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Very, very late post...

October 30th is my one of my best friends, Brent's birthday.  I told him for his birthday I would make him a little something.  What I love about Brent's palette is the fact that it doesn't matter what I feed him, he is always open to what I make vegan or not, and even if it's weird looking or completely abstract he is still willing to try what I put infront of him.  When it comes down to it, Brent's palette is very similar to mine, and I knew that by choosing something with pumpkin would be a winner, since we both adore the fall flavours.  Thankfully, in knowing this I was able to make a cake that I had previously saved and couldn't wait to make... however, I was waiting because as we know, cake is one of my all time weaknesses.  I can make a cake, and literally eat it in one sitting, it's bad okay, not even bad, just all around horrible for me, but I can't help it.  I never have cake in the house for the sole reason of me not being able to control/portion myself when it comes to cake, so when I find recipes for cake it's nice when something like a birthday comes along so I can indulge in my obsession but not go overboard.

I'd found a recipe from one of my favourite blogs; Healthful Pursuit, in the past I've tried many of her recipes and have never been let down.  So when I found a recipe for Gingerbread Brownies I knew that this would surely be a fantastic recipe to try out, and it surely was.  I adapted it a little bit, to work with what I had/go more with my palette and it turned out wonderfully.  What I love about this cake was the substantial amount of molasses.  Molasses cookies are one of my all time favourites, and to have such an abundance of this flavour in a cake/brownie is just bliss.  When you bite into it you are not overwhelmed by molasses but it's definitely the biggest role in this dessert, the other flavours are not however hidden as you get appearances from each flavour within the bite.  I'd decided as well since I had some cream cheese in the fridge that I would make a nice pumpkin icing to go on top since it would add a nice colour to the brownie and that I knew Brent like's cream cheese.  The brownies were heavenly without the cream cheese (as I'm not a huge fan of cream cheese), but even with that said, not being a huge fan, the pumpkin cream cheese frosting definitely took the brownie to an even higher level.  I highly suggest making these brownies, especially around the fall/holiday time, they are perfect and certainly bring some warmth... as well as it's a good excuse to bring some gorgeous aromas into your house ;).

Gingerbread Brownies 

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 tbsp ground flax seed
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 1/4 avocado - mashed
• 3 tbsp pumpkin puree
• 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 1 tbsp water)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 8×8 square pan with parchment paper so that it’s draping off both sides. Set aside.

Place all dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside

In a large bowl, combine all wet ingredients.

Drop dry ingredients into wet and stir until just combined. The mix should be runny.

Pour into prepared pan and bake in prepared oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan and placing it on a wire rack to cool.


Pumpkin Cream Cheese


Recipe taken from here

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Cover bowl and chill in the fridge for at least an hour before using.

And top with walnuts.