Gluten-Free Pineapple Soul "Cup"Cakes!

Yesterday Barbara shared a wonderful post, and delicious looking recipe, for Soul Cakes. It inspired one of our visitors, Victoria from Designer Pastry, to submit the following recipe for their Gluten-free Pineapple Soul "Cup"Cakes:

Our gourmet gift bakery's featured cupcake of the month for October has been Pineapple Soul "Cup"Cakes! We use the Pineapple Ring as a topper to symbolize Eternity in the tradition of the Soul Cake! Here is the recipe for the gluten-free version taken from the Hallowe'en tab of our Seasonal Specialties section from Designer Pastry website.

Pineapple Soul "Cup"Cakes

Individual Gluten-free Pineapple Upside-down Cakes

Servings: 8
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 25 - 30 minutes
Total time: approx. 1 hr

Ingredients:

Bottom

• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup gf brown sugar, packed
• 8 fresh or canned pineapple rings

Cake

• 1-1/2 cups gluten-free flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 Tablespoons canola oil
• 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large egg yolks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Add brown sugar and whisk until blended.

Divide mixture evenly among jumbo muffin cups prepared with non-stick cooking spray. Place 1 pineapple ring in each cup. Set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together sour cream or yogurt, milk, canola oil and vanilla. Set aside.

Using a mixer, beat 6 tablespoons of butter and granulated sugar together until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture and milk mixture in alternate batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake on center rack of oven for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of each muffin cup comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes in pan, on a rack, for 15 minutes. Loosen sides of cakes and invert onto a serving dish.

In addition, our gourmet gift bakery glazes these Soul "Cup"Cakes with a Pineapple Caramel Drizzle, but it is much less messy to give these to children at All Saints' Day parties without the glaze! :)

This post was written by Victoria, at Designer Pastry, and submitted for publication here at Catholic Cuisine. Thank you Victoria!

Soul Cakes

The tradition of making "Soul Cakes" on All Saints Day or All Souls Day is one which my family has holeheartedly embraced, pun intended. Doughnuts, the modern day version of the old soul cake, are tasty treats on a cool November morning, but they are even tastier when we know the tradition behind the treat.

From the Catholic Education Resource Center:

Begging at the door grew from an ancient English custom of knocking at doors to beg for a "soul cake" in return for which the beggars promised to pray for the dead of the household. Soul cakes, a form of shortbread — and sometimes quite fancy, with currants for eyes — became more important for the beggars than prayers for the dead, it is said. Florence Berger tells in her Cooking for Christ a legend of a zealous cook who vowed she would invent soul cakes to remind them of eternity at every bite. So she cut a hole in the middle and dropped it in hot fat, and lo — a doughnut. Circle that it is, it suggests the never-ending of eternity. Truth or legend, it serves a good purpose at Halloween.
The refrains sung at the door varied from "a soul cake, a soul cake, have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul cake," to the later:

Soul, soul, an apple or two,
If you haven't an apple, a pear will do,
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for the Man Who made us all.

It's likely that the Soul Cake was the precursor to candy on Beggar's Night. Enjoyed with a cup of hot cider or hot coffee, they are a lovely way to wake up on All Saints Day morning.
The dough for this recipe must be made ahead of time, so plan accordingly. And the dough is a little sticky, but just flour your board and flour the top of the dough and you'll be fine. Don't be tempted to work more flour into the dough -- they'll be too dry. I used a doughnut cutter, but if you don't have one, use a biscuit cutter, or glass, and cut the hole with a plastic soda cap.

Cake Doughnuts
about 1 dozen


3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 t. vanilla extract
oil for frying

1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, first measure of sugar, baking powder,
salt, first measure of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg, butter, and vanilla.
Mix until blended.
Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or more.

Pour oil into a two-quart pot until you have a depth of about 3 inches.
Heat the oil until about 375 degrees
(I don't use a thermometer; I just wait until it really bubbles up around a bit of dough).

On a floured board, roll dough out to 1/2 inch thickness.
Use a doughnut cutter to cut out doughnuts.

