Carrot and Coconut Cupcakes with Marmalade Buttercream Icing

Why, you must think I've gone nuts making batches of mac and cheese and the like, for who? Just me? Seriously, I am NOT eating all of this stuff.  Like today, for instance, I wanted to bring something to my therapist who is helping me with my..... oh, you thought I was going to say my head, didn't you? She's an occupational therapist, a hand specialist, and she's helping me get the use back in my hand that had surgery in three different places.  I like to bring her things that show my appreciation. I'm bringing her cupcakes today!  Using ingredients I have on hand, I put together a basic cupcake recipe and added some of my favorite things to it, especially in the icing, orange marmalade....  Now, I got a little overly zealous dividing the mixture.  This recipe should really make a dozen cupcakes. But I had two things going against me.  Firstly, I had jumbo cupcake liners and secondly, I didn't want them to look skimpy so I added a little too much batter to each one.  I have more like 8 jumbo cupcakes instead of 10 to 12 regular cupcakes.  When you make them, buy regular sized cupcake liners and divide the batter accordingly.  Enjoy! And let me know if you try them, or if you'd like me to make them for you..... Ask me, I might!

CARROT AND COCONUT CUPCAKES 

WITH MARMALADE BUTTERCREAM ICING

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup finely chopped carrot

1 cup coconut

1/3 cup raisins

1/4 cup oil (not olive oil)

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 cup flour

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• I chop the carrots first in my food processor. If you have one, do the chopping in it. It produces a very small chop, perfect for the cupcake. If you don't own a processor, then chop away. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, stir together the first seven ingredients, the sugar through the raisins.
• Using a hand mixer, beat in the oil and butter.
• Continuing to use the mixer, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Lastly, add the flour and beat with the mixer for another minute or two. (like you would a cake mix).
• Divide the mixture among at least 10 to twelve regular cupcake liners set in a muffin tin. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and dry. Remove from the muffin tin and cool on a rack completely before frosting.

MARMALADE BUTTERCREAM ICING

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup orange marmalade

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 to 2 tsp. milk

1/4 cup finely chopped pistachio nuts, optional

Very simply, cream the butter, marmalade and vanilla together. Sift the powdered sugar over the top and stir until starting to become incorporated. Add the milk a teaspoon at a time until the desired spreading consistency.  Wait until the cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting. If you like, sprinkle the tops of the frosted cupcakes with the chopped nuts.  Wow, enjoy!

Orange and Raisin French Toast

Yesterday was a busy day. We had a birthday in the house. So starting with a great breakfast and ending with a fun evening in downtown Delray Beach, with probably the most perfect weather day we've had in months, it was an all around great day.  Here's the recipe that I whipped up using Pepperidge Farms Raisin Swirl Bread.  It was buy one get one at the store a couple of weeks ago, so there was a surplus of raisin bread around.  It came in handy this morning. I usually recommend a thicker sliced bread, like a challah (or egg bread) for making french toast, but the thinner sliced raisin bread was delicious. You gotta try it!

ORANGE AND RAISIN FRENCH TOAST

Whisk Together:

4 eggs

2/3 cup of milk

3 Tbs. orange juice

Grated peel of half an orange

1 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. vanilla

pinch of salt

Place your slices of bread in a baking dish (13x9). Eight slices fit pretty okay but will overlap slightly. Pour the egg mixture over the bread, turn once, and allow them to soak up the mixture for a good few minutes, turning occasionally.

My tip for turning and getting them out of your baking dish in one piece is to use a spatula. If you use your hands, they're going to tear and fall apart. Use a spatula and save yourself the aggravation!

In a skillet, heat equal amounts of butter and vegetable oil, a spoonful or so of each. Fry four at a time if it's a large pan on medium to medium high heat until golden brown, a few minutes each side. Remove to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Add extra butter and oil for the next batch. This makes eight slices. 

Now I know I've made jokes about using a good old jar of Spice Islands orange peel or lemon peel in some of my recipes, but I gotta say that when you've got the real thing around it's so much better, and pretty easy to do.  That's what I did here. Tammi and Marvin were right, "Ain't Nothin' Like The Real Thing Baby...." 

Enjoy, and let me know how it turned out.

P.S.  This recipe and more than a hundred pages of other great recipes, stories and pictures can be found in my book Singingirl Cooks! If you don't own a copy and would like to, let me know.  Thanks!

Cheddar and Jalapeno Corn Muffins

The decision is final, at least for two of the items to serve on Superbowl Sunday.  Chili and Cornbread. But since I didn't have all the ingredients for the chili at this very moment, I decided to make the corn muffins and test them out instead. Oh, are they good!!! Here's the recipe....

CHEDDAR AND JALAPENO CORN MUFFINS

1 stick of butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup coarse or medium yellow cornmeal

1 cup flour

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar

2 Tbs. diced jalapenos (I buy a jar already to rock)

Melt the butter in the microwave in a large microwavable bowl. Let it cool for a few minutes, and then add the eggs, beating well. Stir in the sugar, baking soda, salt and buttermilk. (See my tip below for making a great substitute for buttermilk.)  Stir in the cornmeal, flour, cheese and jalapenos. Save a few sprinklings of cheese for the tops of the muffins.

Evenly distribute the batter among 12 muffin cups that have been coated with cooking spray. Don't use paper muffin liners. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining shredded cheese. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 20 to 23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Run a knife around the sides of the muffins to remove from pans and cool on a rack.

