Cast Iron Skillet Brownies

I got a cast iron skillet for my birthday recently, and I wanted to go ahead and start wearing it in! This is the first recipe
I've made out of it, and other than having some messy edges, it turned out great. The recipe I used can be found HERE, and I followed directions exactly.


My suggestion would be to keep the temp LOW in those first few steps. Like I said, I did have some of the crusts stick to the skillet, but that just means I can keep those all to myself while other people eat the inside. In regards to brownies, pizza, and cheesecake, I am happy with just the crust. : )

Enjoy!

Carrot cake....turned rogue

2 posts in the same week - can it be? I don't know what happened, but the creativity switch is currently flipped to "on". How exciting.

I wanted to make some carrot cake, not necessarily to celebrate all the Easter bunny related foods out there, but because it's delicious. Carrots on their own: mediocre. Carrots doused in sugar, baking magic, and cream cheese frosting: no words can describe.

However, I had a roadblock when I discovered I'm out of sugar! So, I have turned this into a "lighter" (much lighter, actually) version of the original carrot cake. I have replaced oil with applesauce, and sugar has been replaced with Splenda. In total, each BIG muffin is about 170 calories. They are actually quite dense and filling, not like a normal "cakey" muffin.
I had roasted some carrots earlier today, and used some of them instead of fresh. I think it just gives it a deeper flavor, but for simplicity sake, I will just write the recipe using fresh carrots, to avoid the hour of roasting.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS (makes 6 BIG muffins):
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup applesauce
1 cup splenda baking sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup carrots - grated
powdered sugar for appearance

1. preheat to 350
2. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg)
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the final ingredients until smooth
4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry until just mixed (don't over mix....don't you dare)
5. Pour into 6 big cupcake tins, or 10-12 regular sized and bake for 20 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean