Leftover CakeTruffle

I had some leftover cake and cream from Brown Velvet Cake, the best way to utilize them was to make truffle. But it turned out to be a truffle cake.

Ingredients

• Any kind of plain cake (preferably with cacao)
• 1/2 lb cream cheese 
• 1/4 cup whole butter milk
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of walnuts

Preparation

Put leftover cake in a blender and blend until it is crumbled.

Put chocolate chips in a small sauce pan (I used coffee pot) and put this into a boiling water in a larger pot. 

Melt the chocolate.

Take a large bowl add sugar, buttermilk and cream cheese and beat. Then add minced walnuts, melted chocolate and crumbled cake. Knead it until all ingredients mixed well.

I did not have cupcake pan, so I used small glass containers to give them shape. Cover the container with stretch film, so it will be easier to take them out.Then put a layer of coconut, dough and coconut again. You can do as many layers you want. Then cover the top with the stretch and keep in the freezer all night. Your cake will be ready next day, enjoy!

Almond Milk

I had two New Year's resolution, first one was to be vegetarian and second was to do a whole30. However, I realized these two do not work together well. So, I failed both. However I lost 10 pounds, while trying. It does not look like a failure at all:) During my six days of whole30 (that is right, I couldn't even survive one week), I have learned how to make almond milk and wanted to share.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup raw almonds
• 4 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 dessertspoon maple syrup, honey or molasses (optional)

Preparation

Soak almonds in a water about one day. After one day, you will be able to peel them easily. 

Put them with one up of water in a blender and blend couple of minutes. Then add rest of the water and other ingredients and blend couple of minutes more. 

You can drain it with a cheese cloth and a strainer and squeeze. I did not do it, since I prefer a thick one. Enjoy!

Brown Velvet Cake

I have tried to make red velvet cake. Since I did not want to use food coloring, I used beet juice. But, it did not work. However it still tastes good, worth to share.

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 dessertspoon sea salt
• 1/2 dessertspoon baking soda
• 1 dessertspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups of beet juice
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 cups of confectioners' sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole buttermilk

For the icing

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 lb cream cheese
• 4 cups of confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup whole buttermilk

Preparation

Take a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until it gets fluffy, then add butter at room temperature, keep beating. Lastly add buttermilk and vanilla extract and beat until they all get mixed well. In a small bowl mix cocoa powder and beat juice and add this to the mixture and beat. 

Take another bowl and put a strainer on it. Put flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder into the bowl through the strainer. This will help them to mix better. 

Finally add this flour mixture to the other mixture and beat until it becomes a soft dough. Take a baking pan and put some butter and flour on the surface and pour the dough in it and bake in a 350 F preheated oven about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes stick a toothpick into the cake, if it comes clean, your cake is ready. If it is not, bake another 10 minutes.

In the mean time to prepare icing, beat butter and sugar in a bowl, then add buttermilk and cream cheese. Keep beating unless it gets creamy. Keep this mixture in the fridge about 1 hour. 

When your cake is baked, take it out of oven and let it rest about 30 minutes until it gets cold. Take it from the baking pan and with the help of a glass make round pieces. I preferred to do in that way, because I had a wide pan with short edges. But if you use a higher pan, you can do it all at once. 

Take a dental floss and cut the pieces in half.

Put the icing in the middle and close them. You can put icing on top or allover. You can decorate with cinnamon or cocoa powder.

Enjoy!