Chronicles from the East
22 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Cupcakes Tags: carrot, cream cheese, Cupcakes, pineapple
Life gets so busy sometimes. One second you’re go-go-go in third year of medical school, posting recipes to stay sane and baking while you can…
and then one second you’re in fourth year. And everything is different! I’m busy…but in a different way. I’ve got reference letter packages to drop off, errands to run, life to sort out. Oh, and my parents stole the camera so I can’t take pictures of anything I’ve made.
But here is a recipe I made while in Halifax on electives. I didn’t bake very much over the summer, but these cupcakes were prettttty tasty!
I found these little treats on joythebaker’s website (who in turn adapted them from Martha Stewart). I used a regular cream cheese frosting instead of dulce de leche because MMMMM I love cream cheese!
Carrot Cake Cupcakes (adapted from Joy the Baker)
makes about 28 cupcakes
* 4 cups peeled and finely grated carrots (if you’re a weakling like me, get a nice strong man to do it for you!)
* 3 large eggs, room temperature
* 2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
* 1/3 cup buttermilk (As usual, in a pinch I took 1/3 cup regular milk + 1/3 tbsp vinegar)
* 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, well drained
* 1 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted and finely chopped (omitted for nut allergies)
* 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 standard muffin tins with paper liners. In a bowl, whisk together carrots, eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla seeds, and coconut, pineapple and nuts if desired. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Stir flour mixture into carrot mixture until well combined.
2. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until testers inserted into centers come out clean, 23 to 28 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks, 10 minutes. Turn out cupcakes onto wire racks, and let cool completely. Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen for up to 2 months in airtight containers.
3. Frost cupcakes with dulce de leche or cream cheese frosting. Frosted cupcakes can be refrigerated for up to 3 days; bring to room temperature, and sprinkle with toasted coconut (press gently to adhere) before serving.
DELISH!
Hummingbirds…crushed up.
02 May 2010 Leave a Comment
in Cupcakes Tags: cream cheese frosting, Cupcakes, hummingbird, pineapple
Oh me oh my, it’s been over a month since I’ve added anything to this blog! Granted, I haven’t been baking very much recently. We started internal medicine 3 weeks ago, and ever since it has been ruling my life. I actually like internal. The problems are challenging, the patients have about 15 other medical conditions complicating the picture, and I feel (and look) like an idiot…daily. But it’s rewarding. My only beef is with being on call. It’s nice to get called about ward issues, to have patients that are “yours” to deal with, and to sort out someone’s admission…
However you no longer feel like it’s nice at 5 AM when you’ve been working almost non-stop since 7:30 AM the day before, have had next to no sleep, and are just starting on another admission. /sigh
Luckily we do get some breaks. Last weekend, one of my friends and fellow Track 1 medicine crew had her birthday party! So cupcakes were in order.
I love these cupcakes. They’re dense, like a carrot cake, but different from your usual fruity cake. Everyone always asks…”what’s a hummingbird cake”? I started to tell people that I crushed up little hummingbirds and put them inside…and that’s why the frosting is pink. This answer didn’t seem to go over well with a lot of people, so I thought I’d look into where the origin was from. However, even wikipedia didn’t have an answer for me! This is what Martha Stewart’s website has to say:
“Some say this Southern layer cake earned its name because each otherworldly bite makes you hum with delight. Another theory is that it’s as sweet as the sugared water used to attract its hovering namesake.”
So the Hummingbird Cupcakes, are basically a cakes with pineapple, pecans, and banana (and sometimes coconut).
Hummingbird Cupcakes
(Adapted from Cupcake Blog)
(Makes 24 cupcakes – I made 1.5 times the amount to get 40 cupcakes)
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (I was a little more generous with the cinnamon)
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
1 8oz can crushed pineapple, with liquid
2 mashed bananas
1 cup coursely chopped pecans
1. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt with a whisk in a good sized bowl.
2. Beat eggs.
3. Add oil and vanilla to beaten eggs and mix until somewhat combined.
4. Add egg/oil/vanilla mixture to flour/sugar/baking soda/cinnamon/salt mixture.
5. Mix together pineapple, bananas, pecans until combined.
6. Add to the rest of ingredients and stir to combine.
Bake at 350 degrees for ~25 minutes until golden and a cake tester comes out clean.
