Five years ago today…I looked a lot younger, I was a bit skinnier, and my DH had more hair.
Five years ago today… there was no wind, no thunder, no rain, just blue blue skies and red roses everywhere.
Five years ago today… I said I do. And so did he.
Five years ago today… we ate a lot of cake.
And what better way to celebrate that day than… with more cake! And not just cake. A creamy, melt in your mouth, smooth as butter, perfectly sweet, caramel flavored frosting. For Anniversary Number 5, I bring you Powdered-Sugar-Free-Frosting Number 5.
Caramel Buttercream Frosting
1 cup raw sugar, divided
2 TBSP water
pinch of salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 egg whites
1 cup butter, softened
In a saucepan, stir together 1/2 cup of the sugar, the water and salt. Bring to a boil without stirring, and allow to cook for a couple minutes until it starts to turn color. Reduce heat to medium and cook for a couple more minutes, stirring this time, until it turns a nice dark amber color. Remove from heat and carefully stir in the cream. Allow to cool. In another saucepan, whisk together the egg whites and remaining sugar over medium-high heat until the mixture is foamy and reaches 160 degrees. Pour into a mixing bowl (I love my KitchenAid for these jobs!) and beat until there are glossy peaks when beater is raised. Beat in the softened butter a few tablespoons at a time. Beat in cooled caramel mixture. Frosts 1 layer cake.
A few tips you can gain from my near-disasters:
If the caramel mixture doesn’t blend well when you add in the cream, return it to the heat and continue stirring until the globs melt into the liquid. Don’t heat for too long; it will thicken some as it cools.
DO stir the egg whites constantly from the second you place them in the saucepan and turn on the heat. Otherwise, you will have little cooked bits of egg. Don’t ask me how I know.
Don’t add the caramel mixture to the rest of the frosting until it is room temperature or cooler.
If the finished product doesn’t seem thick enough or sturdy enough to spread on a cake, refrigerate it for a little while. It will firm up nicely.
I think this frosting would be amazing with a chocolate cake, but I decided to go with the hot milk cake for this occasion.
This is not the QUICKest frosting recipe I’ve ever tried, for sure. Definitely one to save for a special occasion when you have some time.
It’s not exactly EASY, but I will say this: there were several times I thought for sure I had ruined it, but no! Despite my clumsy goofs, in the end I still had a delicious decadent caramel frosting. So don’t be scared by all the instructions and multiple steps. It turned out to be difficult to ruin (Not like I was trying to ruin it! That just comes naturally.)
It’s not CHEAP, either, using half a pound of butter and 4 egg whites (Do save a little money and use those egg yolks for something else. I plan to turn them into lemon curd if I have some time today or tomorrow.). That’s why it’s an anniversary recipe, and not an every-day recipe!
As I’ve said before, when it comes to dessert and frosting, HEALTHY is relative. It’s healthier than the frosting in the can because it is made with real, whole ingredients. It still has a lot of sugar, though, so should be enjoyed sparingly. Like for your anniversary!
My intention was to have two separate blog posts, one with the chocolate cake, one with the frosting, but the days just keep going by in a blur of diapers, feedings and naps and I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write one post, let alone two. So here we are, with a two-fer!
First of all, the cake.
It’s more than chocolate cake, it’s chocolate banana cake. My sister thinks that’s disgusting, but both my DH and I thought it was delicious. The use of the banana makes it so moist and adds another layer of sweet flavor. We normally never finish a cake before it goes bad, but we’ve already almost polished off this one!
Another plus is that it is egg-free, which is great if you avoid them or have allergies. Or if you don’t have eggs on hand, which happens!
Chocolate Banana Cake
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup raw sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups hot water
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mashed banana
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the melted butter, hot water and vanilla; stir well. Add mashed bananas and mix thoroughly until well blended. Pour batter into two greased and floured round cake pans. Bake in a 350F oven for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes, then invert pans and release cake. Cool completely before frosting.
