Pink Grapefruit Sorbet {a guest post}

Hello again! Get ready for 2 recipe posts in 2 days. Cray-zay!
You're going to get spoiled!
Doesn't really count though, because I had some help :)
My friend Ashley from Mister G and Me is sharing a fresh and summery sorbet recipe today.
Yuuuuum! It's so refreshing.
If you haven't yet, go check out her blog too.
She has the greatest party DIY ideas... and the sweetest neice :)

Hi Sugar Mama lovelies!  I'm so happy to be back guest posting today.  If we haven't met before, my name is Ashley and I blog over at Mister G and Me.  I love to share crafty tutorials, DIY inspirations, and tasty recipes.  

I'm sharing a recipe for Pink Grapefruit sorbet today.  This recipe is super easy and it will make your whole house smell like fresh grapefruit and sweet, sweet goodness!  This is definitely a "make again" recipe!  Nothing is more refreshing than homemade frozen treats-- especially on a hot summer day!!  

Combine zest of 1 pink grapefruit, 3/4 cup water, and 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stir to dissolve sugar, and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 15 minutes.  Strain into a medium bowl; discard the zest.  Let liquid cool to room temp, then stir in: 3/4 cup fresh pink grapefruit juice.  Refrigerate until cold, then pour into an ice cube tray.    After your cubes freeze, pulse in a food processor or blender until smooth.  Enjoy!!! 

Tangy Lemon Frosting

Monday I shared my fab lemon cupcake recipe.

I also shared that my Easter frosting FAILED.

I tried to take a short cut and turn some leftover vanilla frosting into lemon...

The results of my creativity and frugality: tasty but uuuuuugly :)

Luckily I do have a tried and true lemon frosting so you don't have to experience the same failure!

It's light & fluffy & tangy & buttery.

Tastes like spring!

Lemon Frosting

ingredients:

1/4 cup Earth Balance soy butter

1/4 cup organic vegetable shortening

3 TBSP fresh lemon juice

1 TBSP vanilla coconut milk

1 whole grated lemon peel (about 1/4 cup)

3 cups powdered sugar

instructions:

-Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer until smooth.

-Mix in lemon juice until incorporated.

-Add powdered sugar and mix until creamy.

-After adding sugar, slowly add the milk until you have a spreadable consistency.

-Stir in lemon peel.

-Frost away! This frosts about 12-16 cupcakes. I guess it just depends on how generous you are ;)

Easter Lemon Cupcakes

I hope you had a happy Easter weekend! Ours was so lovely.

Just simple, and beautiful and wonderful.

We spent yesterday in the sunshine hanging out with family, eating great food & drinking good wine, and being entertained by Lily :)

Hunter's mom made delicious grilled portobello mushrooms and his sis made baked tomatoes with spices, olive oil and cheese ( I even got some special ones with rice cheese) that were fabulous!
For dessert we had lemon blueberry cupcakes. Not these lemon blueberry cupcakes because unfortunately I tried to ad lib my frosting and it melted all over the place.
This picture is from the last time I made them :)
Don't worry, they still tasted d-lish yesterday... and I'm a firm believer that taste trumps looks when it comes to dessert. Always.

Sugar Mama's Lemon Cupcakes

ingredients:
-3/4 c brown rice flour
-3/4 c tapioca flour
-1/2 c coconut flour
-1 c (minus 2 TBSP) cane sugar
-1/2 tsp sea salt
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp xanthan gum
-1/2 c plain coconut milk
-1/4 c fresh lemon juice
-3/4-1 c warm water
-3 TBSP oil
-1 tsp vanilla
-1/4 c unsweetened applesauce
-1/4 c grated lemon peel

instructions:
-Preheat oven to 375.
-Whisk together dry ingredients.
-Add wet ingredients and mix until smooth.
-Fold in lemon peel.
-Scoop batter into lined cupcake tins.
-Bakes 15-20 minutes until cake bounces back when touched lightly.
-Makes 12-14 cupcakes.

Enjoy!

PS-I want to share the frosting too...the fab one not the runny one :) But nap time is quickly coming to an end and I've got laundry waiting! I'll try and have it up by Wednesday.

Peanut Butter+Pretzels+Dark Chocolate=YUM (in case you didn't already know)

Lately I've been getting a lot of emails from people who are intimidated to try Sugar Mama recipes.
To that I say whaaaaaaaaaaat?

They're not scary I swear!

BUT if you're not much of a baker I get it.

