Birthday Cake and Ratatouille's Ratatouille!

This is all Smitten Kitchen, I'm not allowed to take ANY credit whatsoever. Deb is such an amazing cook and simply looking at her pictures makes me so excited to get on home and bake or even cook, now that I've become slightly more adventurous.

We had my brother's girlfriend over for dinner last night for the first time, even though they've been dating for 4 months! So I wanted to make something special for her. Although my 2-layer cake didn't end up perfectly 2-layered, it was still a fun night and even the ratatouille which I struggled with a bit, due to my horrible time-planning and overly ambitious nature, was a success!

Here are a few pics from the evening, and since I really made no changes to these already fabulous recipes, here are the original posts. Yes, I know they are much more beautiful than mine. ;-)

Perfect Birthday Cake with this scrumptious Frosting and Ratatouille's Ratatouille

Happy Baking!

Jessica

Treat of the Week for Work: Healthy Zucchini-Walnut Bread

Yesterday, my amazing coworkers brought me a fresh zucchini from a neighbor's garden- it was organic and HUGE! I was so thrilled to have such a fabulous ingredient to bake with, and they suggested I use it for zucchini bread- yum! I scavenged around a bit to find a good recipe and discovered a wonderful and healthy bread, that ended up tasting amazing.

My favorite thing about this recipe is how healthy it tasted- not in a gross, bland way, but in a way that I knew I was eating something that wasn't stuffed with preservatives or sugar- perfect! :)

The only changes I made to the original recipe were to half the sugar and exclude the cinnamon (yuck!) since I knew the apple sauce would sweeten it on its own. And instead of lemon extract, I subbed in vanilla- I love me some vanilla extract! (It just always adds that homey and warm essence that I love)

Zucchini-Walnut Loaf

(adapted from Eating Well)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup grated zucchini, lightly packed (about 8 ounces)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 2 mini 6-by-3-inch loaf pans with cooking spray.
2. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.
3. Whisk egg whites, sugar, applesauce, oil and lemon extract (if using) in a medium bowl. Stir in zucchini.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients; slowly, mix in the zucchini mixture with a rubber spatula. Fold in walnuts. Do not overmix. Transfer the batter to the prepared pans.
5. Bake the loaves until a toothpick comes out almost clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 5 minutes, then turn out onto the rack to cool completely.

Give it a try and I guarantee you will love this for a nice breakfast on the go!

Happy Baking!

Jessica