Ice Cream Cake

I guess this technically isn’t an ice cream cake.  An iced nut cake perhaps?  There’s no cream in this recipe.  Or milk, or butter, or and type of dairy.  Actually it’s vegan!

No wait, don’t go.  Vegan stuff tastes good sometimes, I promise.  Especially this.  This cake was absolutely delicious.  A challenge, definitely, but totally worth it.

I mostly improvised the ice cream recipe since I didn’t feel like using soy cream, tofu, or weird thickeners.  And honestly, I think the ice cream turned out better than any traditional ice cream recipes I’ve made.  I’d definitely recommend it.

Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 cups cashews

1/4 cup water

2 tbl oil

1 cup almond milk

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup granulated sugar

pinch of salt

5 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 tbl liqueur (I used Frangelico, a hazelnut liqueur, but chocolate or coffee would work as well)

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbl maple syrup

Directions:

• In a food processor blend cashews and water until thick, smooth, and creamy.  Slowly add in oil. Set aside.
• In a saucepan whisk together almond milk, cocoa powder, salt, and sugar while heating to a simmer.
• Stir in the chocolate until melted.  Let cool to room temperature.
• In a large bowl stir together (or blend with an immersion blender) chocolate mixture, cashew cream, liqueur, vanilla, and maple syrup.  Taste and adjust sweetness if necessary with more maple syrup.
• Cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge overnight.
• Churn in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Can be stored in freezer with plastic wrap against top to prevent freezer burn.

To make an ice cream cake, bake chocolate cake (or brownies!) in a springform pan and let cool.  Crumble peanut butter cookies, oreos, or anything else you desire over the top of the cake.  Spread ice cream (straight out of the ice cream maker) on top of crumbs.  Drizzle melted chocolate on top.  Best if eaten on day it’s made.  Enjoy!

I used the chocolate cake recipe from Joy of Vegan Baking (note: don’t overbake) and the peanut butter cookie recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance (very crumbly, and possibly too much baking powder, but perfect for using as cookie crumbs!).  Experiment with different flavors.

Delicious Bites

A lot of my baking tends to be lower calorie, fat-free goodies.  I believe whole-heartedly in enjoying a sinfully rich chocolate ice cream sundae or decadent brownies, but I can’t eat like that all the time.  As a dancer, I have to be uber-aware of what I’m putting in my mouth.  Sometimes that really sucks, but it helps me to challenge myself in the kitchen.  What can I make that’s healthy, yet still tastes good?

Chocolate Part 2

I love chocolate.  Well, I actually love any dessert.  As far as desserts go, chocolate could be worse for you.  It’s healthy antioxidants, along with dark chocolate’s low sugar content, make it reasonable!  Cocoa powder is fat-free and packs a punch of flavor; it’s downright healthy!  Clearly I’m in the same school of thought as my friend M-; her health food is creme brulee.  How?  Well, there’s protein from the eggs and calcium from the cream!

However, these chocolate muffins are (relatively) healthy.  I was walking through the hallways of my school when an intense craving for a chocolate-chocolate muffin hit me.  Our school sells Sara Lee muffins which are huge, oily, and about 500 calories each.  Dunkin Donuts sells delicious ‘muffins,’ but in reality those baked goods are more like cake.  Instead, I pulled out flour, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips as soon as I got home and got to work.  A little tweaking resulted in a healthier muffin that was still chocolaty and indulgent.  What’s more, they have my brother’s stamp of approval, which is no small matter, I assure you.

Chocolate Part 1

I’ve been really bad about posting entries lately.  Daring Bakers has been the only thing forcing me to post, and I’m not even doing that this month!  There just wasn’t time; I can’t do anything extensive during the week and all the weekends in March just filled up.  I think it’s time for me to accept that my blog will never be a Smitten Kitchen, Closet Cooking, or 17 and Baking, and that’s okay.  I need to use this blog as a way to document my recipes and experiments for myself, and if that helps anyone else out or inspires them, then that’s great!

I’m thinking that perhaps next year I’ll be a bit more consistent.  I’ll have graduated and be completely free from english essays.  In fact, this blog may be a good incentive to continue writing!  We’ll see if I even have time (or materials, or money!) to bake and cook.  I’ll be away from home, without a mixer, food processor, or even baking pans.  It will definitely be an adventure.

So, clearly, I have to fit in all the baking I can until then!  (Even if it means putting off my calculus homework for a night…)

Tiramisu

I think I got a lot of this wrong.

BLOG-CHECKING LINES: The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Making this tiramisu was not easy, not at all.  It wasn’t even easy to decide to participate.  With the rush of school and dance, my time is pretty limited.  I’m also trying to eat healthier, which is not encouraged by creamy (delicious) tiramisu.

Loose Ends

Also, I just would like to let everyone know I recently did a bakesale for Share Our Strength, an organization that fights childhood hunger in America (and recently just donated a bunch of money to Haiti).  I baked throughout all of Christmas break to prepare and some friends also made contributions.  The goods included

• cinnamon buns ($1)
• peanut butter buttons ($0.25 or 5 for $1)
• checkerboard cookies ($0.50 or 3 for $1)
• monster cookies ($1)
• chocolate chip cookies ($0.50 or 3 for $1)
• brownies ($0.50)
• chocolate cherry biscotti ($0.50)
• lemon poppyseed mini muffins ($0.50 or 3 for $1)
• chocolate chip mini muffins($0.50 or 3 for $1)
• banana mini muffins($0.50 or 3 for $1)

Best sellers were the chocolate chip cookies, the cinnamon buns, the peanut butter buttons, the monster cookies, and, surprisingly, the chocolate cherry biscotti (I thought those would be too “sophisticated” for high schoolers =p)

We raised about $250!  If you’d like to make a donation to the organization you can follow the link in my side bar to the right or go to strength.org.  It’s a very noble cause.  You could also host your own bake sale. =]

And, on another note entirely, here’s a couple photos I’ve wanted to share.  Enjoy!

Nanaimo Bars

I’ve never been to Canada, but if they make these bars there, maybe it’s worth taking a trip.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

These were delicious.  True, you have to like coconut, but I hear you can replace that with Rice Crispies if you can’t stand it.  Making the bars themselves was pretty easy.  My only difficulties came in spreading on the chocolate.  The real challenge was the homemade graham crackers.  These were supposed to be gluten free, but as a young, high-school aged kid, I don’t have a ton of money (or time) to spend on finding rare and exotic types of flours.  One day, I’ll have all the time in the world to scour the shelves of whole foods with my inoordinate amounts of money buying chickpea flour and gluten-free mixes, but until then…. I have to stick with whole wheat.  =[