Fry doughnuts in hot oil until golden brown, turning once.
Remove from oil to drain on paper towels.
Combine the remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl.
Place warm doughnuts in sugar mixture and flip,
turning doughnut and shaking gently to coat.

Purple Wheat Noodles - Part II

This is a continuation exploring on the new "Purple Wheat Noodles" which I have bought yesterday. After sharing with you the "dry" version on making the colourful Noodles Salad(recipe here) with this "new product". So today I decided to use it to make a Hong Kong Style Soup Noodles with luncheon meat (spam), vegetable and a sunny-side up egg.

This is a very simple and easy way to prepared Instant Noodles in a more nutritious and at the same time you can present it similar to restaurant style. All you need are some simple ingredients which you might be able to find from your kitchen fridge and pantry. Look at the texture and colour of this "Purple Wheat Noodles" isn't it look great for any combination. The noodles itself taste great with a spongy texture if you don't over-cooked it.

Here we goes:-
~ Any type of Instant Noodles
~ Few Slices of Luncheon Meat/Spam
~ Sunny-Side Up Egg/Hard-boiled Egg
~ Some Green Vegetable
~ Stock Cubes/Instant Stock

Method:
1. Cook the instant noodle according to the packet instructions, when done, rinse and set aside. (the purpose of rinsing is to present the noodles from sticking together)
2. Prepared the egg according to your preference, then pan-fry the Luncheon Meat/Spam for 1 or 2 minutes on each side.
3. Prepare another pot of water, add in stock cubes or use instant stock.
4. Bring to boil, blanched the vegetable in it for a few second, remove and set aside.
5. Arrange the noodles in a bowl or soup plate, scoop in some soup base, top with vegetables, Luncheon, Egg and serve immediately.

Note:
~ You can swap with any other ingredients that you prefer instead of Luncheon meat or egg.

Purple Wheat Noodles Salad

As we have late and heavy Lunch today, I decided to whip up something light, simple but vibrant in colour. So this is what we have for our Special weekend Dinner Menu. With my "new ingredient" that I managed to grab from one of the Supermarket, I can't wait to try out this "new products" from KOKA Noodles.

I was attracted to an advertisement on Friday, 23 Oct 2009 in the TODAY newspaper introducing on this new Purple Wheat Noodles from KOKA. I was immediately captured by the word "PURPLE WHEAT" and I am also curious about the actual colour and texture of the noodles. According to the advertisement, the promotion will last for a week which you can read more at this link HERE.

After grabbing a packet of this Purple Wheat Noodles which is 1 of the 3 packets left on the shelf. Rey and I starts to look around for other ingredients to prepare our Dinner. Since this noodle is purplish in colour, I decided to use it to make a Colourful Salad Noodles Dish. Rey suggests to grab a pack of cherry tomato and breakfast ham while I think some curl lettuce will do a great job to enhance the colour and add extra crunch.

Other than the salad ingredients, I also made some garlic oil to act as the salad dressing.

Ingredients For Garlic Oil:
50ml Of Olive Oil
4 - 5 Cloves Of Garlic

Method:
1. Preheat a small saucepan with drizzle of olive oil, then add in the garlic cloves and saute it till fragrant.
2. Pour in the remaining olive oil and saute the garlic till slight golden brown, dish up and set aside for later use.


Ingredient For Salad: (serves 2)
2 Individual Packet of Koka Purple Wheat Noodles
4 Slices of Breakfast Ham
2 Hard-boiled Egg, halves
8 Cherry Tomato, halves
50g Fresh/Frozen Corn Kernel, blanched
Some Salad Lettuce
2 Tablespoons Garlic Oil

Method:
1. Cook the eggs in a small saucepan under medium-low heat for about 4 - 6 minutes from the time the water boiled.
2. Removed from heat, rinse and peel off the shell then cut into halves and set aside.
3. Bring another pot of water to boil, cook the instant noodles according to the packet instruction, rinse with cool water and set aside. (rinse with cool water to stop the noodle from further cooking and also to make it taste spongy)
4. You can either blanched the Ham with boiling water or you can pan-fry it under low heat for about 30 second on each side with some Olive oil.
5. Next, drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons of the garlic oil on the cooked noodles, toss it well with the blanched corn kernel and cut tomato.
6. To assemble the dish, place some lettuce on the plate, place the noodles mixture on it.
7. Top with ham, hard-boiled egg and you can drizzle some extra garlic oil and serve it warm.


