Margarita Cupcakes (Lime and Coconut Confections!)

Mmmm. My quest for summery cupcake recipes was totally gratified by this recipe that I slightly adapted from Marcianne Miller's book The Artful Cupcake (she called them "key lime" cupcakes). This little beauties are coconut cupcakes topped with lime curd and coconut buttercream. I was really satisfied with this recipe because not only did it attempt a coconut cupcake (these are so tricky to get the coconut flavour to actually come out) but it also taught me how to make curd - and sweet heavens this is way better than anything you could get out of a box and impressively easy (if you negate the fact that you have to squeeze about half a dozen limes for juice...and I don't have a juicer).

The cupcakes themselves are a little bland (I read review that would be the case, so I even added a couple of tablespoons of coconut extract, but no luck) - but they are totally just vessels for the super-tart lime curd. I decided to pipe a little coconut buttercream around the edges just to amp up the taste, which was great.

My only warning on these little puppies is they are SWEET. You wouldn't sit around and gobble down two in a row. Well, maybe if you skipped the buttercream and just left it coconut cupcakes with lime curd - but I'll give you all the recipes and you can decide for yourself.

Coconut Cupcakes
From The Artful Cupcake by Marcianne Miller
makes 24 cupcakes

3/4 cup shredded (sweetened) coconut (plus about 1/2 cup for topping, later)
1-1/2 cups (unsweetened) coconut milk
1 egg
3 egg whites
2-3/4 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp. coconut extract

• Soak coconut in 1/2 cup of coconut milk, set aside
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees, paper 24 cupcake tins
• Sift flour, baking powder and salt - set aside
• Mix remaining coconut milk with egg and egg whites - set aside
• Cream the butter and sugar in the bottom of a big mixing bowl, then add soaked coconut and mix well
• Alternate wet (egg mixture) and dry (flour mixture) in three parts, mixing well until fully combined (this is where I finished by adding the coconut extract)
• Fill cupcake tins to half and bake 20-22 min (these are wet cupcakes, so they might need a few more minutes, but keep an eye on them). Use the clean toothpick test.

Lime Curd (I doubled this recipe. And it was a good idea because I think I ate half the batch right out of the bowl before I even got to the cupcakes.)

1 teaspoon water
1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of 3 limes
Green food coloring
Zest of 1 lime
2 oz. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces

• Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in the bottom of a bowl and let soften
• In a heavy saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and lime juice
• On a medium heat, continue to stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until it steams and thickens. (you need to really watch at this step, you don't want to scorch the bottom, but it needs to get quite hot. I found I needed to stir the mixture with an oven mit because it "spit" a little bit - it was worth it)
• When you can draw your finger across the curd on the back of the stirring spoon and the line stays without dripping, take it off the heat.
• Strain the curd into a bowl with the gelatin and whisk well to incorporate
• Add a few drops of green food colouring until you reach the desired colour
• Add the zest and the butter and mix well until everything has been well incorporated
• Chill for at least 20 minutes until a spreadable consistency

Coconut Buttercream Icing

1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
3 c. icing sugar, sifted
1/4 c. unsweetened coconut milk
2 tbsp. coconut extract

Mix coconut milk and extract together
Cream butter, then mix in two cups of icing sugar and beat until smooth
Add coconut milk mixture and beat again until smooth
Add last cup of icing sugar and beat until smooth

Assembly

• When cupcakes are cool, hollow out a little teaspoon in the middle and fill with lime curd
• Pipe coconut icing in stars around the lime green centre
• Top with coconut (toasted lightly 2-3 min under the oven broiler)
• Serve!

Blog Blitz #2: Sweetheart Sugar Cookies)

Last weekend, after a very busy baking bonanza, and getting everyone off on a sail race, I still wanted to work in the kitchen (I mean, I had it all to myself for an entire weekend! Who can give that up?) but I needed something no-hassle and fun. Of all things, I got the urge to make sugar cookies.

I love sugar cookies. They so remind me of being a kid. They are so simple to make, that they are easily whipped up and the dough chilled until little hands are bored. The recipe I used came from Nigella Lawson's "Feast" that I had bought on a seriously price-reduced table at the local Walmart last week. I know - Nigella on Sale? I've never seen it before either. I had to have it, although I do try to avoid Walmart at all costs (although they are the only place in town with silk ivy leaves and I was making a Peter Pan costume. Don't ask).

Once I got home and started looking through this glorious book, I realized that the problem was that all the recipes were in grams (not cups), which is the European way. But I figured I would just google a conversion and be done with it.

The first search result I got back from my question "how many cups is 200 g. of flour?" provided me the snarky answer "cups and grams are not interchangable. Deal with it and find a new recipe".

I thought that was very rude, but as I flipped through the other search results I realized that it didn't convert that well. You see, while we might be able to read the butter box and see how much butter is in a pound and a cup...flour is a different density, so it isn't the same.

The guy was right. Either get a scale, or move on.

Once I dug out the scale, it was easy. And the recipe was totally worth it (I also added one tsp. of almond extract to the icing for a little pep) because (especially when you keep them cool) these cookies are delicious.