Aside from the extra step of mashing the bananas and melting the butter (neither of which takes longer than a minute), it’s just as QUICK as a box mix.
It’s also just as EASY as a box mix. Mix the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, stir, bake. What could be easier?
It’s CHEAPer than many cakes because it doesn’t require eggs. Doesn’t save you much, but hey, every little bit helps, right?
It’s pretty HEALTHY as cakes go, with the use of partially whole wheat flour, as well as the addition of bananas. It uses the minimum amount of sugar for a recipe like this.
Now for the frosting….
Knowing of my quest for powdered-sugar-free frostings (apparently, a quest shared by many of you as it is one of my most popular features ever), a friend alerted me to Flour Frosting. I had never heard of such a thing, but a quick google search led me to some great blogs and recipe sites that convinced me i definitely needed to try it.
I’ll admit it’s still a work in progress. Don’t get me wrong; it tasted amazing, and the texture was so light and fluffy. It was like whipped cream frosting but… better! However, it looked a little grainy and slightly separated, and as I read more about it, I realized I should have beat it longer (which is contrary to what I would think, but that seems to be what everybody said would do the trick. So next time, I’ll beat it longer! Also, I saw a couple different variations, and I think I will try them all and see which one I like best.
It’s perfectly delicious as is, though, so I’m going to share it with you now. Now go eat some cake… without any powdered sugar!
Flour Frosting
5 TBSP flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter
1 cup raw sugar
Whisk flour into milk in a medium saucepan until dissolved. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Cool to room temperature and stir in vanilla. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add milk mixture and continue beating until it resembles whipped cream. Frost.
This is not as QUICK as other frosting recipes, but the extra bit of time is definitely worth it.
Other frostings may be EASY-er and less finicky, but they probably don’t taste as good.
This recipe uses basic pantry ingredients so it’s fairly CHEAP. It does take a whole cup of butter, which can be pricey unless you get it on sale (I was stuck without enough butter, so I had to pay full price. I hate that!).
Frosting recipes aren’t really HEALTHY, but this one’s not bad. It’s definitely a lot better than the frostings that come in the little cans, and because it doesn’t have tons of powdered sugar, it’s healthier in that respect as well.
Well, I finally have another powdered-sugar free frosting to offer you, but first a couple other things whirling around in my brain that I need to mention before they whirl right back out again:
1. I finally joined the rest of the blogosphere in the 21st century and made a Facebook page for my blog. If you’re on FB, please “Like” my page and share it with all your friends! If you’re not on FB, well what are you waiting for?! Make an account… and then “Like” my page! You’ll find it here: Quick & Easy, Cheap & Healthy Facebook Page. Facebook is a great way to keep updated in between blog posts – I may not have time to write an entire post every day, but most days I can find some time to post a quick status, picture or even an occasional video to my FB page. You’ll be able to see what I’m finding at the farmer’s market, or what new recipes I try (and either succeed or fail!). If you “Like” my page, you can ask me questions or let me know what sort of things you’d like to see on my blog. So go ahead and join in the conversation!
2. I mentioned on my FB page a few days ago that I ordered a couple new cookbooks: Healthy Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and Allergy Proof Recipes for Kids. The allergy cookbook will be featured on my food allergy blog, but I’m hoping to try out some of the artisan bread recipes and feature them here on this very blog. The artisan bread in 5 minutes a day method seems to fit all my criteria for a good recipe: quick, easy, cheap and healthy! I’m so excited to give it a try, and I’ll keep you updated, here or on my FB page.
And now onto the recipe. This is actually one of my favorite non-powdered sugar frosting recipes that I’ve made several times without fail. Unfortunately, when I got rid of my powdered sugar, I also got rid of my brown sugar, which I had previously used in this recipe. Normally, it’s not a problem to use raw sugar as a substitute for brown sugar because they’re very similar in some ways; but because raw sugar has such a large grain it was very difficult for the amount I used to dissolve adequately in the milk/butter/cream in the recipe. I tried several times without success, and finally determined that a finer grain of sugar is necessary, which led me to evaporated cane sugar. Evaporated cane sugar is really just a step above regular table sugar, but a step is a step, right?
