Use this recipe for making different cakes or cookies

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It's been a while since I've added a recipe. I think we all have had a weird year. Mine started last year when my Mom died. Then my Dad died (it was less than 7 months apart). 

So I was living alone for over a year (starting last June, when my Mom was moved to a nursing home), something that I was not at all used to. So adding to my recipe blog somehow got lost in the shuffle. 

I still develop new recipes and perfect old recipes. 

This is one recipe I've been using for several desserts. It can be used for a cake (loaf pan or 8X8 pan) or cookies. It can be used for different flavored cakes and/or cookies.

I take 1/2 cup each of almond and coconut flours. I add 1/2 - 1 teaspoon powdered stevia (this is about the equivalent of 1-2 cups of sugar/syrup etc.), then I add 1/4 cup ground chia (this is an optional ingredient) and/or a tablespoon of powdered psyllium (not the husks) --  also optional. Add about 1 cup creamy peanut butter (I use 365 -- the whole foods store brand -- Organic Creamy Peanut Butter Spread -- unsweetened, of course) and about 1 cup of unsweetened Vanilla coconut "milk" (if you need more, add it slowly, like a tablespoon at a time, until it's the consistency of cookie dough or cake batter, depending on what you're making). I have a standing mixer and it mixes it better -- just be careful it doesn't splash -- but I can also mix it with a spoon. 

Add whatever flavoring you want -- one small to medium lemon (grated zest) for lemon, extract to taste for vanilla, 1/8-1/4 cup of cacao powder (or cocoa) for chocolate, 1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips (I use Luv stevia sweetened chips -- I'm only able to get them in cold weather on Amazon) for chocolate chips (with or without chocolate), also, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts and/or pecans in the chocolate chip version (or by themselves for nut cake or cookies) -- add maple extract/flavoring if you like. 

If you are making a cake, like a loaf or 8X8 cake pan with parchment paper (so that your food isn't touching aluminum) and put the batter in the pan, spreading it to fit the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1/2 hour (the loaf cake might need more baking time if it's thicker). If you are making cookies, shape the dough into rounds (the size you like) and place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1/2 hour. (Check them after about 20 minutes to preventing burning -- then 5 minutes more each time it needs more baking). You can also make muffins (lining muffin tins with parchment muffin liners) using the cake batter. You can take the lemon base and put in blueberries or other small bits of fruit (or berries) and make blueberry or mango or apple or whatever muffins. 

For cakes of cupcakes (same as muffins but with an icing), the icing recipe:

1 cup organic raw cashews
coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk) to cover the cashews
1/2 teaspoon stevia
flavoring (see above) 

Put it all together in a strong blender and blend until it's all liquified --- add "milk" if it's too thick, add cashews if it's too thin and whirr around again.