So after seeing this Noodles Salad, do you have the urge to try making some for yourself? This is indeed a very healthy and nutritious dish, if you can't find any Purple Wheat Noodles, don't worry, you can always replaced it with whatever you have in your pantry.

Saint-O-Lanterns

A common activity for families, in preparation for All Hallows' Eve, is carving Pumpkins. We have found this to be yet another wonderful opportunity to tie in our Catholic Faith. Each year our children look forward to choosing a pumpkin and carving their "Saint-O-Lantern!"

This year American Life League has also suggested carving Pro-Life Pumpkins! They have even shared a template for this beautiful carving:

The possibilities are endless! Even though I have shared links to some pictures in last years Hallowed Days: All Saints and All Souls Fair, I thought I would post them here too, and add to the collection!

Here are some of our own past Saint-O-Lanterns:

The Last Supper ~ St. Pius the X ~ The Birth of Christ

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

St. Peter's Basilica ~ Bernini Columns ~ The Bark of Peter

Here are a few more pictures, of other Saint-O-Lanterns that have been brought to our Home School Group's All Saints' Party in the past:

And here are a few more inspiring Saint-O-Lanterns found online:

• Monstrance Pumpkin at Totus Tuus Family & Catholic Homeschool
• Our Lady, Mother Teresa and John Paul II over at Regina's Blog
• First Communion and Nativity also at Regina's Blog

Oh, and Donna at Island in the Grove also shares an excellent idea for converting any of your All Hallows' Eve Jack-O-Lanterns for the feast of All Saints'!

Now I am really anxious to get to the pumpkin patch and find our pumpkins!!


If anyone carves a Saint-O-Lantern this year, or has in the past, please leave a link (or email a picture) since I would love to add your own creations to this post!

Here are some of the new additions from this year!!

• Totus Tuus School carved The Barque of Peter and a Pro-Life Pumpkin.
• They were very busy at Busy with Blessings! Check out their The Holy Spirit, Christian Symbols, The Church and Christmas Star, The Holy Eucharist, Pro-Life, and Crosses.

And here are a few more pictures that were submitted via email:

"Life" carved by C. & S. Nichols

The Immaculate Heart of Mary by LeXuan Culbreath

Our Lady by LeXuan Culbreath

Curry Chicken With Longan & Pineapple

Since this is the Deepavali week holiday and last week I have being invited for a Curry Sampling at CURRY ON! I think maybe I can share a simple and healthy Curry Recipe with everyone here. So what come in your mind when you read the heading of the post and see the photo. LONGAN + PINEAPPLE + CURRY ? ? ? ? ? ? = NICE?

From the ingredients here, you can see that it doesn't required any coconut milk or cream. All you need to get is these simple and healthy stuff which can satisfy your taste buds on curry and also help you to watch your waistline. The main ingredient that provide the fragrance is the Kaffir Lime Leaves which makes give this dish a very refreshing taste and fragrant. I have use this leaf to cook another Chicken Dish a few years back. You can click on this link for more details.

The Longan used in this recipe is from can which contain syrup, you can easily grab a can of this Longan in syrup in any supermarket or convenient store.

You will be surprised with the taste of this dish, it is something like a cross taste between Sambal and Tom Yum Chicken. It is very easy to prepared without much hassle. All you need is to cut the chicken breast meat into cubes, marinate with instant curry paste. Furthermore you can even use canned pineapple to replace the fresh type. Overall, this is a very refreshing dish because the gravy is infuse with Kaffir Lime leave aroma and Longan. It is an very appetising dish that goes well with steam rice.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 Tablespoons of Thai Red Curry Paste
1 Chicken Breast Meat, cut into cubes
1 Slice of Fresh Pineapple, cut into cubes
15 Longan In Syrup
2 Tablespoons of Sryup, from the longan can
1 Tomato, cut into wedges
2 Small Red Onion, cut into wedges
1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
4 Small Kaffir Lime Leaves, shredded

