Ever since I created my Chocolate Cookie Masjid I’ve been wanting to create a vanilla version. I had decided that when the time came, I would design (or have designed) a new template so that it would be an all new cookie masjid version.
Recently, my friend Zayneb over at zedandq.com launched ‘The Play Masjid’, a wooden play masjid for kids. Zed&Q is a company which creates products aiming to inspire and educate minds through faith. Founders Zayneb and Sidqie have a passion for making learning fun, which brought their idea of The Play Masjid to life. When I saw it, I just knew I wanted to recreate it as a cookie. Zayneb kindly created the cookie template for me.
After much recipe testing, creating and design revisions, the Vanilla Cookie Masjid was born. This one is a little trickier than the Chocolate Cookie Masjid, but hopefully, with all my tricks and tips, it should be achievable. If you’d like to try something a little easier, then do give the Chocolate Cookie Masjid a try.
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer and beat until light and fluffy.
Add in your egg and vanilla and beat till combined.
Combine your flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
Turn your mixer off and add you flour mixture.
Beat slowly at first to incorporate the flour, then higher until it forms a dough.
Form your dough into a bowl and place into cling wrap and place in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.
Cut out your template and leave it aside.
Roll out your dough to 1cm thickness and place the template above. Cut out the dough following the edges of the template. Repeat for both templates.
Pre-heat oven to 170c.
Place in the fridge again to chill for a further 15 minutes.
When the oven is heated, place the cookie pieces inside.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and recut the gap in the cookie, make sure that this is wider than 1cm.
Turn the oven off.
Place the cookies back in the oven with the door slightly ajar. This will ensure that the cookie does not brown further, but will harden enough to handle.
When the oven is cool, remove your cookies.
Decorate
Assembly
Place enough icing on the bottom of the cookie door piece to attach to your board/plate.
Hold this in place while it sets. Place glasses along the walls for extra support.
Pipe icing into the gap of the second cookie and slide it onto the first. Do this slowly and carefully.
If your cookie cracks, pipe icing into it and reattach the pieces.
Pipe icing onto the cookie pieces where they meet each other and the plate. Clean up any icing drips and edges.
When ready to eat, break pieces off and enjoy!
Notes
Tips and tricks:
-To avoid your cookie getting too dark, follow the baking instructions in the recipe (remove after 15 minutes, recut, and let harden in the oven while off with the door slightly ajar)
-To ensure you have enough space in the cutouts to fit the pieces together, make sure you recut them as soon as you remove from the oven. The pieces will cut easily if they are still hot.
-If your cookie cracks or breaks, don’t be concerned, stick it back together with some extra icing. Wait for it to set before working with it.
-Make sure you place the cookies together carefully, sliding one down over the other slowly.
I didn’t think I’d be able to get up any more posts before Eid, but as it turns out I had something to offer at the very last minute.
I made mini sticky date cakes for friends and family this year. They were really well received, so I thought they would make a nice addition to our Eid breakfast as muffins. It’s a great way to use up all those excess dates after Ramadan and make something really yummy in the process.
This recipe is based on the Mini Sticky Date Cakes I made for Eid gifts. I adapted the recipe a little to work better as muffins. A little extra flour creates a sturdier cake, perfect as a muffin. I mixed some of the left-over butterscotch icing from the mini cakes into some cream cheese and topped these babies with it. I have to say it is the perfect accompaniment.
This is also my contribution for Eid Eats 2016. Eid Eats is an annual event run by my blogger friends My Ninja Naan, Flour and Spice Blog and Chocolate and Chillies. Head on over to check out their blogs and what everyone else contributed to the event.
Pre heat oven to 175c and prepare your pans. Grease your muffin pans, or line with cases.
Pit your dates and roughly chop them, measure out 1½ cups after chopping.
Place you dates, water and bicarb soda in a food processor. Make sure all the dates are covered. Leave to steep for 10 minutes.
While waiting for the dates, beat sugar and butter in a mixer on a medium speed until thick and creamy.
Process date mixture and add to the butter and sugar. Beat till the dates are mixed through.
