Tag Archives: cinnamon

Apple Layer Coffee Cake

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Talk about a disaster. I wish I took a picture of this cake when it got totally defaced. It would have been a perfect picture to go next to “disaster” in the dictionary.

Apple Layer Coffee Cake | Beautiful Disasters

This cake took me about 2 hours to bake. Yes, 2 HOURS!

Apple Layer Coffee Cake | Beautiful Disasters

I originally thought it would take just about 1 hour, but nooo, you have been warned.

Apple Layer Coffee Cake | Beautiful Disasters

All my talk really should not deter you from this cake, because despite the trouble it gave me, it may be one of the most delicious things I have ever put in my mouth.

Apple Layer Coffee Cake | Beautiful Disasters

Holy apples. I put just about as much apple in here as it could take, which is why I think it took so long for mine to bake, because the apples were so juicy and the moisture was just not letting the batter bake. Granny smiths may be better for this recipe, but I used a mix of gala and honey-crisp and it was prime.

Apple Layer Coffee Cake | Beautiful Disasters

Apple Layer Coffee Cake

(Makes 1 Large tube cake)

4 Tablespoons brown sugar

5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups white sugar

pinch of salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup vegetable or canola oil

1/3 cup apple cider

4 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

5 small-medium apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin

  1. Preheat oven to 325˚ F and grease and flour a large tube pan.
  2. In a small bowl, with a fork, mix cinnamon and brown sugar until fully combined and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Mix in oil, apple cider, and vanilla extract. Add the eggs, beating well after each addition.
  4. Slice peeled and cored apples and set aside. Spread a third of that batter into the bottom of the prepared tube pan. Arrange a layer of the apples over the spread batter, sprinkle 1/3 of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over apples. Add another layer of the batter of cinnamon-sugar mixture, then another layer of apples and another layer of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Add the final layer of batter, then sliced apples, then generously sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar over top.
  5. Bake cake in preheated oven for 90-100 minutes, or until heavy, set, and the batter is baked up. Try sticking a toothpick through to see if batter comes out on the toothpick tester. Because the apples can have quite a bit of moisture, it can be difficult to tell when the cake is done, so it may actually take a lot longer than the given time. Mine took 2 hours to bake up, it all depends on your oven and how juicy your apples are. Let baked cake cool for about 10 minutes in pan on wire rack, then place cake pan on top of a long neck bottle (like a wine bottle) to let cool for about 30 minutes. Slide a knife around the edges of the pan and invert cake onto serving plate. Enjoy! When not eating, cover with plastic wrap.

Apple Layer Coffee Cake | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: The venom of a small scorpion is much more toxic than the venom of a large scorpion.

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Cinnamon Coffee Cake Quick Bread

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I’m all about quick breads.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Quick Bread | Beautiful Disasters

Especially during these painful days of Lent. My parents always give up treats for Lent, which I used to always do too, but now that I have completely given up meat, treats are fair game. However, baking a full batch of brownies, cupcakes, or cookies is basically asking for a heart attack since I am the only one available to consume said brownies, cupcakes, and cookies.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Quick Bread | Beautiful Disasters

Enough about me. Quick breads are great and super easy to whip up. Having a loaf of banana bread, pumpkin bread, or this fabulous coffee cake bread, are all awesome to have on your counter ready to take a slice out of for a quick snack or easy breakfast on the go. My dad is a huge coffee cake fan, so I knew this would be a big hit with him. I had a hard time keeping him from devouring it before I got pictures.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Quick Bread | Beautiful Disasters

Even though the swirls may seem like they’d be an extra step, everything is super easy where you just layer and layer the batter and cinnamon-sugar mixture. Enjoy and happy Friday everyone! :)

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Quick Bread

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a little less than 1 cup of skim milk mixed with 1 Tablespoon white vinegar  (or 1 cup buttermilk)
1 cup brown sugar
2 heaping tablespoons ground cinnamon

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. I used a silicone loaf pan, but I still sprayed mine just in case.
  2. Whisk the flours, baking soda, and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside. Mix the milk-white vinegar mixture and vanilla in a small bowl and set aside. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. Using the mixer, cream the butter and white sugar together. Mix in the eggs. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix to combine, then add 1/2 of the milk mixture. Repeat this and end with the flour. Pour 1/3 of the batter into the prepared pan and top with 1/3 of the cinnamon mixture, repeat so that the final layer of cinnamon mixture is the topping on the bread. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Quick Bread | Beautiful Disasters

Random Fact of the Day: Cow is a Japanese brand of shaving foam.

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Homemade Cookie Butter (Version 2)

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If you have not tried cookie butter or Biscoff spread I REALLY have no idea what you are doing with your life!

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I have made my own recipe for homemade cookie butter before, it was a pretty mellow, mild recipe. For those of you who are spice lovers, this newer recipe is for you! I will not just go out and say this tastes just like Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter or Biscoff’s Spread, but it does taste pretty darn good.

