Itsy Bitsy Creepy Crawly Cupcakes

Adapted from Martha Stewart, these bite-sized cupcakes are actually cinnamon-flavoured Red Velvet cakes with cream cheese icing. Makes insect eating a lot more palatable!

Ingredients:

1 recipe Red Velvet cake (store bought or homemade)
1 tsp Cinnamon flavour
Cream Cheese icing (store bought or homemade)
Black sanding sugar
Black liquorice strings, cut in 2 1/2 inches
Small red candies or red coated chocolate sprinkles
Mini marshmallows, cut in small cone shapes


Prepare cake mix adding cinnamon flavour. Bake in min muffin pans with black liners. After completely cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting and dip in black sanding sugar. Add 8 pieces of liquorice for legs, 2 red candies for eyes and marshmallow cones for fangs.

Coconut Creme Caramel

One of my favorite fruits is Coconut. Yes, it's a fruit (not a nut, so not considered to be an allergen) with many beneficial properties. Coconut water is a very potent electrolytic drink used by many athletes pre and post-workout without the sugar and chemicals as in other sports drinks. Coconut oil is used for cooking as it is trans-fat free, and also as a moisturizer (I strictly use coconut oil on my body). Then there's coconut milk and meat (the white fleshy part) that is used in baking. Coconut creme caramel (or Flan de Coco) is a typical South American dessert where coconuts are found in abundance.

Ingredients

1 can (400 ml) coconut milk
1/3 cup milk
1 cup grated fresh coconut
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar

6 ramekins (1/2 cup capacity)
9 x 13" pan
Pot of boiling water

Combine coconut milk and milk and bring to a boil in a small saucepan. remove from heat. Whisk together eggs and 1/3 cup sugar. Slowly add a small amount of milk mixture to egg mixture and whisk briefly. Pour remaining egg mixture into pot and gently cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. This is known as "custard".

Combine water and 1/2 cup sugar in small pot and boil without stirring for 5-10 minutes, until syrup becomes golden brown. This becomes "caramel". Remove from heat. Place ramekins in pan and distribute caramel evenly in ramekins. Pour coconut custard overtop the caramel. Pour boiling water in pan along the side so that it does not get in custard. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes until set but still jiggly. Allow to completely cool in pan before placing custards in refrigerator over night. To serve, run a butter knife around edge of ramekins and invert over plate. Caramel will drizzle over top. Buenapetito!