Vegan Persimmon Cake with Meyer Lemon-Blood Orange Marmalade

It's the beginning of citrus season and the end of persimmon season, and after seeing a recipe for an olive oil cake with marmalade on Serious Eats, I knew I had to veganize it!

Beet Cupcakes

I love beets, and I had this image in my mind of a beautiful, fuschia beet cupcake, topped by fluffy white cream cheese frosting.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Salted Caramel Frosting

Nate has a sweet tooth. A horrible, horrible sweet tooth. Personally I try to refrain from eating a lot of sweets (I would choose cheese over chocolate, if I had to pick a vice), but thanks to Nate I am constantly churning out dessert after dessert. 

On the one hand it's fun, because I get to keep my baking skills up to chop. But on the other hand, it's dangerous, because even if you aren't crazy about sweets, it's impossible not to have at least one slice of, say, homemade butterscotch pie...

Anyway, the pie was finished a few days ago, and Nate decided he wanted whoopie pies next. I've never made them before, and I think the only time I've ever had one is when Starbucks inside our grocery store is giving away their pastries at the end of the day. I used this recipe for the cookie/cake part, and this recipe for the filling, with a slight modification (see below). 

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Salted Caramel Frosting

First, mix together the dry ingredients: Flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Beat the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy.

In a small container, mix together 1/2 cup lukewarm coffee and some buttermilk. Alternating between adding the flour mixture and the coffee/buttermilk mixture to the butter/sugar mixture. Once mixed, put into a bag and pipe onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Take out of the oven and let cool completely.

Make the frosting. I made the frosting from this recipe, but whipped 1/2 cup heavy cream and folded it into the frosting at the end, to achieve a nice fluffy texture. Put the frosting into a pastry bag and pipe onto one cookie/cake round, then top with another, pushing down until the frosting reaches the edge.

The cake is dense and moist, the fluffy filling is sweet and salty in a way that helps cut through the richness of the cake. Highly recommended, especially with a cold glass of milk or iced tea!

Healthy Cherry Lemon Coffee Cake

I bought a pound of cherries at the farmer's market last weekend, and they sat in my refrigerator getting softer by the day until I just HAD to do something with them, before it was too late!

I had originally wanted to make hand pies, but the thought of making and rolling out a crust for all of those little pies was just....thoroughly unappealing.

Cherries are deliciously tart and sweet on their own, but so many of the recipes I came across required cooking them down in cups of sugar.

Then I found a recipe for Healthy Cherry Coffee Cake. No crust, no need to cook the cherries!

I made some tweaks — subbing olive oil for the butter and a combination of whole wheat and unbleached flour for the white, for example — and the result was a light yet hearty tasting Cherry Lemon Coffee cake. The lemon flavor really comes through, and the cake has a nice dimension of nuttiness thanks to the whole wheat flour and oats.

Healthy Cherry Lemon Coffee Cake

First, you need cherries!

I used twice as many as the recipe called for, because they were about to go bad. This made the cake a little soggy (because of the extra cherry juice!) so stick to one cup. You'll need to pit the cherries.

Just use a paring knife to cut the cherries in half, then remove the pit from whichever side it remains lodged in. 

It's time consuming, and lots of juice will get on your hands...

but aren't they just GORGEOUS?

Set the cherries aside, and combine the wet ingredients, along with the sugar and lemon zest, in a large bowl.

Fat free sour cream, olive oil, lemon juice, lemons zest, egg, sugar, honey, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined.

Then add the dry ingredients to the wet. The batter will be very thick. I chose to spread half of it in the pan, then layer with cherries...

...then cover with remaining batter.

The batter is very thick, so it might be easier to just add it to the pan all at once, and layer the cherries on top, gently pressing them into the batter.

Combine 1/4 C oats, 2 T brown sugar, and 1 T olive oil until crumbly; sprinkle over top of the cake.

Place in a 350° oven, and bake about 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Yum! 

So, was it as good as coffee cake made with butter, white flour, full fat sour cream, and all white sugar instead of honey?

Well... no. BUT!!! It is a perfectly tasty, healthy substitute for when you just can't pass up the chance to bake a yummy treat!

Full Recipe

Healthy Cherry Lemon Coffee Cake

Topping:

2T light brown sugar

1/4 cup old fashioned oats

1T olive oil

Cake:

1/4 c Honey

1/4 c sugar

1 1/2 T olive oil

1 cup of fat free sour cream

1 large egg

1 Tbsp vanilla

2t lemon juice

Zest of 1 lemon

3/4 c whole wheat flour

3/4 c unbleached flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

dash cinnamon

1 cup of pitted cherries

Preheat oven to 350

Add honey, sugar, olive oil, sour cream, egg, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest to large bowl. Whisk until combined. 

In a separate bowl, mix together flours, bakin powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon until blended. 

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir just until incorporated. The batter is VERY thick - almost like the batter for drop biscuits.

You can either: spread half the batter on the bottom of an 8" round or square pan (sprayed with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper), layer the cherries, and cover with remaining batter OR spread all of the batter in pan and top with cherries.

Mix together oats, sugar, and olive oil until crumbly; sprinkle over top of batter.

Place in oven and back for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown.