Sharing Plate – Your Cooking Coach |

I took this cake to a friend’s house the other day. I wasn’t sure if I would be in the mood to bake anything and was prepared to purchase one instead. The day before we were going for the dinner, I checked with her what she was cooking. That usually helps me coming up with something. Turns out she was serving falafels. Baklava came to mind but I am not a huge fan- I like it once in a while but usually the store bought ones are too sweet and baking them at home is quite labor intensive. I wasn’t looking to spend too much time in the kitchen.

Honey cake came to mind- I researched the internet and looked for something suitable. As I came up with this recipe, I realized this cake would be very appropriate for Rosh Hashanah. It is soaked with a honey orange syrup and the cake itself has orange zest and walnuts. The cake is made with healthy ingredients including white whole wheat flour, raw sugar and extra light olive oil.

The cake was delicious- everyone loved it. It was light yet very moist due to the honey orange syrup.

Try it for the upcoming holiday…
Click here for the recipe… »

My daughter keeps reminding me how I have not baked any dessert recently. She is right… I feel if I bake something.. then I have to eat it and I really don’t want to … so I don’t end up making anything. It is better not to have anything at home to tempt you through the day or after a meal.

So, when some friends were coming over for a cook out, I started thinking of dessert. I thought about just cutting up some watermelon which is really delicious and healthy but I wanted to do something a little different but keep it healthy at the same time. I decided to cook the fruit and make a compote. I had apricots and pineapple in the fridge.. I added some honey, orange juice and cardamom. I love cardamom with fruit.. it gave a delicious floral undertone to the compote. I chilled it and served it with a dollop of creme fraiche. It was a perfect dessert. It satisfied the sweet craving but definitely did not break the calorie bank. A perfect end to a delicious meal….
Click here for the recipe… »

This is a fabulous dessert to make for the summer. First of all there isn’t that much cooking involved and it is super easy to make.

Full disclosure, I didn’t make this one. My sister in law brought it to the barbecue we were having. She was in charge of the dessert. I had shared the Thai theme with her and she told me she will try her best to come up with something suitable.

Well, this combination was great. She tweaked a Ina Garten recipe and came up with her own. She added coconut milk to yogurt and cream. I love the addition of yogurt, it makes the dessert very light and creamy. The coconut milk gives it the Thai flavor I was looking for. You can substitute low fat yogurt and light coconut milk if you want to reduce the calories- the taste will be the same.

To top the panna cotta, she made a delicious mango lime sauce. Mango is a perfect choice since it is season and abundantly available. She used canned pulp but fresh mango can be pureed and used as well. I would use 2 to 3 mangoes instead of the pulp. The sauce was a perfect complement to the coconut vanilla dessert. It wasn’t too sweet- just right. It was a delicious end to a wonderful meal.

Try the vanilla coconut panna cotta for dessert this long weekend…
Click here for the recipe… »

The Royal wedding is tomorrow and a friend suggested I repost this old scone recipe for the occasion. I love eating scones but certainly don’t like all the calories… This is my healthy version. You can slather a huge amount of clotted cream and not feel too guilty. Enjoy these with a cup of English tea and enjoy the wedding. Speaking of the wedding, will you be up early morning or will you dvr it??

When it comes to eating out- one of my all time favorite things to do is- afternoon tea. I love the tradition and of course the food! I love the idea of sitting in a very adult and pleasant place; drinking tea and eating all the finger sandwiches and scones. When we were in London and Scotland, I made sure to go a few times for high tea. I usually get the darjeeling tea; all the sandwiches I can eat and of course – my favorite – currant scones. The subtle flavor is just enough to enjoy them with lots of jam and clotted cream. Oh- how I love the clotted cream- if it wasn’t so bad for me- I would eat it all the time. There is a place in Chester, NJ that serves great afternoon tea- I have not been in a very long time- now that I am writing this piece- I will be going very soon!

Typically scones are made with all purpose flour and lots of butter. The texture is crumbly and a bit dry- perfect combination for jam and cream. I do have a recipe I have been meaning to try for a long time- it is for traditional English scones given by my English Aunt. For whatever reason- I have never made them at home. Recently, I had a friend ask me if I could post a scone recipe on the blog. I remembered the one I have from my Aunt and thought about using the recipe- but I realized it has a lot of butter … and somehow it didn’t appeal to me. I started looking for other recipes but nothing stood out. Then, one day I had an overripe banana and I didn’t want to make my usual banana bread – so I thought- maybe I can bake some scones with it. Bananas are sweet and I wanted to pair a tangy ingredient to make the scones eatable without jam or cream- more like a snack- actually I was trying to save myself the clotted cream calories!- so I came up with dried apricots. I switched the all purpose flour for white whole wheat flour and decided to cut back on the butter a bit- this recipe does not have that much at all. I also decided to add some white chocolate chips- somehow using apricots made me think of white chocolate- they added a nice burst of sweetness to the scones.

Overall the scones were good- moist and not overly sweet- the bananas helped with the soft texture. I think next time I bake them- I might add an egg glaze on top with some extra sugar. They would be a bit more aesthetically pleasing. In terms of taste, they were delicious- Sia loved them and I gave them to my husband for breakfast- which he loved!

Click here for the recipe… »

My daughter’s class is having a mini celebration for St. Patrick’s day with green bagels, green grapes and green juice. As I was volunteering to send some Irish butter, my daughter expressed her disappointment about not having some green cupcakes for St. Patty’s day. So, of course as a responsible (and gullible) Mom, I volunteered to bake some. She was overjoyed as we decided to check with the teacher first.
Once we found out it was a go- I started looking at recipes online. There was one in Martha Stewart’s site that looked good. I decided on making the mini ones- no reason for 23 kids to be running around with tons of sugar in their bodies.

The recipe was enough to make two batches of 24 mini cupcakes. I didn’t have two of the same 24 cupcake pans so I decided to make 24 mini and 6 regular sized cupcakes. That way the two teachers can have regular sized ones. I used my usual white whole wheat flour, evaporated cane sugar and extra light olive oil. If you want to use butter instead- one cup is equivalent to 2 sticks. I also added zest of a Meyer lemon to give the cupcakes some extra flavor. If you don’t have a Meyer lemon, use a lemon or an orange instead. The frosting was delicious with cream cheese, vanilla extract and the butter- yes, I used butter in here- there is really no substitute for it in frosting. Overall the cupcakes looked beautiful with the bright green sugar on top.

St. Patrick’s Day reminds me of my all time favorite vacation to Ireland. It is the most beautiful country with super friendly people I have ever been to. We flew into Shannon and stayed in a beautiful town called Dingle. It is a gorgeous little town that has the most amazing restaurants and vistas. We ate amazing food and for someone who is not a beer gal, I drank it with every meal. I feel the urge to go back every year around this time as I hear tourism ads on the radio to Ireland and feel the weather changing.

I guess I will look at the green cupcakes and think of the gorgeous landscape in the beautiful country, Ireland. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you!!!
Click here for the recipe… »