ZoëBakes | eat dessert first | eat dessert first

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake

May 26, 2020May 26, 2020 zoe 2 Comments

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake is the perfect way to celebrate #blueberrycheesecakeday (yes, that’s a thing, a very good thing!) This cheesecake is full of both fresh and frozen blueberries to mark the special day dedicated to one of my favorite desserts. #ad Blueberries are one of those ingredients that need nothing more than themselves to be special. The color adds natural drama and the sweet-tart flavor is a dynamic pairing with the creamy cheesecake. I made a bright purple sauce by cooking frozen blueberries with nothing more than a touch of sugar and lemon zest, so the blueberry flavor is intense. I always have blueberries in the freezer for pies, smoothies, and occasions just like this. I swirled the sauce into the cheesecake batter so there are stripes of flavor and that gorgeous color throughout. After piping whipped cream over the top I covered it with big, fresh blueberries to add that juicy snap of flavor, plus they’re a beautiful and fun way to garnish the cheesecake. WATCH ME CREATE THIS BLUEBERRY SWIRL CHEESECAKE IN MY Instagram Highlight Video!

No Flour Required Dessert Recipes

March 29, 2020April 2, 2020 zoe 2 Comments

Gluten free desserts can be delicious, even if you don’t follow a gluten-free diet. With the right recipes and ingredients, you can make tasty cookies, cakes and pastries of all kinds. I put together a collection of some of my favorite gluten free desserts to satisfy whatever you are craving. (Recipe for Pavlova below). Read More

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan Too)

March 26, 2020March 26, 2020 zoe 1 Comment

It’s the perfect time for comfort food and these Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies from Stephanie Meyer’s The 30-Minute Paleo Cookbook are the ultimate snack to satisfy. They are super decadent and rich with flavor because they are made with almond butter. The cookies, like everything Stephanie creates, is gluten-free, in fact, these have NO flour at all and can also be made vegan. Stephanie is a friend, a sista blogger and the master at batch cooking healthy meals. She is one of the most spectacular home cooks I know, and her recipes are always absolutely delicious. The recipes in the book just happen to be Paleo, so if you have dietary restrictions all of her recipes will work in your daily meal planning.

Stephanie’s over-arching goal is to help people transform their health by cooking real food at home. Amen! The 30-Minute Paleo Cookbook is a great introduction to experimenting with fresh-food cooking and seeing how doable and delicious it is. Her Project Vibrancy Meals meal plans are a mapped-out system for making that happen most days of the week. The plans include menus, shopping lists, simple recipes, clean-up and storage instructions, and a community of supportive and knowledgeable people. I am a baker and not a cook, so her meal plans help me get actual food on the table, so my family has more than cake, pie, cookies, and bread! 😉

Find out more about her Project Vibrancy Meals This is the perfect time to be cooking great food for your family.

Here’s a link to give her Project Vibrancy Meals meal plan for FREE.

One of the things my family likes most about her meal plans are the sauces she makes, so I’m so excited she created a book of just her Kickass Condiments: 20+ Little Recipes That Change Everything.

Stephanie kindly shared the recipe for her Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies (you can also make them vegan) recipe below and I have a video of making the cookies on my @zoebakes Instagram account.

Easter Dessert Recipes

March 25, 2020March 31, 2020 zoe Leave a comment

Especially here in Minnesota, Easter is one of those first milestones of spring. By this time of year we are getting some warmer weather, and that makes it a great time to make colorful and floral desserts. I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite Easter dessert recipes that you can make for the holiday, or are any of those first nice spring days. Read More

Buttercream Rose Cake

March 23, 2020March 23, 2020 zoe 1 Comment

Today is my best friend’s birthday and nothing short of a Buttercream Rose Cake will do. This is also the perfect cake for Easter, which is just around the corner. Creating the buttercream roses and other flowers requires a bit of special equipment and some practice, but this is just the kind of activity that relaxes me and I hope you agree. I’ll walk you through building the cake that will be the canvas for your floral top and then show you how to create the buttercream and roses.

I have some tutorials on my Instagram page, but you can find even more information on my youtube channel (links for each step below). Read More

Chocolate Beet Cake with Ganache

March 15, 2020March 31, 2020 zoe Leave a comment

There are two camps when it comes to beets and each is fiercely committed to their opinions. One side loves the sweet, jewel-toned, earthiness of the root vegetable and usually order them at every opportunity. That’s the camp I’m in. I LOVE beets. Then there are the folks that don’t. This Chocolate Beet Cake with Ganache by Susan Spungen from her gorgeous new book, Open Kitchen: Inspired Food for Casual Gatherings, will bring the two camps together in perfect agreement. It is so delicious and despite my selfish desire to have the beet flavor shine through, it is so subtle, it just leaves a super-rich and moist cake that everyone, no matter their feelings about beets, will love. Plus, it is so gorgeous, how could you refuse to try it? Once you do, you’ll go in for seconds.

The art of tempering chocolate (this is when melted chocolate sets at room temperature and stays shiny) seems like a next-level task, but Susan brings it into the home kitchen with great ease. Like anything you are trying for the first time, it takes a bit of getting used to it. I will walk you through it in my Instagram video and Susan’s directions are terrific, so give it a try and see how satisfying and beautiful the curls are. You’ll end up using this technique for so many desserts. The finishing touch on the Chocolate Beet Cake with Ganache is a dusting of beet powder. When I was flipping through Susan’s book this cake jumped off the page because of the velvety red finish of beet powder. It is actually quite easy to find too (see link and recommendations below).

For those of you who are not familiar with Susan Spungen by name, you are certainly familiar with her work. She was the editor of Martha Stewart Living, she is the go-to food stylist for Hollywood, having created all the incredible food in Julie & Julia, Eat Pray Love and many others. Open Table is a beautiful book about casually entertaining, but with incredible style. I’m such a fan of her and her lovely book. Susan generously gave me permission to share the recipe with you, which you’ll find below. I also made the cake in a video which you’ll find on my Instagram account. Read More