Category: holiday desserts

Halloween cookie is a good alternative to candy. And a macaroon is a 2-ingredient easy cookie idea. That’s not to be confused with a macaron. But still a treat and not a trick with these appearing ghostly Halloween cookies.

They have a candy bar bite if you add some chocolate like these chocolate-morsel ghost staring with mac-raccoon eyes.

What makes these different from traditional macaroons is they are made without a can of condensed milk.

The fat from condensed milk never settled with me and I figured out this cookie doesn’t need that, or even need any butter like most cookies.

You can make this Halloween cookie macaroon easy with whole milk if you don’t mind the dairy.

And one tip is: if you want to make whole milk last longer than the going-sour expiration date daily clock from ticking, freeze the milk you won’t be drinking anytime soon. That freezes the clock (and takes the pressure off).

When you bring the milk back down to the fridge, after overnight or so, it’s as good as good drinking milk or milk to bake with… Just a helpful idea.

And that’s milk that’s perfect for this ghostly good cookie recipe (and dunking baked ghosts in if that’s what you choose)! Or you can pair with a coconut chocolate smoothie.

Then to make the ghosts, combine the milk with unsweetened coconut. This is a low-sugar, fiber ingredient. Along with milk, you’re getting vitamins and minerals that most (Halloween) candy can’t boast.

So these Halloween cookies are light, but heavy in nutrients, relative to their ghostly body weights.

And they won’t disappear in the oven (like a light meringue ghost would without sugar 👻). Here they are happy as can be as a Halloween cookie trio.

And you can add to your yogurt parfaits or cereals. Or any meal or snack you would add coconut or milk to.

The best part is this is a 15-minute prep to bake finish project… and just one bowl prep easy.

Oh, and actually you can measure your coconut in a measuring cup and then add the milk in tablespoons to the same cup. So you don’t even need a bowl.

That’s it to make your ghost mixture!

Add them to a non-stick baking pan or on a silicone mat on a baking pan so they don’t stick. Avoid baking parchment paper as you ghosts can stick.

And if you’re wondering whether to add the chocolate eyes before they bake, yes!… go ahead. That way they can stick to the ghosts and cutely look back at you as they bake.

They will meld and not melt at low temps.

And after baked, then you have a low-sugar, sweet-ish, and happy-spirited snack to munch on. 👻

Fruit cake is a special dessert. It makes for a great Christmas, year-round, and holiday cake (…when done right that is). It’s a fruity, sweet cake. And this one is all healthy, and low-sugar without added sugar. Recipe below.

…And ok, I know what you may be thinking off the bat… is this fruit cake more on the healthy tasting side (like inedible cardboard where you’d rather eat an oatmeal bowl)?

Oh and btw, is it enjoyable like a chocolate cake? ..because that’s what you’re after!

And I agree.

My thinking, what’s the point of making a sweet treat if it doesn’t taste good?

That weighs on my conscience.

Because I’m a food lover who wore a 10-year food belt planning hundreds of parties in nice hotels and restaurants before I started baking regularly at home.

And my childhood sweet food dreams are daily reminders. 💭

But a fruit cake isn’t one of those dreams that’s usually on my mind (but today is its lucky day).

…Because from what I remember, the durable (fruit cake) ones don’t have the best passed-down reputation (from holiday gifts of the past I think)… I never got one as a house gift but I saw them on store shelves wrapped tightly in the thick plastic wrap 🥮.

…Those are from Christmas past (and maybe still sitting in the back shelves 😀).

…Instead, bring in and out the fresh, new millennial fruit cake, pleeaaase! That’s a happy one to match its naturally sweet celebrational cake name.

And this particular homemade fruit cake is cocoa and cherry pairing, crumbly-soft-texture-cake divine. 

If a tasty pairing is like a harmonious modern singing duo or two complementary colors on a wall, then this cake fits right in. 🩷🩵

…But don’t take my word for it, make it yourself and try it… I dare you! 😊

It’s coconut flour and cacao (or unsweetened cocoa) healthy. Another delicious pairing, btw.

And if you’ve not worked with coconut or gluten-free flours much with cake, I’ve got you… some quickie lesson tips below to take out the guesswork.

Gluten-free coconut flour is a smart one to add in, and that you can learn to use for healthy and tasty reasons!

And it’s in this fruit cake, that’s 5-minute prep and 3 one-bowl main ingredients EASY.

You can even mix the cake batter by hand.

…That’s what I did.

Or use your Magic Bullet blender to blend the egg yolk and dry ingredients.

Let the oven do the heavy lifting and magical baking work.

So to begin… pull out all your ingredients.

Nature’s fruit and cocoa is the main sweet needed.

You can also choose your favorite fruits, dried or fresh (if eaten within the week).

You can sub in dried cherries. And tart-tasting acerola cherries (not common) are known for their superfood anti-inflammatory properties.

But here I splurged with Maraschino (dessert) cherries because the amount is so little for such high tasting Christmas celebration holiday time impact, that I made this for.

The sweet cherries are also easy to find year-round at most grocery stores, so you can store in your fridge pantry.

And the glace shiny kind is easy to find and always a sweet crowd pleaser. They’re the classic cherry red on top that looks like an ornament. 🍒

One glace cherry has about 1.9 grams of sugar or about 6 cherries per tablespoon of sugar (12 cherries recipe total), and you can cut this down in your bake to less for lower sugar if you choose.

Whatever you decide, cherries are divine in and on top (as the cherry saying goes)… and definitely better after baked in.

