Ginger Millies - guilt-free cakes

Just as I decided to talk about food here at the Cosmic I spoke about these Ginger Millies; they are cheeky little cakes well worth a try. With less than 100 calories each is the perfect treat to have in your freezer. Freeze the cakes without the icing and take it out of the freezer from 30 minutes to an hour before attacking it!!! Oh yea…they are also a lot of fun to make!!!
1 medium egg
50g caster sugar
100g butternut squash (peeled and finely grated)
Finely grated zest of ½ unwaxed lemon
25g white rice flour
50g ground almond
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger (i also used a bit of freshly grated ginger to give it a bite!)
Small pinch of salt

Pre heat the oven to 160C and line 2 trays of baby muffins (the recipe if for those tiny little liners but I used the fairy cake so of course I ended up with 12 cakes rather than 24).
In a large mixing bowl whisk together eggs and sugar for a couple until you get a fluffy and pale mix. Add the butternut squash and lemon zest, beat again until fully incorporated.
Add flour, ground almonds, baking powder, ground ginger and salt (if using) and mix it well for a minute or so to combine everything that is in the bowl. With the help of 2 small spoons pour the batter until the liners leaving dry about 0.5cm of the paper. Once the cases a filled give them a nice bang on the surface, do it 4 to 5 time, that will settle the dough and help making the top a bit more flat. Bake it for 15 to 20 minutes.

ICING
125g icing sugar, sieved
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp water
Pink food colouring paste

One of the easiest icings I have ever tried!!! Just combine the sugar. Lemons juice and water with a fork until smooth, it takes a bit of a work out but that you go, today you can spend a bit less time at the Gym!!! In the recipe she recommends colouring the icing but really there’s no need, still if you decide to give it some different colour you can run a little colouring paste on it as indicated of just add a couple of drops of food colouring but no more than that. If you aren’t using the icing until later then place clean film direct on the top of it to avoid drying out. This icing is very light and tasty and a thin layer on the top of your cake should do. A good tip to spread the icing is to use the back of a teaspoon and a glass of water, dip the spoon on the water and that will help you frosting your cupcake!!!

Baking Friday

Just over a month ago I bought this book that I just looove and have already spoke about it here,, the name is Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache from Harry Eastwood. Today having arrived home happy and ready for a 5 days break I decided to treat myself to a very nice dessert but didn’t want to be too naughty as that is already going to happen during our trip to Cardiff. Book in hand, I picked one particular veggie and went for it. I didn’t really have all the ingredients at home but decided to try the recipe anyways. The cake is beautifully fluffy and I’ll have to try it again with the choc chips as that will be the perfect complement to this bitter chocolaty cake that can definitely doble as a double choc chip muffin as you top up the chips by another 50g, but don’t add more than that as they will sink and the cake will become heavy.

So here is the recipe for this guilt free cupcake…I’m not posting the instructions for the icing first because

I used a bit of left over I had in the fridge and that wasn’t the one in the book, so the naughty chocolate icing recipe will stay for a next time.




3 medium free-range eggs (I like the idea but used regular ones)
180g Demerara sugar (didn’t have it so used 100g caster and 80g regular sugar)
2 tbsp strong coffee or boiling water if you don’t like coffee (I also added a bit of vanilla here)
250g peeled and finely grated carrot
120g white rice flour
50g ground almond
40g good quality cocoa
2tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
100g chocolate chips (any colour you like) – I didn’t have any at home so made without it

I use electrical whisk all the way on this recipe. The instructions say it will give you 12 cakes but I managed to get 11, I think she meant 12 on fairy cake size and I’ve made muffin size ones.

Preheat the oven to 180C and line the cupcake tins with paper cases.
In a large bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar for a full 5 minutes until mix quadrupled in volume and extremely fluffy.
Whisk in the carrot and coffee. When they are fully incorporate, beat in the flour, ground almond, cocoa, baking powder and salt mix it with a electric whisk until they are well combine. Fold in the choc chips with a spatula until they are scattered hither and thither.
Spoon them into the tin filling until about 0.50 cm from the edge. Bake it for 25 minutes them cool them as usual cupcakes. Make sure to cool them completely before icing them.

