Homemade "Nutella"

Okay, so I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely LOVE Nutella! When I was in Europe, all we ever ate for breakfast was basically Nutella with bread, or Nutella on a spoon, or on a banana, or....the list goes on and on.
For those of you not so crazy about it, or don't know what it is, it is a chocolate hazelnut butter, its more like a tasty, creamy, smooth chocolate hazelnut amazing-ness. It is made in Alba, Italy....I almost went to go visit that town, but unfortunately I wasn't able to make it. However, locals from a nearby city informed of the fact that as soon as you get off the train in Alba, the AIR smells like Nutella! Can you imagine!
Anyways, here's the recipe for the nutella...and did I mention it is vegan AND gluten-free?! Yep.

Ingredients:
2 cups roasted hazelnuts
1/2 cup (or more, depending on taste) dutch cocoa powder
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/8 cup almond milk, or person preference milk
2 TBS vanilla extract
1/2 cup fine sugar (not powdered)
1/2 cups chocolate shavings (or chips, but shavings are better)

Steps:

1. Take off as much of the brown "shell" off the hazelnuts as much as you can. I do this by rinsing them in a bowl for a few minutes, then rubbing a few hazelnuts at a time between two towels. This takes awhile, and it may not be perfect, but get as much as you can off.

2. Blend the hazelnuts with the coconut oil and vanilla extract very well. Think peanut butter consistency.
3. Add remaining ingredients and blend till smooth! I adjust the taste as I go, so you could add more sugar if desired, or more milk to make it smoother. The balls in your court!

4. Put on ANYTHING and enjoy. I love it on waffles, bananas, and on a spoon. :)


Did you try this recipe? Tell me what you think below!

GF Birthday Cake

This last year for my birthday, I decided to make myself a GF Birthday Cake....Some people found it weird that I would make my own birthday cake, but this I wanted to do it myself and experiment while I was at it.

I ended up making a black and white layered cake, with a reduced mixed berry filling, a ganache filling, and topped with fresh whipped cream, dark chocolate, and fresh blackberries. It was SO yummy, if I do say so myself! Almost everyone who tried it was absolutely in love with it, and it is something I must remake at some point. I only wish I took pictures during the process to share those. Anyways, here are the pictures below:

German Chocolate Cake and an Update

I know, I know....this post is long overdue!....The holidays and the new year and school just kept piling on (like it always does) that I had to take a blogging break. SO....

Now that that is over and this is the beginning of a new, I have decided to be a little bit more intentional and proactive about keeping up the blog and posting my latest creations. So, that said, I will be posting on every FRIDAY morning a new blog post to start off with, and see where that goes. As time progresses, I might add on an additional post on Mondays, so you will just have to come back and check. 

Anyways, lets get to the cake. I made this cake for a special Christmas party I attended which makes this cake extra special....because, well, I didn't make it GF or Vegan like I usually do. However, this cake can easily be made gluten-free by simply replacing the flour with a GF blend. 

So, here it is:  

I adapted the recipe from David Lebovitz who is amazing chef...Follow the link for the recipe! 

This cake turned out amazing, except I added cocoa powder to the flour mixture to make it more chcolately....there can never be enough chocolate in a chocolate cake! Also, if you're going to try it, do set aside about 2ish hours, it is a little time consuming...but totally worth it! Enjoy.