A Fresh Week, A Fresh Outlook, and My Mini C-Cups

 First I would like to wish everyone on the Eastern Seaboard of North America all the best and I hope everyone is safe and sound after Irene passed through.  My thoughts are with you all.

The Little Kitchen is soooooo ready for a new week to start, even if it is my last week of holidays!  I am going to be honest with you: I am glad this week is officially over.  Things can only really get better from here.  We are a little lost with out the BBQ at our disposal.  You never realize how much you use an item until some jerk steals it from  your back yard.  We are also adjusting to life as a one cat house after the heartbreaking passing of our beloved Daisy.  Daisy was the first family pet we got when we moved into our current house 10 years ago.  We didn't choose her, she chose the boy.  We had heard through the grapevine the local animal hospital had a litter of cats dropped off for them to adopt out.  The Boy and I stopped by to visit them and "think about getting a cat".  Well let me tell you, the vet's assistant brought Daisy into the room and put this sweet, midnight black kitty on the table.  Daisy walked over to the boy, put her head on his shoulder and started purring....she had found her human.

I used to wonder why nothing ever grew in that pot, it was Daisy's nap spot!

Needless to say, we took her home with us that night and from then on, she was the Boy's protector.  Standing in between us if he was in trouble, scratching at his bedroom door to be let in, and cozying up to him while he read.

This was a tough week and I know that in the grand scheme of things we have had tougher weeks. We will get through.  We always do.  The summer really has been a great summer so we are doing our darnedest to not let last week keep us down!

Friday morning helped, I got an email telling me I place 3rd in Canadian Beef's 'Who Rues the Grill' contest for my Chipotle lime Flank steak!! Yay!!  Of course now I wish my BBQ hadn't been stolen...ACK!

Zombie head and mini cupcakes cheer me up!

One of the ways I relieve stress is to bake.  With all the zucchini coming out of the garden, I can't help but keep making Chocolate Zucchini cake!  This time I changed it up a bit and added some coconut!  I don't mind telling you that I needed a moment alone with these cupcakes....they were just that good!

Chocolate Zucchini Coconut Cake

Printable recipe

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup oil  (you can also use all butter if you wish, omit oil and use ¾ cup butter in total)

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp coconut extract (1 ½ tsp, or 2 if you like it more coco nutty flavor)

1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk soured with 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice)

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups zucchini, grated (or shredded)

1 cup cup chocolate chips (optional, but why would you leave those out?)

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Pre heat oven to 350F

In a bowl and set aside until ready to use, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. 

In the bowl of your stand mixer (or a bowl and a hand mixer, or in a bowl with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease....) cream together the butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time until mixed in.  Mix in the coconut extract and buttermilk.  Keep the mixer going for a few minutes on medium low until the mixture is a nice pale yellowish colour.

Now find the bowl you set aside with the dry ingredients and add it all to the mixing bowl.  Mix until well combined. 

Add in the zucchini, coconut, and the chocolate chips, and once again mix to combine.

Now scoop the batter into a pan that has been greased and floured or muffin tins with liners.

Bake minicupcakes for 15 to 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Zombie cupcakes make good eats and make us laugh!

Coconut Frosting

4 tbsp softened butter
4 cups icing sugar
2 tsp coconut extract
enough water to make icing the right consistency (about 4 tbsp or so)

Cream butter with extract and sugar.  Add the water 1 tbsp at a time until icing reaches the desired consitency.  Thinner for dipping, slightly thicker for piping.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Chasing Away the Rain with Mango Lime Cupcakes

The Boy had his first baseball game of the season scheduled for last night. Unfortunately it rained and the game was cancelled. This calls for cupcakes.  I know, I know, I just made cupcakes the other day...I was just so excited at how well the pretty pink strawberry rhubarb cupcakes turned out that I wanted to try another flavour combination....hmmm....what to do, what to do.

Last week while shopping for Cinco de Mayo, I grabbed a mango thinking I'd probably use it....I also grabbed a bunch of extra limes....hmmmm....what to do, what to do...

Mango Lime Cupcakes!!!! Oh yes I did! I used my basic vanilla cupcake recipe, you know the same one I used to make the strawberry rhubarb cupcakes and just switched out the fruit!

