Mojito Cakelets

These cakes came about a bit randomly. I invited a friend over for dinner, and wanted a nice dessert because baking is my thing and I have a reputation to uphold. I have also been having a lot of cocktail parties and playing DIY mixologist, so cocktails have been on the mind, as such I have a fridge full of limes, a bottle of rum, some fresh mint from a salad-making spree and a hankering for cupcakes. With booze in them, natch.
I started out with a recipe for margarita cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World, because I love their vanilla cupcake recipe and this one followed the same formula. I used dark rum instead of tequila and I added a tablespoon of fresh mint. I was most nervous about the mint because I was worried about having lots of big green bits in my cupcakes, but I chopped it quite fine, and it's sweet herbaceous flavour was a subtle and refreshingly cool complement to the stronger rum and lime notes in the cupcake. The entire cake gets topped with a simple icing sugar glaze made with the juice and zest of a lime as well as another healthy glug of dark rum.These cupcakes are super bright and refreshing. They bring to mind sunshiney days and sunny afternoons with cool breezes sitting on the porch. I have no porch but they will definitely be making there way to summer picnics in the near future.



Mojito Cakelets
makes 4 7-0z ramekin cakes
vegan
time: 1 hour

• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons dark rum
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mojito glaze:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• finely grated zest of one lime
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon dark rum
• fresh mint leaves to garnish cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees f. Line muffin pans with cupcake liners or grease 4 7-0z ramekins .
2. In a large bowl, beat together lime juice and zest, soymilk, canola oil, rum, vanilla, mint and sugar. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, powder and salt. Fold dry mixture into wet mixture, whisking until no lumps remain.
3. For cupcakes: fill liners 3/4 of the way full and bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick or knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. If using ramekins: fill 3/4s of the way full and bake for 25-35 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
4. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and let cool at least 10 minutes before removing from pans. let cool completely before glazing with mojito glaze.
5. To make the glaze. Stir together all ingredients until of a drizzling consistency. Spoon over tops of cakelets and let run down the sides. While still wet, garnish cupcakes with fresh mint leaves, using the glaze to adhere the leaves.

Loosely adapted from: Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World

Lemon Pudding Cakes

This is a dessert I haven't made in a very long time despite the fact that I love citrus desserts and used to enjoy it all the time as a kid. Lemon pudding cake is one of the fancy desserts that I will always associate dinner parties and holidays. This recipe is a little bit different from the one my mom used to make, but the outcome is fairly similar: a tangy sweet lemon curd topped with a fluffy cloud-layer of lemon scented sponge cake.
Pudding cakes are the result of mysterious oven-magic, the cake is made by making a lemon mixture that is then folded into egg whites, but as it bakes in it's steamy water bath, the cake separates into a sauce with a fluffy cake topping. The result is delicious and moist and requires no garnish excet for some garden-fresh red currants and a dusting of powdered sugar. You can even make individual servings in ramekins but I opted to serve this dessert family style in a large casserole dish.
This two in one dessert is both pudding and cake, giving me ample opportunity to indulge my Anglophilia by calling it a "pud"and a generally using a parade of "British-isms" to assuage my longing to visit the land of tea and crumpets. Someday!

Lemon Pudding Cakes
makes 8 servings
dairy

• 1/2 cup all-purposeflour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest.
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice ( from about 2 lemons)
  
• 1-1/3 cups whole milk

1. Preheat the oven to 35 degrees F. Use either a large 2 quart soufle dish or 8 ramekins and place in a large baking dish. You do not need to grease the pans.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the flour and the salt. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cups of the sugar until pale ad thick. they may be slightly grainy. Stir in the flour and beat until very thick, about 2 minutes more. Mine looked biscuit-like at this point. Stir in the lemon zest, juice and milk.
3. Using an electric mixer on high speed, whip the egg whites until foamy. Sprinkle in the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and whip until soft peaks form when the beaters are lifted. Using a spatula, stir one fourth of the egg whites into the lemon mixture. Gently fold in the rest just until no streaks of white are visible. Divide among the ramekins, or pour into large casserole dish.
4. Plae casserole or ramekins in a large pan and fill to one inch with boiling water. Bake until the centres are firm to the touch and the edges are slightly golden brown and pull away from the sides of the ramekins or casserole, about 40-50 minuteas. Remove from the oven but leave in the water bath for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm or at room tempertaure straight from ramekins or carefully cut into squares..

Adapted from: The Williams Sonoma Baking Book: The Essential Recipe Collection for Today's Home Baker

Lemon Ginger Oatmeal Cake with Dried Cranberries

This is a not-too sweet tea-cake full of oatmeal, bran, fresh ginger, lemon zest and chewy dried cranberries. It is the kind of cake you could justify eating for breakfast or as a hearty pick me up snack on a rainy afternoon. A simple sugar glaze and a smattering of crystallized ginger make it pretty and inviting and adding subtle heat to each bite. This recipe is a great way to use up your last batch of homemade crystallized ginger!


