sweet tooth :)

I had an urge for something sweet, so i decided to whip up an old favourite :) This cupcake recipe was a staple of mine once upon a time, as george was unable to eat eggs or dairy. Now we are down to dairy but he is able to eat egg, so i have moved on to other recipes, but every once in a while i like to dust this recipe off, as it makes a cupcake that is so light and fluffy it is unbelievable!

Here we go, take a bowl and place 1.5 cups plain flour,1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa, 1 tsp baking soda,1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup sugar,1/2 cup vegetable oil,1 cup cold water in a bowl and mix well. Add 2 tbs vinegar, and again mix until the mixture is all one colour (the vinegar will start a chemical reaction with the baking soda, and you will see the mixture will have a trail of a slighter lighter colour in it). Pour the mixture into 12 cupcake cases, and cook for 20 minutes at 180c/350f.
Make sure they cool before you ice them!

Chocolate fudge icing finishes this cupcake off in a divine way! Melt together 3 tbs of butter (i used dairy free), and 100g chocolate chips. Then add icing sugar until it is thick but still a little sloppy. It will semi harden on the cake, but will be glossy and delicious as you can see from the photos above!

Cupcake cuties

My daughter got a cupcake machine for christmas, and i decided that since today was valentine's day, i would break it out and make some mini treats for my little ones. Of course i had to make two batters, as George is a chocoholic, and Miss Tina is the vanilla queen..so here goes: I used the same recipe for both, just added cocoa (3tsp) for the boy's. Basic recipe: 4 tsp each of flour, sugar and cocoa(if needed), add a pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 cup of milk. It is really that easy! Now i made little teeny, tiny ones, and it made 14, but i would say it would probably make around 6 normal sized cupcakes. I used the cupcake maker and it took about 6 minutes for each batch, but i would say if you are cooking normal cupcakes, i would go
with 12-14 minutes at 180. From this basic recipe
 you can add choc chips, dried fruit, dollops of jam etc to change the flavour- it is really a wonderfully versatile recipe.
 I finished them off today with a simple icing,
just icing sugar and water (i added cocoa for
the boy's icing, and pink icing to the girls).
....aren't they sweet?

Going coco for coconut!!

A friend challenged me to try my hand at coconut macaroons but i didn;t have any dessicated coconut to hand, so i dutifully went and bought some..at the same time another post popped up on my facebook for coconut and carrot bars, and i thought to myself..ooh, i have two carrots in the fridge, lets have a go at that :)
This led to a baking spree, and it was only after i had used my very last drop of golden syrup that i realised i hadn't made my coconut macaroons :(
So here you go- three ways to use up the dessicated coconut sitting at the back of your cupboard :)
First up the coconut and carrot bars! I used the recipe from cooking for busy mums (find it here )and they were lovely although i couldn't quite make up my mind wether they were supposed to be savory or sweet...they are rather moreish though!

Next up, chocolate zucchini muffins, i followed the recipe posted here by vegie smugglers here
  and finished them off with a chocolate icing-half a cup of
 semi sweet chocolate chips(dairy free of course), quarter of a cup coconut milk and a cup of icing sugar..check out these cuties...















And last but not least, little cups of sunshine...Hawaian coconut cupcakes! Again from vegie smugglers, follow the link here here these i finished off with a rather more grown up icing...I used the pineapple juice and icing sugar as suggested but i added 2 tablespoons of bacardi :D These are really delicious, even without the icing

So there you are, three delicious dairy free treats, all using that lovely dessicated coconut :) Enjoy!!!

Icecream time!

Summers here in Cyprus are very long and VERY hot! Icecream tends to keep us going, and although i have my old faithful chocolate icecream recipe, i haven't had much success with a vanilla icecream recipe...until NOW! My wonderful father came to visit last month and with him he brought this recipe. It fell at my feet yesterday (quite literally as i was tidying up today) and i thought i'd give it a go :)

So here it is, the best vegan vanilla icecream recipe that i have tried so far (warning..you will never buy shop bought icecream again!!)

 In a blender, combine the soymilk powder (1.5 cups-i used the whole packet of SoVita soy drink vanilla powder), water (2/3 cup) and soymilk (3.5 cups i used Koko coconut milk) until well blended.

Combine the soymilk mixture with the sugar (1/2 cup), vanilla (1 tbsp) and apple cider vinegar (1 tsp)in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stirring constantly, cook until the mixture is thick and syrupy in consistency. Pour the mixture into a 9”x 5”metal loaf pan or other medium-sized metal or aluminum pan. Place the pan in the freezer uncovered for 1 hour.

Then you can either put into an icecram maker and let it do it's thing or if you don;t have such a machine, scrape the ice cream into a blender and blend on high for 30 seconds, or until mixture is creamy. Place the mixture back in the pan and back into the freezer. Repeat this procedure 3 more times at 30 minute intervals, allowing the ice cream to chill in the freezer covered for 1 hour after the last blend before serving.

Serve ice cream cold, adding your choice of toppings if desired.

The children naturally had theirs in a cone-with a cherry on top! 

We (hubby and myself) opted for a little more grownup way to eat, with some hot apple pie!

It is creamy, delicious, and you can eat it any way you want...Enjoy!

When life gives you lemons...