Methods:
1. Clean and trim the fat from the chicken breast, cut it into about 2" cubes.
2. Marinate the chicken with about 1 teaspoon of Thai red chilli paste and 1/2 teaspoon of light soy sauce for about 10 minutes.
3. Heat up a small saucepan with olive oil, saute the onion till fragrant.
4. Next add in half of the tomato wedges and some shredded kaffir lime leave then continue to stir-fry for another 15 second or so.
5. Spoon in the remaining chilli paste and continue to saute until fragrance then add in the marinated chicken cubes and fry till the meat is cooked through.
6. Next add in the pineapple cubes, longan, remaining tomato wedges and give it a good stir till combined.
7. Lastly stir in 2 tablespoons of syrup juice from the longan can and bring the mixture to boil for about 10 seconds.
8. Dish up and served with some balanced broccoli and steam rice.



Note:
~ You can get those instant Thai Red Chilli Paste by "Asian Home Gourmet" in most supermarket.

You can served this as a side dish or as a individual Main Course like those in the restaurant with steam rice. This is the 2nd time I tried using Longan as a ingredient in the dish. The other dish which I used Longan is "Stir-fry Pork Fillet with Longan" which you might be interested to take a look too :)

All Saints' Day Treats ~ Bones of Eliseus

This treat and story is taken from my website, Designer Pastry, under the Hallowe'en tab of Seasonal Specialties.

"Bones of Eliseus"

Far, far away in the land of Israel long, long ago, a miracle of God made something morbid into something inspiring. In fact a dead man's spirit was put back into his body! Out of fear of some marauding Moabites, the relatives of a dead man canceled his burial and threw him into the open grave of Eliseus the prophet. While his friends and relatives ran for their lives from the marauders, the dead man rose to life when he fell upon Eliseus' bones! Paraphrased from Scriptural Reference: 2 Kings 13:20,21

"Bones of Eliseus" are actually assorted mini sized pretzels piled up to look like a stack of bones with sweet white chocolate melted over top!


This post was written by Victoria, at Designer Pastry, and submitted for publication here at Catholic Cuisine. Thank you Victoria!

All Saints' Day Treats ~ St. Lucy Cupcakes

I'm always on the lookout for food saint ideas for All Saint's Day parties, so here's something I came up with for St. Lucy.

St. Lucy is populary know as the patroness of eye ailments. This is because among other tortures that she suffered for being a Christian, her eyes were torn out. Legend has it that her sight was returned to her before she died.

I thought it would be fun for our All Saint's Day party to make some St. Lucy eyeball cupcakes, and share the idea with all of you!

How to Make Them:

All you do is make your favorite cupcake recipe, and ice them with white icing. Then use blue icing to make a circle on the cupcake, and stick an upside-down chocolate chip in the middle for the pupil. Leave one of them white for display, and cut a slit in the middle of the cupcake so you can insert a St. Lucy holy card. If your holy card isn't laminated, cover it in some packing tape before inserting into the cupcake.

St. Lucy is often depicted with a palm branch to symbolize her martyrdom, so I also stuck a palm branch into my cupcake holder for display. I got my palm branch at the Dollar Tree.

This post was written by a Catholic mother, at The Masked Mommy, and submitted for publication here at Catholic Cuisine. Thank you for sharing!

Cuisine Paradise @ Radio 100.3

Today is a very special day for both me and Rey as we are very excited in having a chance to visit the Singapore Press Holdings(SPH) for the FM 100.3 radio interview.

At about 2 weeks ago, I received a message from Dainel Ang, a part-time DJ from FM 100.3 who hosts a food programme called "Food Dairy" on FM 100.3 everyday Saturday afternoon between 3:00 - 4:00 pm. If you are keen, you can read more about him and his "Food Dairy" blog at this link.

I was very shock and excited when I received Daniel's message on asking me to do a Radio Interview for my food blog. So after fixing a suitable timing with him, today we finally meet up at SPH to do the interview. And as there is no one around to look after Rey today, I decided to bring him along to the Radio station. And our little friend is even more excited than me when we were in the recording room. Guess this incident will be rooted as one of the memorable day for both of us who gets a chance to see what is it like to be in the recording room.

