The Story
Happy Birthday Mom and Eric!
I am trying an "elimination diet." No gluten, no dairy, no soy. Hopefully this helps with some health issues I've been experiencing, and so far, it's not *that* bad (side note: probably shouldn't be drinking so much wine on an elimination diet, but, eh). Also, I won't lie: I sort of really want the Cool Ranch Dorito Taco from Taco Bell. I should be ashamed of that, but I am not.
Last weekend at my brother's going away party, everyone else had cake and ice cream, and I got to stare at their plates (guess what I had for dessert: wine!). So, I decided that the only way to ensure that I could eat my mom's birthday cake was to make it myself. I looked at some restrictive diet websites, and although I didn't find a cake recipe that I liked, this flourless fudge brownie recipe over at Yammie's Glutenfreedom did inspire me.
The Food
STEP ONE: Make cupcakes. This is only very slightly modified from the Yammie's brownie recipe. First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine one cup of white sugar, one cup of brown sugar, and 3/4 cup of vegetable oil in a large bowl. Thoroughly combine the oil and sugars, and add in 4 large eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Whisk to combine and beat for about 2 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 and 1/2 cups cocoa powder (I used King Arthur Flour's dutch process cocoa, which made the batter very dark and very chocolatey). Incorporate all of the cocoa into the batter and mix until smooth. If you want, add 1/2 to 1 cup of chopped nuts and/ or chocolate chips and fold into the batter. Spray a muffin/ cupcake tin with vegetable or canola oil spray, and fill the wells about 2/3 to 3/4 full. I filled 15 cupcake wells. Bake for 30 minutes at at 350 degrees, and remove from the oven. Let cool completely (at least an hour away from any heat sources). When the cupcakes are cool, use a knife and very gently run the blade between the cupcake and the tin, all around the cupcake, and continue until the cupcake is loosened. If you try to force the cupcake out before it is loosened and starts to move in the pan, you will end up with cupcake crumbles. Set aside and cover the cupcakes until you are ready to make the toppings.
Flourless chocolate fudge brownie cupcakes. Absolutely delicious as is, but obviously in need of some doctoring to make it suitable for a birthday celebration.
STEP TWO: Make toasted coconut. Heat a very tiny bit of oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add about a cup to a cup and a half of sweetened coconut flakes and toast, stirring very frequently so that the flakes don't stick and burn. When the coconut is toasted to your liking, remove the pan from the heat and put the coconut flakes in a bowl.
Coconut. Mmmmm.
STEP THREE: Make caramel. Heat one cup of sugar over medium high heat. Stir frequently. The sugar will start to melt, clump, turn brown, and eventually will dissolve into caramel.
The lovely sugar-clumping stage of caramel-making.
Once all of the sugar has dissolved into a lovely brown goo, turn the heat to low and add 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1 to 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of milk (I used almond milk). When you add the vanilla and the milk, the mixture will bubble up, but will eventually settle down. After the milk is added, remove the pan from the heat and stir to combine. Even if the caramel starts to burn (you will smell it), burnt salted caramel is delicious.
STEP FOUR: "Decorate" cupcakes. Spoon a healthy teaspoon of caramel over each cupcake, and sprinkle a generous amount of toasted coconut flakes over the caramel. Once every cupcake has been "treated" to some caramel and coconut, drizzle the remaining caramel over the cupcakes and sprinkle a bit more coconut on.
Cupcakes with coconut and caramel.
STEP FIVE: Eat. I am calling these "pseudo-samoa" because the caramel and coconut remind me of the Girl Scout cookies. Mmmm, these are so chocolatey and delicious. The inside is very moist and very intense.
From the top.
Side-angle view.
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