I topped these suckers with a strawberry cream cheese frosting. I never really measure things out with frosting, I think it’s all about beating it to taste. But I took a slab of cream cheese, a small chunk of lard, some spoonfuls of strawberry jam, and icing sugar and beat them together, adding more icing sugar to taste. YUM!
It’s easy to make chocolate words too – just melt your chocolate of choice in a plastic bag in the microwave, cut a teeny hole in the corner, and pipe the words onto a plastic/tin foil/parchment paper covered baking sheet. Stick them in the freezer til they’re nice and solid, and pop them on top! Tada!
Enjoy =)
Life in Lloyd
25 Feb 2010 2 Comments
in Chocolate, Cupcakes, Main Course Tags: banana, Chocolate, cupcake, pasta, peanut butter, spaghetti, squash
Hello friends!
I’ve been shipped out to Lloydminster for 2 months for my rural family rotation. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive from Edmonton. Lloydminster is not quite rural, but not really a big city either. I don’t count it as rural when there’s a big superstore, walmart, and 3 tim hortons! It’s nice out here…RPAP has set me up in a little house. I have my own bedroom, ensuite bathroom and closet…and most importantly a big kitchen! I think I might suffocate if they put me in a place without a kitchen.
There’s not a whole lot to do out in a small town. But I played cricket for the first time last week. It was fairly embarrassing, as to be expected. Ball-sports and I don’t get along very well. But I didn’t get hit in the head, thankfully. I also discovered that I have the food network. And I hauled along my waffle maker amongst other things. I’ve been baking a couple times for the nurses in Emerg. They are all really friendly and don’t complain about the cookies and muffins =)
Here’s one of my go-to muffin/cupcake hybrid recipes. I love this recipe. You can use it in a pinch, when you want to make something fast but have run out of eggs. Or if you only have one banana left and it’s rapidly deteriorating so you can’t eat it OR make banana bread. Or just make it when you feel like because they’re moist and delicious.
Chocolate Banana Muffins (adapted from theppk.com)
Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup granulated sugar)
1/4 cup applesauce + 1 tbsp oil (original recipe uses 5 tbsp butter – but they are so much healthier this way and super moist!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 banana, mushed well
1 cup flour (I use 1/2 AP and 1/2 whole wheat)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (original calls for soy milk, but I didn’t have any on hand and regular is fine)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine applesauce, oil, sugars, and vanilla extractin a large bowl, mix well. Add banana, stirring well to combine. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with 1/2 cup milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition.
Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups lined with paper liners. (I used my new silicone muffin cups which works great, and then you save cupcake lines and don’t have to grease any cupcake tins) Bake for 20 minutes or until cupcakes spring back easily when touched lightly in the center. Allow to cool, and frost if desired.
I just spread peanut butter on top of these suckers and they are absolutely lovely. You could make a fancy peanut butter frosting, or a peanut butter cream cheese frosting. But with just peanut butter, I can pretend that they’re healthy. ENJOY!
Not living at home means I have to cook for myself. It’s been fun, but also time-consuming and takes some creativity when you’re only cooking for one person. I always used to like to make big batches of stuff in baking, but when I make normal portions for meals I end up eating too much and still have leftovers. It’s tricky! One of the things that I have found myself a fan of: spaghetti squash. Such a cool little squash, that one is.
All you do is slice it in half, pop it in the microwave for 15-20 minutes in a bowl with some water, and then pull out the shreds with a fork comme ca:
It totally does look like spaghetti! I wouldn’t say the texture is the same. It’s crunchier. But it’s a really healthy substitute and easy to make too. Then just whip up whatever sauce you want. I just stirfried veggies and junk and added some pasta sauce:
Then toss it into your spaghetti squash, and voila! Yummy and fast! If you want, you can even put it back into the shell, sprinkle cheese on top and bake it. But I’m too lazy and hungry for that…
I just use my *heart* Magic Bullet *heart* to whip up all sorts of smoothies to go with it. My freezer is full of bags of frozen fruit. Mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries. I love love love it.
