African Coconut Curry Soup

Ok so I know I haven't been living up to my 'Healthy Eats' portion of my blog lately... I apologize. I think I may have mentioned this months ago, but with school being pretty busy I haven't been all that creative when it comes to making dinners. I often just make an easy favourite of mine and call it a day. And frankly, it's sooo much more fun to come up with a yummy dessert on my time off than a full dinner.

I have ALSO noticed that taking pictures of food that is not pretty, or frankly just ugly, is fricken hard!! And I'll be honest, this soup isn't that pretty looking. I'm sure if I had superior photography skills and a decent camera I could get it to look nicer, but with what I'm working with, this is the best that I could do. With cupcakes, I can take a dozen photos and each one will look good (well- sometimes), but with this soup, I had to take picture after picture, and I'm still not happy with the end result.

Regardless of how this soup looks though, it was delicious, and something that you could seriously whip up in 10 minutes. I couldn't get enough of it, and was so disappointed when Sean reminded me that he's not a fan of curry and wouldn't be trying any. Oh well, his loss!

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons canola oil

1 medium onion (about 6 ounces), chopped

1 medium red bell pepper (about 6 ounces), chopped

1 jalapeño chili, seeded and finely chopped (optional, I did not use any)

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 cups vegetable broth. divided 

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 can diced tomatoes

2 teaspoons mild curry powder

1/4- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste (I added more than this) 

black pepper, to taste

1 (14-ounce) can light coconut milk

3/4 cup cooked white or brown rice

 

Directions:

In a medium stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and chili (if using) and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir frequently to prevent burning for 1 minute. Add 3 cups of broth, chickpeas, tomatoes, curry powder, parsley, salt, and black pepper; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 10 minutes or until vegetables are cooked.

 

In the meantime, cook rice as per directions on packaging. Use the remaining 1 cup of broth to cook the rice in, and if more liquid is needed, top up with water.

 

Once rice is cooked and soup has finished simmering, add the cooked rice and coconut milk; heat through until everything is nice and hot and ready to serve.  

Source: slightly adapted from The Tropical Vegan Kitchen, found through Epicurious. Pin It

Orange Coconut Cremes

Yeah! The final post in my week-long blog challenge! I was able to write a blog post every day this week, and this is the last one!

Here's another quick and easy treat to put out on your Christmas platters or give to friends and family. Personally, I find the combination of orange and coconut absolutely irresistable. Add in chocolate, and you're golden.

Are these sweet? Yes. Are they incredibly sugary? Yes. Are they addictive? So much so that you will eat one or two too many and make yourself feel sick. I don't often feel inclined to try more than one item of whatever I've made, but I definitely caught myself sneaking into the fridge to snag a couple before having to give them all away. Oops!

Yield: 108 servings (I halved the recipe, no way I need over 100 of these babies!)
Ingredients:
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 package (1 kg) powdered sugar
1 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
2 teaspoons orange extract
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons shortening

Directions:
In a small saucepan, combine milk, butter and salt. Warm over low heat until the butter is melted.

Place powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add condensed milk and butter mixture, and beat until smooth. Add coconut and orange extract, and mix well. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheets lined with waxed paper. Refridgerate until firm, about 1 hour. If the mixture is too soft to hold it's shape, add more powdered sugar or refridgerate for awhile, as the mixture will be warm from the condensed milk mixture.

In a microwave, heat chocolate for 30 seconds, remove and stir. Continue to heat chocolate on 20 second bursts, stirring in between until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in shortening and mix until fully incorporated. Dip balls into chocolate; remove by placing a fork underneath and lifting, allowing excess chocolate to drip off. Place on waxed paper and either let stand until set or refridgerate to set more quickly.

Source: slightly adapted from Taste of Home Pin It

Pina Colada Cupcakes

Mmm, what could possibly be better than enjoying a hot summer day on the beach with a frosty pina colada in your hand? Nothing that I can think of, but since I am not on my way to the beach today, this is the next best thing, pina colada cupcakes! I've been wanting to make pina colada cupcakes for quite awhile now, but was waiting for the right time and weather. Well that time has finally come along! The weather is beautiful, hot but not unbearable, and since I have a little time off before the big move, I was able to whip these up in between packing. Sean went to a cottage on the weekend with a bunch of friends, and I sent them along with him. I have to admit though, I'm wishing I kept a few behind for myself!

