Lemon Crinkle Cookies–Mmmm…Mmmm!

I know this post is about cookies, but first I have to say that I hate mosquitos—like really, really hate mosquitos.

We took the kids camping for the first time, thinking a few nights in the wilderness would be super fun. We drove up into the mountains, found a beautiful site. We were right on the river, in a little forested area, with a big rock wall/hill behind us. The kids thought it was great exploring, hiking, playing in the water, and seeing all of the wildlife (we even had a new pet for a bit—Nutty—a super cute and super brave chipmunk).

And then there were the mosquitos. Those merciless, ruthless, blood thirsty mosquitos. I mean, seriously?!?! I swear that these were no ordinary mosquitos—we went through a whole bottle of our homemade bug repellent and then almost a whole bottle of the “other stuff”. My legs look like someone took a bingo dopper to them! I’m pretty sure that Aaron thought I was being a bit melodramatic when I announced that we would be cutting our two-night trip into a one-nighter.

Once we made it home and had washed off the outdoors, he looked at my legs and said, “Ohhh…that’s why you were so miserable.” This, coming from the guy who doesn’t have a single bite on him.

So, as Aaron has been sitting around with his non-itchy self, I decided to console myself with something scrumptiously soft and sweet. And who knows, maybe the distraction of being in the kitchen would get my mind off the incessant itching?

These cookies are pretty much perfect! I found the recipe here and knew it would be super fun and easy to use some oils to reach the perfect lemonyness. I’ve actually made them several times now, and the cookies are sweet, soft, and leave you wanting another (self-control—who needs it?).

What super scrumptious recipes leave you with no self-control? 😉

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

• Servings: 2 dozen
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Adapted from The Sweet Life

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
zest of 1 large lemon
1/2 cup Earth Balance butter
1/4 cup apple sauce
10 drops Young Living Lemon Essential Oil*
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

With the paddle attachment on your mixer, beat together sugar, lemon zest, and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add apple sauce, Lemon Essential Oil, and vanilla extract, scraping down the sides as necessary. Mix until fully combined. Turn down the speed to low and slowly add dry ingredients. Once all flour is added, turn up to medium speed and mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix. Taste the dough, and if it’s not quite lemony enough, add a few more Essential Oil drops.

Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Take about 1 rounded tablespoon of dough and shape it into a ball. Toss it in powdered sugar, thoroughly (and almost excessively) coating the dough ball and place on baking sheet. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes until edges are firm. (The cookies will be light in color and should look a bit underdone.)

*If you’d like to learn more about Young Living Essential Oils and why I like them for all things, including cooking, click here.  If you don’t have any Young Living Essential Oil, you can click here to sign up to buy some. Otherwise, you can substitute with 2 TBSP of fresh squeezed lemon juice.

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.

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?

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Raspberry Lemon Coconut Cake

Happy Mother’s Day! Normally, the whole family comes over, we sit on the back patio with our drinks and appetizers, and the kids (and adult kids) kick the soccer ball around and throw the Frisbee. The men are all responsible for meal prep, serving, and clean-up…with one exception…dessert—usually something rich and chocolaty. I just can’t seem to give up control over dessert! 😉

This year, however, went a bit different. The whole family still came over, kids and adults still played, the men still did the meal, and I still did dessert. The two exceptions this time? First was the snow!!! I know, right?!?!? Snow on Mother’s Day—who knew? The second was the rich chocolate. This year I thought I’d try to usher in a bit more of the warm weather with a sweeter/lighter flavored dessert.

I actually made this cake a few weeks ago for one of my best friend’s birthday party, and it was a huge hit. It was so scrumptious, and we all liked it so much that I knew I had to have it again—soon! The lemon, raspberry, and coconut are such a great compliment to one another, and they scream warmer weather to me!

