Chocolate & Coconut Cupcakes

Salam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah,

That's right the cupcake monster is back again, ready to urge you to get into the kitchen, put on your apron and do some baking!

Recipe adapted from my victoria sandwich cupcakes

Tip: Coconut oil is solid at room temperature so what you can do to make the whole process of creaming easier is melt the coconut oil in a pan on low heat and allow to cool a little before mixing with your butter and sugar.

I tried something different by trying to make these cupcakes look like british butterfly buns

Don't think it quite worked! rather a fat inelegant butterfly lol

Chocolate & Coconut Cupcakes

Makes: 7-8 regular size cupcakes

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

• 70g margarine or unsalted butter, softened
• 40g extra virgin coconut oil, room temperature
• 110g vanilla caster sugar 2 medium size eggs
• 80g self raising flour
• 30g coco powder

For the icing

• 15g extra virgin coconut oil, room temperature
• 60g margarine or unsalted butter, softened
• 175g icing sugar
• 1-2tbsp coconut milk
• Coco powder for dusting

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/160C (fan). Line a bun tin with paper/foil cases
2. In a large bowl, cream together your butter, coconut oil and sugar until light and fluffy. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and then slowly add them to the mixture in your larger bowl, whisk mixture continually to prevent it from splitting.
3. Sieve flour and coco powder over the mixture and gently fold preferably using a large metal spoon until the flour has just combined.
4. Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake for 15minutes. Once cooked the cupcakes should be springy to touch and when you insert a cocktail stick in the center it comes out clean i.e. not sticky, a few crumbs are OK. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. Make the icing: cream together butter and coconut oil, slowly add sifted icing sugar and then add milk until you get you desired consistency.
6. Once the cupcakes have cooled, fill your piping bag fitted with desired nozzle with icing and pipe onto centre of cupcakes.
7.  Dust cupcakes with coco powder (optional) another idea would be to add desicated coconut

 

 

Lamb Chop & Okra Tagine

 

Salam Alaykum Wa Rahmatullah,

 

This was my first try at an authentic Tagine recipe, authentic being that i cooked it in the actual Tagine vessel inside the oven and not substituted it with my stew pot on the stove.

Buying a Tagine in the UK can be pricey and although i have been married to my Algerian husband for almost 5years we have just never got around to buying one. So when he saw this terracotta Tagine for a price £9.99!! at T.K.Max he quickly purchased and left the shop! He originally had gone in to buy a jacket.

So for my first attempt at making a Tagine in a Tagine if you catch my drift lol i thought I'd  also try for the first time the vegetable Okra and i can happily say I'm a fan alhamdulillah, although i would say it adds more texture than taste to the actual dish, i would readily use it again and we all know greens are good for you especially the growing baby inside my tummy masha'Allah.

I have to confess my appetite as gone way up in this pregnancy compared to my first 2 and i have no clue why!? Have any of you ever had considerably bigger appetites during pregnancy and what type of things did you graze on throughout the day?

This recipe is my own but inspired by cooking with Alia who i am surprised did not use a traditional Tagine to cook her version in and Chef Osama who used lamb shanks which i didn't have and not enough variation of spices in my opinion so i changed that.

The only thing i would change is the amount of water i used, i put more than enough water to cover the chops and okra but what i should have thought about is liquid doesn't evaporate so readily when cooking inside a Tagine, that is the beauty of the pot it keeps everything moist and succulent alhamdulillah so instead of covering with water i would do as i did with the rest of Chef Osama's ingredients and divide the quantity by 4.  So i recommend you use 1cup and then check half way through cooking (in the oven) if you feel the sauce is too dry then you can add more water/stock in sha Allah



Lamb Chop & Okra Tagine

Serves: 2-3 adults or 2 adults and 2 small children i.e. My Family :)

