Near-Naked Pumpkin Drip Cake

INGREDIENTS-PUMPKIN CAKE
3 large eggs
16 oz can pumpkin
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

INGREDIENTS-CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
8oz package cream cheese
1 cup unsalted butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

 INGREDIENTS-ORANGE GANACHE DRIP
1 cup white candy melts
¼ cup heavy cream
½ tsp ColorKitchen Orange Food Color
1 pinch ColorKitchen Red Velvet Food Color

DIRECTIONS-CAKE
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line bottoms of two round baking pans with parchment paper rounds and coat sides with cooking spray. Batter fits in two 6” by 3” pans or two 8” by 2” pans.

2. Combine wet ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Add dry ingredients and whisk until flour is incorporated. Pour half the batter in each pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cakes cool fully before frosting.

DIRECTIONS-FROSTING
Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and continue to mix until smooth and slightly fluffy.

DIRECTIONS-GANACHE
Melt the white chips with the cream in the microwave and mix until smooth. Add the color powder straight to the ganache and stir with a whisk until evenly blended, then pour mixture into a piping bag or plastic baggie.

ASSEMBLY
1. Before assembling the cake, level each layer by slicing off the rounded top.

2. Once cakes are level they can be stacked and frosted. To achieve the semi-naked look, use a bench scraper or flat spatula to scrape the exterior frosting to the desired thickness. A turntable is helpful to turn the cake as you scrape. When the sides are smooth, use a clean bench scraper or spatula to drag the messy edges into the center of the cake and achieve a sharper edge.

3. Pipe the warm ganache around the top rim of the cake and let it drip down the sides, then fill in the top.

4. Finally, use a large star tip and leftover cream cheese frosting to pipe rosettes around the top edge.

Recipe-Anna Dunn

Pumpkin Cardamom Spice Ice Cream

A delicious no-churn ice cream recipe anyone can make, embellished with dark chocolate and fall pumpkin seeds.

Makes a half gallon of ice cream.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange flavor
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamom
½ cup organic sugar
1 cup dark chocolate shavings
1 packet ColorKitchen Pink Food Color
1 packet ColorKitchen Yellow Food Color

DIRECTIONS
1. With a hand or standing mixer, combine all ingredients but chocolate and pumpkin seeds
2. Whip until color fully blended and stiff peaks form
3. Pour into cake pan or 2 bread loafs
4. Stir in chocolate shavings
5. Top with pumpkin seeds
6. Cover and put in freezer overnight
7. Let thaw 10-15 min before serving

Red Velvet Doughnut Glaze

Our Red Velvet color creates such a vibrant deep red it’s hard to believe it’s plant-based and natural.

Enough for 1 dozen full-sized doughnuts

INGREDIENTS
¼ cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp Red Velvet Color
2 cups organic confectioners’ sugar

DIRECTIONS
1. In medium-sized bowl combine powdered sugar and red velvet color.
2. In medium saucepan mix milk and vanilla over low heat.
3. Sift in sugar and color mixture, whisking slowly.
4. Mix until all the sugar and color are dissolved.
5. Remove glaze from heat and place over a bowl of warmed water.
6. Dip tops of each doughnut separately in glaze and set on a rack to dry.

Lavender Chai Seed Smoothie

2 servings

INGREDIENTS
2 ½ cups of Milkadamia Milk or other milk alternative (almond milk, hemp milk, coconut milk) 
1 cup yogurt
½ cup chia seeds
3 tbsp coconut sugar or sweetener of choice
½ tsp vanilla extract
½-1 tsp orange or other natural flavor (optional)
1 packet Blue ColorKitchen food coloring
1 packet Pink ColorKitchen food coloring
Toppings (fruit, nuts)

DIRECTIONS
1. Put milk, yogurt, vanilla, flavor, coloring and sweetener in a blender and mix.
2. Pour into glass container or jar and stir in chia seeds. Seal tight.
3. Leave in refrigerator for eight hours or overnight.
4. Pour into glass over ice and top with fruit, nuts, or other topping of choice.
5. Enjoy!

Colorful Chia Seed Pudding

Eating clean and celebrating summer go hand in hand with chia seed pudding. Chia seed pudding is the perfect cold breakfast on a hot day, or as a fuel up snack during summer. There are great health benefits and lots of way to put your own personal twist on this summer treat.

2-4 servings

INGREDIENTS
3 cups of Milkadamia Milk or other milk alternative (almond milk, hemp milk, coconut milk) 
½ cup chia seeds
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup coconut nectar or sweetener of choice
1 packet of ColorKitchen Food Color (green shown here)
Toppings (fruit, nuts)

DIRECTIONS
1. Put milk, vanilla, coloring and sweetener in a blender and mix.
2. Pour into glass container or jar and stir in chia seeds. Seal tight.
3. Leave in refrigerator for eight hours or overnight.
4. Dish out pudding into a bowl and top with fruit, chocolate, nuts, or other topping of choice.
5. Enjoy!