I found the original recipe in my vintage Fannie Farmer cookbook. The finished product is very similar to Caramel Frosting (a big favorite in my DH’s family) but does not have the powdered sugar. You’ll find a million variations of the recipe online and they all vary slightly regarding exact ingredients and proportions, which tells me you can fool around a lot with this recipe and still succeed. Except don’t mess with the sugars! My recipe calls for corn syrup, but since none of the other recipes I found called for it, and I try to avoid that even more than regular sugar, I just eliminated it and it doesn’t seem to affect the outcome. This recipe calls for milk and butter, but a note included mentions that you can use heavy cream instead, which I’ve done with great success.
If you aren’t messing with raw sugar, and have regular and brown sugar instead, use this ratio instead of the one included in the recipe below: 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup regular sugar.
One Step Ahead Penuche Frosting
1 cup evaporated cane sugar
1/2 cup raw sugar
few grains salt
1/3 cup whole milk
2 TBSP butter
Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Once it reaches a boil, allow it to boil undisturbed for a minute or two. Remove from heat and pour into mixing bowl or a heat-proof glass bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature, and then beat until it forms a spreadable consistency. This recipe makes enough to thinly frost a 2-layer cake or 8×10 rectangle, or generously frost one square or round layer. (I personally find it to be very sweet, so a thin layer works for me.)
One tip: Please make sure the mixture is cooled to room temperature before beginning to beat it. Once I got a little impatient and started beating too early and ended up with a frosting so stiff I couldn’t even spread it. I managed to salvage it by adding some milk, but then I added to much and ended up with a very liquidy glaze!
This time, I actually waited long enough to beat it at the proper time, but then I didn’t beat it quite long enough, so I had a nice thick glaze. It was delicious, though, and it looked intentional. I would recommend beating it in a stand mixer if you have one, because that will take less time.
This is not the QUICKest frosting recipe in my arsenal, but that doesn’t stop me from making it frequently. You do have to figure in time to allow it to cool, but what I do is start making it as soon as I remove the cake from the oven. By the time the cakes are cool enough to frost, the frosting is cool enough to beat into shape, so no time is wasted.
Despite all the trouble I had with it, it really is an EASY recipe. Like I mentioned before, you can goof around with the ingredients (except the type of sugar!) quite a bit without messing it up.
Aside from the expensive sugars, it’s a CHEAP frosting recipe. Did you notice how few ingredients there are? A tip on buying the sugars: the evaporated cane sugar is available in bulk for a great price, and the raw sugar is available at Walmart under the brand name Sugar in the Raw. You can occasionally find coupons, either print or online, for that particular brand of sugar.
No frosting is HEALTHY, let’s just make that clear. But this is “a step ahead” of other frostings by virtue of its slightly healthier ingredients. Use it sparingly!
This latest frosting recipe is really giving me fits, I tell you! I tweaked it… and made it worse than ever! Like I said,epic fail. I promise you, one of these days I will get it right and share it with you, but today is not the day.
On a happier note (like maybe B flat, I think it might be my favorite), I also tried a new cake recipe, and Bingo! A hit! And a new favorite, as well. I found the recipe in the newspaper, oddly enough (who even reads a paper anymore? Not me… excepting, of course, the all important Food section), in a feature called Recipe Finder, where readers write in seeking long-lost recipes. This particular one that attracted my interest, was a vintage recipe for “Hot Milk Cake”. Apparently, the woman who contributed the recipe had been baking it for 50 years or more. That is a well-tested recipe!
I’ve only made it once, but that was enough to convince me: this recipe’s a keeper! It made nice high, sturdy layers with a rich flavor. It’s not a light and fluffy cake (I believe there is a similar recipe called Hot Milk Sponge Cake that would probably yield a fluffier version), but I love the moist density it offers instead. “Light and Fluffy” often means “Lacking in Flavor” – not so with this cake, which is bursting with sweet – but not too sweet – richness.
