Junglefrog Cooking » valentine

Lemon poppyseed cupcakes and a love story

Simone (junglefrog) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:00:43 +0000

Valentine or Easter cupcakes..

I was madly in love. Madly in love with a tough biker guy called Paul. He was blond, tall and handsome and every time I looked into his eyes I sort of felt my butterflies dance. I had met Paul through a mutual girlfriend called Agnes. At the time I was still working as a nurse and had just discovered the joys of going out, disco’s and staying up far far too late. I was a little older then twenty at the time.

For the life of me I cannot remember what Paul did for a living or if he was still a student but I did know that I was head over heels in love with this guy. So when he asked me to go on a tour around the Ijsselmeer I did not hesitate and jumped at the chance. My friend Agnes would join too together with Paul’s friend so that would be a fun event…. or so I thought.

The day was of to a bad start, so maybe that was the beginning of the inevitable end. It was cold, windy and it looked liked it would rain. My hair was long and curly at the time, but what I had not thought about is that I would have to wear a helmet for the entire day. Sitting on the back of a motorbike riding for the entire day, holding on for dear life as the wind threatened to throw us of course. On top of that; they had not exaggerated when they said they would go for a bike ride… I cannot remember that we stopped at all during the entire ride from hell.

But ok, all in the name of love and I was snuggled up close to Paul, feeling all freezing cold but thinking it was for a good cause. By the time we came back home and I finally managed to get of that damned bike I was as stiff as a 50-year old lady (O, I should REALLY not make that comparison at my age!!!) my hair was as flat as a pancake and static too and my back was not happy…

Paul laughed and took me closer in his arms. I snuggled up against him and then he kissed me… A warm, wet and sloppy kiss. Like being kissed by a dog but then worse. Seriously. I almost recoiled… Have you ever had that before? Madly in love, one kiss and the love was over, completely, totally and forever irreversibly over? That was THE worst kiss I ever ever received in my entire life. It was gross and disgusting and I seriously had to keep myself from running away. Maybe the day was never meant to be a good day, with the way it started but to this day I am not sure Paul ever realized what hit him.. lol…

I can’t even remember how we said goodbye. I might have mumbled something and sort of half ran into my house, shutting the door firmly behind me, leaving a somewhat surprised Paul behind. Poor guy… I mean, I couldn’t possibly shatter his self esteem and tell him that he was the world worst kisser, now could I? But since there was no other explanation, I just chickened out and left him to figure it out for himself.

Now how’s that for a romantic Valentine story to warm your hearts on this cold cold winter day?

As for this recipe; what can I say? It’s absolutely delicious and a perfect treat but I have to say that it does look more like Easter cupcakes then Valentine cupcakes. But that’s good! They can be used on multiple occasions! I was also having cupcake photography block.. Too many cupcakes in too short a time… O well it’s the taste that counts! And for a bit more romantic recipe you can check here.

Lemon and poppyseed cupcakes

Print recipe

Serves	12
Prep time	40 minutes
Cook time	25 minutes
Total time	1 hours, 5 minutes
Allergy	Egg
Meal type	Dessert, Snack
Misc	Child Friendly, Pre-preparable
Website	BBC Good Food

Ingredients

175g self-raising flour
50g almond flour
175g caster sugar
2 lemon zest (of two lemons)
3 eggs
100g natural yogurt
175g butter (melted and cooled a little)
Sprinkled to decorate

Icing

225g butter (softened)
400g icing sugar (sifted)
1 lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)

Icing (Optional)

few drops of yellow food coloring

Directions


Heat the oven to 180 C and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake or muffin cases. Mix the flour, sugar, almond flour, lemon zest and poppy seeds together in a large mixing bowl. Beat the eggs into the yogurt, then tip this into the dry ingredients with the melted butter. Mix together with a wooden spoon or whisk until lump-free, then divide between the cases. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a skewer poked in comes out clean - the cakes will still be quite pale on top. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then carefully lift onto a wire rack for finish cooling

To ice, beat the softened butter until really soft in a large bowl, then gradually beat in the icing sugar and lemon juice. Stir in enough food colouring for a pale yellow color. Then spoon the icing into a piping bag with a large star nozzle.

