TWD: Coconut Tea Cupcakes with White Chocolate Icing

This weeks pick for Tuesdays with Dorie made my mom really happy. I was on the lookout for a recipe I could turn into cupcakes for her birthday and because my mother loves coconut this was perfect!! Carmen of Carmen Cooks singled out Coconut Tea Cake, which can be found here on Carmens blog or on pages 194 and 195 of Baking From my Home to Yours.

The entire recipe made 36 mini cupcakes that needed 14 minutes in the oven and 18 regular-sized cupcakes that needed to bake for 20 minutes. I topped the coconut cupcakes with white chocolate icing that I found at Technicolor, then dipped them in toasted coconut. They looked pretty and tasted absolutel divine!

White chocolate icing

adapted from Technicolor Kitchen in English

500g white chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

140g unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups flaked coconut

Place the chocolate, cream and butter in a small saucepan over low heat

Stir until melted and smooth.

Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.

Once cool, beat with a hand-held electric mixer until thick and fluffy.

Ice the cool cupcakes and top them with the flaked coconut

Winner of the CSN Giveaway

A short post on this Sunday evening to announce the winner of the CSN Giveaway. The winning comment was number 8:

slush zei: I love the ramekins. I don't own any. Nor do I have prep bowls or mini bundts. lol

Now slush is actually Laurie of Slush a.k.a. out fearless leader over at Tuesdays with Dorie, so I'm very sure she'll make good use of both the pan and the bowls!!

Thank you all for entering the giveaway!

TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos

Since I've posted this post late and I won't be able to pick a winner until Friday as I won't be home until really late on Thursday, I decided to extend my giveaway until midnight CET on Saturday March 27th, 2010. So if you want to win a set of 4 multi-coloured Le Creuset prep bowls and a Nordicware Multi Mini Bundt Pan, go enter here!!

Now on to the important stuff, the reason why you came here..... Tell me: what's the strangest thing you've ever cooked in your life? For me it's cans.... You see I needed dulce de leche for this weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie: Jodie of Beansy Loves Cake picked Dulce de Leche Duos, she posted the recipe here. To make and fill the cookies a can of dulce de leche was needed. Ofcourse I couldn't find any here in The Netherlands, I guess this was this weeks 'mystery ingredient'!

But luckily Julie of Someone's in the Kitchen foresaw this problem and gave us several options on how to make your own dulce de leche and dedicated this months Tricks for Treats to show us ways to make our own dulce de leche, thanks Julie!! I opted for cooking two cans of sweetened condensed milk and used this method.

The dulce de leche reminds me of a Dutch product called Bebogeen, some googleing gave my this information on Bebogeen: Dutch Wikipedia says Bebogeen was developed because there was no butter available in the northern part of The Netherlands after the World War II. Sugar beets were processed into a sweet spreadable caramel topping for bread. Bebogeen does not contain fat, but it does contain lots of carbs and can be considered as a Dutch version of the Latin-American dulce de leche. Bebogeen was also mentioned on several other websites/forums, such as in this article about dulce de leche on Absolute Astronomy.

I still have quite a bit of dulce de leche leftover, any ideas on what to do with it?? These cookies were delicious, I sandwiched half the batch with dulce de leche and served the other half as they were. For me the unfilled cookies were already sweet enough, the filled ones were too sweet!!

Go here to find this weeks Leave Your Link to see who made the Duos and what they thought of them!

Dutch Appeltaart

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win a set of 4 silicone Le Creuset Multi-Coloured Prep Bowls and a Nordicware Multi Mini Bundt pan! Go here to check it out!!!

Growing up my mom always used to bake apple tart on special occassions such as birthdays, in fact the first thing I ever baked probably was a apple tart or Appeltaart as we call it in Dutch. When I baked my own I always made my dough from a box. But since I joined Tuesdays with Dorie I haven't baked anything out of a box.