The best thing is that I cut the sugar in half and it still turned out perfectly! Sometimes cutting the sugar in cake recipes results in disaster, but not with this one. I love a cake that can withstand a little tweaking.
Without further ado, then, here’s the recipe:
Hot Milk Cake
4 eggs
1 cup raw sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cup milk
10 TBSP butter, cubed
Beat eggs on high speed until thick and lemon-colored, about 5 minutes. While they are beating, whisk together flour and baking powder in a separate bowl; set aside. In a microwave-safe container, heat milk and butter together until butter is melted;set aside. When eggs are finished beating, gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.Slowly add flour mixture to egg mixture, on low speed. Gradually add the milk mixture to batter, stirring just until combined. Pour batter into greased and floured cake pans (I used 2 8″ layer pans – you can use a 9×13 or bundt pan as well) and bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes.
This may not be as quick as a cake mix, but it’s still pretty QUICK. Using your time wisely by heating the milk and butter, and mixing the dry ingredients while the eggs are beating makes it come together a little faster.
I’ve only made it once so far, but my gut feeling is that this is an EASY recipe, one I like to think of as “sturdy” or fool-proof. Fail safe! Time and future efforts may prove me wrong, but for now I’m going to say it’s one of the easier cake recipes I’ve tried.
It does have a lot of eggs, milk and butter, so in that sense it isn’t exactly CHEAP. However, cake is generally a “special occasion” kind of thing, so it’s a fairly inexpensive extravagance. (How’s that for an oxymoron?!)
Cake is never HEALTHY. OK, maybe somebody out there in the blogosphere has made a truly healthy cake, but I bet you anything it doesn’t taste all that great. Two things make cake an unhealthy diet choice: sugar and white flour. I feel good about reducing the sugar in this recipe by half, but it’s still largely based on white flour. Even if I did use some whole wheat flour, it would still be an extravagance (there’s that word again). So enjoy sparingly.
To my great sadness, Sweet has moved from Ellicott City to the big city: Baltimore. I’m happy for them but sad for me:(.
First let’s get the decadence out of the way. Today I went into a quaint little town called Ellicott City. It’s my favorite kind of town, the kind with quaint little streets and quaint old buildings and quaint little shops… and quaint coffee shops!
See how quaint? And here’s some more quaintness:
Last week, my DH and I took his mother there for her birthday, and we stumbled across this (quaint) little bakery that had the most amazing. donuts. ever. Now normally, I don’t eat donuts. They are on my do-not-ever-eat list. However, when we went into this (quaint) little bakery/cafe called, appropriately, “Sweet.“, these little beauties immediately caught my eye:
Now wouldn’t that catch your eye? I looked around for something a little less… sweet, but I was drawn back to this amazing more-than-a-donut confection. I lost all willpower when my DH ordered one for himself, and, like a lamb led to the slaughter, I ordered one for myself also. Enjoyed it immensely, and dreamed about it all week long, and so dragged my DH back into Ellicott City today so we could get another one. Well, I didn’t exactly have to drag him… here he is enjoying one himself. (If I never blog again, you will know it is because I am dead.)
Yes, those little donuts are definitely decadent. Not to be enjoyed on a regular basis – two in a week and a half is really a bit too much! So I’m going to stay away from Ellicott City for a while, and enjoy some slightly less decadent treats from my own kitchen.
As promised, I have a few more powdered-sugar-free frosting recipes up my sleeve. The next one I present to you is a non-powdered-sugar cream cheese frosting – yes, such a thing does exist! Two caveats:
1. It has a strong cream cheese flavor, so if you don’t like cream cheese, you won’t like this frosting.
2. It doesn’t make a whole lot, just enough to cover one 8″ or 9″ layer. If you want to frost a 9×13 or a layered cake, it will need to be doubled.