So today's treat is dedicated to the no-bakers.

The no-baker loves sweet treats (and usually pretty ones).

She likes to show up at parties with a dessert more impressive than a bag of Oreos...

But she's not that interested in spending more than 20 minutes prepping :)

Obviously I'm a baker, but I'm also a TOTAL no-baker!!

I only love to bake if I have time to experiment and enjoy.

If I need something tasty and quick, well... I make these.

They honestly take no time at all & who doesn't love the peanut butter/ chocolate combo?

For real.

These are dairy free, gluten free, vegan, and you'll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't love them :)

Peanut Butter + Dark Chocolate + Pretzels

Ingredients:

• 1 package (8 ounces) vegan cream cheese (Toffuti is my fave)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips (Sweet Earth is my favorite place to get vegan & fair trade chocolate!)
• 1-2 tsp vegetable shortening
• Pretzels (I have found gluten free ones at Whole Foods & my regular grocery store)

Instructions:

• Mix cream cheese, peanut butter & brown sugar together.
• Slowly stir in powdered sugar.
• Spread mixture between two pretzels to make a sandwich.
• (Eat a couple this way because they're already fab.)
• **Optional: Pop in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes for maximum dipping success, not necessary if you're drizzling.
• Melt your chocolate in microwave at 30 second intervals (stirring each time) until smooth & stir in shortening to make even smoother!
• Now dip pretzels in chocolate or drizzle the sandwiches, whichever you prefer.
• Back in the freezer until chocolate sets!

**Word to the wise:

• This recipe makes TONS of pretzel sandwiches. Seriously, I made a 1/3 batch and still probably ended up with 3 dozen. Not that you couldn't handle over 100 of these bad boys... I'm sure I could have :)
• They got a little soggy after the first day so if you think you'll have leftovers, save the filling and make another batch later!
• The filling is adapted from this peanut butter cheese ball recipe... Another fun way to serve it!

Enjoy!

Almond joy cake truffles

Last week I got to share a recipe over on Her Late Night Cravings.

Have you met Jayme & Mendi yet?

Their blog is so great & I was thrilled to be over there!
It also happens to be a great valentine treat so I thought I would share with you all so you can still make them by tomorrow :)


They're really versatile because you can choose your cake & frosting flavors, mix ins, and sprinkles or icing.
So they can be different every time!
I also added sticks and made cake pops this weekend too.


They're also a perfect party treat but I learned a hard lesson last weekend:
If you bring hot pink truffles to a Super Bowl party, you'll probably get made fun of.
You'll also probably leave with an empty plate, so... ;)

{Almond Joy} Cake Truffles

from Sugar Mama Bakeshop

ingredients:

-your fave chocolate cake-baked & cooled according to instructions

(you can buy a gluten free/ vegan mix right here)

-1-1 1/2 cups vanilla frosting

(there's a mix for that too)

-about 1 cup of whole raw almonds cut into halves

-1/2 cup shredded coconut

-2-2 1/2 cups vegan dark chocolate chips

-2 tsp Spectrum organic shortening

instructions:

-crumble cake into fine crumbs (easiest way is to use your hands... don't be afraid to get messy!)

-add frosting, almonds & coconut and mix together (the amount of frosting really is a personal preference depending on how you like the texture. As long as they're sticky enough to roll together you're good to go!)

-using a cookie scoop (or tablespoon) scoop mixture onto parchment lined cookie sheet and shape with your hands to make them nice and round.

-freeze for at least half an hour.

-when truffles are nice and chilled they're ready to dip into chocolate! I found that a toothpick inserted into each one was the best way to coat them evenly and finish with a smooth coating.

-Melt together chocolate and shortening and dip away (I would recommend doing this in 2 or 3 batches so the chocolate stays warm and smooth!)

-If you're decorating with sprinkles makes sure you add them before the chocolate cools, if you're using frosting on top (like I did) you'll add that after the chocolate hardens.

-Put the truffles back in the freezer for 30 minutes- 1 hour.

-They keep perfectly in a sealed container in the freezer!

Enjoy!

Busy, busy!

Happy Monday friends!
I hope your weekends were wonderful :)

Ours was snowy and busy and fun-filled!

(Remember Amy & Ben's cake from last week?
These are the cupcakes that went with it at the shower.)

I've been busy busy so I'm keeping it short & sweet today.

I'm working on treats for The Ruffly Rose & a fun guest post at Her Late Night Cravings.