When the interview starts, I knew that I was very nervous and I couldn't speak well as what I have prepared before hand. But Daniel on the other hand was very friendly and kind enough to help me with the questions so that the atmosphere became a very friend like conversation rather than official interview. And I must thank God and praise Him that Rey didn't make any noise during the whole recording process. As for the bonus you can even catch Rey's cute voice on air too :)

This interview will actually be broadcast in two different Saturday, which Part I had already being broadcast on 17 Oct 09. So if you are interest to catch Part II of Cuisine Paradise on Air at FM 100.3. Stay tune on next coming Saturday 24 October 2009 from 3:00pm -4:00pm at station FM 100.3 with Daniel Ang's Food Dairy & Ellena's Cuisine Paradise.

October 13th - The Miracle of the Sun

Today is one of the Fatima days (13th October) but one of special importance as it was the last of the six apparitions and the one where Our Lady delivered her promise ~ a great miracle ~ the miracle of the sun.

Here is part of the report from the Lisborn newspaper O Seculo (that was incidently a pro-government, anti-clerical paper)

"From the road, where the vehicles were parked and where hundreds of people who had not dared to brave the mud were congregated, one could see the immense multitude turn toward the sun, which appeared free from clouds and in its zenith. It looked like a plaque of dull silver, and it was possible to look at it without the least discomfort. It might have been an eclipse which was taking place. But at that moment a great shout went up, and one could hear the spectators nearest at hand shouting: "A miracle! A miracle!

Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bareheaded, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws---the sun "danced" according to the typical expression of the people.

Standing at the step of an omnibus was an old man. With his face turned to the sun, he recited the Credo in a loud voice. I asked who he was and was told Senhor Joao da Cunha Vasconcelos. I saw him afterwards going up to those around him who still had their hats on, and vehemently imploring them to uncover before such an extraordinary demonstration of the existence of God.
Identical scenes were repeated elsewhere, and in one place a woman cried out: "How terrible! There are even men who do not uncover before such a stupendous miracle!"

People then began to ask each other what they had seen. The great majority admitted to having seen the trembling and the dancing of the sun; others affirmed that they saw the face of the Blessed Virgin; others, again, swore that the sun whirled on itself like a giant Catherine wheel and that it lowered itself to the earth as if to burn it in its rays. Some said they saw it change colors successively...."

I hestitated to post this cake because my skills are not crash hot but I then I thought at least the idea is conveyed, I am sure that other ladies could do great justice with this idea!

I wanted to recreate this:

"others, again, swore that the sun whirled on itself like a giant Catherine wheel and that it lowered itself to the earth as if to burn it in its rays. Some said they saw it change colors successively."

I used a Marble Cake recipe.

250g (8.8 oz) butter, at room temperature
215g (1 cup) caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
125g (1/2 cup) sour cream
2-3 drops pink liquid food colouring
2 tbs cocoa powder
1 tbs milk

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C. (356 F or moderate oven) Brush a round 20cm (7.87 inches) (base measurement) cake pan with melted butter to grease. Line the base and side with non-stick baking paper.

Use an electric beater to beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until combined. Add half the flour to the butter mixture and stir until just combined. Add the sour cream and remaining flour, in batches, and stir until just combined. Divide the batter among 3 bowls. Add a few drops of pink food colouring to 1 portion and stir to combine. Combine the cocoa powder and milk in a small bowl and add to another portion of batter. Stir to combine.

Place alternate spoonfuls of the 3 batters into the prepared pan. Use a spoon to swirl the colours together to create a marble effect. Use the back of a spoon to smooth the surface. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To ice the cake I made up a simple mixture using icing sugar and milk. I covered the cake in this uncoloured icing, see the photo above.

Then I took the four icing colours and placed a drop and with a clean finger, spread it around in a circle, starting from the center and working out to the edge and down the sides. Unfortunately I was almost out of yellow, I would have liked to have used more of that colour for a nice balance.

This would be a lovely cake to eat while watching the movie, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima the children also had alot of fun making the spinning, colourful sun.