Along with cocoa… or cacao used.

The difference is pure (💯) cacao is minimally processed and unsweetened cocoa that’s anti-inflammatory healthy.

You can use other cocoa powders, but they will likely have additives and sugar.

So there you have your two star flavors (cherry-chocolat-y 😋)for this fruit cake. And you’ll want to add more fruity forward vibes!

Fruit Cake Flavoring:

Getting the flavors to your liking will matter for this fruit cake as coconut flour can be overpowering in taste that is the dominant ingredient and only flour used.

…Unless you’re making a coconut cake where you want coconut to stand out, you’ll want to mask the coconut flour flavor somewhat. 🥥

Like in this cacao-cocoa fruit cake with coconut flour.

That’s easy to do when you follow the recipe and some taste pairing guidelines.

For the coconut oil, you can use a refined coconut oil with less coconut-ty flavors, and  that can be stored in your pantry or cool kitchen cabinet shelves and then it will last a long time. I found a larger jar version at Walmart that was bulk cost-effective and less per ounce.

And then your other flavors can come through on your fruit cake.

Like when you add almond extract and stronger baking extracts such as orange extract (or even orange zest), you will not taste the coco-nutty vibes… like those you catch from suntan lotion coconut air waffs at busy summer beaches. 😀

Also when you use complementary flavors on the food wheel, to support the star ingredients and bring them forward, the coconut flavors will step back.

But avoid flavors that won’t work with this fruit cake. Like lemon… or peppermint (that’s not even in the fruit category). Let’s not get too crazy 🤪

You can also use coconut milk that will help support the subtle coconut flour come through a little like a budding flower, but not overpower.

The dried fruits you add also will be supporting.

I used dried apricots and even dried rose (not a fruit). But you can add any dried fruits (pineapple, more cherries, raisins, dates, coconut, etc.) that fancy you at prep time. And even add in chopped nuts and seeds if you want

So then now you’ve got the flavors, and can combine with the flour.

Two Coconut Flour lessons to keep in mind:

In my experience, gluten-free flour like coconut flour will not rise with common leaveners like baking powder and baking soda. So they are not used. And since no gluten-flours are added to this fruit cake,  I expect little rise.

And I use a frothy egg white that will be the small leavening lift (like from a ballet flat shoe to flats) in this fruit cake. It won’t be a high-heel like with gluten flours. 👠

And since there’s no table sugar, brown sugar, or any white sugar added, the egg white will not be meringue lifting whites.

That sounds deflating…

But the trick is to use a tall sided baking pan vessel. That way, the cake will be about as tall as you fill it, before it enters the oven. 😉

And, the second lesson is that coconut flour is dry in its properties. Like very dry!

So you will need about 3 cups of liquid to about 1 cup of coconut flour.

These days, you can find coconut flour any and everywhere. For pennies per ounces.

But since it’s a more advanced cake flour to work with (if you’ve never worked with), it’s good to know that it will take lots of liquid like a thirsty camel. 🐫

And that by adding more liquid, you’re not doing anything wrong.

And as you add in more liquid in the beginning, the coconut flour becomes drier (almost like a pasta dough).

It will come together on the other side of the batter.

For the batter, look for a mashed potato consistency with a little bit of lumpiness and grittiness that will be as close to the smooth cake batter as you can get.

And use grit to stick it out until it gets there.

You can measure out the liquid but your best bet is to eyeball it out as daily prep temperature, ovens, and conditions change.

And then you’ll now know what to look for, the next time you use coconut flour.

Soft and wet, the batter will be slowly pourable. And that will help make a fluffy-inside cake (and not a dense cake).

Last step for coconut flour fruit cake:

And then after you’ve got your cake batter and your flavor tastes in your mixing bowl (or easy blender)… 🎉

The last step is to gently fold in the egg whites to your batter (egg yolk, flour, and flavors) with a baking spatula or spoon.

And so… what will this fruit cake batter look like (you ask)?

When you add the cocoa and egg white, it will look like Rocky Road soft serve ice cream. The egg white especially helps smooth the batter some.

Grease cake pans, so the cake doesn’t stick to the pans. Some options: you can use coconut oil, a Silpat, and/or baking sprayed parchment.

Then bake your cake(s) at 325°F/165°C for about 55-60 minutes. You can insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. It’s better to over bake this cake a little vs. under bake (where it can fall apart).

And as a summary to using all coconut flour for this fruit cake (and most cake bakes), this is a common question asked…

Question: how will healthier, gluten-free coconut flour impact the cake?

Answer: You won’t get a regular cake rise.

Tip: use a tall sided baking vessel that you can fill with cake batter if you want a taller cake, or add an additional cake pan to compromise (e.g. 2-tiered cake).

With coconut flour, you also won’t end up with the same moist cake crumb that’s in a regular cake made with gluten flours, like all-purpose, cake, or whole wheat flour.

After baked, you can see the inside crumb looks a bit dry and wet. That’s the unique characteristic of coconut flour when nicely incorporated. And it’s perfect for a fruit cake! 🥮

Excited to make this? I’d love to see yours.

If you wan to try more gluten-free desserts: you can also try a gluten-free frosted chocolate donut (a little more advanced but you learn easy chocolate tempering for a shine), berry shortbread cookie, a gigantic gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookie. and an easy gluten-free lemon cookie that’s cute as a button. 💛

If you like this healthier cake, you may also want to try a low-sugar chocolate cake, apple cider vinegar cake, and/or cherry-chocolate-pistachio spumoni ice cream to go along with.