GF Carrot Cake Cupcakes w/Cashew frosting

I saw something the other day on instagram — it was a photo of a vegan carrot cake using real carrots and a bunch of other amazing ingredients. It planted a seed in my sugar-craving carrot cake loving brain 🥕 🍰 …. so today, once my work was done (and in light of the 25 degree temps and all-day snow we’ve had), I gave myself permission to play in the kitchen a bit. 👩‍🍳

I went looking for cupcakes, for easier freezing and sharing, and found THIS RECIPE.

I had all of the ingredients at home AND I’ve never made a frosting by blending nuts, so I thought- “ what the heck!” 😋 🥕

Whipped up the batter and mine was really dry/crumbly when all mixed together so I added more applesauce and a bit more olive oil. I am still using coconut flour in all of my baking experiments (and I think it does dry out the batter quite a bit). The only other modification I made was to reduce the sugar by about 1/2c., because — these things will also have frosting on them!

As has been the case with most items I’ve baked using coconut flour, out of the oven these muffins looked drier and crackier than a normal muffin would be BUT they tasted good! And mixing up the frosting was much easier than I expected. (I soaked the cashews for an hour as instructed and then added them + the other ingredients to my silver bullet mixer and gave it a whirl). It took a bit of coaxing, stirring, and starting again, but eventually I had frosting (ish -it still had some cashew chunks in it, but the bullet had had enough).

Once I popped them in the fridge for awhile and let them set up, I pulled one out for the final taste test. Honestly - as healthy as these are, they are REALLY good. Next time I’ll use a proper blender for the frosting.
And maybe grind up walnuts to sprinkle on the frosting. Overall though, highly recommend !

Matcha Protein Cookies: Victory Round

Ok - I still had matcha protein powder to use up (and candidly, after so many smoothies, I’m looking for ways to bake with it). ;)

I am hosting friends this weekend and want to have some yummy cookies to serve for dessert. So- I went looking for a new recipe for protein cookies.

HERE was the one I decided to try tonight. I cut the sugar it calls for in over half, and instead used a bit more salt — and I went with the larger granular salt. OH. MY. GOODNESS. The chunks of salt in the cookies combined with the subtle matcha taste/sweetness, combined with the dark chocolate chips. Good grief, folks, we’ve got a winner.

Also - can I just say (albeit sheepishly) how MUCH IT HELPS To put the dough in the fridge for awhile before prepping the cookie dough balls on the pan?! Talk about PERFECT dough-balls, which translates to PERFECT cookies (and far-less-messy fingers). Wow. All this time of rushing to get the cookies in the oven, and that 15 minutes in the fridge made all the difference. Old dog. New tricks.

Do yourself a favor and make these.

For the protein powder I used the MODE (now known as ATAQ) matcha protein powder.

Tonight I’m pairing the cookies with caffeine-free AVEDA The’Tea (licorice-forward tea, yum).

Simple Pleasures: The Joy of the Night Ride(s)

Last night I rode my ebike to and from our local bike advocacy meeting (Bike Jeffco). The ride itself was pure joy for me. Everything looked and sounded differently in the dark- and I felt like I had the whole place to myself.

Life looks different viewed in the beam of a bike headlight. It narrows ones focus. The sensory perceptions of sounds and smells is also heightened. The wind was quiet and the sky was clear. I didn’t want it to end.

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Saturday night provided another opportunity for a blissful night ride. I rode from home in north Golden down to Morrison for dinner, which is about an hour each way. Yes it got cold, and my hands froze a few times digging the camera out. But the images, and learning how to shoot well at night, made it so worthwhile.