Lemon Blueberry Cake Donuts with Lemon Glaze Icing

I got some! Donut pans that is! 😉 Now I’m in the big leagues baby—no more mini bundt cakes or mini heart shaped donuts. It’s my b-day weekend, so of course, I had to ask for some donut pans (amongst other things), and of course, I had to put them to use immediately! As soon as I opened the gift, I knew what I’d be doing the next morning and I instantly started thinking about what was in the pantry and what I could make—because let’s face it—I wasn’t going to be running out to the grocery store first thing in the morning.
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I was also fortunate to get a kit of Young Living Essential Oils for my b-day. I’m in the very beginning stages of learning about all of the great uses and benefits to using the oils, and we’ve already seen some pretty neat results! Aaron has been a snorer (I’ve talked about that before), and a few months ago, a friend told us about an oil for him to put on his big toe. Weird, right? Well we tried it—and it worked! No more snoring! I was pretty much sold at that point! We did some more research, and since b-day time was coming, we waited to make any purchases. We’ve experimented with a few other things—I’m super prone to migraines…felt one coming on…put oil on my temples and back of the neck…within 5 minutes it was gone! Say what?!?! We diffused some oil during the kids “crazy” time of night, and I kid you not, without being prompted, they were calm, laying on pillows in the living room reading books. Pure magic, I tell ya!

My next “big” thing I wanted to try out was baking…could I bake something, incorporating the oils, that would be super scrumptious? Well, yes—yes I could—and did!

Enter the Lemon Blueberry Cake Donuts with Lemon Glaze Icing! I had no lemons in the house, so I opted for the Lemon Oil from Young Living Essential Oils. A few drops goes a long way, and they gave the right amount of lemony deliciousness while boosting the immune and digestive systems. Bonus!

The donuts and glaze are simple to make—another bonus! Since Jax says he doesn’t like blueberries, I opted to blend them with some sugar and melt them on the stove a bit to make a slight syrup to mix into the batter. When he realized that I was baking with blueberries, he started to get a bit sad. I explained that he wouldn’t be able to see them and that I baked them in. He was skeptical, but—drumroll—he loved them! Point for mommy! The others…well…they literally in-haled them! I barely had time to shoot any pics!

 

Lemon Blueberry Cake Donuts with Lemon Glaze

• Servings: 18
• Print

For the Donuts:
2 cups flour
2 TBSP baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup blueberries (frozen are fine)
¼ cup sugar
½ cup maple syrup
4 TBSP Earth Balance butter, melted
½ cup vegan sour cream
2 flax eggs (2 TBSP ground flax meal mixed with 6 TBSP warm water)
½ cup almond milk
½ tsp vanilla
4-6 drop Young Living Lemon Essential Oil*

For the Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 TBSP almond milk**
2-3 drops Young Living Lemon Essential Oil**

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350. Lightly grease your donut pans and set aside.
2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
3. In a small food processor or blender, combine the blueberries and sugar until fully incorporated and some small chunks/pieces remain. Transfer the mixture to a small saucepan and stir on low heat until the sugar melts, creating a syrup of sorts.
4. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, melted butter, sour cream, flax eggs, vanilla, almond milk, blueberry syrup mixture, and lemon oil drops.
5. Pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture and stir to thoroughly combine.
6. Fill the wells of the donut pan half full. The fuller the wells, the poofier the donuts, and the more likely the hole in the center will be filled in.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean. Allow to cool in the donut pan for 7 minutes and then turn out on a cooling rack to completely cool.
8. While the donuts are cooling, mix the powdered sugar, almond milk, and lemon oil to make your glaze.
9. Once the donuts are cool, dip one side in the glaze and set aside to let the glaze set.
10. Eat and enjoy! 

*If you don’t have the Lemon Oil for the donuts, you could try decreasing the almond milk to ¼ cup, and add in ¼ cup fresh lemon juice and 1 tsp lemon zest.
**If you don’t have Lemon Oil for the glaze, you could use fresh lemon juice in place of the almond milk.

I hope to keep experimenting with the oils and seeing what I can create to share with you. If you have questions about or are interested in Young Living Essential Oils, shoot me a message. In the meantime, have you baked with Essential Oils? What are your favorite recipes?

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Par-Tay Weekend with some Blueberry Lavender Lemonade!

Can you guess what we’re in for this weekend?!?! The kids are turning 7 (has it truly been that long????), and each day this weekend is filled with something birthday related. It sure is funny what a “party weekend” looks like now that we’re parents. Long gone are the late nights, fruity drinks, and 2am bagel bites (that is the best time to eat bagel bites). Now we’re onto mid-day themed parties, kid friendly finger foods, and pin-the-whatever-on-the-whatever the theme is.

