I got my first eight consecutive hours of sleep in weeks!!! I was actually looking forward to hiking this morning, which was a nice feeling to have, considering I’ve been dreading any form of movement lately.
Before driving to Griffith Park I had half a banana and a spoonful of TJ’s crunchy peanut butter.
My friend Michelle and I had a great conversation and hike with our dogs. It’s been perfect weather again in Los Angeles! When I got home I was pretty hungry for some savory oats:
- 1/3 cup oat bran, 1 cup water
- frozen organic broccoli
- 2 TB egg whites
- 1 TB Dei Fratelli Salsa
Consumed while watching a familiar face on TV:
Yup, that’s my co-blogger Christy on QVC! She was on in the middle of the night so I DVR’d it. Doesn’t she look radiant?!
And boy does she know how to sell a Barbie…
We’re going to my Aunt Heidi and Uncle Robert’s for dinner tonight and I offered to bring dessert so I got baking. I’ve been obsessed with the idea of making very Christmas-y treats lately, like figgy pudding, but you may remember that I don’t really bake, so I tried to look for recipes that would allow me to “cheat” with a box mix. Somewhere in my research I read that fruitcake can be reminiscent of carrot cake, and then *ding* I remembered I had a box of carrot cake muffin mix!!!
Now, I’ve never actually had fruitcake before. It’s one of those things that, as a child, I heard horrible things about. But, brussels sprouts also had a bad rap and I adore them, so how bad can fruitcake be – I’m a dried fruit and nut freak, and I know my Uncle’s family enjoys them too. So I whipped this up.
F Cake (Faux Fruitcake)
Combine 1 cup fat free organic milk, 1 egg, 2 TB Musselman’s applesauce and the contents of the mix.
Chop up 3/4 cup mixed raw nuts (I used hazelnuts, pecans, and almonds) and 1 cup chopped dried fruit (dates, prunes, figs, and raisins)…
…I also added this packet of dried cherries that Peeled Snacks gave us months ago.
Add it all to the mixture and pour into a greased loaf pan. Tres chunky.
I was very nervous. So many things could go wrong!
- I was making this all up. Most times my “brilliant” ideas don’t translate well, especially on the first try.
- I didn’t have any more milk in the house – but we did have a cup I had frozen a few weeks ago when we had extra before leaving for Thanksgiving (I can’t stand to throw away stuff). So I thawed the frozen hunk overnight – I’ve heard it’s okay for baking, but what if I heard wrong?!
- I subbed the oil with applesauce, which I’m sure will produce a pretty bouncy consistency. Not everyone’s a fan of that.
- This is muffin mix, and the package directions wanted me to bake them at a much higher heat for a shorter amount of time. Since I was making it in loaf form, I consulted a box of Trader Joe’s pumpkin bread mix that also had directions for muffins and deduced the baking time/temps from that. I preheated the oven to 350 and checked on it after 45 minutes. It was already looking pretty crisp, but a knife that I inserted didn’t come out clean so I covered it with foil and let it keep cooking for another 10 minutes.
Well…kinda looks burnt, but….edible?
I sampled the little divot that came out of the bottom and some of the remnants stuck to the pan. It tasted okay.
Hmmm….we’ll see later tonight, won’t we?!
I combined leftover roasted brussels sprouts/onions with some hard boiled egg white and baby spinach and Braggs Liquid Aminos for lunch:
Now I’m heading off to the other side of town for the family dinner – wish me and my F Cake luck. If it’s horrible and nobody likes it, we can call it “F Cake” for another reason….
lucky for you it happens to be national fruit cake month! woot! christy looks damn good on QVC i am sure everyone wanted to buy what she was sellin’!
I don’t think I’ve ever had fruit cake before. Most of the commercial ones are made with candied fruit so it’s not quite as healthy as yours but I bet yours kicks butt
Haha this was funny! I know what you mean, I get nervous when I experiment with things too. I think your cake sounds lovely though…and I think the thing with those mixes (I saw this on the Food Network once) is they test them in all kinds of situations, temperatures, ovens, ingredients, etc., to make sure it’s all pretty consistent.
