chocolate cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting

My littlest sister Dawn had a baby!  And not just a baby, but a leap day baby!  There's really no better way to celebrate then with cupcakes.  Everything is said better when cupcakes are involved. 

 I get to meet her next week, and I'm so excited.  It will be worth the 10 hour drive with my own 31 week pregnant body... I just hope I can manage to not pee every half an hour like I usually do. 

Even though I wasn't there, and haven't met the little one yet, I felt inclined to bake my own celebration for the happy family.  I've had a thing for chocolate and coconut lately.

Classic (One-Bowl) Chocolate Cupcakes

from sweetapolita

Yield: 12 standard cupcakes

3/4 cup (90 grams/3 ounces) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (150 grams/5 ounces) white sugar

1/4 cup (30 grams/1 ounce) dark cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon (2.5 grams) baking soda

3/4 teaspoon (2.5 grams) baking powder

3/4 teaspoon (2.5 grams) cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) salt

1/3 cup (70 mL) buttermilk

1/4 cup (60 mL) brewed coffee or espresso, hot

3 tablespoons (45 mL) vegetable oil

1 egg, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 mL) pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and line a muffin/cupcake pan with your favourite cupcake liners.
2. In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift all dry ingredients.
3. Add all remaining ingredients to bowl with the dry ingredients and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed (you may need the plastic splashguard that comes with mixer) and pour into prepared cupcake pan until 2/3 full (or just less).
*Batter will be liquidy, and cupcakes will rise.
4. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until toothpick or skewer comes out with a few crumbs. Try not to over bake. Carefully remove cupcakes from the pan immediately (it’s hot!), and place them on a wire rack until completely cool.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
from back to basics

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 cups sifted icing sugar
1/4 cup of sweetened desiccated coconut plus more for dipping

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and butter.  Add the icing sugar a bit at a time until until icing is smooth, and then add the 1/4 cup of coconut.

Ice the cooled cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting and then dip the tops in more of the sweetened coconut.

It was a great solo celebration, and I just can't wait till I get to meet the baby and celebrate for real with the happy family!

Congratulations Dawn and Steve!

Lemon Bread

 Everything about today feels like spring.  It's 13 degrees in Fergus right now, the sun is shining and the snow is melting.  It just makes me so excited for spring.  With spring comes Easter, and while I know it's a bit early considering it's only the beginning of March, Easter and lemons just go together for me.  I've been meaning to make this lemon bread for a few weeks now, but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to do it when it was blistering cold out and snowing.  Today though, today it just felt perfect.

Lemon Bread
from the big red book
yield: 1 loaf

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup white sugar

6 tbsp butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

pinch of salt

1 1/2  tsp baking powder

rind of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, flour, milk, salt, lemon rind, and baking powder and mix until smooth. 

Transfer to baking pan, and bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Topping:

 

Combine the juice of 1 lemon and 1/3 cup white sugar.

While still hot and in the pan, take a skewer and poke holes right through the bread and then pour the lemon juice and sugar over the top.  Let it sit for a few minutes before you take it out of the pan so the topping sets. 

Transfer to a cooling wrack and then enjoy!

Delicious.

Simply delicious.  Hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did!

rice krispie cake

I should have known better then to ask my brother in law what kind of birthday cake he wanted.  I also should have known I was going to get some crazy elaborate request when it took him 10 minutes to answer.  This is what he gave me.

Peanut butter ball cake with strawberries and chocolate.  

It was then up to me to figure out what to do.  Thank you to my mother in law for helping me brainstorm!

 

Peanut Butter Balls

from the big red book

1 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth it doesn't matter)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup golden corn syrup

5 cups rice krispies

In a sauce pan, melt the peanut butter, brown sugar and corn syrup.  Add rice krispies and mix quickly.  While they're still relatively hot, cover your hands in butter and roll into balls.  These freeze super well.

In the case of the "cake" I opted to press the mixture into two 8" cake pans.  

Strawberry Rice Krispies

by back to basics

4 tbs butter

1 3 oz package of strawberry jello

1 250 g package marshmallows

5 cups rice krispies

On medium low heat, melt butter then add jello and stir.  Add marshmallows and stir until melted. Add rice krispies and press into two 8" cake pans.

To assemble the "cake" I started with the peanut butter layer, added a layer of chocolate frosting, then the strawberry layer and more forsting and then the other peanut butter layer.  I had an extra layer of strawberry rice krispies that I sent home with the birthday boy, but it could easily have been incorporated into the "cake".  Cover the whole thing in more chocolate frosting, and Shane's insane concoction of peanut butter balls and strawberry and chocolate was finished. 

By far this was the weirdest request for a birthday cake I've ever had.  He seemed to love it though, and that's all that really matters.  Happy Birthday Shane.

granola

There are a lot of granola recipes out there.  In fact, I think that a lot is a bit of an understatement.  My main goal in developing this partictular granola was to see if I could replicate what we used to buy from the St. Jacobs Market.  When we moved to St. Catharines I think we went through granola withdrawl.  It's taken about a year and a whole lot of experimenting with different quantities and oven temperatures, but I would say I've finally figured out exactly what makes it work.  To be totally honest, I don't have any idea if it's as good as the kinds from St. Jacobs it's been so long since I had them, but it's the best one I've made yet, and that's good enough for us.

