To my great sadness, Sweet has moved from Ellicott City to the big city: Baltimore. I’m happy for them but sad for me:(.
First let’s get the decadence out of the way. Today I went into a quaint little town called Ellicott City. It’s my favorite kind of town, the kind with quaint little streets and quaint old buildings and quaint little shops… and quaint coffee shops!
See how quaint? And here’s some more quaintness:
Last week, my DH and I took his mother there for her birthday, and we stumbled across this (quaint) little bakery that had the most amazing. donuts. ever. Now normally, I don’t eat donuts. They are on my do-not-ever-eat list. However, when we went into this (quaint) little bakery/cafe called, appropriately, “Sweet.“, these little beauties immediately caught my eye:
Now wouldn’t that catch your eye? I looked around for something a little less… sweet, but I was drawn back to this amazing more-than-a-donut confection. I lost all willpower when my DH ordered one for himself, and, like a lamb led to the slaughter, I ordered one for myself also. Enjoyed it immensely, and dreamed about it all week long, and so dragged my DH back into Ellicott City today so we could get another one. Well, I didn’t exactly have to drag him… here he is enjoying one himself. (If I never blog again, you will know it is because I am dead.)
Yes, those little donuts are definitely decadent. Not to be enjoyed on a regular basis - two in a week and a half is really a bit too much! So I’m going to stay away from Ellicott City for a while, and enjoy some slightly less decadent treats from my own kitchen.
As promised, I have a few more powdered-sugar-free frosting recipes up my sleeve. The next one I present to you is a non-powdered-sugar cream cheese frosting - yes, such a thing does exist! Two caveats:
1. It has a strong cream cheese flavor, so if you don’t like cream cheese, you won’t like this frosting.
2. It doesn’t make a whole lot, just enough to cover one 8″ or 9″ layer. If you want to frost a 9×13 or a layered cake, it will need to be doubled.
But what makes all that worth it is the fact that it has only a couple tablespoons of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of honey! The great thing is that it doesn’t need anymore sugar than that - the flavor of it as it is, is perfect. I used it to frost this apple spice cake, and I think it would be delicious on any carrot, banana or plain spice cake. I’ve also used it to frost cinnamon buns instead of a glaze or regular cream cheese frosting… yum! It was also particularly delicious, as I recall, on a pumpkin cake last autumn.
I have to admit, this recipe is not original (far from it). I found it on AllRecipes and tweaked it just a bit (although it’s very good as is).
No-Powdered-Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 TBSP turbinado sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 TBSP honey
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add remaining ingredients except for honey, and beat until well blended. Add honey and beat until fluffy (not too long). Frost.
Be sure the cake is cool to the touch before attempting to frost it with this frosting, as it’s rather thick and will catch on any crumbs. A crumb coating with jam might be useful as well.
This is a super QUICK frosting, actually one of the quickest I’ve ever made.
It is also incredibly EASY. Of all the powdered-sugar-free frostings I’ve made, probably the easiest.
It has very few ingredients, so it’s relatively CHEAP, especially if you buy the cream cheese on sale (I always stock up on it when it is on sale for $1 or less. Walmart SuperCenters carry 8oz bricks for around $1 also.).
It is certainly one of the HEALTHY-est frostings I’ve ever come across, mainly because it has so little sugar. Cream cheese is one of the more processed dairy products, so I wouldn’t necessarily call it healthy, but when compared to the typical ingredients in a typical frosting, it’s definitely an improvement. It is certainly a lot less decadent than the frosting/filling you see in that donut above!
Just stopped by your blog….and had to comment that I have been on this same quest for powdered sugar free frostings. I hope to have two of them posted in the near future. One dark and the other light. It’s nice to find a frosting that it’s not a problem to really indulge in :-).
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Oh, I can’t wait to see what frostings you come up with! I am working on a few more as well; I was surprised when I started looking for them how many different recipes there are. One less grocery item to buy!
Hi Everyone. I also happened upon this site, because I was looking for a non-confectioner sugar cream cheese frosting. I might have used it, but had finished the last box I had for a Texas Sheet cake. I had a really nice Carrot-Applesauce cake waiting for frosting, so did a search. I am so glad I found you. I made the frosting using one container of low fat cream cheese, and one of regular. Just was what was in my refrigerator:-) I used pure maple flavoring over the almond, thinking it might add to the spiciness of my cake. It did. I also used coconut-sugar, and a bit of honey..plus enough flax milk to allow it to spread nicely. I found it to be delightful. I am trying hard to avoid sugar, and thought to give my coconut sugar a test. It worked well, and the frosting came out looking like it had brown sugar in it, with a subtle maple taste. Nice..thanks. Diana
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for letting me know!