Carrot Cake Squares

Today, I made some carrot cake squares and infused them with cream cheese frosting.

I'm usually not a huge fan of carrot cake because the cake itself is usually really dry and the cake-to-frosting ratio is hit or miss. I feel like carrot cake relies on the frosting to be good, but you always have to topple the piece over on its side and plan your bites so they're not too sweet and not too dry...

Anyone else? Just me?

I thought that if I baked the cream cheese right in with the cake, it'll moisten it up a bit without me needing to add extra oil or butter, and give it a light frosting-y flavor that's balanced throughout.

Happy to report that it did!

(those little white chunks are bits of sweetened cream cheese)

Wanna make some? 

Here's what you'll need:

For the cake:

1. 1 cup finely shredded carrots
2. 1 cup sugar
3. ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
4. 2 eggs
5. 1 tsp vanilla
6. 1 tsp baking soda
7. 1 tsp ground cinnamon
8. ½ tsp salt
9. 1¼ cup flour

For the frosting:

1. 4 ounces cream cheese
2. ¼ cup sugar
3. ½ tsp vanilla
4. 3 tbsp flour
5. 1 egg

Here's what you'll do:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I used a 9x13 inch pan.
• Mix together the carrots, sugar, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla. 
• Add baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and flour into the carrot mixture and mix well. Spread the batter into your baking pan.
• For the frosting, mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, flour, and the egg. Pour it over the top of your cake batter, and use a knife or spatula to "marble" it (swirl it around.)
• Bake for 20-30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

I wonder how these will taste with some cardamom added to it... or ginger? If you try any variants, let me know!

Pineapple-Apple-Mint Juice

I've been in love with Blueprint juice for a while now. But it's hard to justify spending $11-$15 for a bottle of juice... no matter how life-changing, delicious, healthy, and magical it is. Blueprint is a treat. (The last time I drank some, I poured it into a shot glass to "savor" it. Crazy, I know.)

I bought the Pineapple-Apple-Mint juice the other day, gulped it down, and was distraught that I couldn't have this every day.

Wait, no. I can.

I decided to give juicing a try on my own, but I don't own a juicer. I have a blender and a strainer (and lots of patience.) I spent $35 on produce and herbs, and was able to make 6 batches of juice of about the same size as Blueprint. And, when you make your own, you have lots of room to experiment!

Before I went grocery shopping, I looked up which fruits are currently in season. Check your state's Farm Bureau to see what's fresh! Here's what I got:

My first concoction was an attempt to recreate the juice I had earlier this week.

Blueprint uses green apples (I think) but I wanted something a little sweeter, so I used red apples.

Juicing apples is a horrendously difficult experience without an actual juicer, so I don't think I'll be making this batch very often...

It's like trying to separate all the liquids from applesauce...

But after you strain it twice, it's delicious.

Best served chilled, poolside.

Blueberry Quesadillas

I felt a little brave today so I threw in some blueberries in a quesadilla.

And it was delicious. Slightly sweet. Very savory.

You only need a few berries (remember, they get smashed and spread out when you press the second tortilla on top.) I also added cabbage and peppers.

Top it off with pineapple salsa and chipotle sauce! Goldwater's makes a lot of interesting varieties of fruit salsa--peach, mango, raspberry, pineapple--and Herdez is my #1 for the usuals.

Orange-Pineapple Iced Tea

My sweet mama got me a batch of iced tea from Teavana (no caffeine!) and I need this now more than ever in the scorching Phoenix sun. I make a batch in a large pot and store it in glass bottles for the entire week!

Because these are all loose teas, it makes it really easy to mix flavors. Today, I mixed the orange and pineapple teas, along with some German rock sugar (it came with the box, honey works just as well!)

Let it steep in a pot for about 30 minutes (I like my teas potent) and strain into glass bottle when the liquid has cooled. The first time I made a batch, I wasn't thinking and poured it into a glass bottle while the water was still boiling... let's just say it took me several days to get the last of the shattered glass off the kitchen floor.

Here's to staying hydrated!

Lemon Veggies

6-ingredient dinner tonight: asparagus, sweet peppers, lemon, turmeric, coriander, and salt.

Goes well with lotus tea :)

Banana-Apricot Cake

I couldn't wait to get home today because I'd been daydreaming about this cake all afternoon.

4.8/5 stars with THIRTEEN HUNDRED REVIEWS?!??

Please. Get. In. My. Mouth.

It's super easy to make, but it takes about 3 hours! Plan accordingly :) I tweaked it a little bit (I used a different frosting, and added a few flavors to the cake itself.) Here's what I did:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter
• 2 1/8 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups buttermilk
• 2 cups mashed bananas
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbs ground coffee <<--tweak
• 2 tsp cardamom <<--tweak

1. Preheat oven to 275°F (I know that sounds really low, but it's part of the process!)

2. Mix mashed bananas with lemon juice, and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture. Add the ground coffee and cardamom. Stir.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until it passes the toothpick test.

6. Remove from oven and place directly into freezer for 45 minutes. 

For the frosting, I blended together apricots and cool whip! Decorate with more apricots, and you're good to go! You can see Cindy Carnes' original recipe here.