Friday, August 24, 2012

Lime & Coconut Cupcakes

Lime And Coconut Cupcakes with Pineapple Butter Cream
Recipe compliments from Uncle Lee 


Friendship is sharing a sweet cupcakes


Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp grated key lime zest
2 tbsp key lime juice
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
 pinch salt
 1 cup toasted coconut



1/  Preheat oven to 180 deg c. Line 12 muffin cups with cupcake liners.
2/  Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder together.
3/  Beat butter and sugar until light.
4/  Add eggs and beat until well combined.
5/  Add vanilla, coconut milk, lime zest, lime juice, salt and flour mixture. Mix well and add  toasted coconut.
6/  Do not overmix. Spoon into prepared liners.
7/  Bake at 180 deg c until cooked, about 25 minutes. (Toothpick inserted in center will come out clean.)
8/  Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks. 
9/  While waiting for cupcakes to cool, make frosting.




Pineapple Butter Cream
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar
6 tbsps well drained canned pineapple
1 to 2 tbsp pineapple juice

1/  Sift icing sugar 3 times. 
2/  Beat butter until creamy.
3/  Gradually add icing sugar and beat until smooth.
4/  Blend the pineapple and just enough pineapple juice till very fine.
5/  Add into the butter cream and blend well. Spread on cooled cupcakes.
6/  If desired, top with dried pineapple flower or grilled pineapple and sprinkle some lime zest.


Optional:
1/ Decorate with pineapple flowers, click here to see the step by step method for the pineapple flowers
2/ Top with grilled pineapple. Sliced the pineapple to desire size. Grilled the pineapple slices until golden brown and slightly charred.

Pictures compliments from Uncle Lee in Canada
Uncle Lee thank you very much for the beautiful pictures.

Apple trees from Uncle Lee's garden

Canada red apples

Canada green apples

Bird undecided which to pick......all the ripe apples........ wasted. Uncle, next time I come help you pick apples, I make Apple Butter for you. LOL

Canada summer flowers from Uncle Lee's garden.


Beautiful flowers of assorted colours which I like very much.



Hari Raya gift from my dearest  Kak Queenie

Kak Q, very sorry I accidentally deleted the pictures of the 10 canisters of cookies. After Hari Raya...... 4 canisters left. LOL  Thank you for the beautiful card and the batik sarong which I like very much. You sure know my taste. * hugs to you*

Compliments from Sheoh, thank you very much for the ginseng face mask, will use this weekend. The psylla beads coaster is made by Sheoh's daughter May. A very sweet and talented  little darling. May, aunty Amelia love the coaster very much. Thank you my sweetie pie. *hugs to you*


There is nothing a cupcake and coffee can't solve.

Have a nice weekend and have fun. Cheers!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Caramel Coffee Ice Cream & Awards

I'm in the mood and mode for ice cream again. For coffee addicts, this ice cream taste heavenly. One scoop is never enough.

Caramel Coffee Ice cream

Ingredients
3/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp coffee powder
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup whip cream
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup coffee liqueur or  ( For Muslim use 2 tsp of vanilla essence )

1/  Heat the sugar over medium heat, stir continuously till sugar melt and cook till light amber color.


2/  Remove from heat, pour 1/4 cup water slowly into the caramel. (BEWARE OF THE SPATTER)
 Return to stove, cook until caramel dissolved. Add milk and mixed well.

3/ Mix coffee powder with  a little hot water, add to the caramel mixture. Mixed well.

4/  Beat egg lightly with a fork. Pour half the caramel mixture to temper the egg. Stir continuously.

5/ Pour the entire mixture to the balance caramel, cook until custard coat the back of spoon.
6/  Leave to cool.
7/  Add coffee liqueur or vanilla extract, whip cream and mixed well. Cover with cling wrap and chilled the ice cream mixture minimum 4 hours or overnight.

8/  Churn ice cream in ice cream maker according to the instruction manual.
9/  Freeze till set and enjoy. Add any condiment of your choice.



Making ice cream without an ice cream maker.

1/ Making ice cream can be done without the use of ice cream maker. An electric mixer or food processor can be used to break up the ice crystals during the freezing process.
2/ After step 7 from above method, place ice cream mixture in the freezer and allow the mixture to freeze for 2 hours.
3/ Remove from freezer and beat mixture to break up the ice crystals that are beginning to form. Repeat step 2 & 3 = 3 times for a smooth and creamy ice cream.
4/ The ice cream should be thick but soft to scoop. If not thick enough return to freezer for additional freezing time and beat the mixture again.
5/ Once ice cream thickened properly, stir in any condiment of your choice and mix well.
6/ Pour in air tight container to freeze till set.


  Awards
 
I would like to thank  Jessie of Cooking Moments for passing me the following 4 beautiful awards. Thank you for thinking of me. Jessie, A big big hugs to you.



The requirement for this versatile blogger award you need to stat 7 facts about yourself. I'll skip this cos I'd did this in my previous posting. click here if you're interested to know more about me
 
The requirement for this ABC award  you need to list 26 things about yourself using every single alphabet from A to Z. I will go for this, but just some silly and childish stuff about me.

1/  A as in AMELIA, but my Muslim friends prefer to call me Amoi, Amy, Mel.

Yours truly stepping into 50th miles category. But age is just a number, it's not a big issue to me. ( Picture taken last month.)

2/  B as in BLOGGING. Thru blogging I made lots of  new friends from everywhere. And some of them are now my good friends.

Some relationship are like Tom & Jerry. They tease each other, knock down each other, irritate each other but can't live without each other.