Ingredients

250g Lamb Chops
Salt and Pepper (i used 1/2tsp salt and 1/4tsp pepper but remember to adjust to your taste)
1-2tbsp Olive Oil or Ghee
1/4tsp ground Cumin
1/4tsp ground Coriander
1/4 ground Ginger
1/4tsp ground Turmeric
1/4tsp ground Paprika
1/8tsp ground Cinnamon
1 medium size Onion, chopped
1 large clove of Garlic, chopped
1/4 tin chopped Tomatoes
1/4 cup Tomato Paste
1cup Water/Stock, see the point i made above
250g Okra (ends removed and cleaned)
1/2tbsp Olive Oil or Ghee
1 large clove of Garlic, chopped
1/4tsp ground Coriander or 1/4tsp finely chopped stems of Coriander
X amount of fresh Coriander leaves (for garnish)

Method

1. Heat Oil in a pan over medium/high heat, add meat and spices including salt and pepper, brown meat on all sides, remove from pan and set aside. Saute onions until translucent, add garlic and cook for 1 minute more then add meat.
2. Pour chopped tomatoes, puree and water/stock over the meat and bring to boil. Turn heat down so the stew simmers and leave for 30 minutes.
3. Pre-heat oven to 180degressC, chop ends off Okra and clean well in cold water.
4. Add Okra to the pot, check for seasoning and bring to boil. Transfer contents to a Tagine, cover and place in the oven for about 30minutes(do not forget to check the sauce half way through and add more water if necessary)
5. Heat remaining oil in a small saute pan and fry garlic for 2 minutes, add coriander, stir to combine and cook for 1 minute more. Pour over Okra casserole and return to oven for 10minutes.
6. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve over warm rice.

Sweet Chili Chunky Vegetable Soup

Salam Alaykum,

This time of year screams soup, soup and more soup! yes please i say and with not always meat in my fridge/freezer i have to look for ways of creating delicious soups from vegetables alone, this is where chili steps in to give your vegetables a kick in the right direction.

Me being a weakling when it comes to anything hot and spicy i choose to add baked beans, my favourite pregnancy snack that i usually munch on toast that are packed with sugar and spice and all things nice to balance the flavour and a sprinkling of sugar to the soup at the end won't go a miss because well for me the chili strength is overpowering, even i only used half a chili and at that it was de-seeded!

Like with everything i cook, rather than bake! i usually make it up as i go along because to be frank i rarely have all the ingredients i need for any one recipe at any one given time which i think most home cooks can relate to.

If you have fresh coriander it would look/taste well, chopped and scattered over this soup.

Sweet Chili Chunky Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 red chili, de-seeded
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stick
• 1 potato
• 1/2 tin of baked beans or plain haricot beans(you may need to adjust the spicing/seasoning)
• 1tsp tomato puree
• 1 dry bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1-2tbsp olive oil
• enough water/stock to just cover the vegetables
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Method

1. Chop onion, peel garlic then put in food processor to finely chop. De-seed and finely chop chili, cut the remaining vegetables except the beans into chunks.
2.  In a large pot on medium heat, fry onion, garlic and chili in oil until onion is translucent and soft.
3. Add spices, seasonings and tomato puree and continue to fry for a minute more. Add all vegetables, beans and water/stock, bring to a boil and then simmer for 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are fully cooked. add sugar, check and adjust seasoning if needed and serve.

Espresso Cupcakes

*note the above pictures were from the first batch of espresso cupcakes which were nice but weaker in coffee flavour, i was still working on the recipe! here they are darker and stronger!