So Lloyd’s treating me pretty well so far. Although I miss Edmonton a little. I definitely miss all my friendsies. And I miss the shopping! And I miss my double oven. <3
Bake-bake-bake
28 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment
in Chocolate, Cookies, Cupcakes Tags: bake sale, Chocolate, Cookies, Cupcakes, haiti, meringue
I’ve felt so bad toting around my cupcake carrier when I see my celiac classmates. I feel like I’m waving it in their faces. HAHA NO CUPCAKES FOR YOUUUU. =(
So it made me oh-so-happy when Michael ordered some Gluten-Free baked treats for Kaitlin! So happy that I went out and bought some GF oat flour from Planet Organic:
I made these little Chocolate Cupcakes with that oat flour! When whisking it together, I didn’t feel like they’d be chocolatey enough. So I added about 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. WHOA CHOCOLATE EXPLOSION! They’re somewhere halfway between cupcake and brownie. And have a more hearty texture because of the oat flour. And they’ll rise up in the oven, but then fall when you open it b/c of the lack of gluten. But aren’t they pretty when you add some simple white chocolate to the top?
Here’s the recipe (with my alterations):
1/2 cup soy milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cup oat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 shortening
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.
Combine oat flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa, and salt in a bowl.
(Now this step says to combine the soymilk and vegan shortening in a bowl and mix. This did not work out very well for me, so I basically added them in separately)
Mix these together with the dry ingredients. Stir until blended. I added the mini chocolate chips at this point! And then bake for about 17-20 minutes (I may have underbaked these a tad). Let cool. Decorate how you want! I just wanted them to be simple on top since I already overloaded them with chocolate, but if you didn’t put chocolate chips in, you might consider a chocolate frosting. Or a vanilla frosting.
And for fun, I made little poop-drops. Hahaha or at least that’s what they look like to me. These are tasty, but not exactly the most aesthetically appealing. I think I’ll omit the chocolate chips and use a prettier star-tip pastry bag if I ever make them again. I didn’t use the star tip because I was afraid the chocolate chips would get stuck inside!
Chocolate Chip Meringue Drops (adapted from allrecipes.com)
* 2 egg whites
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (make sure it’s real vanilla extract, I’ve been told the artificial one has gluten!)
* 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil or parchment paper, and set aside.
2. In large bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. (just like with the last meringue recipe! Whip it good!) Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat until they hold stiff peaks. Mix in the vanilla and cocoa on low speed, then fold in chocolate chips by hand. Drop small mounds of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Dropping them on the baking sheet would probably have made actual cookies instead of poop-piles, but I had more fun my way 
3. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Turn off oven, and leave the cookies in the oven for 2 more hours, or until centers are dry. Remove from pan and store in an airtight container. I just baked them for an hour or so and then left them in the oven overnight.
Et voila! POOP!
In with the new, out with the old!
31 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in Chocolate, Cookies, Cupcakes Tags: Chocolate, Cookies, cream cheese, Cupcakes, ginger, oat
So I lied when I said there’d be enough time in clerkship to post recipes constantly. I realize it’s been 3 months since I last posted. Oopsy daisy…
Good thing it hasn’t been 3 months since I last baked! Oh no, that would be a catastrophe. Unfortunately there just isn’t enough hours in the day to bake, study, wake up at 4:30AM for surgery, AND take pictures of said baking.
But it’s New Years Eve. Time to make resolutions. I will be better at posting, promise! At least one update per rotation haha. Life just passes by too fast these days. The last post I made, I was still riding high on my Pediatrics rotation, the land of happiness. Since then, I’ve already passed through surgery AND a gastroenterology elective. I have to say, it’s been a long tiring road that’s not going to end anytime soon…but it’s also been a blast. I wouldn’t trade clerkship for the world. There are times when I realize just how much I love medicine. I love learning about diseases, and diagnosing people, and helping people. So corny, but so true.
I guess I digress, this post should be about New Years Eve food. YUM! So here’s a little something to ring in 2010: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes and Ginger Oat cookies!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
These cupcakes are yummmmy. Take chocolate cupcake batter. Add cookie dough. Bake. Frost. =)
I think if I make these again, I’ll try different combinations of cookie dough and batter. And put less cookie dough. But they’re good as is! The little tiny chocolate chip cookies on the top are the same as the dough inside.
