water and drops of rose food coloring. Be sure to continually keep stirring. (Cleaning burnt sugar in saucepans is no fun!) Let the mixture reduce. The process should take 3 to 5 minutes. Drizzle the hot glaze over the cooled cake.

You can also spread a bit of the glaze on the bottom of the cake while still hot and in the pan. Once the cake is cooled and the glaze is set, it creates an extra sugary wine crunch on the bottom of the cake.

Lemon Brasadella Italian Coffee Cake

NinjaBaker — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 03:29:05 +0000

Lemon fans will love the luscious lemon flavor and the calorie conscious can now allow themselves cake!

Ingredients:

Lemon Brasadella Italian Coffee Cake

2 cups rice flour blend
½ cup coconut flour
1¼ cup erythritol
¾ teaspoon liquid stevia
Rind of 1 lemon
1½ teaspoons lemon juice
3 teaspoons lemon extract
1 teaspoon (Penzeys Spices) powdered lemon peel
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons organic all vegetable butter flavor shortening
4 eggs, slightly beaten
8 teaspoons milk

Lemon Glaze

¾ cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:

Lemon Brasadella Italian Coffee Cake

Fold all ingredients together by hand in a large bowl until well combined.

Ninja Note: The batter is more like bread dough and less like cake batter.

Spread the batter into a bundt pan well greased with coconut oil and floured with coconut flour.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Lemon Glaze

Whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cake.

Paleo Pound Cake

NinjaBaker — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 09:16:09 +0000

Garnished with Paleo diet approved fruit or plain, this pound cake is surprisingly similar in flavor to Sara Lee! The texture is slightly more layer-cake like but that's good, too. Right?

This recipe is adapted from Health-e Enterprises’ Guilt-Free Desserts

Ingredients:

1 cup almond flour
2 scoops (40 grams) unsweetened whey protein powder or your favorite (Paleo) protein powder
½ cup erythritol, granulated (powdered is fine, too)
¾ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. sea salt
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons grass-fed butter OR coconut oil, melted and cooled
4 tablespoons almond milk (coconut milk works, too)
½ tablespoon vanilla extract
¾ teaspoons liquid stevia extract

Directions:

Generously butter a 9 x 5 loaf pan. Line with parchment paper and butter again.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together the dry ingredients: the almond flour, protein powder, erythritol, baking powder and salt.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the melted butter (or coconut oil), almond (or coconut) milk, vanilla and liquid stevia.

Gradually pour the dry ingredients into the egg/butter/milk/vanilla mixture. Blend well on medium speed.
Fill the prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

White Chocolate Sweet Potato Pecan Topped Cakes

NinjaBaker — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 05:07:40 +0000

Southern Comfort: Sweet potatoes, cake and white chocolate meet in one mighty mini bundt. Pecans interject a yummy crunch to a marriage of moist cake and white chocolate coating.

Adapted from Southern Living’s The Southern Cake Book

Yields 24 mini bundts and approximately 24 mini muffin-sized cakes

Ingredients:

4 large room-temperature eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups pureed sweet potatoes
3 cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of sea salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¾ cup buttermilk
1 cup white chocolate chips (for cake)
12 ounces of white chocolate chips (for ganache cake coating)
½ cup heavy cream

Directions:

Prep:
Spray mini bundt pans with lots and lots of baking spray. Place mini cupcake cases into mini muffin tins.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whip together the eggs and sugar for 3 to 5 minutes in a kitchen stand mixer. (Aim for a pale lemon color.) Reduce the speed and add the oil and vanilla. Beat in the sweet potato puree.

In a separate bowl: Sift the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and soda.

Add one-third of the dry ingredients to the sweet potato, egg and sugar bowl. Combine well. Pour in half of the buttermilk. Add another third of the flour mixture. Pour in the remaining buttermilk. Dump the remaining flour mixture into the bowl of the mixer and beat. Stir in the one cup of white chocolate chips.

Divide the batter among the mini bundt pans and mini cupcake cases. Bake for 16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centers is clean.

Cool for 5 to 10 minutes before removing from the tins. (Gently running a frosting spatula around the edges helps to easily release the mini bundts from the pans.)

For the ganache: Heat the heavy cream over low to medium heat. When little bubbles emerge, pour the hot cream over the white chocolate chips. Vigorously stir until all the chocolate dissolves. Allow the ganache to stand for 5 minutes or more.

Dunk the mini sweet potato cakes into the ganache. Garnish with pecans.