Espresso Cupcakes

makes 9-12 depending on the size of your cupcake cases

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 110g / 4oz margarine or unsalted butter, softened
• 110g / 4oz vanilla caster sugar
• 2 medium size eggs
• 2tbsp strong espresso coffee, brewed and then cooled
• 1/4tsp cinnamon
• 110g / 4oz self raising flour

For the filling and topping

• 150ml double/heavy cream, whipped to form stiff peeks add a tbsp icing sugar to sweeten or to taste
• 100-150g your favourite type of chocolate, melted
• Icing sugar for dusting, optional extra

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/160C (fan). Line a bun tin with paper/foil cases. brew coffee and leave to cool.
2. In a large bowl, cream together your chosen fat and sugar until light, fluffy and creamy coloured. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and then slowly add them to the mixture in your larger bowl, whisk mixture continually to prevent it from splitting.
3. Sift flour over the mixture and gently fold preferably using a large metal spoon, when the flour is nearly all incorporated add the espresso and fold until mixture is a even colour.
4. Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake for 15-20mins (mine were done at 18 minutes) they should be springy to touch and when you insert a cocktail stick in the center it comes out clean i.e. not sticky, a few crumbs are OK. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. When cool, slice a little circle out of the top of each cupcake. Fill with a generous teaspoon of sweetened whipped cream replace lids, melt chocolate and drizzle over lids, leave to set and then dust cupcakes with icing sugar, using a sieve and from a height.

*Feel free to sprinkle a touch of cinnamon and/or cocoa powder onto the whipped cream centers before replacing the cupcake lids.

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes

Recipe loosely adapted from London Bakes

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes

makes 9-12 depending on the size of your cupcake cases

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 110g / 4oz margarine or unsalted butter, softened
• 110g / 4oz vanilla caster sugar
• 2 medium size eggs
• 110g / 4oz self raising flour

For the filling & topping

• 12tsp jam (i used strawberry flavour)
• 150ml double cream / heavy cream, whipped to form stiff peeks
• Icing sugar for dusting tops

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/160C (fan). Line a bun tin with paper/foil cases.
2. In a large bowl, cream together your chosen fat and sugar until light, fluffy and creamy coloured. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and then slowly add them to the mixture in your larger bowl, whisk mixture continually to prevent it from splitting.
3. Sift flour over the mixture and gently fold preferably using a large metal spoon until the flour has just combined.
4. Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake for 15-20mins (mine were done at 17minutes) until lightly golden brown, springy to touch and when you insert a cocktail stick in the center it comes out clean i.e. not sticky, a few crumbs are OK. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. When cool, slice a little circle out of the top of each cupcake. Fill with a generous teaspoon of whipped cream followed by a teaspoon of jam (make sure it's in that order if you want to be able to see the jam!) replace lids and dust cupcakes with icing sugar, using a sieve and from a height.

Book Review: The Story of Muhammad ṣall Allāhu ʿalay-hi wa-sallam In Makkah

Salam Alaykum,

All of us are in need of reading the story of our beloved prophet Muhammad ṣall Allāhu ʿalay-hi wa-sallam and this book i recommend for the new Muslim, the born Muslim, the young, the old and also the non Muslim, yes it is for you too!

You could say it's generally aimed at children as it's beautifully illustrated ma shaa Allah

 but don't let that stop you buying if you don't have children!

The font style, size is very appealing too but most of all it's the actual story, not just any story but a true story that is captivating and makes you want to pick the book up and read over and over again.

I'm looking forward to purchasing and reading the concluding book The Story of Muhammad ṣall Allāhu ʿalay-hi wa-sallam  In Madinah in shaa Allah but also as the name at the top of the book suggests 'Stories of the Prophets' there are other books in the series that are available too.

I purchased this book from Salafi Book Store the store gave me free of charge dawah leaflets too, may Allah reward them.

One thing to note is although the book is good quality considering the price, if you are reading or should i say trying to read it to a near 2 year old that won't keep her hands to herself, be careful because the pages are easily pulled out! failing that save it until she/he is older.

Cupcake Wars: Victoria Sandwich vs Espresso

Salam Alaykum,

 

Here is a light hearted battle of my most recent homemade cupcakes, both were delicious but only one will come out on top, who will it be?

 

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes - straight from oven

 

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes - complete (sort of)

Victoria Sanwich Cupcakes - now complete with a dusting of icing sugar but who can spot the odd one out? 