But what makes all that worth it is the fact that it has only a couple tablespoons of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of honey! The great thing is that it doesn’t need anymore sugar than that – the flavor of it as it is, is perfect. I used it to frost this apple spice cake, and I think it would be delicious on any carrot, banana or plain spice cake. I’ve also used it to frost cinnamon buns instead of a glaze or regular cream cheese frosting… yum! It was also particularly delicious, as I recall, on a pumpkin cake last autumn.
I have to admit, this recipe is not original (far from it). I found it on AllRecipes and tweaked it just a bit (although it’s very good as is).
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add remaining ingredients except for honey, and beat until well blended. Add honey and beat until fluffy (not too long). Frost.
Be sure the cake is cool to the touch before attempting to frost it with this frosting, as it’s rather thick and will catch on any crumbs. A crumb coating with jam might be useful as well.
This is a super QUICK frosting, actually one of the quickest I’ve ever made.
It is also incredibly EASY. Of all the powdered-sugar-free frostings I’ve made, probably the easiest.
It has very few ingredients, so it’s relatively CHEAP, especially if you buy the cream cheese on sale (I always stock up on it when it is on sale for $1 or less. Walmart SuperCenters carry 8oz bricks for around $1 also.).
It is certainly one of the HEALTHY-est frostings I’ve ever come across, mainly because it has so little sugar. Cream cheese is one of the more processed dairy products, so I wouldn’t necessarily call it healthy, but when compared to the typical ingredients in a typical frosting, it’s definitely an improvement. It is certainly a lot less decadent than the frosting/filling you see in that donut above!
Why no powdered sugar, you ask? The answer requires a bit of explanation. I’ve been involved in an on-going process of improving my diet, removing the unhealthy and adding in the healthy. Every now and then, I get stuck for various reasons, most often because the healthy stuff can be expensive (for example, organic meat. I would prefer to buy organic meat all the time, but right now, it’s unaffordable for me.). Sometimes, though, I just get a creative mindblock, and I don’t know how to replace an unhealthy item with its healthy counterpart. Like powdered sugar. I got rid of regular sugar quite some time ago, and replaced it with turbinado sugar, which, while still not healthy, is less processed than table sugar and manages to maintain some nutritional value. I also use honey whenever possible. However, I still kept brown sugar and powdered sugar on hand, because, even though they come from regular granulated sugar, they seemed irreplaceable in certain dishes and baked goods. I’ve since discovered that turbinado sugar nicely replaces brown sugar in a variety of things, but powdered sugar still had me stumped. How do you make a glaze or a frosting without powdered sugar? The vast majority of frosting recipes (Buttercream, the favorite by far, for example) all require several cups of powdered sugar. I consoled myself that I made such things rarely anyway, so it was no big deal to have that minimal amount of powdered sugar.
Until some time last year, when I seriously began researching different frosting recipes that did NOT call for powdered sugar at all, or in such minimal amounts that it could easily be replaced with something else. I was surprised to find that such recipes do exist, and furthermore, they add a lot more flavor and texture to your cake than the typical powdered-sugar-rich frostings do. I’ve crossed the bridge and have burned it behind me. Goodbye, powdered sugar! I don’t need you anymore!
The first powdered-sugar-free frosting I’m going to share with you is the one I used to top the Moist Chocolate Cake I made for my sister-in-law the other day. Because she likes mocha, I made the frosting with coffee to go with the chocolate flavor in the cake, but this frosting can be made in pretty much any flavor you desire. Just replace the coffee with an equal amount of water, and then when you are finished beating the frosting, add a teaspoon of some flavoring (such as vanilla, or almond).