The cake gets baked in a 9' round cake pan but as I only have 8" pans, I made one 8-inch cake plus three single sized ramekin cakes which came out so pretty that I might just skip the large cake and make all mini cakes the next time and oh there will be a next time.


Lemon Ginger Oatmeal Cake
makes one 9' cake or one 8-inch cake and three ramekin cakes.
dairy
time: abut 1 1/2 hous

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
• 1-1/2 cups ap flour
• 1/2 cup bran
• 1/2 cup quick cooking ats
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 largeeggs, beaten
• 1 cup buttermilk

glaze:

• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan (or an 8-inch pan plus three 6-oz ramekins) and line the base with parchment paper. set aside.
2. Place ginger, 1/4 cup sugar, and lemon juice in a small pot over medium heat and simmer, stirring, until sugar has melted and mixture is hot. Remove from heat and stirring cranberries and lemon rind. reserve.
3. Combine flour, bran, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
4. Beat together butter and remaining 3/4 cup sugar using an electric mixer untl light and fluffy. add eggs slowly and beat well. Beat in half of flour mixture, then buttermilk, then remaining flour mixture and beat until combined. Stir in cranberry mixture.
5. Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes (even the rameking cakes took 40 minutes) or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let pan cool for 10 minutes then remove from pan, peel off parchment and allow to cool fully on a wire rack.
6. Whisk together icing sugar and buttermilk until it forms a thin icing. Drizzle over cake and sprinkle with candied ginger.

Adapted from LCBO Food and Drink Magazine winter 2011

Homemade Chrystallized Ginger

Wow, I have not blogged in quite a while, why must school take so much time away from baking? In any case, I'm getting back into the habit right now with this belated post about homemade candied ginger.
Crystallized ginger was not something I ever ate as a kid, but I find it fascinating now. I think I like the idea of eating crystallized shards of things and fresh ginger is one of my post-moving-away-from-home discoveries. It brings warmth and fragrance to all kinds of sweet and savoury foods and beverages (ginger tea anyone? ) it is the world's best loved rhizome.
This crystallized ginger worked surprisingly well, considering I have a well documented fear of burning sugar.
Although, I'd never candied anything before, I decided to go for it and candy some ginger. After all, ginger is cheap and sugar is cheap and water is cheap (mmmm....delicious harbour water) what did I have to lose?
The idea behind candying fruit (or rhizomes) is that you render the water out of it and replace it with sugar. To that end, the way to do this is to immerse the ginger/fruit into a sugar syrup and boil the liquid to evaporate the water. I found an online recipe that seemed plausible and decided to use that as my guide although I have included my own process and notes, because timing for individual batches may vary.
Lo and behold, the candi-fication was a resounding success, even after that point when I turned my back and my syrup started to turn golden and I had to rush to get my ginger out of there before it burned. The good news is my olfactory senses were tingling. If your ginger smells like spicy toast it is time to take it off the heat. Other than my little slip, I did manage to save the precious ginger, and it worked out perfectly. The ginger came out fiery and sweet, the outside coated with a glittery sugary dusting and the insides had been rendered into a chewy jelly-candy. Now I understand why people like this stuff. I've been popping crystallized ginger like m&m's for the past two days and I hope I still have some left by the time I figure out what to bake with it.



Crystallized Ginger

• about 1-1/2 pounds ginger (I used two large rhizomes)
  
• 3 cups water
• 3 cups granulated sugar
  

1. Peel and slice the ginger 1/8 inch thick. the thinner the better. Set aside.
2. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Place a wire rack over top of baking sheet. set aside.
   
3. Combine the sugar and water in a 2-quart heavy bottomed saucepan. Turn heat to high and stir to dissolve. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the sliced ginger. Stir so that the ginger slices don't stick together.
   
4. Let the water-sugar mixture with the sliced ginger come to a boil and boil for 40-45 minutes. At first the water will foam up a lot. Stir the boiling mixture occasionally to prevent sticking and so that no ginger gets stuck at the bottom. At about the 40-45 minute mark, the water will stop foaming and will start to look and sound like clear lava. It will be thickened, syrupy and produce loud (seriously,) slow bubbles. at this point remove the pot from the heat. If you leave it too long at this point the syrup will begin to brown and the ginger could burn.
   
5. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the ginger to your wire rack placed over a lined baking sheet. Let cool enough to handle. Once cooled slightly, toss the still-warm ginger pieces in granulated sugar to coat. Return to wire rack and let dry overnight. The next morning, place ginger in an airtight container. The crystallized ginger can be kept indefinitely and used for baking, dipped in chocolate, or eaten as candy.
   

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

Despite my professed love of butter, I begrudgingly respect my vegan friends and loved ones and I really want to feed them cupcakes,.
These picturesque cupcakes are a simple vegan recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World, the book that makes it possible for all my friends to receive cupcakes. These were so simple to make and very very delicious.