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Cookie Butter

Cookie Butter

In fact, it tasted so good that I ate like half of it straight with a spoon…some people may call this a problem. Eek, whateverrrr I made quite a couple health-nut recipes last week, so I’m just keeping the scale balanced.

Homemade Cookie Butter (Version 2)

1 box (14 oz.) Gingersnap Cookies (I used Trader Joe’s Triple Gingersnaps)

1 1/2 Tablespoons Vegetable oil

1 1/2 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1 1/2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 Tablespoon Molasses

1/2 cup-3/4 cups water

  1. In large food processor, process cookies into fine crumbs. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.  Process until blended. Continue to process while adding molasses and oil through top-spout.
  2. With processor running, add just enough water so mixture becomes a creamy consistency.  Add more water as needed until you reach desired texture (about the same as peanut butter consistency).
  3. Store cookie butter in jar or airtight container, keep in fridge. Enjoy!

 

Random Fact of the Day: Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the U.S. since 1916 when a man mailed a 40,000-ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates.

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Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Bread

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CinnamonSwirlPumpkinBread_zps2888b50bI enjoy movies, I really do. But I have a real big problem with certain movies.

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The ones with the unnecessary blood and killing. For example, about 50% of the scary movies ever made. Yes, I understand they are *supposed* to be scary, but c’mon, do you really need to kill the girl, her boyfriend, her 2nd cousin twice removed, and ant on the wall? No, I do not need that much blood and killing to be scared. A simple peek-a-boo from out of the closet will scare me plenty, thank you.

CinnamonSwirlPumpkinBread_zps83a1563f

But I guess I do not really have much of a say in this matter, as I am not much of a frequent horror movie watcher. I prefer the Pixar, or romantic comedy-type movies. Sometimes I even like action if I’m feeling crazy and wild, but that’s about as intense as I get with movies. I’m still scarred from just hearing the noise from when my sister and dad would watch the Saw movies.

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Well, anyways, I made some cinnamon swirl pumpkin bread that is perfect for those you who have health-related New Years Resolutions. This bread is full of whole wheat flour, no butter, and all of the wonderful health benefits of pumpkin. Plus it has cinnamon which is like pumpkin’s BFF so get wild and crazy with those two and start 2013 off right.

Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Bread

(Slightly adapted from Hungry Hannah)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

a pinch of ground cloves

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup hot water

1 teaspoon baking soda

FOR CINNAMON SWIRL:

1/4 cup white sugar

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly spray a loaf pan with baking spray. 
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together oil and honey. Whisk in eggs, vanilla, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Add in both flours until thoroughly combined.
  3. In a small liquid measuring cup, microwave 1/4 cup water for about 35 seconds. Stir in baking soda and let it fizzle. Stir into batter.
  4. For the cinnamon swirl, in a small bowl, simply mix together 1/4 cup white sugar, 2 Tablespoons brown sugar, and 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Set aside.
  5. Pour half of the bread batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle most of the cinnamon swirl mixture on top. Then spread the remaining bread batter over the cinnamon swirl layer. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon swirl mixture on top of loaf. Bake in preheated oven for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool and slice.

CinnamonSwirlPumpkinBread_zpsbd088ac0

Random Fact of the Day: The name Joshua is Hebrew for ‘Jesus’.

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Double Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

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Thank you to all of you who entered in my giveaway! I will be choosing the winner today and announcing the winner either today or tomorrow. Good Luck ;)

I’ve mentioned before that my dad is one of my best critics. He says it how it is. No mercy! (<– I mean that in the BEST possible way)

When he doesn’t say something straight up, you can just tell he doesn’t like it. In this house, whenever something is on the counter for more than 3 days, you can tell it was not a success.

I think I may have gotten the strongest reaction, EVER, from my dad for these muffins. He was seriously in love with these. There were 10, then all of a sudden I walked in the kitchen and there were 3…!

Little does he know that I used all whole wheat flour (muahaha) so these actually weren’t too bad for the big guy. I know these muffins will for sure be showing up again in our home!

Double Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

(Makes about 10 regular-sized muffins)

1 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/2 cup buttermilk (See Note)

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

FOR STREUSEL:

1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 10 muffin cups.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the streusel ingredients (1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 Tablespoons oil). A fork works well to combine all these ingredients. Set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. In a separate small bowl, combine buttermilk, egg, and vanilla extract. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients until just combined.
  4. Fill each muffin liner 1/2 full, sprinkle a layer of about 1 Tablespoon of streusel on top, cover streusel with about a Tablespoon of batter, then finish by topping off all the muffins with the remaining streusel.
  5. Bake for 15-17 minutes in preheated oven or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging.

Note: I did not have buttermilk, so I took a little bit less than 1/2 cup skim milk and combined it with 1/2 Tablespoon white vinegar. Worked great!

Random Fact of the Day: Nearly 50% of the world’s scientists are assigned to military projects.

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