Consider these clementine cakes my apology for throwing that heaping pile of indulgent deliciousness in your direction last week.  When I tell you that these mini cakes are guilt-free, I mean they are completely guilt free.  They also happen to be gluten-free, refined sugar-free and flour-free (ok, flourless but I was on a roll there!). Did I forget to mention that they are also packed with protein and fiber?  I know, it’s too good to be true.

These mini beauties are adapted from a recipe made famous by the Domestic Goddess herself, Nigella.  As strange as it sounds, you puree whole clementines (after boiling the heck out of them!), mix that with ground almonds, a couple other baking staples and you have the most incredibly moist, flavorful mini cakes around.  Dip them in dark chocolate (packed with antioxidants!) and you have all the indulgence without the waistline impact.  Like I said: Guilt. Free.

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You will never guess the secret ingredient in this moist, fudgy, not-quite sinful chocolate brownie cake.  Never.  Besides, when I tell you what the secret ingredient is you probably wont believe me.  At least my lovely family that got to eat this cake didn’t believe me.  It wasn’t until after a few “Really?” “No way!” “Seriously?”s that it began to sink in.

Except, of course, for the birthday girl.  When you have an extraordinary cousin who is probably one of the coolest people around and you are lucky enough to call her family, you relish the opportunity to bake her a birthday cake and help her eat it on her birthday.  Now, what of the fact that she is a recycling vegetarian, sustainable-living, slow-food loving, farm friendly girl who knows her way around all corners of the food growing world? Clearly, bacon cupcakes were out of the question.  Did I mention that she was the only one who could guess the secret ingredient after just one bite?  Yep.  I told you, she’s awesome.

Lest this challenge seem easy, let’s not forget that her birthday also happened to fall on Passover this year thus removing the possibility of using leavening, flour or any variety of other baking staples.  An extraordinary challenge for an extraordinary girl … to that I say: Bring it!

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Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go right?  The days where the Person Upstairs has personally decided to open up the sky and say “I hate you.”  The days when good things happen to bad people.  The days when everything feels backwards and upside down.  Those are the days when you know that there is simply no way you are making it to bed without chocolate pound cake.

A word of cation: Days like these are also the same days where you are liable to drop the eggs on the floor, accidentally tip the flour mixture off the edge of the table, and turn the mixer on too fast thereby covering your kitchen (and yourself) in a mist of powder.  Don’t worry.  These things will probably happen, because it’s just one of those days.  But the good news, is that at the end of it all you will have the most sublimely perfect chocolate pound cake in your hands.  Your faith in humanity is restored.  Your ability to get through till tomorrow no longer seems in question.  Your soul is nourished.  Thanks to chocolate pound cake.

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I had never heard of Dorie Greenspan before last year.  This is clearly an indication of my lack of awareness of the world of professional baking rather than an indication of Dorie’s level of fame/success/kitchen-goddess status/baking prowess/general awesomeness.  Realistically, Dorie is probably one of the most well-known bakers around.  I just live under a rock … apparently.  Thankfully, some food bloggers got together and through their group, Tuesdays With Dorie, began working their way through Dorie’s latest masterpiece of a cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours, one recipe at a time.  Following these weekly postings from this mega-collection peaked my interest and immediately, this was my Number One cookbook request from Santa last year.

I have been waiting for the opportunity to break open this baking manual and a dual birthday celebration was the perfect excuse!  Since I had been given the go-ahead for a chocolate indulgence cake, I figured there was no better place to start than with the cake that started it all.  The picture on the cover that implores you to pick the book up, to open it, to buy it, just to find out about that cake!  In fact, I’m fairly certain that my dearest friend Em (who is quite the magnificent baker herself) bought the book because the cake on the cover looked so good!!

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When it comes to strawberry cake, there are a shocking lack of recipes that are truly made from scratch. Most recipes call for white cake mix, strawberry gelatin packages or mounds of strawberry preserves. Delicious as they may be, I was not willing to give in to the Sandra Lee mentality (though I know there are times when it is an absolute necessity), and I decided to experiment with some truly, from-scratch recipes to see if I could make a strawberry cake that was homemade (and delicious) without resorting to any strange gelatin packages or overly processed preserves.

I saw a suggestion on some web discussion board (probably Chowhound) to use another dense fruit cake recipe and substitute strawberries for the original fruit. With that in mind, I dove head first into a classic Paula Deen recipe for Hummingbird Cake, which is traditionally made with mashed bananas and pineapple. I switched the bananas and the pineapple for pureed strawberries, left out the chopped nuts completely, and substituted lemon zest for the cinnamon. I’m convinced that it would have been an outstanding success on the first try if I hadn’t first suffered through the Great Flour Debacle.

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