The cupcakes were uber moist and fluffy. Funnily enough, they kinda resemble the store bought sponge cakes you can get at the supermarket. I used vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract because I like the little flecks of vanilla bean and I wanted to up the vanilla flavour.
I had never baked with soymilk before, so I wasn't sure what would happen when the recipe called for adding vinegar to the soymilk, but I went with it because it is similar to the way you would make your own buttermilk. Soymilk really does curdle, it separates into little curds that all came together again when whisked with the other wet ingredients and combined with the dry. It was prety cool to see that soy can approximate the tenderizing effects of buttermilk. The cupcakes baked into golden yellow cupcakes with slightly domed centres. I liked them plain with fruit, but a little frosting never hurt anyone, and what else would I use to adhere the requisite rainbow sprinkles (a.k.a. pixie shit.)
Overall, I was very pleased with the result of this recipe and would return to it next time I need to make a vegan cupcake, or just for my own personal consumption because they were really good.


Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes
time: about 1-1/2 hours

• 1 cup soymilk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2-1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. Whisk the soymilk and vinegar together in a measuring cup and set aside a few minutes to get good and curdled.
3. Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.
4. Bet the curdled soymilk, oil, sugar, and vanilla together in a large bowl. Sift in the flour cornstarch, baking powder, soda and salt and mix until no large lumps remain. Fill cupcake liners 2/3s of the way with batter and bake for 20-22 minutes until done. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Vegan Vanilla Frosting:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup margarine(such as earth balance)
• 3-1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted if lumpy
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plain soymilk
  

1. Neat the shortening and margarine together until well-combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla and soymilk, beat for another 5-7 minutes until fluffy.

Adapted from: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Cheddar Spritz Crackers

For the holidays I like to make star-shaped buttery vanilla spritz cookies topped with Hershey's kisses aka "Nipple Cookies" but my current obsession with savoury cookies (they go better with booze!) led me to this recipe for savoury cheddar spritz crackers.
This recipe also gives me further justification for the cookie press that has been sitting in my pantry and comes out only at the holidays.
These are a spicy cheesy cookie, made with cheddar and a healthy dose of Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce. Spritz or cookie press cookies are a bit of a pain to make because you need to get into a bit of a rhythm with the cookie press. Too much pressure results in squished cookie blobs and too little the cookies will burn and the shape won't be perfect. I tried experimenting with a different design rather than delicate star shapes, because these shortbread don't taste dainty and I think the waffle pattern I chose is more fitting to a boldly flavoured spicy cookie.

Cheddar Spritz Crackers
Dairy
Makes: about 8 dozen cookies

• 1 lb sharp cheddar or aged swiss finely shredded
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
• dash of hot red pepper sauce
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium bowl, cream cheese, butter, Worcestershire sauce, and hot red pepper sauce until smooth.
   
2. In a separate bowl, mix flour and seasoning together.Gradually add in to cheese mixture. Mix until dough forms a smooth ball.
   
3. Shape dough into small logs and place in cookie press. Using desired shape, press shapes onto cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet on cooling rack. Remove from from sheet and continue to cool on rack.

Adapted from: Wilton Cookie Master Plus: Appetizers, Crackers and More! recipe and instruction booklet.

"Green Label" Cheese Straws

This recipe is from a vintage recipe booklet from a company called "Green Label," which I gleaned used to make some form of margarine or butter substitute. I liked the book because the recipes seemed reasonable by today's standards and because of this recipe for cheddar straws.
I also was intrigued because many of the recipes in the book have no butter or eggs and could be easily adapted for people with dietary restrictions. That being said this recipe is not one of those. It's main ingredient is cheese.
I substituted butter for the Green Label because I am not entirely sure just what Green Label is and because I like butter. Mmm butter.
The recipe is a basic pie pastry type preparation but with "nippy" cheese added to it to make things interesting. Mmm..."Nippy."
The only tricky part about this recipe is cutting the dough into thin strips and then transferring the strips to the baking sheet and once they were baked, transferring them to a rack to cool. Much breakage occurred. I ate the rejects.
Another tricky thing is that in vintage recipe fashion, the Green Label book was typically vague about the exact baking time of these straws. They are quite thin and bake at a high temperature so I settled on about 10 minutes when the straws began to brown at the edges. That being said depending on the size of your straws and your oven temperature, this is a recipe you have to watch.
You can't really go wrong inviting cheesy pastry to your cocktail party so I highly recommend trying these if only for nostalgia's sake.


Cheese Straws

makes: approximately 1 dozen straws

• 1 cup sifted flour
• 1 cup grated "nippy" cheese, i took this to mean cheddar
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• pinch of cayenne
• 6 tablespoons Green Label, I assumed Green Label was some kind of margarine. I used Butter
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• cold water

1. Blend flour, cheese, mustard, and cayenne. Cut in butter.
2. Mix Worcestershire sauce with 2 tablespoons cold water and work into Green Label mixture.
3. Work in just enough water to make a pastry.
4. Roll out to 1/4 -inch thick and cut into strips, approximately 5-inches long and 1/4 -inch wide.
5. Bake in 400 degree f oven until golden brown. This took me about 10 minutes. Leave the straws to firm up on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool as they will be less likely to crack that way.

Adapted From: Green Label Cookbook (date of publishing, unknown)