Peppermint Red Velvet Mason Jar Cakes-Dessert gifts

Enjoy a holiday dessert in the beloved mason jar, or these colorful cakes can make wonderful gifts too!

Makes 4-6 Mason Jar Cakes

INGREDIENTS-CAKE
ColorKitchen Gluten-free Red Velvet Cake Mix
3 eggs
1 cup yogurt (or buttermilk)
1 stick butter (room temperature) or coconut oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

INGREDIENTS-WHIPPED CREAM
⅓ cup powdered sugar
6-8 drops peppermint oil
For color (optional) 1 packet ColorKitchen Food Color
1 ¼ cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
Peppermint candy pieces

DIRECTIONS-CAKE
Follow recipe on back of box. Bake and cool cake.

DIRECTIONS-WHIPPED CREAM
1. Chill a medium-sized bowl in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.
2. Blend dry ingredients: powdered sugar and ColorKitchen color packet (optional).
3. Add heavy cream, peppermint oil and vanilla extract.
4. Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Cut cake into circle pieces with a cookie cutter, or crumble cake and layer with whipped cream. Top with peppermint candy pieces.

Colorful Whipped Cream Recipe

Add a dollop of natural color to your favorite dessert, from pie to ice cream, or even pancakes! Homemade whipped cream is easy and takes just a few minutes. 

INGREDIENTS
⅓ cup powdered sugar
1 packet ColorKitchen Food Color
1 ¼ cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

1. Chill a medium-sized bowl in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.
2. Blend dry ingredients: powdered sugar and ColorKitchen color packet.
3. Add heavy cream and vanilla extract.
4. Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Rainbow Confetti Birthday Cake-Gluten-free

A better-for-you alternative to the classic birthday cake with confetti sprinkles! 

Go ahead and throw confetti on your cake with all-natural ingredients! Our colorful confetti is free from artificial dyes, and the gluten-free vanilla cake mix is made with over 90% organic ingredients, so you can have your cake and eat it too!

DIRECTIONS

1. Follow instructions for making ColorKitchen Gluten-free Confetti Cake Mix, but save ½ of the confetti sprinkles and set aside.
2. Bake cake in tray and cool.
3. Cut out round shapes with circle cookie cutter.
4. Layer cake circles with frosting.
5. Sprinkle top of cake and sides with confetti.

Depending on size of circles, one box of cake mix will make a couple 6 inch mini cakes. You can also color frosting with your favorite ColorKitchen plant-based food colors.

It's So Easy Being Green!

Mix up the perfect shade of green this St. Patty's Day! Whether you're Irish or just love to celebrate, have some fun with our Green Color made from Spirulina and Turmeric.

GREEN SUGAR

Sprinkle on some sparkly color to any baked good with this easy colored sugar recipe. Cookies and cakes have never looked sweeter!

Why spend extra on colored sugar when it's so simple to color it yourself?! You can color regular granulated sugar or larger crystals, whichever you prefer.

Mix BLUE & YELLOW colors to make GREEN! For a SHAMROCK GREEN, use equal parts yellow and blue. For a LIME GREEN, use more yellow than blue.

It's a ridiculously simple concept that is cost-saving and takes very little time. This recipe can be kept for months so make a large batch to have some on hand!

Ingredients

• Blue & Yellow ColorKitchen Packets

• Few Drops of Water or Glycerin

• White Sugar (coarse or fine)

• Container with Lid

• Small Bowl (optional)

• Spoon or mixer

Directions

1. Decide how much you want to make: 1 Tsp Color to 1 Cup of Sugar

2. Place equal amounts of yellow and blue color (½ tsp each for 1 cup of sugar) in bowl/container with lid. For a more blue-green, add more blue than yellow. For a brighter spring-green, add more yellow than green.

3. Add 1 to 2 drops of water, just enough to get the color to dissolve to a syrup consistency, and stir.

4. Pour sugar into the container or pour color mixture from bowl over sugar in container and cover.

5. Shake and turn for 1-2 minutes. Open the lid and check for color coverage. Use a spoon to mix in any remaining color.

6. Pour sugar on parchment paper and let stand until completely dry.

7. Decorate and enjoy!

GREEN FROSTING

Enough for 1 cup frosting. Spread onto some Shamrock cookies or use piping to decorate your favorite cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter (room temp)

• 2 cups powdered sugar

• 2 Tbsp milk

• ¼ tsp vanilla extract

• Blue & Yellow ColorKitchen Packets

• Few Drops of Water or Glycerin

Directions

1. In small bowl beat butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla until light and fluffy.

2. In small cup mix color (¼ teaspoon blue packet and ¼ teaspoon yellow packet depending on how pastel or deep of color desired) to equal part glycerin (or a few drops of water) to dissolve powder.