My aunt used to make fruit cake every year. I don’t remember actually ever eating it. I know my dad was a fan… Yours looks tasty though!
I would KILL to have 8 hours of consecutive sleep!
Believe it or not, I actually really like fruit cake
Christy looks great!
Hope you’re cake turned out okay!
Well it sounds good! It’d better turn out
yay for the sleep.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Hurray for sleep!! Hopefully you are emerging from your sleepless in LA cycle.
Do Julius and Stella get along?
For someone who doesn’t bake you are quite adventurous. The sugar in the applesauce may have been what caused the edges to burn a little. Frankly those edges may be some caramelized heaven.
Congrats to Christy…she does look great!!
julius and stella used to not be friends but they do okay in neutral territory, like the park. however, they did gang up on a few dogs during the hike….
Woohoo for a good night of sleep AND QVC! Fingers crossed for the fruit cake! I’ve never had that kind before.
oh I would never even think to put broccoli in oats but it looks sooo good!
I have never had fruit cake either before. But I like your fake version. Let us know how the cake turned out!
Thanks for sharing the pics of Christy! She looks great!
haha, this F-cake looks great! I can even imaging the fresh fruit flavor and crusty of it !!! what a coincidence, I googled figgy pudding too, several days ago, actually I was pretty unsatisfied with that picture. I was thinking how come a cake is so dark???? but seems like it should be!!!
I really like this baking brand. I have made the blondies before and added pumpkin to make Pumpkin Blondies. THey turned out great! Let me know how the F Cake comes out!
Have fun!
hehe… “F Cake” I love the name of your cake! I’ve never tried fruit cake, but with all those dried cherries in yours, it can’t be bad!
That is so adorable you DVRd Christy! I would totally do that if my best friend were on TV in the middle of the night, too!
That’s Christy? She’s definitely GORGEOUS!
Hmm. F-cake has a nice ring to it. F-cake. I like it!
Whoa Christy totally looks like Ashley Judd of younger days. Classy.
With the title “f cake”… I was thinking of something completely different. Whoops.
Even if it doesn’t go over well, I’m sure it’s still a thousand times better than real fruitcake. Blech.
I was thinking that your cake didn’t turn out well, hence the title of your post. But it looks really good!
you should definitely try baking muffins/a bread/something from scratch– I think baking is easier than cooking because you just follow the recipe and it works! If you can read, you can bake
Cooking to me takes more guessing, experimentation, experience and knowledge 
Yay for 8 hours of sleep!!
And, yay for Christy on QVC! That is so cool- for some odd reason, I’d love to be a host on QVC!
Love the F-cake
Haha wow I didn’t know you could freeze milk. Cool! I’m sure the cake will be delicious – anything with dried fruit in it sounds good to me.
i love fruitcake. so when it’s on sale for 54 cents, i’m there grabbing up bags while others point and stare. btw what a sweet friend to watch qvc…DVRED! haha.
F cake for another reason- hahaah made me laugh.
And yayy Christy! And savory oat bran! Yum! Along with the hike, sounds like a perfect morning.
ha, “F Cake” made me laugh
I’m sure it will be great!
that’s so exciting about Christy – and she does look radiant on there.
Haha love your “make-shift” fruitcake; I bet it turned out killah.
So jelly of your hike – I wish the weather was like that here!
I experimented with a quick bread last night and well, it did not go so well. I hope your F cake is a hit!!
I love that she was on QVC!!!!!!!
Also, I really need to try the savory oats – I have yet to do that!
I’m like that as well, always changing recipes. I hate the whole temperature/time deal, I always seem to mess that one up! Hope it turns out ok.
Savory oats look good! People always mock me for doing that, I just tell them to think of the oatmeal as rice. Then they’re totally ok with it.
Hahaha, I hope the F cake turned out well! Even with all the things that could have possibly gone wrong, it sounds pretty good to me.
Christy does look great on TV! Not many can pull that off (I know you can
)
I’ve had real fruit cake a few times and I actually liked it. Your recipe sounds delicious!
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!