Cupcake Friday: Peanut Butter and Chocolate Coconut

I'm proud of myself this week.  And you should be too.  I didn't look to Crumbs to come up with these cupcakes as I usually do.  No, this time I came up with the flavor combinations by myself, asking friends and family what they thought would make a good cupcake.  The frostings, fillings and combinations were truly my brain child this week.

I'm obviously making great strides in my cupcake baking.  Accomplishment number one of the summer, sorted.

In all seriousness though, not only were these the most "original" cupcakes I came up with, but they were also the most delicious cupcakes I have made thus far.  Everyone who ate them thought so.  Which is part of the reason that you should make these right now.  Seriously, they are that good.

Plus, I got to use my new cupcake holders from Sur La Table, total win!

The cupcake base was my old standby with whole wheat pastry flour and canola oil.  I used one tbsp of brown sugar.

Peanut Butter Frostingy-glaze
makes enough for one cupcake heavily frosted, or two lightly glazed


1 Tbsp Almond Milk (I'm sure you could use other types of milk, but I only have almond)
1.5 - 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter (I used White Chocolate Wonderful)
Dash of sweetener

Pour almond milk into a small bowl/large cup and add 1.5 Tbsp of peanut butter.  Stir with a fork until the mixture begins to come together.  Depending on desired thickness, add in more peanut butter.  Stir until the almond milk is totally blended into the peanut butter and has a runny, but slightly firm, consistency.

For the filling of this cupcake, I used some straight-up peanut butter, which contrasted quite nicely with the light-er frosting.  Since I used an already sweet peanut butter, I did not feel the need to add anything to it in order to give it a more traditional frosting flavor, though someone using natural peanut butter may want to.  Try it before you add it!

Chocolate Fuge-Frosting Filling
makes enough to frost one cupcake or fill two


1 Tbsp coco powder
1 tsp Agave
1 tsp vanilla
generous splash of water (~1/4 tsp maybe?)

Mix the first three ingredients together in a small bowl until they are fully blended.  Add in the water slowly, mixing as you go.  Start with less water, the more you add, the softer the frosting will get.  There will be a little hardening afterwards, but not considerable amounts (unless you refrigerate/freeze it!).

Vanilla-Coconut Frosting
makes enough for one cupcake


1 Tbsp Coconut Butter (soft/melted)
1/2 tsp Agave
1 tsp vanilla
splash of water

Mix together coconut butter and agave.  Add in vanilla, mix until it has all been absorbed and looks almost crumbly in texture.  Slowly add in some water and mix while you go.  The final texture should be slightly spreadable and slightly crumbly.  You may need to use your fingers to help mold the frosting on.

To make the coconut cupcake extra pretty (the coconut butter frosting tends to look a wee bit mucky), add some coconut shavings onto the top of the cupcake.

What cupcake flavor would YOU create?

Kinda-Sorta Totally Awesome Scones

That's pronounced "scaw-ns" people.  Though I'd avoid doing that while in England, too pretentious, everyone will realize you have an american accent, you can get away with saying things differently.  Like yogurt and aluminum.  Though I still haven't worked out if it is silly or not to say football.  I think that one is a lose/lose situation.

Though making these scones is a win/win situation; however you choose to pronounce it!

Almond Butter Scones
makes about 12  mini scones/adapted from here and here


1/2 cup oats
1 cup flour (I used 2/3 cup whole-wheat pastry and the rest white, because I ran out)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp Almond Butter
2/3 cup Almond Milk

Preheat over to 475 F.

Milk together all dry ingredients.  Stir.  Add in almond butter and mix with hands.  Add in milk and mix slowly.  You should get quite a runny mixture.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake liners.  I used about a tablespoon and a half for each liner.  Put in the oven and bake for about 13 minutes, or until a toothpick in the centre comes out clean.

They definitely aren't sweet scones, but they are still fantastic!  I was surprised at how insanely rich they tasted, they definitely have a similar texture to a buttermilk scone.  Now, I wonder if there is any way to make healthy clotted cream with these...

Enjoy!

Un Bacione,

Emilia

A Very Father's Day Recipe

In honor of Father's Day I have a recipe full of stuff my father loves.  No it's not fried calamari, anything with olives or pizza.  And it is definitely not meatloaf (which my dad hates!).

What could it be?

It's peanut butter cups!!