There are a few tips on this book that go for pretty much every recipe so I’ll only post them here
Flour – all the recipes are with rice flour but you can use regular plain flour as well, I’m trying the gluten free option as my tummy appreciates that but they have all been tested with both versions.
Veggie – if like me you like to have all the ingredients measured and ready before hand then make sure to leave the grating bit for last as this way you keep the freshness of the veggie and all the juices as well. When grating them use the finest bit of your grater. On the book Harry tells you not to use a food processor but I know it works well for carrots so this time I’ve cheated!!!

My favorite Chocolate Icing...easy, quick and cheap...

Not to mention DELICIOUS!!!!

2 2/3 cups sifted icing sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup soft butter
3 to 4 tablespoons milk

Sift sugar and cocoa together. Add butter and milk. Stir until well blended.
It makes icing for about 24 of cupcakes and it couldn't be simpler!!!

Rolled all day breakfast pizza

Last week I saw Jamie Oliver on the "Best of Saturday Kitchen" making this bread recipe for brunch...it was his own taking on English breakfast as stuffing for bread...very interesting - I thought – must try soon.
After a very tiring week I decided to try the recipe but it ended up being our dinner as we had a very weird and lazy Saturday.
Not very sure of the recipe for the bread dough I decide to buy ready made pizza dough but on a better day I’ll be trying with home made recipes and the lot hehehe
Well…Jamie Oliver uses Parma Ham e sun dry tomatoes; the first one I find too salty and the second one my hubby finds too strong, so I changed it to lean bacon (weight watchers ones) and fresh peppers finely cut.
Anyways this is so easy and all you have to do is put in your favourite flavours

1 tin of ready made pizza dough, or enough home made pizza dough to cover a rectangular baking trail.
½ red pepper finely cut (or you could mix colours as well)
Chopped tomatoes (I used tinned ones, just on tomatoes juice)
3 hard boiled eggs
1 ball of mozzarella
4 rashers of lean bacon
Some fresh basil and spring onion
Dry oregano and ground pepper to season
Olive oil to glaze
A handful of cheese of your choice



Flour a flat surface and open the dough on a rectangular shape, spread the chopped tomatoes over 1/3 of the dough, leaving enough of it to roll over after. Add bacon, mozzarella, peppers, eggs and top it with basil, oregano, spring onion and pepper. Fold the dough over the filling then stuff the edges with some mozzarella as they usually stay empty. Curl into a circle and spread olive oil on the top. Sprinkle some oregano then bake it for 25 minutes on 200C. Stop half way and sprinkle some cheese on the top to melt.




The result was deliiiiiiiiiicius but next time I’ll try to make the dough on a circle shape and just fold in half as it should make the dough a bit crisper.

The dish on its own is a whole meal but I think green salad would probably be a good suggestion with it!!!



TOP TIP – because I never manage to use up a whole bunch of spring onion in a couple of days I usually wash, chop then freeze them, this way I can use the spring onion slowly. Of course is a lot better for warm dishes, just add at the end and the heat will bring them back to life. But you can also use on cold ones, just add the spring onion right at the beginning and that will give is time to defrost.

Why in english

After 3 years living in London I realized that much of what I am now is related to my experienced here and that I wasn't able to share that with people from here because my blog was all in Portuguese. As I started writing more about food the whole thing became a mess as the foodie posts were in English and the personal ones in Portuguese, as the friends (THAT NEVER LEAVE A COMMENT!!! HEHEHE) complained about having to translate my texts. So here I am a whole blog just to say whatever I want to say IN ENGLISH...and I'll keep my old one in Portuguese. I'll transfer to here all the recipes i've posted at the old place and there I'll make sure they are at my mother tongue...a bit messy and troublesome...things I do to please the readers kakakakak (as if!!!)