This bunny cake has been a tradition in our home since the kids were babies. I do use a bunny shaped cake pan, but there are plenty of good directions for forming a bunny from 2 round cake pans.

I make a chocolate cake, with coconut cream frosting (milk-free, of course). Topped with shredded coconut of various colors, this cake is a big hit with adults and kids alike! I got the idea for coconut from my mom, who every year made a chocolate layer cake covered in coconut, and surrounded by green coconut “grass.” It looked like a sleeping lamb, and so was an appropriate Easter dessert! I put a spin on the idea with this bunny cake.

Enjoy the rest of your Easter day! Jesus is risen, Alleluia!

Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake

Skill Level: Beginner                         Prep Time: 15 Minutes

• 2 cups  sugar
• 1-3/4 cups  all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup  HERSHEY’S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons  baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons  baking soda
• 1 teaspoon  salt
• 2   eggs
• 1 cup (coconut) milk *my variation*
• 1/2 cup  vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons  vanilla extract
• 1 cup  boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350°F.  Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans (or, if you have a bunny pan, grease and flour that!)
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of  mixer 2 minutes.  Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).  Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool  10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks.  Cool completely.  Frost with “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” CHOCOLATE  FROSTING.  10 to 12 servings.

ONE-PAN CAKE:  Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan (or bunny pan).  Heat oven to 350° F.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely.  Frost.

Milk-Free Coconut Cream Frosting

(If you really love red cupcakes and want to see the original gf recipe that included red dye, and more sugar than I like to use, you can find the recipe here.)

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 c. coconut oil (or vegan shortening/olive oil)
• 1/2 cup blended cherries or strawberries
• 3/4 c. sugar
• Stevia or Xylitol, 1-4 tbsp (optional)
  
• 2 eggs, beaten (room temp)
  
• 1 and 1/4 c. brown rice flour
• 1/2 c. almond flour
• 3/4 c. tapioca starch
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. flax meal (or xanthum gum)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 c. dairy free “buttermilk” (1 Tbsp cider vinegar mixed with 1 c. milk substitute)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 Tbsp. cocoa

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 can coconut cream (Not coconut milk, coconut cream. If you don’t have access to coconut cream, see direction below.)
• 1/4 c agave necter/honey/yacon syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla

Frosting Instructions:
(Make the frosting first, since it needs to sit in the refrigerator).

1. Take a can of coconut cream, and scoop it into a bowl. Make sure you only get the thick cream, don’t mix in any liquid. Whisk in the sweetener and vanilla until blended.

**If you only have access to coconut milk, you can still make the dairy free custard. You just at least 3 cans of FULL FAT coconut milk. The cream will rise to the top, so when you open the can, scoop out the more solid cream. Leave the liquid, and save it for another recipe. Do this with all 3 cans, and you should have enough cream to frost the cupcakes.

2. Using a electric blender, beat the coconut cream until well blended, and it forms little peaks.

3. Put it in the refrigerator. The longer it cools the better, as it will form a thick, custard like consistency. (It will melt when heated, so do not frost warm cupcakes.)

Baking Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Use an electric mixer to cream the oil, sugar, vanilla stevia and blended fruit.  With the mixer still going, add one egg at a time and beat until the eggs are thoroughly incorporated. (This step creates an emulsion that holds the batter together)

3. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl (including cocoa).  Make sure they are well mixed. I usually whisk the flours, but it’s even better if you can sift them.

4. Add the flour to the wet mixture in 3-4 parts. Alternate the flour with the “buttermilk” (almond milk and apple cider vinegar). You should begin and end with dry ingredients, and make sure to mix in everything completely before you add the next part. (If you were to start with the liquids the emulsion would break.)

6. Pour the batter into a greased cupcake tin. (Or, you can use silicone cupcake molds. I like them better. They take up less storage space, they’re easier to get the cupcakes out whole, and you don’t usually need to grease them.) Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 25-30 minutes. (If it’s done, a toothpick stuck into the middle of a cupcake should come out clean.)

7. The each cupcake has cooled completely, frost with Coconut Cream Frosting.

Banana bread with coconut cream frosting. It was technically Paleo, although the frosting (made with honey) was definitely a lot sweeter than we’d normally allow.

For the first few minutes, all he did was eat the frosting. Who could blame him?

Then he took both hands and attempted to shove the entire piece of cake in his mouth at once!

Om nom nom nom…

The incredible disappearing cake.

Almost gone…

That was good, Mama!

And then he had seconds. Hey, it’s his birthday, and he LOVES bananas.

All finished! And off for a sugar honey and banana-fueled present opening session. Happy first birthday, Oliver!

Edit: Here are the links for the banana bread recipe and the coconut cream frosting recipe. For the frosting, I halved the recipe and used honey instead of agave.

Perfect little cupcakes

Paleo Carrot Cake Cupcakes (~12 cupcakes)

• 1 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/8 cup grapeseed oil
• 1 1/2 cup carrots (grated)
• 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (you could also mix in raisins or walnuts)

Preheat the oven to 350* and line a muffin pan.