This recipe is an old-fashioned standard often called “Seven-Minute Frosting”. To be honest, I don’t know why it’s called that, because you cannot rely on the clock to be sure you’ve beaten the frosting the right amount of time. Many variations exist on the recipe, most of them calling for oodles and oodles of sugar with oodles and oodles of corn syrup on top of that. Corn syrup being something else I try to avoid, I went with the recipe that called for the least amount of sugar, and used cream of tartar instead of corn syrup. Trust me, it’s plenty sweet enough, even with coffee as the liquid!
Traditionally, a double boiler is used for this recipe, but if you don’t have one, that’s fine! Just use a sturdy glass Pyrex-type bowl (one that can withstand high heat) on top of a saucepan. Before you start cooking, make sure the bowl fits well in the saucepan. It should be snug but not tight (easily removed but not loose), and there should be several inches between the bottom of the bowl and the bottom of the saucepan. The bowl should rest safely in the saucepan without you holding it there to stabilize it. And be careful, because the bowl WILL get hot.
What you will need for sure is a hand-held electric mixer. The mixture has to be beaten while heated in the double boiler, and there’s no way to do that with a stand mixer.
Scroll down for a printable version.
Fluffy Coffee Frosting
2 egg whites
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar
1/3 cup strong coffee
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Bring an inch or two of water to boil in the saucepan. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a glass bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer until well blended. Place the glass bowl on top of the saucepan, and continue beating with the mixer until stiff peaks form.
This process supposedly takes about 7 minutes, but don’t bother going by the clock. When you lift up the beaters (after turning the mixer off!), you should see stiff peaks remaining, like this:
When you see that, remove the frosting from the heat, and beat it until you reach the desired consistency (this won’t take long at all.) If you are using water instead of coffee, add a teaspoon of flavoring such as vanilla or almond and beat until it’s blended in. Now you’re ready to frost your cake.
I like to use my silicone spatula for basic cake frosting
Be very sure your cake is cool to the touch before attempting to spread this frosting. If your cake is cool enough, this frosting will go on smoothly without a problem, but if it’s still warm, the frosting will stick and catch and make a big mess. Once the frosting is spread, you can use the flat side of the spatula (or a knife) to create some texture in the frosting. Swirl it around in big or little swirls, or press it against the frosting and lift straight up to create mini peaks all around, which is what I did. I also sprinkled a little cocoa powder for an extra touch:
Grated baking chocolate could also be used, or sliced strawberries, or other fruit. Even mint leaves would be pretty.
Fluffy Coffee Frosting
2 egg whites
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar
1/3 cup strong coffee
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Bring an inch or two of water to boil in the saucepan. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a glass bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer until well blended. Place the glass bowl on top of the saucepan, and continue beating with the mixer until stiff peaks form. This process supposedly takes about 7 minutes, but don’t bother going by the clock. When you lift up the beaters (after turning the mixer off!), you should see stiff peaks remaining. When you see that, remove the frosting from the heat, and beat it until you reach the desired consistency (this won’t take long at all.) If you are using water instead of coffee, add a teaspoon of flavoring such as vanilla or almond and beat until it’s blended in. Now you’re ready to frost your cake.
This is a pretty QUICK frosting, I would say, definitely less than 10 minutes, start to finish.
I always thought it was more of a difficult frosting, but to be honest, it’s very EASY. It does require some equipment, like the hand mixer, and it does require some perception as far as when it’s finished beating.
This recipe is CHEAP in comparison to the others that called for twice as much sugar, and 3 or 4 egg whites. If you don’t have cream of tartar, that would be an expensive outlay just for one recipe, but you only use a tiny amount, and then you have it on hand to use again in this and other recipes. And, instead of buying an additional sugar product (powdered sugar), you can just use regular sugar.
HEALTHY? Well, it doesn’t have powdered sugar, so that’s something. No corn syrup, either, which is a benefit. It does have egg whites which are healthy. Other than that, about all I can say is, enjoy sparingly!
Need more healthy dessert recipes? I highly recommend
* QUICK - because who has time for anything more?
* EASY - because I'm no gourmet.
* CHEAP - because who has money for anything more?
* HEALTHY - because you are what you eat.
