Happy Independence Day!!

Happy Independence Day!  For the holiday and as a part of summer learning, the girls and I made a sweet treat to celebrate our country's independence.  A few months ago, I officially stop buying boxed cake mixes, and starting making all of my baked treats from scratch.  We turned my basic yellow cake recipe and turned it into Red-White-Blue cupcakes!!

Is this recipe healthy?  No, not really, but I've always encouraged treating yourself every once in a while, if you practice healthy living religiously.  Here's the recipe for my yellow cake (adapted from Better Homes & Garden Cook Book), and the directions to turn it from a drab yellow cake to a fab patriotic cupcake!

My Yellow Cake Recipe
Makes 24 cupcakes, 2 8" or 9" round cake layers, 1 13x9x2 sheet cake
Time: 20 min prep, 20 min bake, 60+ min cool

Ingredients
3/4 c unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 c all purpose flour (organic)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c sugar (organic cane sugar)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 c milk (organic skim)
Food coloring (red & blue)-optional

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375. Allow butter & eggs to come to room temperature (about 30 min).  If making a cake grease cake pans & lightly flour, or line muffin tin with cupcake liners. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking powder. Set aside. 
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for about 30sec. 
4. Gradually, add in sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, and continue beating until all is well combined, about 2 minutes.
5. Add 1 egg at a time, while continuing to beat.  Then beat in vanilla.
6. Now beating on low, alternate adding flour mixture and milk, until all ingredients are mixed well.
7. Separate batter into cake pans, or cupcake liners.
8. Bake in oven: 20-25 min for 9" pans, 30-35 min 8" pans, 25-30 min for 13x9 pan, 20 min for cupcakes- half way through cupcake baking, I reduced temp to 350 for puffy cupcakes.
9. Cool for 10 minutes in pans, then remove to wire racks and cool completely
10. Frost with desired frosting. (We used cream cheese frosting, cream cheese, butter, vanilla, powdered sugar)

*if making red/white/blue, at step 7, separate batter equally into 2 additional bowls (leaving some in original  bowl for white) and add food coloring until desired color is reached.  Then layer batter red first, then white, then blue filling liners 3/4 full.  You could also do whatever color you desire, rainbow, pink & white, red & green for Xmas... Just spread batter among the same bowls as colors.

 

 

I hope you enjoy them as much as we did making them!!!

Spiced Apple Crisp

The other evening, while making dinner, I decided to make a variation of my favorite Self Soul Space dessert, Spiced Apple & Pear Crisp.  Spiced Apple Crisp!  I actually didn't have any pears in the house, and every time I make Spiced Apple & Pear Crisp, we have tons of leftovers... So, this time I halved the recipe, too... which was just enough for my family.  This is an easy dessert to take with you to holiday gatherings, plus it's less calories then Apple pie!!  I hope you enjoy this variation as much as the original, we sure did!!

Spiced Apple Crisp
Serves 4-6  Time: 60 min (10 min hands-on, 50 min baking)

Ingredients
1/4 cup cold butter, cubed (plus additional for greasing dish)
3 Fuji apples, peeled, cored, & sliced thin 
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
*if you have apple pie spice, use 2 tsp intead of cinnamon and nutmeg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (I used g-free flour)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly butter a 2 qt round baking dish. In baking dish, toss apples with lemon juice, granulated sugar, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.  

In a food processor, pulse flour, oats, brown sugar and salt until combined. Add butter and pulse again until mixture resembles coarse meal. Spread oat mixture evenly over fruit and bake until fruit is tender, juices are bubbly and topping is crisp, 45 to 50 minutes.

Spiced Apple & Pear Crisp

I made this for the family, because I had too many apples and pears in my fridge. We paired it with a scoop of low fat vanilla ice cream! It was delicious, and low in calories... A "guilt-free" dessert!! I even ate some for breakfast the next morning. Enjoy!

Here's the recipe...
Serves 8-10

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small cubes, plus more for buttering the dish
3 Fuji apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I used 2 gala & 2 pink lady)
3 ripe but firm pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon grated ginger (I only used 1/2 tsp, bc of the girls)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly butter a 7-x 11-inch baking dish. In a large bowl, toss apples and pears with lemon juice, granulated sugar, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spoon fruit mixture evenly into prepared dish and set aside.  

In a food processor, pulse flour, oats, brown sugar and salt until combined. Add butter and pulse again until mixture resembles coarse meal. Spread oat mixture evenly over fruit and bake until fruit is tender, juices are bubbly and topping is crisp, 45 to 50 minutes.

Nutrition Info

Per serving: 270 calories (100 from fat), 11g total fat, 7g saturated fat, 25mg cholesterol, 70mg sodium, 43g total carbohydrate (4g dietary fiber, 25g sugar), 3g protein