Lucky for the kids, I do like to make things for parties! We love fun drinks…uhh…who doesn’t? So, keeping with my crazy lemon theme lately (what is that even about??), we whipped up a batch of lemonade. But, of course, we can’t stick with just regular ol’ lemonade, can we? Of course not! I love lavender lemonade, and I had a bunch of dried lavender left over from last summer (both from a friend and from stripping my own poor little lavender plants!), but I wanted to take it a bit further. I did a quick search on Pinterest, and I found this great little posting on Oh Happy Day that has three different lemonade recipes. They all sound delish, but I already had all of the ingredients for the third one, so Blueberry Lavender Lemonade it was!

I actually made two versions of the lemonade…I made it as the recipe describes (except I added an additional tablespoon of dried lavender…hee hee hee), and I made a version with lemonade concentrate in place of the sugar and the fresh lemon juice. The true to the recipe version was by far the bigger hit, and I ran out quicker than I had anticipated…sorry everyone! I suppose that goes to show how truly scrumptious it is!

You’ll have to excuse the glare on the glass surfaces in the pictures…I’m still working out this whole picture taking thing! But I did have a pretty curt sneak attacker as I was trying to snap a few pictures!

 

Blueberry Lavender Lemonade

• Servings: 7
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

(recipe taken from Oh Happy Day)

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoon dried lavender, plus additional for garnish**
1 cup blueberries, plus additional for garnish (about 1 cup)
1 cup lemon juice (I used fresh lemon juice)
6 cups water and ice
lemon slices for garnish

Combine sugar, 1 cup water, lavender, and blueberries in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring to make sure sugar has dissolved. Boil for a minute or two, until syrup is a deep purple. Remove from heat and allow to steep and cool, about 30 minutes. Strain out and discard lavender and blueberries. Combine blueberry syrup with lemon juice, water, and ice. Garnish with additional lavender, additional blueberries, and lemon slices.

**The original recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of dried lavender, but I’m a sucker for lavender, so I increased it to two!

So, with spring in bloom and parties on the horizon, what are your favorite party drinks?

He is Risen!!!

Happy Easter! It is a great morning here at our house! The kids woke up early, super excited to run downstairs to find their Easter baskets. The Easter Bunny did a great job hiding baskets throughout the house—the kids ran through the rooms opening doors and cabinets, turning over pillows, and tossing aside blankets. But, this year, EB was a sneaky, sneaky bunny—eventually mom and dad had to step in to help. 🙂

After the excitement of baskets, we all settled in to watch the story of Jesus rising from the grave—the questions, comments, and excitement of the kids are all so refreshing! They are so honest in their observations and making connections to their lives today. Makes for one proud mama (and papa!)!

Easter is also a time for our whole family to get together in celebration…so guess what else that means?!?! Baking time! To help foster in the warm springness of the season, it turned out to be a lemon filled weekend! I made all sorts of scrumptious treats that I’ll be sharing over the next few posts—lucky friends and neighbors who got to be taste testers will know what I’m talking about! 😉

To start our deliciousness off right, we begin with some lemon blueberry muffin cakes…holy moly! I highly recommend using fresh blueberries and fresh lemons—OMG! The combo go together so well making for a sweet, and just tart enough, morning meal. While making the muffins yesterday, I literally had to swat away little hands and fingers, making promises for the morning. While taking pictures, one of our dear little friends stood by vigilantly, making comments the whole time…”Those sure look yummy Ms. Erika”, “Can I have one NOW Ms Erika?”, “Look over there Ms Erika” (trying to trick me while she snuck one away!). Too cute…and her patience was finally rewarded! 😉

   

  

Lemon Blueberry Muffin Cakes

1 stick Earth Balance butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 TBSP grated lemon zest
¼ cup plus 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
¾ cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup applesauce
6 ounce container blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 baking cups with cupcake liners**.
2. Combine ¼ cup sugar and ¼ cup lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is slightly thickened. Let stand while you are making the muffins.
3. Combine the almond milk, remaining 2 TBSP lemon juice, and vanilla in a bowl.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in another bowl.
5. Beat butter, lemon zest, and remaining cup of sugar in a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add the applesauce, beating well after adding.
6. Beat in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.
7. Gently fold in the blueberries using a rubber spatula.
8. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake 25-30 minutes.
9. Transfer pan to a wire rack and brush the tops of cakes with the lemon syrup. Let stand for 10 minutes and remove from the muffin pan and allow to cool completely on wire rack

**I had slightly more batter than the 12 muffin tins, so I used the remaining batter to fill a mini-loaf pan.

These yummy breakfast (or anytime) treats pack some big flavors! What’s one of your favorite lemon combos??