3. Stir in color mix to frosting. Blend thoroughly.

4. Mixed frosting will last for several weeks refrigerated. Oil-based recipes (such as frostings) require pre-mixing colors with glycerin or a small amount of water.

Get creative and decorate with green sugar and frosting for a sparkly array of St. Patrick's Day treats!

Red Velvet Meringues Kisses

Here is a fun and festive recipe for you and your loved ones. Make as a Holiday treat or give as special homemade gift.

Makes: 24 kisses

Ingredients-Kisses
2 egg whites
½ cup of sugar
1 pinch of salt

Ingredients-Icing
4 tsp creme
⅓ cup powdered sugar
1 ColorKitchen Red (Holiday Icing Colors) packet, or 1 Beet Red and 1 Yellow Packet

Instructions
1.    Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Line sheet pan with parchment paper. 
2.    Mix ColorKitchen color packets with a couple drops of water and set aside to fully dissolve.
3.    Beat egg whites, salt and sugar together in an electric mixer for 10-12 minutes until the mixture is smooth and firm.
4.    Fill a piping bag with meringue mixture.
5.    Applying gentle pressure, making same size kisses when piping.
6.    Bake for 1+  hours.
7.    Let meringue kisses cool.
8.    Mix icing ingredients with dissolved color until thoroughly blended. Dip cooled kisses in icing and let dry overnight.

Iced Raw, Vegan Chocolate Pie

This delicious pie is rich and chocolaty, made from healthy raw and refined sugar-free ingredients. Enjoy with orange icing (mix of yellow and beet red ColorKitchen color packets) on top for a fall dessert this Halloween or Thanksgiving.

Makes: 7" pie 

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

• 1½ cups unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1½ cups raw pecans
• 4 tbsp coconut oil, warm or liquefied
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp maple syrup (or honey, agave, or liquid coconut nectar)
• ¼ cup cocoa powder 

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until combined and sticky. Transfer into pie dish. Form into a pie crust by pressing it down with your hands and smoothing until it's even around the edges and flat on the bottom. Place the pan into the refrigerator to firm up while making filling.

CHOCOLATE FILLING INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup coconut oil, liquefied
• ½ cup cocoa powder 
• 6 tbsp maple syrup (or honey, agave, or liquid coconut nectar)
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• dash of salt

Place all chocolate ingredients into food processor and blend well. Pour chocolate mixture into pie crust and chill until firm.

Once firm, drizzle colored icing on top and leave out until room temperature before serving.

Small Town Farm Stand

It's almost time for me to wrap up my visit with my mom in foodie paradise Leelanau, Michigan. Driving through the country, you just have to love the small town farm stands, with self-serve produce and an honor system payment jar. It wouldn't work for the urban farmer, but it's nice to see a way for small, rural farmers like these to sell their local organic crops.

Cardamom Chocolate

One of the many things I love about visiting my mom in Michigan (where I was born), is day-tripping around to the local food makers.  As a handcrafted chocolate lover, Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate is one of favorites with local, organic, and natural ingredients. This trip I discovered their cardamom chocolate truffle and was in heaven!

Fall Into Baking

The fall season is synonymous with baking; as temperatures cool down, we seek and find comfort in foods that warm the soul and nourish the spirit. Memories of days from childhood spent sipping hot apple cider, coming home from school to the smell of freshly baked gingerbread, indulging with pumpkin spice and apple cider doughnuts, all contrive to make us long for those crisp, cool autumn days to deliver us from the stifling heat of summer. After those long, hot summer days where we do very little cooking and baking and instead fill up with salads, fruit, and sandwiches, autumn comes and rescues us, reawakening our energies as it infuses everything around us with life, from the trees ablaze with color to the produce we eat. The bounty of food in the fall means there are so many wonderful options for baking, but you may not know where to start. We will highlight some of the best fall produce to use in your baking endeavors this fall.

Apples

The sheer varieties of apples to choose from may overwhelm you, but they all serve different purposes, ranging in taste from a softer to a crisper bite, and from tart to sweet. If there are varieties you would like to try but aren’t sure if they would be best for baking, grab a few different kinds at the market and see what you think of the flavor. While you can usually buy apples year-round, they are at their best from September to November, perfect for the fall season. When selecting organic apples at the market, look for ones that are firm with no bruising and are vibrant in color. The skin should be tight and smooth and they should smell fresh. There are so many options for using apples in your baking: baked apple and cinnamon oatmeal, apple tarts, apple pie, fresh apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, and much more!