These cupcakes are fantastic. Moist and delicate, very easy to make, and the pineapple, coconut and rum flavours really shine through! It truly feels as if you're drinking (eating?) a pina colada. Delicious! I was a bit nervous looking at the recipe because it calls for so much liquid, but they came out perfectly. One thing I might change is to either omit the shredded coconut and opt for coconut extract, or perhaps try to chop up the coconut a little smaller. Sean and I both agreed that it added a slightly funny texture (because of the strands), but when it came down to it, they didn't really bother me because it tasted soo dang good!!

I know I say this fairly often, but if you like pina colada, you really need to try these! One of the best I've made yet!

Yield: 20 cupcakes
Ingredients:
1/3 cup - half coconut rum and half dark rum (2 1/2 tablespoons each)
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup pineapple juice (use reserves from drained pineapple)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut 
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained (about 1 can, reserve liquid)

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
12 oz. cream cheese (1 1/2 packages), room temperature
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
3 tablespoons cream of coconut
1 teaspoon coconut extract
pinch of salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line tins with cupcake liners.

In a small bowl, combine the rums, coconut milk, pineapple juice, and vanilla. Set aside. In another small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just combined after each addition. Once all eggs are mixed in, beat for an additional 20 seconds at medium speed.

Add half of the flour mixture into the sugar-butter mixture, and mix until just combined. Mix in the rum mixture until just combined, followed by the remaining flour mixture. Fold in the coconut and pineapple. The batter may look slightly curdled, this is okay and should be taken care of with a little additional whisking.

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cupcakes bounce back when lightly pressed.

For the frosting: beat the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the powdered sugar, 2 cups at a time. Mix in the pineapple juice, coconut cream, coconut extract and salt. Beat until well combined, another minute or so. If icing is too stiff, add a teaspoon more pineapple juice until reached desired consistency. If icing is too runny, add more powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.

Source: slightly adapted from The Cupcake Project

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Chocolate & Toasted Coconut Covered Coconut Marshmallows

Wow, I apologize for the enormity of the name, but I really don't know what else to call these babies! Chocolate and Toasted Covered Coconut *home-made* Marshmallows says it all. I've been wanting to make this creation for several weeks now, ever since I saw this post on Bakerella on making various different flavours of marshmallows. The peanut butter and jelly ones definitely caught my eye, but I wanted to try out the coconut chocolate combination first.

I had made marshmallows once a few years ago, but I forgot how easy and fast it is! All it is, literally, is softening some gelatin, boiling some sugar, corn syrup and water to a certain temperature, and then beating it all together until it reaches the right consistency! The most difficult part of the whole process is spreading the very sticky warm marshmallow goo into a pan without getting it everywhere, including your face *ahem*.

I chose to use a bittersweet chocolate to coat them, because the marshmallows are pretty sugary on their own. The bitterness of the chocolate evens them out a bit, and the toasted coconut gives some wonderful texture.

Somehow though, dipping into chocolate has never become easy for me. I always find whatever is on the stick is trying to slip it's way off, and the coating is uneven. It was probably even more difficult with these marshmallows, because they are SO light and fluffy, they are basically a cloud that melts in your mouth! What I ended up doing was keeping the toasted coconut on the pan that it came in, so that I could place the chocolate coated mallow to rest on the coconut. I took a small steel spatula (you know the kind that you use to smooth cake icing) to coat all of the sides except for the back, which I was holding with my fingers for extra support. I finished the back off after I placed the mallow on the coconut. By doing it this way, you can smooth the chocolate out and really decide how much chocolate you want on the mallow.

Yield: Approximately 20 large rectangular mallows (more or less depending on how big you cut them)
Ingredients:
2 1/2 tablespoons unflavoured gelatin (about 1 1/2 packets)
1/2 cup cold water, divided
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
nonstick spray
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate
1 tablespoon shortening

Directions:
Place 1/4 cup of the cold water into the bowl of a stand mixer, an sprinkle the gelatin over top for it to soften. In the meantime, combine the other half of the water, sugar, corn syrup and salt into a small saucepan, making sure to have a candy thermometer close by. Cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches a temperature of 240 degrees F (5-10 minutes). Once the temperature is reached, immediately remove from the heat.

With the whisk attachment on the mixer moving at low speed, add the hot liquid in a slow and steady stream down the side of the mixer bowl. Doing this helps a) to cool it down slightly, and b) to avoid it getting hit by the whisk and whipped around. Once all the syrup has been added, crank up the mixing speed to high and whip until the mixture is very think and has cooled, but still is warm. This should take about 12-15 minutes of mixing. *You can do this with a strong hand mixer; I made marshmallows the first time with a hand mixer. However, be prepared to have a tired arm afterwards.

