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Low Carb Chocolate Cupcakes

Wendy has been sticking to her KETO diet lately, and I’m proud of her for being so disciplined.  Although she hasn’t cheated (as far as I know), she has talked so much about chocolate cake that it won’t be long before she does.  She has one specific cake on her mind.  The cake she is longing for is one that was brought into work several months ago by one of the managers at our office.

That cake had a special ingredient…

Zucchini

When Wendy admitted to not knowing that there was a difference between liquid and dry measurements, I knew I would need to step in to help.

I told her I would try to duplicate the recipe.

On Tuesday she handed over 5 small zucchini,a zip top bag filled with cocoa powder, and a bottle of Stevia concentrate.  Seeing that she was serious, I committed to create this cake for her.

My low carb chocolate cupcake recipe was adapted from Lisa’s Low Carb Yum Best Low Carb Chocolate Cake Recipe.

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes, contains 96 calories, and 2.5 net carbs.  It requires planning ahead because unless you bake low carb/sugar-free regularly, you probably won’t have all the necessary ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup low carb sweetener (1:1 sugar replacement)

1/4 teaspoon Stevia concentrated powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)

8 large eggs (beaten)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups zucchini (shredded)

Using my food processor I shredded 4 small zucchini which is apparently the secret to making this low carb cake recipe so moist.

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk coconut flour, sweetener, Stevia concentrate, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt.
  3. In a separate container whisk eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla until smooth.
  4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
  5. Stir in the shredded zucchini.
  6. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling about halfway.
  7. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
  8. Cool on wire rack.
  9. Once cool, frost with chocolate buttercream frosting, if desired.

I highly recommend frosting with chocolate buttercream frosting.  The recipe is from Lisa’s Low Carb Yum, is unbelievably tasty, and completely worth the extra calories!

 

 

Low Carb Chocolate Cupcakes

  • Servings: 24
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

1 cup coconut flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup low carb sweetener (1:1 sugar replacement)

1/4 teaspoon Stevia concentrated powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)

8 large eggs (beaten)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups zucchini (shredded)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.

In large mixing bowl, whisk coconut flour, sweetener, stevia concentrate cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt.

In a separate bowl whisk eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla until smooth.

Combine wet and dry ingredients.

Stir in zucchini

Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling only halfway.

Bake for 15 18 20 or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack. Once cool, frost with chocolate buttercream frosting, if desired.

prettyis.me

 

 

Wendy had a happy day!

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

LB’s Birthday Weekend

LB’s birthday is on January 26th.
January 26th happened on a Saturday this year, so I was able to be home with him and start his special day with  a special BREAKFAST.
Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes were on the menu.  Courtesy of Mrs. Butterworth’s and a can of Dole Sliced Pineapple!He loved his pancakes!
And he loved opening Birthday Gifts!He looks SMASHING in his new jacket…
And is very excited about his new GOOGLE Home Mini!The Birthday Boy spent his day playing with ‘Hey Google’.
I assumed we would go out for dinner and live music later that evening, but he didn’t want to venture out in the cold.  He requested homemade pizza for dinner.
And he chose the German Chocolate Tres Leches Cake from a list of cakes that “you MUST TRY”.
It is delicious!

I’ve included the recipe courtesy of Taste of Home so we can make it again:

German Chocolate Tres Leches Cake

  • Servings: 16
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

  • 1 package chocolate cake mix
  • 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
  • 1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
  • 1/4 cup rum
  • 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
  • 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare and bake cake mix according to package directions, using a 13×9-in. baking pan. Cool on a wire rack.
  • Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk milks, 1/2 cup cream and rum. With a wooden skewer, poke holes in cake about 1/2 in. apart. Slowly pour milk mixture over cake, allowing mixture to absorb into cake. Let stand 30 minutes. Refrigerate, covered, 8 hours or overnight.
  • In a small bowl, beat remaining cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners’ sugar; beat until stiff peaks form. Spread over top of cake. Sprinkle with coconut and pecans.

 

The LB Birthday Weekend theme song was When I’m 64.

It was completely appropriate for the occasion.

 

 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

 

Chocolate Lava Cake 101

Chocolate Lava Cake is a dessert that I decided I wanted to learn to make.  A google search that began with “how to…” lead me to “how to learn something new everyday”.  I decided that learning something new everyday sounded like a good idea.  Do you know how much information you consume every day?  Today I read that we are constantly consuming information in amounts that can be measured in gigabytes.  In case you didn’t know, one gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Click here for a more detailed explanation.