In one bowl, whisk together the almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, honey, and grapeseed oil. Mix the flour mixture with the egg mixture. Add in the carrots and coconut, mix until combined. Divide between baking cups, and put them in the oven! Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Coconut Cream Frosting

I found this recipe over at Elana’s Pantry, and I’ll be perfectly honest- I was a little skeptical when I put it in the fridge to chill. But it did exactly what it was supposed to do and turned out to be quite tasty.

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup agave nectar
• pinch sea salt
• 5 tsp arrowroot powder
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1¼ cup coconut oil

In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk, agave and salt, simmer for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine arrowroot and water to form a smooth paste. Pour arrowroot mixture into saucepan. Whisk vigorously to combine, then bring to a boil, briefly, until shiny. Remove pot from heat and very gradually blend in coconut oil.. Allow pot to cool for 10 minutes. Place pot in refrigerator for 45-120 minutes, until frosting solidifies and turns white. Remove from refrigerator and blend again until fluffy.
Spread over cake or cupcakes.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Frosting

Paleo cupcakes…almost a guilt-free dessert??

With happy confidence, I removed the tube cake pan from the oven then up-ended it on a funnel to cool. I turned my back to wash up the mixing bowls when I heard a sucking noise behind me. I looked around and saw that the cake had slipped out of the tube cake pan and had landed squishily on the table, the  empty pan hanging loftily on the funnel now surrounded by cake-lava. Deep inside the cake  I saw the shiny trails of uncooked egg whites and I realized that it wasn’t the absence of baking soda. I had remembered it. After scraping the mess into the trash, I thought it over. What went wrong? I immediately concluded that the oven thermo-sensor was faulty. I didn’t say “This oven’s thermo-sensor is faulty!”  Actually, I said “$#*!” This alerted David upstairs, whose hearing is acute and whose truthfulness is equally devastating, to announce to his parents, “I think something is wrong with the cake!”

I made a second cake in the evening, after a suitably decent time had elapsed for the Cake Baker to recover her nerves. To reverse my bad luck,  I used  the convection rather than the conventional oven setting. It took a bit longer than it should have in a convection oven but at least it was done. But by this time, everyone had had their fill of birthday pizza and champagne! Into my champagne I dropped a sugar cube–I’ve always wanted to do this ever since I saw Moonstruck– and it bubbled up romantically, fizzing fireworks in a champagne flute.  Alliteration notwithstanding, we were all too full to eat cake at 9 p.m. so after the appropriate picture-taking for all blog-sterity, the cake went into the refrigerator to be eaten for dessert tomorrow.

Brian's coconut cream birthday cake, #2

To make my iteration of coconut cream cake, first bake a lime chiffon cake. Rather than write it out again, I’ve made a link to the recipe. Then make the frosting. To make the frosting, make one recipe of crème fraîche.

1 1/2 cups heavy cream (at least 36% milk fat)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar

Add all ingredients to a large bowl. Let it rest, refrigerated, for 15 minutes. Whip until stiff peaks form. To make the coconut frosting, use one package (yields 1 cup) frozen young coconut jelly, thawed and drained. Discard the water and spread the drained coconut on a tray lined with paper towels. Cover with paper towels and pat dry. It’s important that the coconut jelly is dry and doesn’t make the crème fraîche runny. Frozen young coconut can be purchased at Asian supermarkets.

Set aside 1/3 of the crème fraîche. To the bowl, add the coconut jelly and mix thoroughly. Split the lime glow chiffon cake in half and spread the bottom half with half of the coconut-crème fraîche frosting. Put the top of the cake on top of the frosting. Spread the remaining frosting on top, being careful to just go to the edges. Frost the sides of the cake with the reserved crème fraîche.

Coconut Cream Cake

The result is a cake that is lightly sweet with a hint of lime and coconut. For a deeper coconut flavor I would add a few drops of coconut extract to the crème fraîche.

Fall Color at Artist's Point, Washington

What’s Up Today?

Saturday, Sal and I got up early and went for a day trip to Artist’s Point up near Bellingham.  SR 542 goes up to the Mt. Baker ski area but there is a road that goes higher than the ski area that is open from July through the end of September.  This year, the weather has been milder so this weekend was the last weekend that it would be open.  I packed my Master Cleanse lemonade and pineapple/pepper

juice along with chlorella tablets and water.  This seemed to work out well although when Sal stopped at a Hawaiian restaurant on the way there and ate fried rice and sweet and sour chicken in the same car a

s I was in…it was difficult.  It smelled so good!  And again, it’s not that I’m hungry, its just that it smelled so good.

Artist’s point is absolutely stunning!  The leaves had turned orange and yellow and red but since it is so high in altitude, the bushes are all low to the ground so the colored leaves looked alot

Stunning views with Sal and Mister

like wildflowers in the spring time.  We brought the dogs and there were so many people at the top, Sal didn’t feel comfortable letting them out so he stayed in the car while I hiked a bit.