For Chocolate Cupcake: (Adapted from Martha Stewart)
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup warm water
Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare cupcake pan with liners. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking power and salt. Reduce speed to low and add eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and water.
Fill cupcake liners about 1/2 full.
Then…
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: The Chewy (adapted from Alton Brown)
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour (I just used AP flour)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Chill the dough.
Roll the dough into small balls and put into the middle of the cupcake batter. BAKE @ 350 degrees for ~15-18 minutes. Take out and let cool.
Frost with your favorite frosting! I used a plain vanilla cream cheese frosting. And then baked those little tiny chocolate chip cookies (about 5 minutes) and put them on top for decorations!
Ginger Oat Cookies
These are my mom’s FAVORITE cookies! She love love loves the ginger taste, so we add TRIPLE the amount of ginger that the original recipe calls for. It adds a nice little punch to these crunchy guys. Crystallized ginger, freshly chopped ginger, and ground ginger. How can you go wrong?
GEORGIE HENDERSON’S GINGER OAT COOKIES
Makes 34 cookies (I got 40 cookies)
3/4 cup (175 mL) white sugar
8 ounces (225 g) margarine (or butter)
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
2-1/2 cups (625 mL) quick oats
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons (30 mL) hot water
1 tablespoon (15 mL) golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) baking soda
2 heaping teaspoons (10 mL) ground ginger (I used a tablespoon of ground ginger, a 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger, and 3 little discs of crystallized ginger – didn’t really measure that accurately! just toss it in!)
Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).
In a large bowl, cream sugar and margarine until light. Add flour, oats and salt.
In a small bowl, mix water, syrup and soda. Stir into biscuit mixture along with the ginger.
Roll teaspoons of the dough into small balls and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Flatten with a fork a couple times so they are flat. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on rack.
Enjoy! Hope everyone has a wonderful 2010. I’ve had a great 2009 filled with new learning experiences. There’s been plenty of shame-based and hands-on learning, new adventures had in Mexico, China, Spain, Portugal, France, and Las Vegas, old drama, new discoveries…and wonderful friends the whole way along. I love you all. <3
Orders: Cupcake, po, prn, STAT!*
29 Aug 2009 1 Comment
in Cupcakes Tags: banana, coconut, cream cheese frosting, pineapple
*(For the non-medically oriented people, po = by mouth and prn = as needed)
So I decided to enter in this little cupcake challenge thing-a-ma-bobber. It is my first one ever. And one of my first times majorly tinkering/creating a new recipe.
The theme is bananas. I for one, QUITE enjoy bananas. One of my favorite things is a peanut butter, nutella, and banana panini. DELICIOUSNESS, let me tell you!
But I decided that chocolate and bananas, peanut butter and bananas, all pretty over-done. I decided to branch out. While dozing off from a nephrology lecture, I started brainstorming cupcake combinations (kidneys = black box. I’ll need to fix that one day and actually learn their function…). One of the girls in my class suggested COCONUT and bananas! All so tropical! I approve!
So here they are. Pina colada cupcakes, with a banana pastry cream filling. There’s also banana in the cupcake itself (I used it in place of some eggs). I brought them as a treat to my shift in the Pediatric Emergency department today, and they were a big hit! One of the nurses loved them so much that he wrote my name on the whiteboard as *CHIEF MEDICAL STUDENT* (stars and all!). It was so cute. Especially since I’m the only medical student on today. And I’m certainly chief of nothing…not even myself. But I had a great day in peds emerg today…I did some suturing, some reduction of a subluxed elbow…I actually enjoyed working on a saturday! Cupcakes and medicine…ahhh…what could be better?
One little note…I’m ashamed to admit I used a box mix. I was a little short on time, in between all the shifts, so I cheated. If I make these again, I’ll be sure to actually find a vanilla cake recipe to make from scratch.
Pina Colada Cupcakes
(recipe adapted from Betty Crocker iPod application)
1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil(I used 1 tbsp oil, 1/4 cup applesauce)
3 eggs (I used 1 egg and 1 whole mashed banana)
2 teaspoons rum extract (I used 1 teaspoon of rum and 1 teaspoon of malibu. crunkcakes!)