I also haven't been baking Appeltaart since joining TWD.... A couple of weeks ago it was my moms birthday and she asked me to find a recipe for Appeltaart. I found her this recipe at Expatica.com. It was absolutely perfect!! Better than the box-version I knew, way better! We had two slight alterations: mom used craisins instead of currants and just a little bit more cinnamon.

CSN Stores Giveaway

Update: the giveaway has been extended until March 27th!!

Most of you whom have visited my blog more than once know that I love hosting giveaways, so when Ashley of CSN Stores contacted me and asked me if I wanted to do a review or host a giveaway with either their bar stools or their cookware I was happy to!

CSN Stores is an online company that was began with two employees and one online store in 2002, now it has over 200 sites with more than 400 employees that sell almost anything from bar stools and cookware to toys and pet accessoiries.

Unfortunately I wasn´t able to do a review as CSN Stores only ship to US and Canada and I live in The Netherlands, but I can still give away two great articles to one of my lucky readers. Since I love to bake I picked out some items that I would love to have:

A set of Le Creuset Multi-Coloured Prep Bowls, made of silicone. The bowls are dishwasher safe and heat resistant, they can be used in the oven, microwave, freezer and fridge. The set includes a 1/4-cup Citrus Bowl, a 1/3-cup Cobalt Bowl, a 1/2-cup Kiwi Bowl and a 1-cup Cherry Bowl.

A Nordicware Multi Mini Bundt Pan, this comes with two each of these shapes: bavarian, star and festival muffin. The pan is made of heavy cast aluminium, it's non-stick and dishwasher safe and ovensafe.

Want to win the set of bowls and mini bundt pan? Here's what you have to do:

• Visit http://www.cookware.com/ and leave a comment on this post to tell me which item you would buy.
• For one extra entry: tweet about this giveaway and leave a link in a comment on this post.
• For another extra entry: mention this giveaway on Facebook and leave a link in a comment on this post.
• Followers get an extra entry, mention that you're a follower in a comment on this post.

Giveaway details:

• Contest is only open to US and Canada residents
• This contest ends on Saturday March 27th at midnight CET
• Winner will be chosen at random via Random.com generator
• I will send the winner an email, the winner then has 48 hours to respond by email or another winner will be chosen.
• Each entry has to be submitted in a seperate comment!
• If you don't leave your email adress in your entries, make sure that your profile is public.
  
  

Strawberry Cupcakes

Here's another round of cupcakes that I baked up for my Mom's birthday on March 5th. This recipe is by Martha Stewart, she calls these Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes. The cupcakes are topped with Sprinkles' Strawberry Frosting. The recipe for the cupcakes can be found here and the frosting here.

This recipe made 36 miniature cupcakes that needed 15 minutes in the oven. Again these were a big succes with my moms colleagues!

No TWD - instead: Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Buttercream

No TWD for me this week, I was pooped from my cupcake bake-a-thon. This weeks recipe for TWD was picked by Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude, he chose Thumbprints for Us Big Guys. The recipe can be found on page 164 of Baking: From My Home to Yours or over at Mike's blog. Check out what my fellow TWD-ers thought of the thumbprints here.

As I mentioned in my last post my mom asked me to bake her cupcakes for her to take to work for her birthday. Because my mom works at a call center she has lots of colleagues, which meant that I had to bake loads of cupcakes. I gave my mom several options for the miniature cupcakes and she picked three of them: Strawberry Cupcakes, Coconut Cupcakes with White Chocolate Icing and these Chocolate Guiness Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Buttercream that I found over at Le Petit Pierogi.

This recipe made 36 miniatures (that needed 12 minutes in the oven) and 18 regular-sized (requiring 17 minutes in the oven) for me.