So here in Cyprus it is lemon season, and we have these big, fat, juicy lemons. So, i'm sitting here, looking at these lovely lemons, and a thought occurs to me that we can be a bit canny, and make some lovely treats, using EVERY part of this zesty fruit. So here goes :)

First up is lemon Glyko...or spoon sweet. This is a traditional sweet here in Cyprus (nothing diet about it as it is fruit preserved in a thick syrup)

First get your lemons together, give them a good wash, and then remove the zest (the yellow part) either by grating (which i personally can;t do without damaging my hands) or by using a sharp knife, just peel a very thin layer off the top of the lemon. (first super tip- you need to find fat lemons with thick skin- this will not work with thin skinned lemons!).

 Then score the lemon around (in segments) and peel off the white 'pith"..this is what you will be using to make your spoon sweet. You can choose to make thick segments or thin (we prefer thin) but if you make the thick ones, you can roll it into an attractive shape before you put it into the syrup. 

Put your lemon peel into a saucepan and weigh (you want to know how much lemon peel you have as you will need the number in order to work out how much sugar to use. It is basically 1:1 ration between fruit and sugar, and then add 1.5 cups water). Then fill up the pan with water and boil the peel for 5 minutes... and repeat twice more (this is to get rid of the bitterness). DO NOT throw away this water- we will be using it later for another recipe! When you have finished this part, drain the water, and now we get on to the final syrupy part :) So now, armed with the weight of the fruit, add an equal amount of sugar, and one and a half cups of water and boil until the syrup sets..this will be around 1 and a half hours. leave to cool and then put into a jar. They are ready to eat immediately :)

Onto recipe no 2...remember all that lemony water that we had left?Well, i'm going to let you into a little secret- how to make Mama Michaelides' Moonshine (or Posh Squash as it was nicknamed at a party i went to last night!). You need 1 gallon (or 4 litres) of this water- if you don't have enough lemony water, just top it up with normal water, add the sugar (2 kilos) and mix until it dissolves, then cool and put into your container (i use one of those 5 gallon barrels that we usually use for water). Once the water is cooled, add the juice of 6 lemons, raisins (225g), and the yeast (30g-i use 3x 11g packets). Seal the top by placing cling film over the top of the barrel (with some pin pricks in it-the yeast will emit gas, if you don't prick the clingfilm, it will pop!) and leave in a cool place for 2 weeks to do it's stuff. After that time, you can rack it into your bottles although it will need time to clear to the fine sunshiney yellow stuff :) Please note you will have to strain the liquid before you bottle it to get all the 'bits' out).

New Mission:Losing weight :)

Start of a new year give us Mummies a chance to re-evaluate, and make a new start of our own. I have decided to take my body into check, and shed some of the extra kilos. I started yesterday, adn i am happy to say that the recipes i have found can also fit into my son's dairy free lifestyle, so i can cook one meal for the whole family, adn i know it is healthy and good for everyone!

Last night i attempted my first slimming world meal, using a recipe i found in the slimming world magazine, for Jambalaya (I altered the ingredients slightly to fit in better with what i had in the fridge!)

First i sprayed my wok with Pam (cooking spray) and cooked 2 large onions (i cut them chunky as that is the way we like them) and 200g green beans (topped and tailed) for around 5 minutes. Then i added garlic (4 cloves chopped finely), ginger (4 cm piece peeled and grated) and cooked for another minute or so, until it started to soften. I stirred in cajun spice mix (1 tsp) and 200ml of chicken stock (this is a third of the quantity of chicken stock that you will be using in this dish) and cooked it for another 3 minutes.
I then added 1 can of chopped tomatos, 350g chicken (cut into strips) and another 200ml of chicken stock, brought it to the boil and added 250g rice, then i covered the wok and simmered for 10 minutes.
Lastly I stirred in 1 can kidney beans, brought it back to the boil, added the remaining stock and simmered for 7 minutes, before adding 200g of zucchini (julienned), and leaving to simmer for a final 3 minutes..(by this time the rice should be cooked and the liquid should have been absorbed. Serves 4 people

It should look somthing like this!

Chocolate fingers

Now, one of my ABSOLUTE favourite things to eat in this world, is chocolate fingers. It is also one of those things that my lil one has never tried (I don;t know about anywhere else in the world, but here in Cyprus, you can't find non dairy chocolate fingers), so i put my thinking cap on, and here we go! :) first the biscuit- take 260g plain flour and 2 tsp of baking powder, mix, then rub in 120g butter. It should end up looking like this:










Now add 100g sugar , 1 egg, and approx 2 tbsp of water, so that it comes together in a nice soft dough.
Tear small pieces off, and winkle them between your fingers to make small sausages. Place on greaseproof paper on a cookie sheet, and into the preheated oven at 175C for 15 minutes (or until the ends of the fingers start to brown.)

Take out of the oven and allow to cool. Then melt your chocolate (i put mine into the microwave for about 30 seconds) and dip each of the fingers into the chocolate. 

Lay them out again on the greaseproof paper, and place into the fridge to harden the chocolate up.

If you are living in a more temperate clime, you might be able to keep these in a biscuit tin, but here we have to keep them in the fridge!




And the best bit of the whole process? The children eating the leftover melted chocolate :D