Mango Lime Cupcakes

3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 cups mango (chopped fine)
zest of 1 lime (I think I will use more next time)
squeeze of lime juice
1 tbsp sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Peel and finely chop the mango.  Zest the lime, making sure to get only the green.  Mix the mango, lime and lime zest with a squeeze of lime juice and 1 tbsp sugar and set aside.

In a bowl mix together 3 cups flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (hand mixer or by hand will work too) cream the 1 cup butter with the 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and thoroughly mixed.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time allowing each one to mix in completely before adding the next one. Mix in the vanilla. (I suppose tequila would also go well here....)

Add the flour mix and the buttermilk, alternating additions starting and ending with the flour.

Mix in the mango/lime zest/lime juice mixture.

Scoop into lined cupcake pans to 2/3 full and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 5 minutes then remove to cooling racks to complete cooling.

I looked around (again by look I mean Internet search) for a coconut icing recipe.  I found and interesting one that was similar to a meringue butter cream but used the egg yolks instead of the egg whites...I just happened to have some egg yolks leftover from the the strawberry meringue butter cream I made the other day...perfect!

To make a long story short, I was 100% skeptical of this recipe but I gave it a go.  You know what, it is silky, rich and sooooo tasty.  I just wished I had the coconut extract it calls for but it still has a nice coco nutty flavour with a hint of lime...I did make the addition of lime zest to the recipe and sprinkled the final cupcakes with toasted coconut...yum!!
 
Find the icing recipe here

To toast coconut:

Pour the coconut in a dry pan and heat over low to medium, watching closely.  Give the pan a stir or a shimmy shake every now and then.  When the coconut starts to brown, it will finish toasting quickly.

You can also toast coconut in the oven on a baking sheet.  Just make sure to not have the oven too hot and to keep a close eye on things.

Until next time, stay dry and eat well!

Coconutty Macaroons Really Make my Heart Happy!

I know I keep talking about my favourite cookies but these ones are my absolute favourites and are only made at Christmas...They are decadent, sweet, coconutty....a little bit of chocolate on the top seals the deal!  I first found this particular reciped on the DVD (The video in this link doesn't seem to work in Canada...all of the sites I tried had the video blocked.  This kind of ticks me off.  Oh well I have tried to deliver the source of my tasty treat!).  The DVD came with Alton Brown's book "Good Eats, The Middle Years".  

Little Kitchen confession time....I did receive an oh so yummy batch of macaroons from my friend Susie at last weekend's bake exchange, but those have actually been eaten already!

Here are the ones I made this morning while waiting for the Sugar Cookies to chill in the chill chest.

Macaroons

Original source: Alton Brown
Printable recipe

Preheat oven to 325 F

• 14 oz sweetened coconut flakes 
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• Pinch kosher salt 
• 2 oz sweetened condensed milk 
• 4 egg whites 
• 5 oz (by weight) sugar

In a bowl combine the coconut, vanilla, kosher salt and the sweetened condensed milk.  Mix until completely combined.  Using clean hands for this is very useful in helping to eliminate any lumps or pockets of the sweetened condensed milk.

Weigh out the 5 oz of sugar and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the 4 egg whites until frothy (as though for a meringue).  Gradually, and by this I mean 1 or 2 tbsp at a time, add the sugar.  Beat until glossy and holds a medium peak.

Fold the beaten meringues into the coconut mixture a little at a time.  Do this in three additions of the fluffy meringues.  

Use a wide and flat utensil to cut through the middle of the coconut, scoop up towards yourself at the edge of the bowl and gently flip or fold  the contents back towards the middle of the bowl.  

 

 

Turn the bowl 1/4 of a turn and repeat until each addition of the meringues are thouroughly folded in.

Using a tablespoon scoop, scoop out macaroons onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.  Finished macaroons will be a nice golden colour on the edges.

Melt 1 pkg (12 oz) of chocolate chips with 1 oz of veggie shortening.  Stir until smooth.
 

Dip the tops of the macroons into the melted chocolate and allow to dry.  (if you can wait that long!)
 
I haven't done the chocolate on these yet but I couldn't wait to share them with everyone!  

I had some extra coconut so I sprinkled it on top!  YUM!

Little Kitchen confession time again!!

I doubled this batch....if you're gong to mess up the kitchen....make it worth your while!  Also make some taste testers!