I'm real excited about both!

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the first edition of How Sweet It Is!!

Ashley is telling us about love & cake... two of my faves ;)

Pretty cake +recipe

I made a CAKE!!!
What I actually mean to say is I made a pretty cake.
I'm pretty proud of my cupcake decorating skills & I make a decent looking cookie if I do say so myself :)
But I've always been intimidated to try a pretty cake.
Not anymore :)

It's far from perfect. I get that.

But I'm definitely proud of it!

Next I'll be recruiting my friend, Nina to teach me some tricks of the trade :)

I made this cake for a wedding shower for some friends on Friday...

So I didn't get to take a picture of the pretty inside.

I'll probably just have to make another one soon. Hurray!

I used my tried & true vanilla cake recipe because that way I knew it would be delicious even if it turned out ugly and I had to eat it all myself ;)

This recipe about drove me crazy when it was in the development stages,

But I survived and this cake is GREAT!

I usually use it for cupcakes and it makes 14.

For this cake I split the batter and baked two 7 inchers.

Twas perfect!

Sugar Mama's Vanilla Cake

{so good no one will know it gluten free & vegan!}

ingredients:

3/4 cup sorghum flour (or organic brown rice flour)

3/4 cup tapioca flour

1/2 cup organic coconut flour

1 cup organic cane sugar (I really love this one. It's fair trade!)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 cup plain coconut milk (or soy, almond, whatever you're into)

1 cup warm water

3 TBSP grapeseed oil (or coconut, organic canola, again it's your call)

1 TBSP GOOD vanilla (no artificial ok? splurge. I'm serious.)

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

instructions:

-preheat oven to 375 degrees

-measure milk into a liquid measuring cup & add lemon juice (set aside for now)

-whisk together all dry ingredients

-add all liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and mix with electric mixer until smooth

-fill cupcake wrappers or greased cake pans

-bake cupcakes for 15-2o minutes or cake for 30ish minutes

-when cake is ready it will be light brown on top and spring back when you press it lightly

enjoy!

(ps- I'm linking up all over the place)

"Cheesecake"

**Don't forget to enter the giveaway!**

Remember those gorgeous desserts from Sunday?
And how I told you I would be sharing the recipe for vegan cheesecake?
Well, canI get a drum roll please? .....


I found this Vegan/ Raw "Cheesecake" at Manifest Vegan.
I have to admit I was pretty dang skeptical.
I mean the filling is made with cashews?!
Yes! Cashews. You wont believe how great it is!
Also, you won't believe how similar it is to actual cheesecake.
Or how guilt free!

PS I had some technical difficulties photographing these bad boys.
The out takes crack me up.... well now they do :)
When I was trying out my newly researched techniques (aka poster board) and the wind blew over my gorgeous mini cheesecake and destroyed my white background I was not laughing.

Manifest Vegan's Fabulous Cheesecake
Ingredients:

Crust
2 cups almonds
1 cup dried Medjool dates

Filling
3 1/2 cups raw cashews -soaked for at least one hour
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup agave *
1 cup organic, unrefined coconut oil- liquefied (see below)
1/2 cup water
1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt

Berry sauce
Handful of mixed berries
4 large dried Medjool dates
2 hefty squirts agave

Directions:

To melt coconut oil, if solid:
Measure out 1 cup of solid coconut oil and place in shallow bowl of warm water. As it softens, stir. Replace the water in the shallow bowl with fresh warm water and repeat until all is melted. I needed to change the water about 4 times to make it reach a fully liquid state.

To make crust:
Blend almonds and dates in a food processor until finely chopped. Press mixture very compactly into the bottom of a spring-form pan. I used the bottom of a glass to press the crust down, and it worked perfectly.

To make filling:
Take all filling ingredients and blend in food processor until smooth. Just let it go for a few minutes…. the texture should be nice and creamy.

To assemble:
Pour filling on top of crust and spread out until smooth. Cover with foil and freeze overnight. The freezing process will re-harden the coconut oil and set up the cake. After it is frozen you can refrigerate and it will be ready to serve after about one hour. Even though you have to freeze this cake to set it up, it is not a frozen cake… once refrigerated, it takes on an extremely similar texture to a regular ol’ cheesecake.

To make topping:

Whiz berries, dates & agave together in a food processor.

Yep. That's it!

By the way, my very un-vegan husband highly recommends this recipe.
In fact, he's already begging for more :)

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Wednesday