To put this into perspective, 1 gigabyte equals an entire pickup truck filled with paper (source).  According to this site, we consume 74.92 gigabytes of data every day. That’s enough to fill 74 pickup trucks filled with paper (source).

Wow.

For LB the number is likely doubled.

“Boy Genius”

 

 

What does this information have to do with the [blog post title] Chocolate Lava Cake?

Nothing.

But it may appeal to any technical enthusiast that happens onto my blog.

 

Also it has everything to do with learning something new.

That said, welcome to

Chocolate Lava Cake 101

What you’ll need for class:

•             no stick cooking spray

•             cocoa powder (for dusting)

•             8 Tablespoons butter

•             2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

•             2 ounces semisweet chocolate

•             1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

•             3 eggs yolks

•             2 eggs

•             1 teaspoon vanilla

•             1/2 cup all-purpose flour

•             Recommended for topping: vanilla ice cream, berries, whipped cream

Here is how it is done

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Spray four ramekins with non stick spray and place on a baking sheet.

 Dust ramekins with cocoa powder.

Microwave the butter, bittersweet chocolate and semisweet chocolate in a large bowl on high for about one minute, until the butter is melted.

Stir until the chocolate is also melted.

Stir in the powdered sugar until well blended.

Mix in the eggs and egg yolks. 

Add the vanilla…

and the flour…

and wisk.

Divide the mixture among the ramekins.

Bake until the sides are firm and the centers are soft, 11-13 minutes.

Let cool 1 minute. Invert onto plates or serve in the ramekin while warm…

 with one or all of the recommended toppings.

And now you know about chocolate lava cakes as well as gigabytes.

We’ll be well rounded in more ways than one.

 

 

Chocolate Lava Cake

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

•             No stick cooking spray

•             cocoa powder (for dusting)

•             8 Tablespoons butter

•             2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

•             2 ounces semisweet chocolate

•             1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

•             3 egg yolks

•             2 eggs

•             1 teaspoon vanilla

•             1/2 cup all-purpose flour

•             Recommended for topping: vanilla ice cream, berries, whipped cream

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Spray four ramekins with non stick spray and place on a baking sheet.  Dust ramekins with cocoa powder.

Microwave the butter, bittersweet chocolate and semisweet chocolate in a large bowl on high for about one minute, until the butter is melted. Whisk until the chocolate is also melted. Stir in the powdered sugar until well blended. Whisk in the eggs and egg yolks.  Add the vanilla. Stir in the flour. Divide the mixture among the ramekins.

Bake until the sides are firm and the centers are soft, 11-13 minutes. Let cool 1 minute. Invert onto plates while warm and serve with recommended toppings.

prettyis.me

 

 

 

Special thanks to Lacie at easypeasypleasy.com for the lesson on “How To Add And Embed A Printable Recipe To Your WordPress Blog”.

 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to stop by my blog.

Pumpkin Pound Cake

Friday I said I was planning to make this

Pumpkin Pound Cake

Saturday afternoon I did!

It looks great right?

I’m not going to take credit for a recipe that isn’t mine, but you may find the author of this pumpkin cake here.

Here are the instructions that I followed:

  1. Preheat the oven to 325°.  Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt cake pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine flour (3 Cups), baking powder (2 tsp), baking soda (1 tsp), salt (1/2 tsp), cinnamon (2 tsp), nutmeg (1/2 tsp), ginger (1/2 tsp), cloves (1/4 tsp); set aside.
  3. In mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream 2 sticks of  butter, 1 cup of sugar, and 3/4 cup of brown sugar until light and fluffy.
  4. Mix in 5 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  5. Mix in 1 15 ounce can of pure pumpkin and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixture. Continue mixing on medium speed until the batter is smooth and well blended. Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick or cake tester comes out clean when inserted in center.

Once again, I can’t take credit for this cake recipe.  I think it is very delicious, but it belongs to The Spruce who has several good recipes, and you can this one find here.

You’re welcome!

It looks pretty good.

And it tastes great.

That buttery maple pecan glaze is delicious.

Here are the instructions for the glaze:

  1. In a small saucepan, combine 4 Tbsp butter, 3 Tbsp maple syrup, and 3 Tbsp heavy whipping cream; bring to a boil. Continue to boil for 1 minute.
  2. Remove from heat and sift 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar into the hot mixture. Whisk until smooth. Let cool for about 15 to 20 minutes, until slightly thickened.
  3. Stir in 1/2 cup of finely chopped pecans (optional). Drizzle over the cooled cake.

And that is the way to begin a new season!

 

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