Tasty Morsels

Well the hot weather is well and truly here. It's so hot here and it's meant to get hotter as the week goes on! I've decided that while I prepare my next update I'll point you in the direction of some summery treats that other people have been blogging about.

Nicole at Baking Bites has some delicious Chocolate dipped ice cream cream puffs. They look divine and am sure hey taste even better!

Deb at Smitten Kitchen has a lovely looking horseradish potato salad that would work excellently as a side dish at a barbecue.

The Vegan Visitor made a lovely summery soup from radish greens.

Ian at Food From 4 has a delicious looking lemon mousse recipe that would be a perfect al fresco pudding (assuming it doesn't rain!)

So enjoy your summer and feel free to link me to any delicious summery recipes you find.

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Vegan Chocolate and Coconut Cupcakes

I've been wanting to get into vegan baking for a while. I have no experience of it really but it looked simple enough and had seen loads of promising reviews of vegan recipes. I have a couple of friends who are vegan/strict vegetarian and so I thought I'd help them out and find some recipes that they could appreciate. I must say I had my doubts as I was mixing the cake batter as it looked really wet but they actually came out a treat.

I bought myself the vegan cupcake book that has been doing the rounds; Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. It's a cute little book with loads of recipes for all kinds of cupcakes and frostings with no animal products. The recipes seem easy to follow and while some contain ingredients you may not have lying around, plenty of them use everyday ingredients or are easy to modify to fit what you have in the cupboards. I actually modified the recipe for these cupcakes as I didn't have a couple of things and they still came out wonderfully. The cupcakes were moist and store really well in an airtight container for several days.

This recipe is based on the Toasted Coconut Cupcakes from VCTOTW book but I will post it here as I made some modifications.

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp creamed coconut, grated
1/2 cup desiccated coconut

For the glaze
2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 12 hole muffin pan with liners.
In a medium bowl, soft together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl mix together the coconut milk, oil, sugar, vanilla, creamed coconut and oil. Stir to combine.
Add the flour mixture in batches and beat thoroughly after each addition to ensure the batter is smooth. Fold in the desiccated coconut.
Fill the liners two thirds full and bake for around 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before glazing.
Sift the icing sugar into a medium bowl and add the coconut milk. Mix thoroughly until smooth and then pipe onto the cold cakes using a sandwich bag with a small hole cut from one corner.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World is available from Amazon

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Snickerdoodle Blondies

You are forgiven if you have never heard of the snickerdoodle. Until last year I never knew what it was. The name bears no real resemblance to the actual product but that doesn't really matter. The snickerdoodle is a kind of sugar cookie that is rolled in cinnamon sugar. How does this relate to blondies? Well this particular recipe calls for a generous sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on top of the batter before baking. This topping is crunchy and sweet and spicy and gave the blondies an interesting flavour and contrast to the soft and chewy centre.

Blondies to me are the opposite of brownies. They are similar in shape and method but the dominant flavour is not chocolate but rather the rich brown sugar used. There are hundreds of recipes for blondies with some using chocolate chips or chopped nuts but this one is plain and simple and lets the snickerdoodle topping speak for itself.

I used the recipe from Dozen Flours which seems to have a loyal following (via Crepes of Wrath) and made a half batch in an 8x8 pan and they came out beautifully. There are no special ingredients needed and they are really very simple. Below is the recipe as I made it but refer to either of the links above for the full recipe.


Ingredients
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180C. Line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper with overhanging sides to make it easier to remove the cooked blondies.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture until well blended and spread evenly into the pan.

Combine white sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed. Cool slightly. While still warm, cut into bars with a sharp knife.

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