Maple with a twist
Apr 27, 2011 Cupcakes Bakery
Like I said in my previous post, my dad is in town. He brought me and my sister each a litre of maple syrup, a brick of maple sugar and some maple butter. All yummy and delicious!
I’ve already done maple syrup cupcakes, but I needed to do it again with all these wonderful maple products my dad brought me. So I did maple cupcakes with a twist! I added cardamom to the mix along with expresso powder and honey. I love cardamom. I don’t use it enough. I thought it would work well with maple and I think it did pretty well. I added some expresso powder to cut the sweetness a bit and some honey to add a bit of variation to the sweetness. Last time I flavoured it all with maple syrup and I used a lot of it which created a very sweet cupcake. This time I tried flavouring it mostly with maple sugar. It makes for a much more subtle taste, which unfortunately I think got a bit overpowered by the cardamom. I put 1 tsp of cardamom in the cupcake dough, but if you try this recipe yourself I suggest only putting 1/2 a tsp. All in all though, I think it was a success!
cake:
- 3/4 cup of butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- scant 1/2 cup maple sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 tsp of cardamom (1/2 tsp would be enough)
- 1 1/2 tsp of expresso powder
- 1/2 cup of cream
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 1 tbs maple syrup
method:
- preheat the oven to 350
- beat the butter until it is light and fluffy
- add the sugar and beat thoroughly
- add the maple sugar and beat thoroughly again
- add the eggs one at a time and beat in between each addition, then beat on high for 30 seconds
- sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cardamom and expresso powder together and combine with the butter/sugar mix
- add the cream and milk and combine until smooth
- add the maple syrup
- line a cupcake pan with paper cups
- bake for 20 minutes
icing:
- 3 egg whites
- 140g of sugar
- 1 1/4 cup of butter cut in 1 inch cubes
- 3 tbs of maple syrup
- 2 tsp of honey
- 1/4 tsp of cardamom
method:
- combine the egg whites and sugar in a double boiler
- whisk a little until all the sugar is melted away
- take off the double boiler and beat on high until cooled and turned into a firm meringue, touch the bottom of the bowl to make sure its at least body temperature
- add the butter one cube at a time while beating on a lower speed
- beat on high until you get a nice fluffy texture (it will turn to a cottage cheese kind of texture about half way through, just keep beating)
- add the maple syrup, honey and cardamom and combine
Enjoy 
Tags: 2 Eggs, Baking Powder, Cardamom, Cup Sugar, Cupcakes, Egg Whites, Flour, Inch Cubes, Litre, Maple Butter, Maple Products, Maple Sugar, Maple Syrup, Paper Cups, Pinch Of Salt, Subtle Taste, Sugar Mix, sweetness, Tbs, Tsp
7 Desserts 7 Days- Coconut Chocolate Almond Congo Bars
Mar 29, 2011 Bakery House
The fifth dessert in this series of 7 Desserts 7 Days ticks all the boxes for Valentine’s- chocolate….check……coconut……check……..nuts……CHECK! What more could you ask for! After the chocolate overdose that was Chocolate Pots de Creme, these will appear more sedate. But don’t be fooled by appearances.
I’d call this bar a cross between a cookie and brownie- you’ve got the crunch of the former and the fudginess of the latter. The salt in the graham cracker base perfectly balances out the sweetness of the topping. And sweet it is with the addition of condensed milk. I love condensed milk and much prefer to use it over sugar when I’m making sweet things. But I recently discovered someone who loves it more than me- my Filipino nanny. Apparently Filipino cuisine uses condensed milk in various ways- moong beans and pasta to name a couple. But we digress.
The great thing about these bars is that they can be prepared in advance and also frozen (airtight containers). We actually had these for breakfast with a plain glass of milk. So I’m thinking along the lines of breakfast in bed on Valentine’s with a steaming cup of coffee!
As a side note, I’ve been looking for these paper straws for months in Dubai and was ecstatic to finally find them at Me&Riley. Thye really are like gold dust and was so glad I could get my hands on them. So much so, that I decided to take a shot of them to highlight their glory. So if you’re Dubai resident and want to get your hands on these, you know where to find them. By the way, I don’t work for them
I thought it would be a fun idea to serve these as little heart shaped delights. Just in case you can’t tell, those are heart shaped congo bars hearts in the photo above. You can use a simple cookie cutter to achieve this. I just think it’s befitting for this time of the year.
Tomorrow I have a real treat for you. We’re sticking to the nut theme but with peanuts this time. And chocolate. Basically, if you’re a peanut butter fan, you need to come back! And just in case you haven’t seen the fabulous giveaway running on this blog, all you have to do is click here.
Coconut Chocolate Almond Congo Bars
Ingredients:
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (can reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp if you prefer an overall sweeter bar)
1 cup Graham Cracker crumbs
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
7 tbs butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup nuts, roughly chopped (I used almonds)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade. Grease a 9×9 inch pan with butter and dust with flour. To make the crust, mix together the first 6 ingredients. Mix until the dough is crumbly. Spread this evenly into your pan and flatten very slightly. Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is slightly golden.
To prepare the topping, mix the rest of the ingredients together. Spread this mixture evenly over the topping. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes or until the top appears set and the edges just begin to brown. Cool on a wire rack until completely cold before cutting into bars.
This recipe is from Savory Sweet Life and make around 16 bars.
Tags: Breakfast In Bed, Chocolate Almond, Chocolate Overdose, Chocolate Pots, Condensed Milk, Cookie Cutter, Crunch, Cup Of Coffee, Desserts, Filipino Cuisine, Glass Of Milk, Gold Dust, Graham Cracker, Little Heart, Paper Straws, Peanuts, Plain Glass, Sweet Things, sweetness, Valentine Chocolate
Coronado Cupcakery – Coronado
Jan 31, 2011 Uncategorized
Cupcakes. Cupcakes have been the ‘in’ thing for a while now since the opening of Sprinkles in Los Angeles and more recently here in San Diego (La Jolla). I am generally not a ‘sweets’ person as I would rather have a bite of a rib eye steak than a piece of chocolate, however… some times my taste buds wants just that, a taste of sweetness, after a savory meal.
Coronado Cupcakery was our
Tags: Chocolate, Coronado, Cupcakery, Cupcakes, La Jolla, Rib Eye Steak, San Diego, Savory Meal, sweetness, Sweets, Taste Buds
