Lychee cupcakes with coconut glaze

Yes! I baked last night! It was a good feeling. It's been a long time since the Kitchenaid mixer and I have bonded.

A while ago I bought Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World for one simple reason: Vegan=pareve! This is a book of dairy free cupcakes that can be brought to any dinner without worrying about whether or not the host is serving meat as the main course. Brilliant!

Yesterday I found canned lychees AND canned coconut on sale! Then I got inspired and decided to give my own spin to the lychee cupcake recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World:


Pareve Lychee Coconut Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 cups cake flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup coconut milk
4 ounces (1 can) lychee fruit, drained and chopped, syrup reserved
1/4 cup lychee syrup

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. In a separate medium bowl, beat eggs. Add oil, coconut milk, chopped lychees, and lychee nectar to the eggs and mix to combine.
4. Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients, mix to combine. Fill cupcake liners full.
5. Bake 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Coconut glaze (optional):
Ingredients:
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk

Directions:
Mix powdered sugar and coconut milk until smooth. Drizzle over completely cooled cupcakes.


Note: Malee Brand Canned Lychee In Syrup is OK Kosher certified. If you can't find a kosher can of lychee, substitute 4 ounces of fresh lychee and 1/4 cup of lychee juice or nectar. If you can't find kosher coconut milk, there are directions here for making your own.

Deconstructed Hummus

Okay, my goal was to post here three times a month at the LEAST, but I think that I've been pretty bad at keeping my promise to do that.

But to be fair, I've been busy! R's sister AND brother both had babies last month and since his sister lives in Calgary and had a baby boy, we flew to Calgary for thebris. Happily for us, the bris was a day before Passover, so we got to spend Passover with all of R's family and extended family. Sadly for any readers I may have out there, that means that I didn't make anything for Passover and thus have no tasty Passover recipes to share.

Let me tell you though: I love Passover seders. I love chicken soup with matzoh balls and I looooove horseradish on matzoh. And of course I love brisket. Who doesn't? And this year I had some absolutely addictive chocolate toffee matzoh, which I will definitely post a recipe for next year. The bread of affliction has never been so delicious!

Anyway, I feel guilty for my neglect lately. So while I can't share any Passover recipes, I will share this snack that I like to make when I'm too busy to make a real lunch. It's like hummus, except that there's no fatty tahina (sesame oil) and there's no need to find pita for dipping. All you need is a fork!



Deconstructed Hummus

Ingredients:
1 can of chickpeas, drained
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp parmesan cheese (not all parmesan cheeses are certified kosher, but it is possible to find ones that are)
1 clove of garlic, pressed (or garlic salt if you're in a real hurry)
shake of salt
shake of pepper

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a tupperware container. Shake it up. Eat it at room temperature. That's it!

Honey cake for a sweet new year.

Fall is definitely coming. On Sunday, Toronto had its last heat wave of the season. This week you can smell the change of the season in the air. It's easier to breathe now. The sweaters are coming out.

With fall comes Rosh Hashanah, otherwise known as the Jewish New Year. My very first Jewish holiday celebration was a Rosh Hashanah dinner at R's brother's house. I brought a homemade apple pie from my mom's recipe, since I was told that apples and honey were symbols of the holiday. I'll post a recipe for that soon, since I think that it is a fitting dessert for the Rosh Hashanah table.

One of the first Jewish religious practices that I participated in was the dipping of apples in honey, which is a symbol of a wish for a sweet new year. Since honey is a symbol of Rosh Hashanah, this week's recipe should come as no surprise.

Last night, I attempted to make honey cake for the first time. It's always scary for me to make something from a recipe that hasn't been tested, especially since this time I was going on a recipe that had been printed out in R's chicken scratch, translated from his baba's recipe that she gave to him over the phone many years ago.

I love Baba Luba's recipes. They never involve real measurements or directions. There are no standards. It's always, "You take some sugar, and you mix it with an egg and some oil. You add the coffee and you mix. Add the flour and baking powder and mix more. Put in some honey. Put it in the oven and cook it until it's done."

From that, R got this:

Which I had to translate to this:

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup strong coffee or espresso (cold)
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup honey

Method:

1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the sugar and oil, and mix until smooth.
2. Slowly add the coffee/espresso, mixing as you go.
3. Add 1 cup of flour, the baking soda and the baking powder. Mix, then slowly add the remaining 2 cups of flour.
4. Add 1 cup of honey. (At this point, if you were using a hand mixer, I recommend putting it down because the batter is going to get really thick and sticky.)
5. Mix in the honey by hand.
6. Pour batter into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper (or a greased non-stick pan).
7. Bake at 350F for 1 hour, or until a toothpick poked into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Before baking this cake, I had only tasted honey cake once in my life. Last time I had it it was store bought. This time it tasted so much better, and I don't think that it was just my sense of accomplishment that made it taste so sweet. This is definitely a good cake to have with coffee after dinner, or as a rather unhealthy companion to your morning latte. When I make this again to bring for Rosh Hashanah dinner, I'm going to attempt to make some sort of honey glaze, and I might try decorating the top of the cake with sliced apples. Wouldn't that be cute?