Great Tip: For recipes like this that call for buttermilk, and who has buttermilk just hanging around in their refrigerator, measure 1 1/2 Tbs. cider vinegar into a measuring cup and add enough milk to make 1 cup. Let this stand for a few minutes while you're preparing the muffins, and proceed with the recipe. It actually smells like buttermilk, and you will never notice the difference in your recipe. This method works well for things like these muffins. I have tried this with soup recipes that call for larger amounts of buttermilk and failed miserably!!! For soups and sauces that call for buttermilk, I would stick with the real thing, but for these muffins this substitution works beautifully!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Could I eat just one of these cookies? I think not. That's why I made some of them with semi-sweet dark chocolate kisses.  I figured dark chocolate is good for you, right? So I feel half as guilty by having eaten one with dark chocolate and one with an unbelievably yummy Reese's miniature peanut butter cup. Oh, whoever came up with this idea, one thousand thank yous!!!  Now, I only changed the recipe up a bit, I can never leave well enough alone. I used a favorite peanut butter cookie recipe of mine, and rolled the dough in sugar before baking. That's all!  Get to the store and buy these ingredients and start baking. You'll be happy you did. I  don't want to get graphic, but I brought these to my hair salon, and the response was that these cookies rivaled a sexual experience.  S'all I'm sayin'.


PEANUT BUTTER CUP COOKIES

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cp. flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
40 Reese's miniature peanut butter cups OR
half and half Reese's and Hershey's Kisses


Cream together the softened butter and sugars. Mix in the vanilla and peanut butter, then the egg. Mix together all the dry ingredients (flour through salt) and add all at once to the creamed mixture, mixing very well. Refrigerate for at least an hour, overnight if you want to do this at another time.


When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Shape dough into balls about the size of a walnut, maybe a little smaller. Roll in a dish of granulated sugar and place each ball into an ungreased mini muffin pan. Bake for 8 to 8 1/2 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately place a peanut butter cup into the center of the cookie cup, pressing down gently so the candy is flush with the height of the cookie cup. Allow to cool in the mini muffin pan for a few minutes, and they will come out of the pan much easier. You can give them a nudge by sliding a knife carefully around the outside of the cookie to help it out, but you shouldn't have any problem. If you're using Hershey's Kisses, follow the same instructions for placing the candy into the cookie cup. This recipe makes around three dozen, give or take a few. 


Big Tip Here! Unwrap the candies and place them in the freezer while preparing the dough. It makes a big difference to have the candy be slightly or completely frozen before placing on the hot cookie. 

I thought twice about posting a picture with this reeeealllly old mini muffin pan, but I couldn't bring myself to PhotoShop out the worst of it right now, and I wanted you to see what the cookies looked like in the pan. If anyone wants to send me a new mini muffin pan, I'll give you my address ;-)

Candied Cardamom and Orange Mixed Nuts

I've got a great new recipe for your nut dish this holiday season. Don't buy Planters or any other kind of store bought nuts this time. Get yourself some oversized bags of nuts at Costco or Sam's Club or whichever store of that type is popular in your area, and make your own! Perfect for gift giving, if you can manage to put any aside before devouring them all yourself. And great news.... I've found yet another use for that expensive jar of cardamom that I bought a while back!  These are sweet, crunchy and downright addictive.

CANDIED CARDAMOM 
AND ORANGE MIXED NUTS

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup plus 3 Tbs. sugar, divided
1 cup unsalted pecans
1 cup unsalted walnuts
1 cup unsalted almonds
2 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. or more orange peel       

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the 1/2 cup of sugar and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Meanwhile, mix the remaining 3 Tbs. of sugar with the cardamom and orange peel and set aside. As you can see, I took the easy way out and used a jar of Spice Islands orange peel. But if you like grating, by all means grate away! When the sugar is dissolved, still over the medium to medium high heat add the 3 cups of nuts, cooking and stirring for about 5 minutes until toasted and well coated with the butter/sugar mixture. Don't allow the nuts to burn. Pour the nuts into a large bowl and add the reserved sugar and spice mixture. Stir well to coat evenly.  Dump this mixture onto a foil lined cookie sheet and break apart with the back of your spoon or spatula to, well, to break them apart.... duh me.  When they are cooled, they will separate, yeah, that's the word I was looking for... they will separate easily and be ready to fill a nut dish or add to a container for gift giving. Yum.... wait till you taste these!

Apple Cranberry Streusel Pie

I am never going to become famous posting to this blog once a month. Of course, I wasn't thinking about becoming famous at blogging at all. There are hundreds, no thousands, of really good food and recipe blogs out there. Nonetheless, here is another entry being humbly offered for your reading and eating enjoyment. It's a delicious twist on the great old standby - apple pie. I think I mentioned once or twice how I am trying to use that expensive jar of cardamom that I bought.  Okay, I threw some in this recipe for good measure, plus a few other ingredients to make this pie one that tastes as awesome as it looks. Try it, and please leave a comment for me to let me know you stopped by.

STREUSEL TOPPING

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

4 Tbs. cold butter

PIE FILLING

1/3 cup white sugar

2 Tbs. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cardamom

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/3 cup dried cranberries

8 or 9 apples (2 1/2" small size)

1 frozen deep dish pie crust shell

1 Tbs. butter

Prepare the streusel topping by combining the brown sugar, flour, walnuts and butter. Use a pastry cutter or your hands to mix the streusel into a crumbly mixture. Set aside.

Peel and thinly slice the apples. Place in a large bowl and add the white sugar, flour, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon juice and cranberries. Stir to coat evenly. Pour this mixture into the deep dish pie crust, packing it down a bit as you go.  Listen, if you want to make your own crust, knock your socks off. I just love those frozen crusts! Mound the mixture higher in the middle. Top evenly with the streusel, packing it down well. Dot with the Tbs. of butter. Place on a baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for about 50 to 55 minutes. Remove to a rack and let it cool before slicing.

This recipe is not part of the not so famous "Singingirl Cooks!" cookbook.  If you are interested in knowing more about owning the book, please let me know and I'll tell you how easy it is to make that happen!