Add in eggs and mix till incorporated.
Add in flour and beat until just combined.
Pour mixture into muffin pans, approx ⅓ cup or until they almost reach the top. Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Your muffins will be ready when a skewer pierced through comes out clean.
Leave to cool completely in the muffin pan then remove. Serve as is or top with cream cheese butterscotch icing.
I don’t know why I do it to myself, but every year I decide to make something homemade for Eid gifts. This year has been especially tough, with all of us being sick at one time or another throughout the month. And for one week we were all sick at the same time.
I don’t know why, there’s just something about a home baked treat and despite the craziness, illness, and all the general busyness that is Ramadan I still wanted to make something. I found super cute mini round paper baking pans at Aldi – they actually had these in their store a little while ago. I was lucky to find the last few floating around their store. They make the perfect size for a gift. I wish I had found more cases and was having a better run, I would have liked to gift these to more people. But I kept it simple and easy and only ended up gifting them to family and close friends.
Let’s talk about these cakes, they’re sticky date cakes. I mean come on, it’s Ramadan, what better way to finish than with date cakes. They’re sticky, they’re moist, they’re delicious, they’re full of flavour and they’re drenched in butterscotch sauce.
I wrapped them in a cellophane bag and added a simple Eid Mubarak Tag, you can download yours here free.
Pre heat oven to 160c and prepare your pans. I used 10 x 12cm paper liners. This would also fit into 2 20cm pans.
Pit your dates and roughly chop them, measure out 3 cups after chopping Place you dates, water and bicarb soda in a food processor. Make sure all the dates are covered. Leave to steep for 10 minutes.
While waiting for the dates, beat sugar and butter in a mixer on a medium speed until thick and creamy.
Process date mixture and add to the butter and sugar. Beat till the dates are mixed through.
Add in eggs and vanilla and mix till incorporated.
Add in flour and beat until just combined.
Pour ¾ cup of your mixture into the prepared pans. Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Your cakes will be ready when a skewer pierced through comes out clean.
Butterscotch Sauce
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine your sugar, cream and butter. Stir occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Turn to high heat and let mixture come to the boil. Once boiled set aside to cool.
Pierce holes through the cakes and pour over the sauce. Best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Can you believe another month has passed? I can’t believe I’m writing my May post (and it’s already June!). This time, I thought I’d combine some of my Ramadan favourites with my May ones as I’m sure you’re all still on the lookout for ideas for your kids or to make things easier during the month, so here they are. As usual, I’ve included affiliate links where necessary.
Books:
These always features heavily don’t they? Well here are my May and Ramadan book picks.
Noor Kids, I have good memories of this series, having purchased them two Ramadans ago for the kids. They were a great surprise, the books are fun and relatable and my now 5-year-old has enjoyed them ever since. He’s even trying to read them himself, Alhumdulillah. Their books cover a range of topics, there’s even the new ‘First time Fasting’, which I will have to get my hands on.
There are so many great options for Ramadan books these days. Our Ramadan books are all laid out on our Ramadan table waiting to be read.
It’s Ramadan Curious George and Owl and Cat: Ramadan is… are the sweetest new Ramadan books I’ve come across. One with a cheeky little monkey and the other with the cutest owl and cat. Definite must haves in the Ramadan library.
Ramadan activities and learning resources:
I was a bit worried this year, I’m usually so prepared, but it’s been so busy lately I haven’t had a chance to do much. Eventually, I did get a banner up and put some books out. It’s not much, but Ramadan is about making things fun and I plan to do that through the month with these posts, books, and printables to help along the way.
Bismillah Babies have just released Ramadan books (pictured: top right corner). One is an activity book and the other a journal. I had a chance to check them out and they are both great, filled with stories of Ramadan Around the World, fun activities, recipes and more. There has been an amazing effort put into these books, I’m sure they’ll be loved by so many kids.
Food fun:
When the kids get board I’m definitely going to pull out these cutters for them to use with play dough or maybe even let them cut cookies. If I have some time I’d love to make cookies for my kids’ friends, it might make a perfect/Ramadan gift.