Combine all the ingredients and bake for ~18 minutes.
Banana Pastry Cream
(recipe adapted from allrecipes.com)
* 2 cups milk
* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 2 egg yolks
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup cornstarch
* 1/3 cup white sugar
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 frozen banana (melted in the microwave)
1. In a heavy saucepan, stir together the milk and 1/4 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Heat up frozen banana in the microwave until it’s a nice mushy consistency. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, egg, and banana. Stir together the remaining sugar and cornstarch; then stir them into the egg until smooth. When the milk comes to a boil, drizzle it into the bowl in a thin stream while mixing so that you do not cook the eggs. Return the mixture to the saucepan, and slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly so the eggs don’ t curdle or scorch on the bottom.
3. When the mixture comes to a boil and thickens, remove from the heat. Stir in the butter and vanilla, mixing until the butter is completely blended in. Pour into a heat-proof container and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled before using.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 package cream cheese
1/4 cup margarine/butter
whipping cream
vanilla extract
icing sugar
I am very haphazard in making my frosting. I usually just beat the cream cheese and margarine together, and then add in a dash of whipping cream and vanilla extract…pretty much however much I feel like. Usually about a cap-ful of vanilla extract. Then I beat it some more, and start to add the icing sugar to taste. Some people like super-sweet frosting…I like mine with a mostly cream cheese taste and just sweetened enough.
Assembly:
Cut the tops off the cupcake in a cone, and then cut off the tip of the cone and fill with banana pastry cream. Replace the top of the cupcake back on. Frost. Sprinkle generously with coconut. ENJOY!!!
If I tinker with this recipe again, I’d probably choose a slightly drier vanilla cake recipe. With the box mix normally being pretty spongy to begin with, then adding all these moist ingredients (like applesauce and banana), they were a little hard to cut into to make the cones. I’d probably take out some of the water in the box mix. Or maybe even all of it. But practice makes perfect!
Hoorah! P=MD!
23 Aug 2009 Leave a Comment
in Cookies, Cupcakes, Other Baked Goods Tags: coconut, cranberry, peanut butter, pecan
We had an exam on IV therapy this thursday, based on a 111 page manual we were supposed to read. They gave us said manual at the beginning of the summer because a large percentage of last year’s class failed it, and were given the manual at the start of the week. You think I’d learn, and try to start reading it in the summer. But no, I started reading it on monday night. So many people fail it, that they schedule a rewrite the next day…into our jam-packed schedule!
We were told that if we got an email by 6 PM on thursday, we’d have to rewrite the exam on friday. So counting down to about 5:45…I realized no email = no test = 2 hour lunch break! No studying tonight! Freedom!!
Whatever should I do with my free evening? Start reading the Basic Life Support manual? Start studying up for my pediatrics rotation? Start reading the radiology textbook?
…who are we kidding? I baked. And I baked lots.
Unfortunately, my dad’s away in Ireland and took the camera with him…and I couldn’t find any other photographing apparatus. So no pictures this time. But delicious recipes do follow!
Pecan Pie Cupcakes (from Bake or Break, originally from Recipezaar)
These cupcakes were ridiculously easy to make. I almost felt guilty getting compliments on them, because they took so little time. And are so freaking delicious. SO GOOD!!! And requires no frosting. Makes 12 regular sized cupcakes.
Ingredients
* 1 cup chopped pecans
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 2/3 cup butter, melted
* 2 eggs
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
3. Spray a miniature muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Fill each 3/4 full.
5. Bake in preheated oven for approx. 18 minutes.
Cranberry Coconut Squares (recipe from Edmonton Journal…last christmas)
This is one of my mom’s FAVORITE things in the whole wide world! I made it at Christmas and she insisted I make TWO more batches the same week!! (We brought them to a few christmas parties, so thankfully we didn’t consume them all). My mom is pretty picky with my baking…she doesn’t really like cupcakes, but she loves it when I make these. Try it. Trust me.
Pastry:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cut cold butter cut in cubes
Filling:
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup whole cranberries
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter 9 x 13 baking dish.
