food obsessions and photography
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Easy, simple, summery strawberry cupcake recipe to help you zip through your strawberry picking/farmer’s market haul! What’s great about this recipe is that it can be made from strawberry puree, so if you can puree some peak season strawberries right now, you can recreate the summery feeling whenever you feel like it!
Continue reading “Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting”This post is a PSA for the glorious combination of blackberries and coconut. Try these out, and you too will wonder why we don’t see these two ingredients together more often! Strawberries and raspberries, sure – but why not blackberries! It’s baffling.
Here I’ve adapted a simple, dairy-free coconut muffin recipe into one that has pops of plump blackberries, that are almost jammy when baked. These are totally delicious and satisfying unadorned, but I couldn’t resist making a gorgeous lavender colored blackberry buttercream to show them a little extra love!
The cupcakes come together in no time, with no beaters or special equipment! I added some coconut flour in addition to the coconut oil, coconut milk and shredded coconut (okay – these are VERY coconut-y), that I think lends a nice bite to these treats!
Continue reading “Blackberry coconut cupcakes with blackberry buttercream”An ultra-luxe pound cake recipe adapted to cupcake format, with a lemon flavor so bright and cheerful, it will make all the zesting and juicing well worth the effort! The citrus plays beautifully with the buttery poundcake here. As a poundcake purist I can safely say that if you are going to mess with a classic, you better do it right!
We start by zesting and juicing a whole lot of lemons for this cake. 8 lemons sounds like a lot, but you are doing the work for the batter, the syrup (to soak the cupcakes and make them extra moist and lemony) and the sharp, tart glaze that will wake you up!
Put on some nice music and get right to it!
Continue reading “Lemon cupcakes with lemon icing”(jump to recipe)
No-bake cheesecakes are a world of their own, so quick, fuss-free, make-ahead, endlessly adaptable and eggless to boot! The eggless aspect of it lends well to a lot of Indian-flavored desserts, something my sister experiments a lot with. She had once made individual no-bake cheesecakes in these clear dessert cups for a party, and they were very well received!
My love for rose and all flavors floral is well-documented on this site, so when this fruity and floral decaffeinated Blood Orange tea showed up in my Simple Loose Leaf tea box, this chilled, no-bake Rose Cheesecake seemed like a really good idea. The mild, tangy and creamy cheesecake lets the fruit and floral flavors shine, the buttery crust provides a good contrast for the sharp and bright flavors, and the coolness of the cake makes it perfect for the upcoming warm weather, where the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven!
The crust is a simple, no-bake one with Nilla wafers (or you can use graham crackers or any neutral, buttery cracker), butter and a pinch of salt. The filling is softened, whipped cream cheese, with whipped cream for extra lift, and flavored with citrus zest (I used lemon, but orange or blood orange would be even better) and rose water/extract. Assembled in the fridge for 4-6 hours, or ideally overnight, this cheesecake is ready to go in all its glory for your teatime and dessert needs – no water baths, collapsed fillings, soggy crusts.
Shall we?
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Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links to Simple Loose Leaf products. ZezooCooks may receive a commission if purchases are made via these links (at no additional cost to you)!
You can use my discount code AMRUTA10 to get 10% off a one-time purchase on @simplelooseleaf teas via links in my post!
Buy this delicious tea here! To browse many other Spring and Summer teas, check out the Simple Loose Leaf website!
I bake scones and biscuits quite often, and all year round. Scones make beautiful centerpieces for breakfasts, brunches and tea parties, easy to make ahead, freeze and bake just when needed, ready to shine on their own or play second fiddle to fancy jams and spreads just the same. Their southern, savory cousin, the biscuit, is equally praise worthy, brilliant with scrambled eggs and crumbled bacon, or humble supporters of winter stew, studded with bits of goat cheese.
None of these recipes are written on the blog, and in an attempt to remedy that, here we have some Lavender and Lemon Cream Scones with a Lavender and Lemon glaze! These scones are also an answer to another question – what would go really well with the oh-so-divine Blue Lady Grey tea in my next Simple Loose Leaf box! For the past few weeks, I paired 4 of their select black teas with 4 new recipes. We are on to the next box, so watch this space for more tea pairings!
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I feel like I owe this blog a step-by-step guide to bake and assemble a Black Forest Cake, especially since all I’ve shared so far on the subject is a bunch of excuses. I do make this cake every year, sometimes twice or thrice a year, and this time around I decided to do it right i.e. with pictures and detailed notes! Without further ado, here goes.
The 6-inch double layered Black Forest cake is a good size for small parties (like our party of 2). It makes tall, impressive slices, comes together quickly and is easy to decorate too. To make a 9-inch double layered cake, simply double the recipe.
Continue reading “A guide to achieving Black Forest Cake bliss”
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