Ingredients

adapted from Le Petit Pierogi

For the Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

1 cup Guinness

2 sticks unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

For the Baileys Irish Buttercream

3 to 4 cups confectioners sugar (I used about 3 1/2 cup)

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 to 4 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream (I used 4 tbsp)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cupcake bakingtray with liners. In a saucepan over medium heat melt butter and add Guinness, bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In another bowl beat eggs and sour cream until thoroughly combined. On low speed drizzle in Guinness-cocoa mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture, a little at a time, and mix briefly on low speed until the mixture comes together. Using a rubber spatula fold the batter until completely combined. Divide batter over cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, the mini's needed 12 minutes and the regular-sized needed 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

To make the buttercream, whip the butter in a bowl until the butter is very light and fluffy. Slowly add the confectioners sugar, a few tablespoons at a time. When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys and whip it until combined. If this makes the frosting too thin, beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Adopt-A-Blogger + Sticky Toffee Cupcakes for my Mom's Birthday

The time has come to tell you about Adopt-A-Blogger! Kristen of Dine and Dish first came up with Adopt-A-Blogger a couple of years ago and this is round #4. I actually already wanted to sign up for round #3, but I missed the deadline back then so I had to wait for the next one. Now my time has come! Adopt-A-Blogger is about 'veteran-bloggers' helping 'newbees' out with all their questions and giving them advice. Now I don't consider myself a veteran at all, in my opinion I still have a lot to learn about blogging, but I feel that everyone can learn from everyone and this event seemed like a great way to meet new bloggers. Now let me introduce you to my two adoptees:

First there's Molly, from Duchess of Fork, who is starting a new career as a teacher in Northwestern Florida. She's married to the Duke of Pork and they have a Maltipoo called Ruby. Molly started blogging in July 2009 after drooling over other cookblogs for a while. She cooks up delicious meals. In fact her first post looks like the perfect dish for me: Chicken Fajita Pizza with Avocado Cream.

Then there's Sarah, who writes catch a cub in it's den, who lives in California and she and her boyfriend recently moved into their new appartment with a kitchen to die for! Sarah started blogging back in July 2008, she blogs about her travels as well as recipes. I love the Challah French Toast she cooked up for her boyfriend on Valentine's Day.









Now on to today's recipe: Sticky Toffee Cupcakes. My mom asked me to bake 15 regular-sized cupcakes and about 90 miniature cupcakes that she could take to work with her on her birthday. Last week I saw this recipe for Sticky Toffee Cake over at Marie's blog The English Kitchen last and I immediately knew this was the pefect recipe for my mom, I just had to transform the cake into cupcakes!

The cupcakes needed about 25 minutes in the oven, the recipe made exactly 15 cupcakes! These were a big hit, even if they were a bit sticky: but that's to be expected from something called sticky toffee cupcake :) The recipe can be found here.

TWD: Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

Yeah, so I was right on time with my tart this time... Or at least with making all the parts, but then I decided to sit down on the sofa for a while while my tart crust was in the oven to bake. Big mistake!!! I fell asleep.... I only woke up because The Neighbour texted me. As soon as I realised that I had fallen asleep, I ran to the kitchen to check on my crust that was in the oven. Too late: it had already blackened and was of no use anymoren.... Not sure if I can fit in making a new crust today as I have to bake loads of cupcakes for my moms birthday. I promise my post about the Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart will go up later this week!!

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This week Beryl of Cinemon Girl picked the recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie and she did an amazing job: she picked the luscious Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart. As soon as I saw the list of ingredients I simply knew I was going to love it: it's basically a Pina Colada in tart-shape and my favorite Summer Cocktail is a Pina Colada.

Coconut reminds me of summer, so this was perfect to distract me from the dreary winter weather we've been having lately. The crust came together easy and I even managed not to burn it on my second attempt. The custard was equally effortless to make, although I did freak out at one point: I was whisking the custard, waiting for it to start cooking when all of the sudden it turned from liquid to looking curdled and then to almost solid..... But it still tasted great :)

This is a tart that I will be making again, I absolutely loved it!! The recipe can be found here at Cinemon Girl, go here to see what my fellow TWD-ers thought of the tart.