2. Pulse flour, sugar, salt and butter in food processor. Whirl until crumbly.
3. Pat into baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes.
Lemon Mixture:
1. Meanwhile, whirl eggs, sugar and lemon juice in food processor. Add flour and baking powder. Whirl just until smooth.
2. Scatter cranberries over warm pastry. Sprinkle with coconut. Pour lemon mixture over top. It will spread to fill pan during baking.
3. Bake in centre of oven until middle is set (55 minutes). Cool and cut into squares. Store in airtight container up to four days or freeze.
Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies (from Joy the Baker)
I have two lovely friends in my medical class who were recently diagnosed with Celiac’s. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, basically people with Celiac’s cannot eat gluten, which is found in a lot of wheats and tons of other products! (Stuff like soy sauce, artificial vanilla extract, etc!) So…Celiac = not such a fun time with the majority of baked things I make. So I was determined to make them a treat too this time! I love love this recipe. SO easy, SO delicious, and it helped to brighten at least 2 wonderful people’s days.
- makes about two dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup all-natural chunky or smooth peanut butter (I used smooth)
1 cup sugar (1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar)
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I added this)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet with butter and set aside. In a mixer combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add egg and baking soda and mix for another 2 minutes. Roll into walnut sized balls and create a cris-cross pattern with a fork. If you’d like, add a few chocolate pieces to the top of the cookies. Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a baking sheet for two minutes, then transfer to… your mouth.
I also made puffed wheat squares and irish coffee cupcakes, but I wasn’t as satisfied with those two recipes. I shan’t post them until I have time to try them again and tinker around with the ingredients.
Oh, herro!
28 Jul 2009 Leave a Comment
in Cupcakes Tags: buttercream, chai
So I’ve baked a lot over the past year. An excessive amount, one might argue…if one wasn’t at the receiving end of said baking. So I gather no one’s arguing. =)
I decided I want to keep track of my baking adventures so I can remember the highlights (and hopefully fewer lowlights)! I figure this can also give me a hold on sanity as I launch in the clerkship portion of med school. Here’s hoping, anyways. /fingers crossed.
To kick off this blog, here is one of my absolute favorite cupcake recipes, with a twist that I made for a friend’s housewarming party. I thought I’d made pretty often, so I wanted to change it up and basically added cocoa powder and chopped up some dark and milk chocolate bars and threw them in the batter. However, begin dumb, I forgot that cocoa powder is a dry ingredient and when added in copious amounts…makes the batter thicker and possibly drier! So while this is the theoretical recipe that I’ve posted, in reality, I quadrupled the recipe and forgot to cut down the flour in replacement of cocoa powder and therefore added an extra 1/4-ish cup of oil and some mayonnaise to make up for it. They still turned out nice and moist, thankfully. I got some pretty good reviews for them (mostly a lot of “armmm” *scarf scarf* *chew chew* *content smile*), but they aren’t my favorite.
Chocolate Chai Latte Cupcakes
(recipe modified from theppk, frosting from cupcakeblog.com)
Ingredients
1 cup soy milk (I only had regular milk so I used that)
4 black teabags or 2 tablespoons loose black tea
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup plain or vanilla soy yogurt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
pinch of ground white or black pepper
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
(Makes enough to lightly frost 48 cupcakes.)
1 package cream cheese (I only had one package. perhaps it would be better with more cream cheese and less butter in the future)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted (to taste – I usually don’t add that much)
3 tablespoons cinnamon (to taste)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 and line tin with cupcake liners. In a small saucepan heat soymilk till almost boiling, add tea bags, cover and remove from heat. Let sit for 10 minutes. When ready to use stir teabags and thoroughly squeeze to insure as much tea is dissolved in milk as possible. Chop your preference of chocolate into small chunks (I used one bar of dark chocolate, recently acquired in my European chocolate-binge vacation and a small piece of milk chocolate).
In a large bowl wisk together oil, yogurt, sugar, vanilla and tea mixture until all yogurt lumps disappear. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and pepper into wet ingredients. Mix until large lumps disappear; some small lumps are okay. Stir in chocolate. Fill tins full and bake about 20 minutes until a sharp knife inserted comes out clean.
Frosting
Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy, scrape bowl. Add 4 cups of sifted powdered sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Add more powdered sugar as needed to get piping consistency. Enjoy!