Sweet Potato

The sweet potato is incredibly versatile as it can be used in both sweet and savory dishes and is an invaluable ingredient when it comes to fall baking. To ensure you buy sweet potatoes that are actually sweet (those with pale yellow flesh are not sweet), look for the organic, darker variety with thick, smooth skin and bright orange flesh, making sure there are few bruises when you pick them out. For sweet treats made with sweet potatoes, try roasting them with some cinnamon and honey, bake a sweet potato pie, whip up some sweet potato chocolate pudding (yes, you heard right, a healthy pudding!), or bake a sweet potato and apple casserole.

Pear

Oh, the glorious pear - nearly as versatile as the apple, but with a uniquely sweet and subtle spicy flavor that pairs so well with cinnamon and vanilla in a variety of desserts. When selecting at the market, test for ripeness by applying light thumb pressure near the pear's stem. If it is ripe, there will be a slight give. Pears are delicious on their own (again, much like apples), but truly come alive when combined with other ingredients or baked in sweet desserts. Try drizzling some with honey or maple syrup and seasoning with cinnamon to bake for about 20 minutes - then add to oatmeal for a perfect homemade batch. But don’t stop there! Why not try pear pie, pear strudel, and pear cobbler? Make the most of this delectable harvest.

Pumpkin

No list of fall produce would be complete without the glorious pumpkin. This squash makes its way into many desserts (although it can also be enjoyed in savory dishes, such as pumpkin soup), and while canned pumpkin will certainly serve its purpose, it’s so much better to enjoy this beauty fresh while it’s in season. If you have a food processor, making your own pumpkin puree to use in many meals is so simple. To select at the market, look for organic pumpkins that are small, about 5 to 8 pounds, with tough skin. They are lauded for their concentrated flavor and sweetness. Then have fun baking! Use fresh pumpkin puree to make pumpkin spice pancakes or if you live in a slightly warmer climate but still want a taste of fall, try out pumpkin spice smoothies. You are only limited by your imagination, as the possibilities are nearly endless: pumpkin spice doughnuts, pumpkin pie, baked pumpkin spice oatmeal, pumpkin dip for gingerbread cookies, pumpkin biscuits, pumpkin scones, pumpkin bread, chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pound cake, and much, much more!

To round out our list, we’d like to mention that whatever you might be baking, it can be fun to add festive colors to your desserts with natural food dyes (much healthier than anything with artificial ingredients). Traditional fall colors are often orange, brown, red and yellow. And of course, red and green are perfect as the Christmas season approaches. We have a wonderful selection of natural food coloring, with holiday packets as well as individual red and yellow packets (and more!). You can make orange coloring by simply combining red and yellow, or make some green coloring by combining our blue and yellow packets. We hope you have fun coloring your favorite fall desserts and baking up a storm with the wonderful harvest of fall produce available!

Quote of the Day

When you have good ingredients, cooking doesn't require a lot of instruction because you can never go very wrong.

- Alice Waters

Marshmallow Madness

If you ever need an activity to do with your kids, or if you're camping and you want to add a little pizzazz to your campfire time, try this fun activity!

Bring a couple paint brushes and some ColorKitchen powder along with you.

Scoop a teaspoon of ColorKitchen food coloring into a small bowl and add a couple drops of water. Use your paintbrush to mix the coloring and the water together. 

 Then, let the kids have a go at painting faces and other designs on the marshmallows. 

Artistic skill is not necessary to have fun with this activity!

When they're finished, toast the marshmallows over the open fire to a golden brown for a yummy treat. 

Toasted marshmallows and s'mores are a staple for camping, and even if the kiddos consume more sugar in one night than they would in a normal week, you can feel good about the source of ColorKitchen's dyes--foods from nature. 

If you don't have access to a campfire, this could be a fun everyday activity. With enough marshmallows and creativity, your kids could even create a marshmallow army! 

4th of July Fun: Frosting-Filled Strawberries

With the 4th of July just around the corner, fireworks, barbecues, and patriotism abound. Frosting-filled strawberries are a quick treat to whip up and join in on the celebration! 

By using red strawberries, ColorKitchen Bright Blue to color the  frosting, and powdered sugar for dusting, only real-food ingredients will grace your table this holiday weekend. 

To make this treat, begin by carving out the strawberry top to expose the inner-cavity. Set the strawberries aside and using your favorite frosting, add 1/2 color packet of Bright Blue frosting to each cup of frosting.

If you have decorating tools like bags and tips, scoop your frosting into a bag, and using your favorite tip, fill each strawberry to the brim with blue frosting.

If you don't have decorating tools, scoop the frosting into a ziplock bag and cut a small piece off the corner plastic and squeeze to fill each strawberry. When finished, lightly dust the strawberries and frosting with powdered sugar.