At the top of this one trail, I could see for miles around and it was completely silent and peaceful and I was in total BLISS!  I didn’t want to leave it was so awesome.  It was partly cloudy and Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan were socked in at the top but I guess when it is clear you can see both of them and there are stunning views of ‘forever’.

The wild blueberries were right at the end of their season so we hiked a small trail in and picked them.  I juiced them with my teeth and spit out the pulp. It was soooo tasty and wild and fresh!

Wild blueberries at the end of their season...YUMMY!

I wanted to collect a whole bowl to juice but we didn’t have time.  While we were picking on the side of the mountain, we looked across this huge ravine to the other side of the mountain and we saw a Grizzly bear!  It was HUGE!

We must have been at least a mile away from him but he was so big we could see him move and duck down to eat berries, and look around. It was awesome!

The black dot towards the middle is the Grizzly Bear.

Sunday we celebrated Nicole’s birthday since she was in Portland for her birthday on the 23rd.  I made a carrot cake with the pulp from the carrot juice I had juiced earlier.  I have to admit that I tasted it as I was making it…I had to make sure it tasted alright.  I didn’t eat that

much and what I did eat, I swished around in my mouth then spit it in the sink.  I found a list of ingredients for this pulp cake on the internet but it didn’t give measurements and I didn’t have all of the ingredients so I made my own recipe.

It really was good…now I have to figure out what to do with the carrot cake now that Nicole is gone and its just Sal and I and I can’t eat it.  LOL  I made a coconut cream frosting for the top that was superb.  Both recipes are below.

Pineapple/red bell pepper juice YUMMY!

What I Ate Yesterday…

• Water:  24 oz.
• 24 oz. pineapple/red bell pepper juice (absolutely scrumptious!)
• 40 oz. Master Cleanse lemonade
• Chlorella tablets
• 16 oz. Miso soup flavored with green onion, garlic, fresh cayenne pepper, and coconut oil
• 16 oz. coconut water with green powder

What I Ate Today…

• Water
• 32 oz. greeen drink with rainbow chard, green apple, ginger and parsley
• 16 oz. carrot lemon juice
• 16 oz. miso soup flavored with chives, garlic, fresh cayenne pepper and coconut oil
• Several tastes of raw carrot cake and cream frosting that I made for Nicole’s birthday…then removed from my mouth  LOL  uh-oh!

How I felt…

Today was a relaxing day…very peaceful.  Kind of slow and melancholy because it was dark and rainy and windy.

I’m not sure about the miso soup that I am craving lately.  I think because I am nearing the mid point of my cleanse my body is wanting probiotics.  I am craving miso soup, kim chi and all sorts of fermented things.  I am giving my body what it is craving and hoping that what I am doing is ok.  Plus because it is so cold, I am wanting warmth and the strained organic miso soup really hits the spot.

My Physical Body…

I woke up early this morning and I decided to love my body and do a complete cleanse, head to toe because My Body is my temple and it is my job to take care of it.  It was awesome spending the quiet time doing all of these things for my body.  Sal was sleeping and the dogs were tired from yesterday so it was very peaceful.  I created a new page called Total Body Temple Cleanse Instruction in case anyone wants to know how to do any of these cleansing routines.  I loved the raw exfoliation facial cleanse that was totally natural.

Total body temple cleanse:

1. 1 gallon colon cleanse
2. Neti pot nasal cleanse
3. Raw exfoliation facial cleanse
4. Hot sea salt bath body cleanse
5. Liver cleanse

Reflections…

Such a nice weekend!  Very relaxing…no running around..spending quality time with Sal. 

Three Things to Be Grateful for…

1. My wonderful husband
2. The gorgeous Pacific Northwest mountains
3. I am just grateful to be living here is the magical land

peaceful, calm, grounded

Final Thought for the Day…

Carrot Pulp Cake

Carrot Pulp Cake with Coconut Cream Frosting

• 4 cups carrot pulp
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup fresh coconut (or desiccated)
• 2/3 cup dates
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup ground flax seed
• vanilla
• salt, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

In a food processor with the S blade, mix the carrot pulp, coconut, dates, and half of the walnuts with enough water to get the desired consistency of cake.  Blend in the raisins, the other half of the walnuts, the ground flax seed and the vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Set aside.

Coconut Cream Frosting

• 2 cups raw cashews
• 3 tbs. agave nectar
• 1/4 cup coconut butter
• 1/4 + cup coconut water
• 1 tsp. vanilla powder or non alcohol vanilla flavoring
• pinch of Celtic Sea Salt

In a high speed blender, blend all ingredients at high speed until creamy.  Add more water or coconut water if necessary.

Press the carrot cake into a cake pan and top with frosting.  You can pop it into the freezer for a more solid cake or eat it as is for a tasty raw moist cake.

ENJOY!

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Love & Blessings,

Vicki Ramirez