Coconut Cupcakes

I kick myself for waiting too long to make this Marshmallow aka 7-Minute Frosting. I chose a recipe without corn syrup and the one where I don't have to cook the eggs. I don't mind eating raw eggs. I think my eggs are fresh enough and they came from a reliable farmer that they wouldn't get anybody sick.







This is the fluffiest, the most meltinyourmouth frosting ever. And it made a LOT of frosting. I used 2 egg whites and a cup of sugar. I got more than enough frosting for 2 dozens cupcakes!







I followed my favorite cupcake recipe for the cupcake. After they cooled, I frosted them with the frosting and dipped them in unsweetened coconut flakes. So simple, elegant and yummy.







Marshmallow Frosting

• 1 cup sugar



• 1/4 cup water



• 2 egg whites



• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions

1. In a small sauce pan over medium low heat, melt sugar with water. Turn of the heat when all the granular melted. Careful not to boil.



2. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with a really clean (no grease) mixer until soft peak forms. Slowly pour hot syrup into the eggs while the mixer is running. Keep mixing until a stiff peak forms and the frosting is shiny.

Vanilla Bean Coconut Ice Cream

My new special boy doesn't eat dairy - which is very sad. This means no yogurt, cheese, ice cream, etc. Good thing butter is an exception. I try to be a good person by accommodating his diet instead of making fun of him. This ice cream is dairy free. It uses full fat coconut milk and eggs which produce creamy and soft custard like ice cream. The coconut flavor is not very strong. I bet I can use this as a base for many other frozen creamy deliciousness.



The original recipe is here: http://cavemanfood.blogspot.com/2009/06/coconut-milk-ice-cream.html



I just increased the amount of coconut milk to 2 cans, left out lavender and kept everything else the same. This ice cream is actually awesome. I might not go back to the real cream ice cream ever again (unless I get bored of coconut.)

Coconut Mochi Cake

On my trip to Japan, I couldn't get enough of those mochi which came in all sizes and forms. They could be round with red beans inside or outside. They could come floating in syrup or on shaved ice. They could be cubes or even in animal forms. I was so fascinated by them that I bought a bag of Mochiko (sweet rice flour) which mere mortals use to make mochi. (Super humans pound their own rice in giant mortars.)

Six months went by, with the mission to clean up my pantry, I finally did something with the flour.



I made chewy-sticky and creamy coconut mochi cake, which reminded me very much of one of Thai dessert we only got in the winter fair. The cakes tasted almost the same except that the Thai version was wrapped in pandan leaves and grilled over hot charcoal.



Adapted from Epicurious.com Sweet Rice-Flour and Coconut Cake
Ingredients

• 1 can of 14 oz. coconut milk


• 3 eggs


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1/2 cup Agave nectar


• 1 1/2 cups Mochiko


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 cup coconut flakes

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


2. Whisk coconut milk, eggs, vanilla extract and agave nectar together.


3. In a separate bowl, combine mochiko, baking powder, salt and coconut.


4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet. Mix well.


5. Pour into an 8 inch square baking dish and bake for about 40 minutes or until the surface is brown. Let cool completely in the pan before cutting.

Coconut Raspberry Muffins

The next item to go in my mission to clean up the pantry is coconut flakes and a bag of frozen raspberries. I was pretty impressed with myself to come up with this combination.




Well. It's not actually me. I saw Blueberry Coconut Macadamia Muffins on EatingWell.com. I just switched raspberries for blueberries and omitted the nuts.



I think I like this muffin recipe. It's not too sweet, not so oily. More than half of the flour called for is whole wheat. I think I will keep this for my other future pantry-cleaning muffins.

Martha Stewart's Black-bottom Coconut Bars

After all the disastrous gluten-free baking experience, I still needed to bake something to bring to a party. I looked through my del.icio.us and found the perfect candidate: Marthe Stewart's Black-Bottom Coconut Bars. After all, she's the queen of sinful desserts (well, I guess after Paula Deen but I don't want to kill my friends yet.)



I still didn't have all purpose flour and still didn't learn my lesson about substitution and so-called genius moments. I used whole-wheat flour and unsweetened coconut flakes in Martha's recipe. But to my credit, I did increase the amount of sugar even though I knew that Martha liked her sweets really really super sweet.



And it was a success! I love you Martha Stewart. <3 <3 <3



The bottom part wasn't so sweet which perfectly offset the sweet, crunchy and flavorful top part. Plus the whole thing was made from whole wheat flour!

Hmmmm.... Maybe I will try this with gluten-free flour... :P

Coconut Meyer Lemon Muffins

My last two attempts at gluten-free baking didn't come out so successfully. So I did some research (aka googling) and found out that I shouldn't use more than a couple of tablespoons of chickpea flour or other bean flour at a time because it has very distinct flavor. I also found out that in most gluten-free flour mix, people use about a third starch. It's usually a combination of corn starch, potato starch and/or tapioca starch.

Hmmm... I'm not super excited about all these highly processed starches. They can't be good for you. Right?

But I pressed on.

Another important ingredients to gluten-free baking is Xanthan Gum. It's used to replace gluten in wheat which gives that chewy feel in baked goods.

So I bought Xanthan Gum. It cost me a small fortune. But I'm already in too deep. I have to go all the way.



Although they are still dense, these muffins are not so bad. They don't fall apart. They taste good - slightly sweet - with a bit of crunch from coconut flakes - perfect for quick breakfast or afternoon snack.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup rice flour


• 2/3 cup masa flour


• 2/3 cup potato starch


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1 teaspoon Xanthan gum


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes


• 1/3 cup extra light tasting olive oil


• 1/2 cup Agave nectar


• Juice from a Meyer lemon and zest from 2 of them


• 1 cup soy milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin pan.


2. Combine rice flour, masa flour, potato starch, baking soda, salt and coconut flakes in a clean bowl.


3. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, oil, Agave nectar, lemon juice, zest and milk together.


4. Stir the wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Drop by tablespoons into the prepared pan. Bake for about 20 minutes.