Drawing of one of my Cupcakes by Lunch Box Project

This so great, Lisa Orgler of The Lunch Box Project draw one of my Cupcakes.
I think it's sooooooo great, she is a big artist. I feel honourd.
Please visit her blog.

The picture & recipe of my Speculaas Cupcakes with Almond Frosting:

Click here for Recipe



New recipes coming up....

I've been so busy. Children/holidays/work/etc.
But yesterday I made some time to make some delicous cupcakes.
I made them for our Christmas Breakfast at work.
Cafe-Choco &
Oat-Fig-Cranberry.
Very yammie, no frosting on these one, because I wanted them to be a little healty, ha ha ha

I will post the recipes asap... but propably will be after the weekend.
Saturday our choir gives a concert, lot of Christmas songs and some popsongs (Viva la Vida, Halleluja, We are the World)
Sunday I will celebrate my birthday. My real birthday is Dec. 24th. I love this day, but my family is so busy then, I deceided to celebrate it earlier this year.

Pepernoten

 

 

A special treat for our kids (and us) in de 3 weeks before Sinterklaas (Dec 5th) is Pepernoten.

Children get them in there shoes if they been good and sing a song for Sinterklaas.

Sometimes they even get a little present in there shoe.

But the big bang is when on Dec. 5th Sinterklaas or Zwarte Piet, knocks on the door.

He will be gone before you have opened the door, but he left a whole mountain of presents.

 

1/2 cup Flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp speculaaskruiden

pinch of salt

 

Preheat the oven to 160/320 degrees.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix everything with your hands to a nice firm dough.

Prepare a baking plate. make little marbles of dough, place them evenly on the sheet and make them a little flat with your thump. (mine, on the photo are a little to big)

Bake them for about 15 minutes, till they are light brown en done.

 

Enjoy your pepernoten.

 

 

 according to our oldest daughter I didn't make enough :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home made Speculaaskruiden:

Spices used for Speculaas (a Dutch cookie).

Speculaas blend (Speculaaskruiden)

30 gr cinnamon (kaneel),

5 gr cloves (kruidnagel),

5 gr nutmeg (nootmuskaat),

3 gr white peppercorn (witte peper),

3 gr ginger powder (gemberpoeder),

1 gr cardamom seeds (from the green pods) (kardemomzaadjes).

Grind in a coffee grinder or mortar.

Speculaas Cupcakes with Almond Frosting (Vegan)

In Holland we have Sinterklaas on December 5th. (Click here for the meaning of Sinterklaas.)

We eat a lot of pepernoten, little Dutch cookies (which I will bake for you next week).

I deceided to make some nice cupcakes with speculaas kruiden, also a traditional cookie for this time of year.

For those of you who want to know more about speculaas, please read this post, a lovely girl explains speculaas in English, which I couldn't have done beter.

 

 

 

Speculaas cupcakes:

1 1/2 cup self rising flour

1 tsp speculaaskruiden (Verstegen or Homemade, see end of topic)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown caster sugar

1 egg (Egg Replacer)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup oil

4 tbsn water (you can also use milk)

 

Mix all in a bowl en mix untill smooth. Than put everything in a prepared cupcake pan with liners.

The cupcakes are ready when the toothpick comes out dry.

 

 

 

Almond frosting

1/4 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup soymilk 

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

pinch of salt

 

First,  in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the sugar, flour, salt together. Add the milk and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally until the mixture has thickened into a paste and slightly bubbly at edges.

Then transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed until cool. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter; beat until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

For decoration, I sprinkled some speculaas with almonds cookie crumbles on top.

 

 

 

 

Home made Speculaaskruiden:

Spices used for Speculaas (a Dutch cookie).

Speculaas blend (Speculaaskruiden)

30 gr cinnamon (kaneel),

5 gr cloves (kruidnagel),

5 gr nutmeg (nootmuskaat),

3 gr white peppercorn (witte peper),

3 gr ginger powder (gemberpoeder),

1 gr cardamom seeds (from the green pods) (kardemomzaadjes).

Grind in a coffee grinder or mortar.

 

Off .... No

No, no holiday here, just being very bizzy.
Some builders in the house to make the windows larger in bedroom and bathroom.
And a birthday on the other side of the Netherlands.

So not much cooking, exept the normal recipes.
I tried one new, which was - according my parents and family-  to die for.
So when I have time (maybe on work break) I'll write it down.
Oooo, we ate FishPie :)

Egg replacer

I  usually use NoEgg as replacer, but here are some other options:

• 1 egg = 2 tbsp potato starch
• 1 egg = 1/4 cup mashed potatoes
• 1 egg = 1/4 cup canned pumpkin or squash
• 1 egg = 1/4 cup puréed prunes
• 1 egg = 2 tbsp water + 1 Tbsp. oil + 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 egg = 1 tbsp ground flax seed simmered in 3 Tbsp. water
• 1 egg white = 1 Tbsp. plain agar powder dissolved in 1 Tbsp. water, whipped, chilled, and whipped again

Banana Cupcakes (eggfree / dairyfree)

1 ½ cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

3 bananas, ripe

¾ cup sugar

1 egg (replacer, I use NoEgg, for other option see other post)

1/3 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt, mix a little with a fork.

In an other bowl: Mash bananas with sugar, egg-replacer , water and oil in a large bowl.

Mix in the flour mixture until smooth. Pour batter into a cupcake pan.

Option: you can replace the bananas with pears

Crispy Coconut Chicken (eggfree)

I was searching the internet to find some nice coconut chicken bits, with a nice crust, but egg free.

I found several options, but I decided to go with applesauce (yes, you read it right, applesauce J)

Normally for cupcakes I almost follow the recipe as it’s written. With cooking it’s a bit this, little bit of that.

I made it like this:

1 chicken breast

1 - 1 ½  tsp salt

½ - 1 tsp pepper

1 tbsp garlic

1 - 1 ½  cups breadcrumbs

½ cup coconut

1 ½ cups applesauce

Cut your chicken in nice bits. Take 2 bowls, one for your applesauce, one for all the other ingredients (mix well with fork.)

Meanwhile put your pan on the fire (you could also grill this).

Then, take your chicken, dip it under in the applesauce and then dip it in de coconut mixture (be sure every spot is covered) then cook/grill it, don’t forget to turn on time.

Enjoy J

My English recipe blog

For all non-dutch people, I will translated my blog in English.
I will first put my recipe on my dutch blog and then translate it asap for your guys.
:)

http://toscasbaksels.blogspot.com/