Pipe the cakes and sprinkle with sprinkles of your choice

Chocolate Valentines!

Simone (junglefrog) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:30:44 +0000

Chocolate apple cake

There’s is something so utterly satisfying about good chocolate that I immediately said a wholeheartedly YES when Kate from Serendipity asked me if I would like to participate in a valentine chocolate cooking. Kate was kind enough to supply the chocolate for this and it was within days that I had a package of really fabulous chocolate from Christof…. (effe checken). It contained 1 large dark chocolate bar, two cooking chocolate bars and one bar which Kate mentioned would be fabulous for making chocolate milk. We couldn’t resist the chocolate so we ate the large bar just as it was with a good cup of coffee and it was absolutely wonderful. Not too sweet and great chocolate flavor.

But then I had to think about what to do with the rest of the chocolate. I mean; let’s face it, the possibilities are almost endless. Would I make an old time favorite; the Italian chocolate mousse or would I go for something new? When going through a Donna Hay book the decision was easily made. It featured a delicious chocolate cake and having never made one (i know, I know..) before I figured that would be perfect. The idea was to bake this in a heartshape but when you put baking paper in the heart it… eh… becomes a little bit strangely shaped heart, but who cares..? Take it from me that the shape IS a heart (of sorts) to keep with the Valentine theme. The original recipe called for making this with raspberries, but the raspberries that we have here right now are really not the best in terms of flavor plus I was having some apples that really needed to be eaten so I substituted the raspberries of the original with apple and I think that was a great choice. I actually think the apple worked better then the raspberries would have as it also gives it a little bit of crunch of sorts and the taste together is just lovely. I have to confess that the reason I used this recipe is also partially because I did not want to leave the house.

The temperatures are roughly between -13 and -4 C (8 to 20 Fahrenheit) at the moment and I didn’t feel like going outdoors at all, as I was having a lazy day at home. As luck would have it I had all the ingredients for this gorgeous chocolate cake so it was also the perfect excuse to get rid of some leftover flours. If you’re like me; you have multiple packs of flour around the house. I always think I have run out so I buy a new pack only to discover that I have some leftover in the cupboard. I finished most of the half-packs today! The recipe is very simple with wonderful results so try it out! You won’t regret it… And ofcourse perfect to share for Valentine. Thanks Kate for sending the chocolate!! Check out Kate’s blog for more of the Valentine cooking!!

CHOCOLATE APPLE CAKE

185 gr butter

185 gr dark chocolate, broken in pieces

3 eggs

1 vanillabean

1,5 cup sugar

1 cup flour

2/3 cup selfraising flour

1/2 cup almondflour

2 apples, cut into small chunks

In a double boiler heat the chocolate and the butter on low heat and slowly let them melt together. Once melted let them cool slightly.

Stir eggs, vanillaseeds and sugar in a large bowl to a light, creamy mass. Add flour, almondflour, selfraising flour , chocolate butter mix and the apple and mix well. If you like you can coat the apple-chunks with cinnamon before adding to the batter.

Depending a bit on which forms you use line them with baking paper and put the batter in. I used a larger heart, a smaller heart and one small cake tin. I lined them all with baking paper (parchment paper) which made it incredibly easy to remove from the tins but also kind of gives them funny shapes… Fill them for roughtly 3/4th. It will rise some but because it’s heavy batter it will not rise extremely high. Bake them in a preheated oven at around 180 C for about 35 minutes or until the top of the cake feels firm. You can check with a wooden pin but keep in mind that it has to be moist still on the inside. Otherwise it will be too dry.

Leave the cake to cool before you cut it and serve with whipped cream, extra apple or – if you can’t get enough of the chocolate – chocolate milk…!

Chocolate cake