While the mixture is whipping, combine the powdered sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl and whisk together. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 8 x 8 pan (with shortening or spray) and thoroughly coat the pan with the sugar-cornstarch mixture, reserving what is left. Once the marshmallow mixture is finished whipping, spray a spatula with nonstick spray and spread the mixture in an even layer into the prepared pan. Sprinkle a layer of the sugar-cornstarch mixture over top to coat lightly. Let the pan sit, uncovered or at least 4 hours or up to overnight before cutting.

Remove the marshmallow slab onto a cutting board. Use a pizza cutter or cookie cutters to cut the desired shape. At this point, if you want plain marshmallows, dip the pieces in the remaining sugar-cornstarch mixture to prevent sticking.

Layer a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Evenly spread 1 cup of shredded sweetened coconut. Toast for 5-10 minutes, or until a nice golden brown is achieved. Remove and let cool.

Add 1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon shortening into a heat proof bowl. Heat in the microwave at reduced heat for 1 minute. Stir the chocolate and shortening, and return to microwave at 30 second increments until a smooth melted chocolate is achieved. Be careful not to overheat! Once you have scorched the chocolate there is no going back and it must be thrown out.

Use popsicle sticks, candy sticks, or whatever you have on hand to insert into the marshmallow. Dip, or spread the chocolate onto the marshmallow and lay the chocolate coated marshmallow onto the bed of toasted coconut.

Let harden, at least 1 hour or 1/2 an hour in the fridge. Serve and enjoy!

Source: adapted from Food Network via Annie's Eats

P.S. These are seriously delicious. You should make them. Pin It

Carrot Curry Soup with a hint of Coconut

This picture really does not do this soup justice. I LOVE this soup. It is SO tasty, SO easy, and SO healthy (well maybe not SO healthy, but it is all veggies!). I love curry. Or at least I think I do; my experience with curry really has been pretty limited to the few dishes I've made with the spice, and I'd like to make a distinction that I haven't actually had a 'curry' dish, if you know what I mean. For example, when people say 'let's go grab some curry' in the noun sense, rather than eating a dish with the spice in it. I hope I'm making sense. The point of what I'm saying is that I love curry, but I really haven't tried it too much, so maybe I don't like the real curry as much? Whatever.

This soup is really very easy. Half of the ingredients are tossed in first to soften with some oil, and the other half are added when the liquid goes in. Everything is pureed in the blender to create a beautifully smooth soup, and then it's reheated and some coconut milk goes in for a special kiss of flavour. I just love it so much. I will let you know though that the soup is on the thinner side, so if you like a thicker soup perhaps don't add as much liquid, or you could even add some flour in before adding the liquid. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:

2 1/2 large carrots, chopped
1 med-large onion, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (or whatever oil you have on hand)
1 heaping tablespoon curry
pinch of cumin
2 medium potatoes, diced
4 cups vegetable stock (or for those meat-eaters, chicken stock works)
1 cup water
1/3-1/2 cup coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat a dutch oven or large saucepan on medium high and add oil to heat. Add in carrots, onion, celery and garlic and cook until softened, stirring occasionally to prevent burning, about 8 minutes. Add in the curry and cumin, and stir until fragrant. Add in the potatoes, vegetable stock and water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat until simmering and cover with a lid. Simmer the soup until all the vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool slightly before blending**. Once cooled, blend the soup until smooth. You may have to do this in 2 portions. Return to heat and bring to a quick simmer. Add in the coconut milk and salt and pepper to taste. Serve when hot. Enjoy!

**I don't know if you've ever made the mistake of putting piping hot liquid into a blender and blending it, but if you have, you know that it almost always equals a disaster. Something about the hot liquid makes the blender explode, and so at least twice before that I can think of my kitchen has been covered with unusually bright red or orange liquid of some kind. Not just my kitchen, but usually myself as well, and when the liquid is hot it can really burn you. Not fun. You don't need to cool it completely, but when you do blend it make sure that the lid is closed tightly and wrap a towel around the top, just in case.

Source: A Sweet Treats & Healthy Eats original

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Wilton Cake Course Cake #2- Coconut!