Granola
by back to basics

2 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups spelt flakes
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
1/2 cup raw pecans
1/2 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup raw whole almonds
1 cup raw unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 250

Mix the oats and nuts together.  Add the oil and maple syrup and mix well.

Spread on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and stir, then bake again for an additional 10 minutes.

Once it's out of the oven, add the coconut and enjoy!

Note: This recipe makes enough to fill a 2L container of ice cream.  That's what we use to keep it in and it doesn't last very long around here, so I usually make two batches.  I've tried just doubling the recipe, but it is inconsistent and doesn't turn out very well when doing it that way, so I tend to make one batch and then do the other.  I bake it in the oven at the same time on two cookie sheets, I just don't mix them together.

 The beauty of this recipe is how easily adaptable it is based on what you have on hand.  Don't have spelt flakes, use all oats.  Don't have all the nuts needed, or don't like those kinds? Add whatever nuts you have or like.  Don't like coconut? Don't add it!  It really is that easy and it really is delicious.

 Other ideas for additions:  raw pumpkin seeds, dried fruits, (if using dried fruit it's my personal preference to add it with the coconut after baking) dark chocolate pieces or cocoa nibs... really, if you like it, try adding it. 

good morning sunshine

I'm super excited about all the time I've been able to devote to this blog in the last couple weeks.  Without the stress of moving, and my job in the falls, everything seems to be falling into place.  The calm before the storm if you will, but even still I'm really excited about this storm, and the closer we get to meeting baby Grob the more exciting I get.  I'm trying to take advantage of all this free time I have while I can because come two months from now I'm sure I won't know what hit me.  

So for now, I revel in quiet Tuesday mornings where the only noise is the sound of the fish tank in the living room, and the only light comes from patio doors in the kitchen.  

When I saw this breakfast banana split on a blog I follow I just about started to drool.  It's so super easy too!

Breakfast Banana Split

 from bake at 350

1 banana

greek yogurt

sliced strawberries

nutella

chopped nuts

I really can't think of a better way to start off the day. 

Cheers to you Tuesday.

oatmeal white chocolate cookies

I'm not the hugest fan of white chocolate, but Josh is.  If fact, he doesn't even like chocolate unless it's white.  It boggles my mind.  

Oatmeal white chocolate cookies are his favourite, and so when he asked me to make them for him today I couldn't say no.  

The recipe I use is basically the same recipe I use for my oatmeal dark chocolate cherry cookies, with a couple differences.  Today, there were more then a couple differences because of ingredient issues.  So the recipe I used today is as follows.

Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies
from back to basics

155 g all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

 140 g unsalted butter

110 g white sugar

110 g brown sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla

48 g old fashioned oats
48 g spelt flakes

30 g flax seeds 

300 g white chocolate 

Preheat oven to 325

Wisk flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

Cream the butter and sugars together and then add the egg and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture and mix until just blended.

Add oats, spelt flakes, then chocolate.

Bake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 15-18 minutes until edges are golden brown.

 

 The cookies came out thin and crispy, but still chewy enough that they're not hard.  

I still much prefer the combination of dark chocolate and cherries in these cookies but as far as white chocolate oatmeal goes, these really are delicious. Even if I don't particularly enjoy white chocolate. 

love, sweet love

I had the brilliant idea of not only having a dessert table at our wedding, but baking it all myself.  In retrospect, it was indeed brilliant, and I'm so proud of myself for pulling it off.  I must give credit where it's due and thank those who helped make it a possibility though, because while the idea was to do it all by myself, it didn't end up going down that way.

To my amazingly wonderful and talented sister, maid of honour, photographer, wedding planner, designer and recipe contributor Margie, it would not have been possible without you!

To my mom for staying with us for the week leading up to the wedding and baking the chocolate chip meringues, sour cream cookies and the chocolate bundt cakes.

To Stephanie for not only the smartie cookies, but for the problem solving that went along with them.

To Sharlene at Sweet Celebrations for such a beautiful and delicious wedding cake.

Lastly, to the women who inspired me to make a dessert table filled with family recipes to begin with.  If it weren't for those women who baked them first, there wouldn't have been a table filled with as much love and history as there was.

If I had to go back and do it again, I absolutely would. 

 

Nannie's Smartie cookies

Omi`s Mandarine Cake

Margie`s Mocha Chocolate Cake

Mom`s Chocolate Chip Meringues

 

Mom`s Neapolitans

 

Josh`s request: My Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Grandma`s Sour Cream Cookies and Dar`s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Though not a part of the actual dessert table, I made 90 jars of peach jam to give to each guests as our bomboniere.

Our wedding was indeed filled with love, sweet love.