 

VS.

Espresso Cupcakes straight from oven

 

filled with whipped cream, but wait it gets better

 

Chocolate, melted and drizzled over oh and a dusting of icing sugar that was not at all necessary

 

and the winner is:

 

Espresso!

 

I just had to make these delights again but this time they were a stronger espresso flavour which went down a storm with dh, al hamdu lillah

(excuse the lighting, i took this photo at night compared to the rest which were in the morning/early afternoon)

Recipes, coming soon in shaa Allah
Update * here are the recipe links
Victoria sandwich cupcakes recipe
Espresso cupcakes recipe

 

Egg Free Golden Syrup Cake

Salam Alaikum & Hello Friends,

When your free do check out my guest post over at the lovely blog Karima's Crafts

Carob Fudge Cake With Coconut Carob Icing

What is carob you ask? well if my research serves me correctly it's the fruit / pod from the carob tree which is a species of flowering evergreen shrub or tree in the pea family.

The trees grow in places such as Spain, Italy and Morocco and the pods typically dried or roasted, and mildly sweet. In powdered, chip, or syrup form it is used as an ingredient in cakes and cookies, and is used as a substitute for chocolate.

Carob was eaten in Ancient Egypt. It was also a common sweetener and was used in the hieroglyph for "sweet" (nedjem). Dried carob fruit is traditionally eaten on the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat. Carob juice drinks are traditionally drunk during the Islamic month of Ramadan. Also it is believed to be an aphrodisiac.

All above info courtesy of wiki

I want to say this cake was the best thing I've ever eaten because mashaAllah the photos aren't half bad BUT i just didn't like the bitter earthy taste of carob at all, it didn't taste like chocolate then again maybe dark chocolate does taste like that, i don't honestly know but i won't be experimenting with carob again inshaAllah

Good news alhamduillah my kids seem to like this cake and are so easily taken it by it's chocolate appearance.

Anyone own a dog? well carob is a good substitute for chocolate because if you own a dog you know that they aren't supposed to consume chocolate and why? i don't have a clue but some random fact I've obtained over the years growing up always with a dog in the house alhamduillah that is not the case now.

If you do fancy giving this recipe a go after my terrible review, head on over to carob fudge cake it's an egg free cake which is always a plus if you don't have eggs in the kitchen or have allergies and the only changes i made were replacing the butter in the cake for margarine and for the icing i used 100g coconut butter and 20g vegetable shortening, i stayed with cows milk in the cake but i think you could change that for soy, rice, almond etc oh and i added some sugar crystals for decoration.

Sorry for all the negativity around here lately but with every negative experience you learn something new, what you do and don't like and how kids will surprise you and eat the fake chocolate cake to save the calories from your hips and save you from being wasteful alhamduillah

Warning: Some Pre Made Pastry contains Ethanol/Alcohol!

Source

Salam Alaikum,

This warning comes from first hand experience of being too lazy / i have better things to do than learn how to make puff pastry right now. SHOCKING i know coming from a baker dedicated to her craft / sweet tooth lol

I wanted to make the creamy delight that is a vanilla slice pictured above, although mine would have been single decker slice(s), never mind some other time inshaAllah for now i can indulge in the thought.

The story goes a little something like this:-

While doing my online grocery shopping one cold winter evening, the thought came into my head that pre made pastry would be the way to go in order for me to save time in making my most favourite bakery item.
So as i usually do, i checked the ingredients list displayed here thinking that it was the all above board i.e. the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth but to my dismay here is the whole truth, the complete ingredients list

Ethanol = Alcohol = Haram / Forbidden
By that time it was too late i already had the product in my house so i binned it and that was that, the end of my easy pastry dreams.

So next time i or you think about cutting corners in order to make life easier, think twice and always read the label (of course alot easier if you have the product and packaging in the palm of your hand and not on a screen like i did)