The original recipe for the cake is truly not vegan, and I had a bit of a time making the changes—the original pictures show the cake as a four layer cake. My cakes didn’t rise near enough to slice into layers, so I stuck with a simple two layer cake…but they’re a great two layers! When the cakes come out of the oven, they look a bit airy (I don’t know another way to describe it), but given time to cool, they hold up nicely. If you want to shoot for a true multi-layer cake, I’d suggest my vegan vanilla cake.

When you make your layers, and you spread the preserves on the bottom layer, pipe some frosting around the edge of your cake and then over the top of the preserves. After spreading the preserves on the cake, you won’t be able to spread the frosting without it sliding all around. Once you put your second layer on, frost away! Don’t worry about making it all smooth and pretty—you’re coating the cake with toasted coconut! I started out trying to make sure my frosting was smooth on top and all around…until I realized that it was going to be covered! 🙂

 

Truly Scrumptious Raspberry Lemon Coconut Cake for Mother’s Day!

• Servings: 12
• Print

adapted from Not So Humble Pie

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 ½ tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup almond milk, room temperature
1 tablespoon vinegar
½ cup applesauce
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
Zest of two lemons
1 stick Earth Balance butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

Lemon Buttercream
6-8 cups powdered sugar
4 sticks Earth Balance butter at room temperature
½ cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup raspberry preserves (strained for seeds, if desired)
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut, toasted

Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 350°F. Coat two 8″ or 9″ pans with butter or nonstick spray and line the bottoms with a circle of parchment. In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a second small bowl, combine the almond milk and vinegar and set aside. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add in the applesauce. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the sugar and lemon zest and mix for a minute on medium speed until fragrant. Add the butter and cream together on medium speed for 4-5 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon extract and then grab your bowl of flour and almond milk/applesauce. Reduce the mixer’s speed to slow and add 1/3rd of the flour. Once moistened, increase the speed to medium and mix until incorporated. Then add 1/2 the almond milk mixture and beat until the mixture is uniform. Repeat with the remaining flour and almond milk, alternating until you’ve finished with the last 1/3rd of the flour. Mix the batter for a further 2 minutes to ensure it is lump free and well aerated. Divide the batter evenly between your baking pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Place the cakes on wire racks to cool. After a five minutes, run a knife around the outside of the pan to release the cake and remove from the pans. Allow to cool right side up until room temperature.

To make the buttercream:

Place the butter in the bowl of your mixer and mix for several minutes on medium speed. Decrease the speed, and slowly begin adding powdered sugar, one cup at a time. As the butter and powdered sugar begins to thicken, slowly pour in some of the lemon juice, ¼-1/2 cup. Beat for 3 minutes, adding more powdered sugar to stiffen the frosting or more lemon juice to thin.

 To assemble the cake:

Place the bottom layer onto a cake plate and tuck strips of parchment paper under the cake to protect the plate while frosting. Spread the raspberry preserves onto the bottom layer of the cake and then a layer of buttercream. The trick to layering buttercream on top of a slippery layer of preserves is to put your buttercream into a disposable piping bag (or ziplock bag) and cut off a 1/3″ diameter opening. Starting in the center of the layer, pipe a coil of buttercream. Continue to coil tightly, round and round until you have an even layer of icing on top. No need to spread the frosting with a spatula using this method. Top with the second layer of cake and then crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of icing. Chill the cake until the icing is firm and then frost the cake with the remaining butter cream. Smooth the remaining buttercream over the cake with an offset spatula until it is level and smooth. Sprinkle the coconut over the top of the cake and coat the sides by gently pouring the coconut between your hand and the cake. The cake is best eaten the day it is made. If you need to store it, refrigerate it covered for up to two days, allowing plenty of time to bring it back to room temperature before serving.

 

In all truth, I had wanted to share this recipe before Mother’s Day so that others could enjoy the scrumptiousness too…but…you know how life goes? Sometimes things just don’t work in your favor!

So do you have a special treat that you whipped up for Mother’s Day? I’m always looking for something new! 😉

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??