Originally they were intended to taste like hobnobs/mcvities digestives/cadbury caramel biscuits, something of that variety.  My dad loves them and always asks me to brink them back when I come home.  Well, let's just say nothing more was going in my suitcase and I wasn't able to bring them back this time.  I did, however, have the brilliant idea to try and make a HEALTHY version.  What?  Yes, I did.  I was interested in making a vegan version.  These aren't exactly healthy and they definitely taste more like peanut butter cups than digestives, but they are still pretty good and perfect for any peanut butter lovin' dad!

Emilia's Vegan Peanut Butter Cup "Biscuits"
makes 6 medium-sized in a muffin tin


Ingredients:

for the "biscuit"
~2 graham crackers
1/2 cup of peanut butter
handful of oats

for the top
1/2 chocolate (I used Guittard extra dark)
2-3 tablespoons peanut butter
1/2 table spoon jam (optional)

Crush/crumble the graham crackers until they are in very fine pieces.  You want them to look almost like a flour.  Put them in a bowl and then add the peanut butter.  Using a spatula mix the two together until all the crumbs are distributed throughout the peanut butter.  Throw in some oats and mix.

Spoon the "dough" into a lined muffin tin.  Start out with about a tablespoon per muffin cup.  Flatten the peanut butter until they are in little disks and sit more/less evenly.  Put in the freezer for ten minutes.

After ten minutes, you can take the muffin tin out of the freezer and add some jam on top of the "biscuit" layer.  I chose to do this and used marmalade for two, blueberry jam for two and left the other two plain. Put back in the freezer to set while doing the next step.

While the "dough" is chilling melt the chocolate using the double boiled method.  When the chocolate is mostly melted add in the peanut butter.  Start out with less and taste it as you go, you want to make sure the chocolate is the dominate flavor!

Once the chocolate/peanut butter mixture has finished melting, take a spoon and spoon about a tablespoon over each "biscuit".  Use a knife to spread.  If using jam, this works best after the jam has set a bit so the two layers stay separate and don't "blend".

Put back in the freezer to set the chocolate.  Once set, you can put them in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat.  Enjoy!

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So there you go!  I hope you try and enjoy.  Have a happy Father's Day everyone!!

Here's a drink to you Dad!

Un Bacione,

Emilia

Those Lazy Days of (Early) Summer

I'm still a little bit in shock that it is summer.  For the past couple days I've been feeling as if I am on vacation, living in a limbo where nothing productive really has to get done.  This is definitely reflected in my photo taking styles, usually I'll snap a photo of everything and anything, but the past couple days I've forgotten to take many pictures!  Oh well.  Today I plan to make a list of summer goals and start in on some summer projects.  Hopefully this will help motivate me to be productive!!

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Today started out with a yummy, though quite slap-dash breakfast.  My mom had just been visiting a friend before I got home, so we don't have many groceries in the house.  I'm used to being able to choose between ten different varieties of cereal, so the lack of choice is kind of overwhelming.  Finally, I decided on a bowl of Siggi's Vanilla yogurt (this stuff is amazing, even thicker and richer than greek yogurt, with similar calories and no fat) with a scoop of almond butter, some crushed graham crackers and chocolate chips.  There was also a bowl of summer berries on the side.

Looks gross, tastes awesome!!

Unfortunately, the almond butter didn't have quite as powerful of a taste as I was hoping for.  The rest was quite good and I will definitely be having this breakfast again this summer, endless possibilities!

Ingredient list=perfection!

Since I am a total nut butter fan/freak, I also tried some of the fancy chocolate hazelnut butter my mom got me.  I used to adore nutella, but recently I've been finding it way too sweet.  Although I have another gianduia spread I like (fancy pants Caffarel from Eataly), I'm always willing to try new, cheaper ones.  Soon I'm going to have to do a blind taste test on all different chocolate hazelnut butters.  This one was, eh, okay, but the chocolate tasted a little funny to me.  

Justin's Chocolate Almond butter is fantastic though

After eating breakfast I waited for my mom to get up (I am THAT jetlagged) and insisted that we go to Starbucks for some coffee.  Originally I was going to get a soy iced latte, which I obviously love.  Unfortunately, American Starbucks use vanilla soy milk, which is all kinds of crazy sweet.  Emilia's tastebuds were quite disappointed, I'm definitely not a fan of super sweet coffee.  Since, you know, my mom is awesome, I got to get an iced chai latte instead.  Thanks mom!

Delicious!

No real plans for today beyond planning out some summer projects and enjoying the glorious summer weather.  And yes, I am wearing shorts today, and loving it.

Un Bacione,

Emilia