I love Valentine’s Day-inspired food.  I love  the heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting that my neighbors receive in the mail from family, and heart shaped cakes, and dark chocolates,  I’ve shown a few breakfast choices here and here, but I had to sneak just one more option that came quite by accident.

I was looking through all the beautiful choices of baked goods over at Yeast Spotting, and I stopped short at the Toasted Almond Baby Cakes submitted by My Tasty Treasures, because it was noted that they tasted like Russian tea cakes. That was all I needed to hear. I make those cookies every Christmas, not only to eat...they make the kitchen smell so good because of the almonds in the cookie dough.

Remember those spongy cakes we all grew up on, shaped like a cup used for strawberry shortcake. Just for fun, I purchased a pan that makes those cakes .  And, I thought this recipe would be a great  as cup-shaped cakes for strawberries,  as  muffins are not very sweet and are firm enough to hold fruit  piled with whipped cream or, if it’s breakfast time, yogurt, my personal favorite.

I changed the recipe only slightly, using real vanilla bean.  If you are not making these to go with the fruit, you can make  24 baby cakes and keep in freezer for a nice breakfast treat.

Recipe (adapted from My Tasty Treasures)

1 C butter softened

1 1/2 C sugar

2 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 vanilla bean scraped

1/2 t salt

2 1/4 C flour (I used Eagle Mills Ultra Grain)

1/2 C pecans, toasted and ground

1 1/4 C milk (I used organic non-fat)

Strawberries or fruit of choice for filling (optional)

Toasted almonds for garnish (optional)

Powdered sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Whip softened butter, gradually add sugar.

Add eggs one at a time,  add vanilla. Mix.

In a separate bowl, mix together baking powder and salt.

Add ground pecans. (I used a magic bullet to grind almonds. Make sure you just toast first, grind to a meal-like consistency, NOT a paste.) 

Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture.

Grease muffin pans. (Don’t use paper muffin cups)

Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. It will depend on size of your muffin. Test with toothpick.

Cool, remove from muffin tins.

This recipe makes 24 baby cakes .

I made six shortcake style cakes and 10 medium sized muffins.

For Breakfast, Serve with Yogurt

1 pint organic plain yogurt

2 T raw agave nectar (what I used for sweetener)

Add: 1/2 vanilla bean split, 1/2 C chopped strawberries

Garnish with toasted almond slices

Note:  If you don’t have a shortcake pan, you can slice the muffins horizontally and make little layered shortcakes. When made with whole milk, each baby muffin is 190 calories.  Add strawberries and non-fat yogurt and you have a dessert for under 250 calories.

Key Words:  Yeast Spotting, Valentine’s Day, Strawberry, Pecan Shortcake, Yogurt, Muffins

Spinach Tiger Entry 16 - Strawberry Pecan Shortcakes

All original content copyright © 2008 Angela Roberts, All Rights Reserved

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