3/  C as in CHOCOLATE AND CHEESE. My favorite combination and never get tired of eating chocolate cheese cake. Recipe was previously posted  here.


 4/  D as in DAY DREAMING. Yes,  I love day dreaming, free entertainment! Without dream our life will so boring and meaningless.

Picture taken in my late 40th miles

5/  E as in EGG-ZOSTED. My previous EGG-Y experience, another kitchen disaster. In case you've miss it click  here.


6/  F as in FOOD. My fridge and mini bar are forever overload with food stuff. Whenever I open my fridge,  I can hear my fridge singing......

 Please help me I'm falling....
 Close the door to temptation, don't overload me,
 For I shouldn't want you but sweetheart I do,
 Please help me I'm falling......
 Please help me falling and that would be sin,
 Close the door to temptation, don't suffocate me with excess food,
 Turn away from me sweetheart, I'm begging you true,
 Please help me I'm falling.....sweetheart, when you gonna stop doing this to me?

7/  G as in GARDENING. I love gardening but staying in an apartment, my space is limited.

My orchid in full bloom.

8/ H as in HONEY. I love honey lemon tomatoes drink.
1/2 lemon, 3 tomatoes blend into juice, add 1 to 2 teaspoon honey. Drink half an hour before breakfast.
This is a beauty juice, good for complexion. Drink 3 times a week. Not suitable for people who suffer from gastric or stomach ulcer.


9/  I as in ICE CREAM. I scream, you scream, who don't like ice cream please raise your hands!


10/ J as in JOKES. To me No jokes no fun. No fun no laughing. No laughing no smiling. No smiling no giggling.

Oh, reminder!  Don't forget to put "dressing" in your chicken salad to avoid oohh and arhh.

11/ K as in KITCHEN KNIFE. Guess how many I kept in my pantry? Hubby better not play play or fooling around outside. You never know what's next.....LOL

Psstt.... hubby not aware of my knives collection.

Oh!!  left out two knives......LOL

12/  L as in LEFT-HANDED. Yes, I'm a left-handed or Southpaws.  For a Chinese somehow it's consider odd, people usually look at lefty differently. According to psychology expert lefty people do appear to be more creative. I think I'm qualified for this but off course not 100 per cent. LOL

Lefty are also quick thinker, independence, adaptability, more flexible, intelligent and resilient. Oh... not bad but sound too good to be true......!!! LOL


13/  M as in MEMORIES. When I'm 65 all these will be my memories. Hopefully I will still look presentable when I turn 65. LOL 


 14/ N as in NAUGHTY. I'm not naughty but I'm playful.  So sometimes you have to BEAR with me.


15/ O as in OPPSS......

You know him? He is a bit too shy today cos so many pretty ladies looking him. 

16/ P as in PRATHA. Indian bread which we can easily get at 80 cent per piece. But yours truly got nothing better to do prefer homemade pratha.

Homemade Roti Pratha to go with Dhal Curry. Healthy? No, it's sinful.....eat first diet later. Keep your weighing scale away.

17/ Q as in QUEEN CONTROL. But I'm not a Queen Control, no chance for me to be one.


18/ R as in ROD STEWARD.  My most favorite singer. My  favorite songs are The Way You Look Tonight,  You're in my heart,  That's What Friends Are For and many others. 

Elisabeth, I know you love all his songs.

19/ S as in SEAFOOD.  SEAFOOD not SEE FOOD. I see food, I eat it.

Spicy sweet sour shellfish aka clams. I do eat lots of shellfish but I'm not selfish, in fact I'm very generous.LOL

20/ T as in TRANSFORMATION. I think I'm quite good at it, always turn my disaster cake into something interesting even thou it's not perfect. My previous swiss roll disaster, Click here to view

Naughty bear wallowing in the mud.  Oh.. my beary bear, how could you do this to me....please don't be a heart breaker.....

21/ U as in UNDER GRAMENTS.  LOL, What is this undergarments got to do with this posting? Beside umbrella and undergarment I could not think of anything I like or food I like that start with 'U'.
Anyway don't leave home without it..... LOL

22/ V as in VEGETABLES.  The only vegetable dish I can eat every day is spicy pickle vegetables.

Nyonya Achar. Mine need 2 days to prepared, so I usually make large batch that last me for 10 days.

23/ W as in WATER.  I drink like a hippo. At least 10 to 14 glasses excluding the fruit juice and 2 cups of coffee.


24/ X as in XTRA.  Imagine my waistline size  after eating all the desserts. So I need to shed off the Xtra  from waist down.

Exercise for 30 mins at least 3 times a week to stay healthy.

25/ Y as in YAWNING. One more alphabet to go but I'm yawning right now.


26/ Z as in SLEEPING TIME. Oh, gosh... I'm so tired and sleepy. I'm going to my slumber land now zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........................but wait......


I'm passing all the 4 awards to the following friends.

Anuja of simple Baking
Anne of My Bare Cupboard
Duxa of Duxa Kitchen
Elisabeth of food and thrift finds
Eileen of Hundred Eighty Degrees
Kit of i-lost in austen
Love2Cook of Love2Cook-Malaysia
Mel of Through The Kitchen Door
Ping of Ping's Picking
Phong Hong of Phong Hong Bakes
Shahriah of The Writer's Cooking
Veronica of Veronica kitchen
 
Good night. Hope all of you didn't yawn and yawn reading my A to Z silly stuff and anyone of you fall asleep in front of the PC? LOL

Have a nice week ahead. Cheers!