This cake has quite the story. For our final class of the Wilton Cake Course 1, we were required to bring in a cake so that we could decorate it. I did some searching, and what caught my eye was Bobby Flay's Throwdown Toasted Coconut Cake with Coconut Filling and Coconut Buttercream. What a name! You can see that there's no toasted coconut on top, but I needed a flat surface to do decorations. So I spent all day making this multi-step 4-layer cake that turned out beautifully. Here's the catch: the classroom we were in was very warm, and the cake was sitting out for about 2 hours, which resulted in the icing and filling getting very soft. Jaylene and I were 4 turns and 1 minute away from my place when.... schloopp. Top 2 layers just slid right off. So in the midst of my panic, I was able to open the carrying box and shove the top layers back on- leaving a not so pretty looking cake. Hand-print on the side, layers uneven.... NOT IMPRESSED!! Because the icing was so soft I managed to somewhat put it back together when I got up to my apartment, but I could not completely fix the unevenness. The picture isn't the greatest but it was my one chance to snap a picture of the whole cake before it got gobbled up!

This cake was not at all like the last cake I made for the course (not that that one didn't taste good!). It was light and fluffy with a perfect crumb while still being able to withstand being stacked. The coconut filling was delicious, like a whipped pudding, and I could have eaten all of it on it's own! The only thing that I would say about this cake is that despite the 3 coconuts in the name, it didn't actually have a strong coconut flavour like I was expecting. The cake was fantastic, but I was really hoping for that coconut flavour to shine through. In the recipe below, I've added and starred a couple ingredients that I might use next time to try and bring out that flavour, but because I haven't tried it yet, I can't guarantee that it will work!

As mentioned before, the cake is made in stages. I've separated each ingredient list with the corresponding instructions, so that you don't have to keep scrolling up and down. They are in order of how I made them.

Coconut Simply Syrup:
1 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup flaked coconut

Bring water and sugar to a boil. Stir in the coconut, remove from heat and let sit for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours. Strain the liquid into a clean saucepan, bring to a boil and let cook until the mixture is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Let cool completely. Set aside.

Coconut Custard:
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
4 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons coconut rum (such as Malibu)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the milks and vanilla bean and seeds in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Whisk together the yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Slowly whisk the warm milk into the egg mixture then return the mixture to the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, until thickened. This will happen quickly- make sure not to burn. Press the custard through a mesh sift into a bowl to remove any clumps or cooked egg bits. Whisk in the rum and vanilla extract. Cover custard with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap down into the bowl so that it is touching the custard. This will prevent a skin from forming on the surface. Refrigerate custard until cold, at least 2 hours. *This is not the filling yet, instructions to come after the cake.

Cake:
1 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for pans
3/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
3/4 teaspoon coconut extract*
1 cup and 3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 tablespoon and 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at cool room temperature
** Measurements might look odd because I cut the original recipe into 2/3. This recipe makes enough for 2 6-inch cake pans; the original makes enough for 2 9-inch pans.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Use shortening or butter to grease pans and then sprinkle flour on top.

Whisk together the milk, egg whites, vanilla bean seeds and extract in a medium bowl.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With the mixer running at low speed, add the butter, one piece at a time and continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to the crumbs and beat at medium speed until the mixture is pale and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the remaining 1/2 cup of the milk mixture, increase speed to medium and beat 30 seconds more. Scrape sides of bowl and mix for 20 seconds longer. Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and tap the pans on the counter a few times to even out.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 22 to 24 minutes. Leave in the pan on a baking rack for 10 minutes. Run a small knife around the sides of the pans and invert cakes onto the baking rack. Let cool completely.

Coconut Filling:
3/4 cup coconut custard, cold
3/4 cup very cold heavy cream
1 teaspoon coconut extract
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut*

Combine the custard, cream and extract in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Fold in shredded coconut.

Coconut Buttercream:
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup coconut custard
pinch sea salt
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract*

Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the coconut custard, extract and sugar and beat until combined and smooth.

To Assemble the Cake (finally!):
Using a long serrated knife, slice each cake horizontally into 2 layers. Brush each top side of the layers with the coconut simple syrup. Spoon 1/3 of the coconut filling onto the bottom layer and using an offset metal spatula, spread into an even layer, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge of the cake. Repeat with the 2 other layers.

Frost the sides and top of the cake with the buttercream. *If you are not decorating the cake like I did, you can pat toasted coconut onto the sides of the cake and sprinkle the top.

Source: adapted from Bobby Flay (visit if wanting to do a larger cake)


Now... you didn't think I would let you go without showing you the flowers I was taught to make in the course! The following day I spent an hour practicing- they're so much fun to make!

They're so pretty! My favourites are the white ones with the pink center. Once you get the hang of them, they're very easy and quick to make, but look so professional!

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