Try them, they're worth the effort


Cut-Out Cookies
From Feast by Nigella Lawson

90 g. soft unsalted butter
100 g. sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
200 g. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Icing
15o g. of icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. hot water
food colouring pastes

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Cream butter and sugar, the beat in egg and vanilla until well whipped
• Combine all dry ingredients separate
• Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until a thick dough (dough, but not tough)
• Wrap immediately in cling wrap and chill for 30 minutes
• Once chilled, turn out on to a floured board and roll 1/4 inch thick
• Cut out designs of your choice and bake 8-12 minutes until golden brown (the middle might still be a bit soft, but don't worry, it will set)
• Make icing by putting water in the bottom of the bowl with the almond extract and sift in sugar until you get a good stiff icing. Add pastes until you reach your desired colours (in my mind, the more colours the better)
• wait until cookies are entirely cool before icing

Blog Blitz #1: Summery Strawberry Salsa

I don't usually blog about anything but baking, but recently I have made a few cool dishes (that are simple and amazing) that I just needed to share. The very term "salsa" is defined as mixtures of raw food, which means no cooking at all, although I did later use it as a marinade. This was just too good not to share. Plus, the colours of the food was so amazing that they were begging for a photoshoot, and I have just figured out how to use my camera to get a half decent picture (I am a work in progress, believe me!) so I was a little excited.


A few coworkers and I were talking the other day about a really interesting recipe one of them found in a local paper that combined strawberries with jalapeno peppers. The combination sounded really weird, but actually pretty good - which got us to talking about other odd strawberry recipes we had seens.

You see, Southwestern Ontario has a lot of strawberries. A LOT of strawberries. Not that you'd know it, though, since the ones in the supermarket are still marked as imported from California (there is no logic to this one), but if you make it to a local market the whole place practically smells like a giant, ripe strawberry at this time of year. So it makes sense that there are a lot of recipes created to do this little fruit service.

Well I poked around on the internet and in a google search I found this recipe for strawberry salsa that looked so intriguing that I just needed to try it! However, I adapted it a little bit as I went along, and I was really pleased with my outcome. I found that the jalapeno was a little on the potent side, so I added two peaches, chopped, to the mix, which I thought soaked up a little more of the spicy (believe me, it was still HOT!)


I also topped mine with some grated cheese before serving, making it look a little more like a traditional salsa. My only other word of advice would be to gauge the cilantro - the taste is really delicious, but can be a bit overwhelming, so start a little under the proposed amount, and then add more if you need it.

The taste combination was really different, but in a good way. When I brought it to my cousin's birthday party it was demolished (by kids and adults alike) in less than five minutes flat!

I also doubled my recipe (I have a big family with a lot of appetite!) so I had some leftover the next day. My Mom and I got the idea to pack our chicken breasts in the rest of the salsa and bake it in there. WOW! What a delicious recipe that turned in to! The acid in the orange juice and lime really made the chicken tender, and there was this really neat spicy/cilantro-y taste that just infused into the meat. I will definitely make this as both a salsa, and a marinade again!

Berry-licious: Blueberry and Raspberry Cupcakes with Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting

I know it has been a dog's age since I posted anything on here, but it wasn't because I was lazy. In fact, my next couple of posts are all going to be a blitz today getting everything I've done up on here!

Summer has long since forgotten her promise of lazy afternoons, and I have felt my schedule accelerate at break-neck speed these past few weeks.

In truth, July is always busy. One reason in particular is sailing. I love to sail, myself, but it is my boyfriend and my father, and all my male relatives who do the brunt of the heavy competitive sailing. They all compete in the Bayview to Mackinac Race every year (my boyfriend and father race on separate boats, making for competition, of course), and then my boyfriend flitts off to Chicago to do the Chicago to Mackinac Race. ::Sigh:: He left again this morning.

So getting everything ready is always a bit of a chore - but now I have six days to finally get all of these pictures posted!

So two weeks ago I made raspberry-blueberry cupcakes (they are in season, after all). One of my friends from work had let slip she was moving on in her career, so I made them with her especially in mind (since I found out she goes crazy for fruit).

The cupcakes were sensational and at least half a dozen people told me they had surpassed all others as their favourite (although, to be honest, one of those people says that every single week, so I don't know how much they are to be trusted!)

There was so much fruit in this cupcake, and since I folded them in whole instead of beating them in, they both kind of exploded in the cupcakes and were still a little oozy when they had cooled the next morning.

For the icing, I just wanted to give it some pep, but I didn't think whole fruits were the right way to go so I tried the sickly sweet blackberry syrup I just picked up at Winners (Canadian TJ Maxx, pretty much). I think any type of fruit syrup would work, you just have to be ready for a slightly thinner icing (I didn't mind that)

(the plate though did come from TJ Maxx in a set of four! Isn't that just the cutest design? I wish my camera would stop being so ridiculous. I think I need a new one...)

Ok, back on track - here's the recipe, it's dead easy. I think these are one of the best summery cupcakes I've ever had - but since I'm biased you better try making them yourself!

Blueberry-Raspberry "Berrylicious" Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcakes

2 3/4 c. cake flour
1 c. softened unsalted butter
2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 banana, mashed
1 c. milk
2 1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1 c. whole washed blueberries
1 c. whole washed raspberries

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees; paper 24 cupcake tins
  
• Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy; add eggs one at a time and beat well after each
• Add banana and beat well
• Combine flour and baking powder, set aside
• Combine milk and vanilla, set aside
• Alternate wet and dry ingredients until fully combined
• TURN MIXER OFF
• Fold in fruit so as not to break fruit
• Fill tins 3/4 full and bake 20-22 min until golden brown and slightly springy to the touch
• Cool completely before frosting

Blackberry Cream Cheese Icing
The zingy cream cheese and slightly tart blackberry made for a stunning combo

8 oz. cream cheese, softened (1 package)
1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
4 c. icing sugar
1/4 c. blackberry syrup (not jam)

• Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth; add two cups of icing sugar (one cup at a time) until smooth
• Add syrup by the tablespoon
• Add the last two cups, one cup at a time, until full combined
• If the icing is too runny, add more icing sugar by the tablespoon - but realized that this icing is just a little thinner

And voila! Ice, decorate with some leftover fruit, and enjoy!