Ramadan planning and goals:
Every year I tell myself to prepare, to plan better, to get things in order before Ramadan but that never happens. The year goes by and we’re back at the same point again. However, I’m not going to let that get me down. I’m going to do my best to prepare the best I can for the rest of the time I have. I’m going to print my meal planner printable so I can get on top of the food. I want to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen. This year I’ve also decided to start a few things, I’m going to be writing myself a few goals to achieve this month, as well as a dua and gratitude journal in shaa Allah.
If you’re like me and you’re extremely forgetful, be sure to print the trackers in my Missed Fasts Post so you keep count of exactly how many you miss so you can make them up after.
Those are my picks for May and Ramadan. What are yours?
Things have gotten a little quiet around here and I wanted a way to still be able to share all the amazing things I come across, from products to recipes and anything else interesting along the way, hence the start of a monthly favourites post. My hope is that these monthly posts will let me have a space to share some of my ideas and finds with you without me having to go through the effort of writing full-length blog posts, which I don’t have time for these days. I’ll also include links to recipes, where to purchase or just for viewing where necessary. Some of these links may be affiliate links.
Cakes and cupcakes
I had gone a little cupcake crazy in April. The month started with a woodland themed baby shower for my cousin in law, I made lilac coloured blueberry cream cheese vanilla cupcakes and chocolate mint cupcakes. The mint was an absolute hit. I used a few drops of peppermint oil (I used Oil Garden Aromatherapy from Go Vita Myer Centre, Brisbane) in the buttercream instead of essence which contains alcohol. The mint themed continued with mint cupcakes for my sister in law and my in-laws as they have birthdays close together in April. The cupcake theme was rounded off early May with my mum’s birthday, again another lot of choc mint cupcakes with a rose buttercream piped top. It was the first time I used this rose piping technique. The effect is so beautiful yet so easy to achieve
It didn’t stop there, my in laws offical birthday cake was a piece of luggage since they travel often and for Mr Munchies I made a chocolate covered superman logo cake filled with coffee cheesecake and a surprise inside. April is a seriously crazy month with baking, way too many birthdays!
My favourite chocolate cupcake recipe is a one bowl wonder by Sweetapolita.
Muslim Kids Guide
One of the reasons I’ve been so busy lately is because of my work on Muslim Kids Guide. It’s a new site founded by Peter Gould, co-edited by myself and Razeena of READ Little Muslims. It really is a one-stop shop for finding all the great things out there for Muslim Kids (or at least it will be insha Allah). It’s only in the beginning stages but we’ll get there.
Books
I have been reading a little more than I should lately, I had forgotten how much I had enjoyed reading. I’ve been using an app called Borrow Box which allows you to borrow books via the app using your library membership. There are different types of apps used with library memberships, Borrow Box is just one of them, you might have to check with your local library to see they type they use. I also use the Kindle App on my iPhone to read books I’ve purchased on Amazon.
I have yet to start any preparing in terms of food for Ramadan, but I have been preparing in other ways. I have started making up my missed fasts, I’m really hoping to tackle them all by the end of this year insha Allah. I dug up my 49 ways to Kids Involved in Ramadan post from last year and have started circulating it again, I need to sit down and give it a good read so I can make sure the kids are well prepared too. My first plan will be to start reading Ramadan books to the kids.
49 Ways to get Kids involved in Ramadan
I hope you enjoyed the first post in my monthly favourites series. What were you up to in April?
One of the activities on our Hajj Activity list last year was to make sheep cupcakes, unfortunately we never got down to it. So, this year when an opportunity came up to write a post for Multicultural Kids Blog I thought why not make them. I searched Pinterest and Google to see what it offered in terms of sheep cupcakes and most results came back with cute little sheep covered in mini marshmallows. Now, mini HALAL marshmallows aren’t the easiest things to find. We’ve been lucky a few times to have them at our local butcher but not this time. After putting a call out on my personal Facebook page, I realised there were many others in the same boat. So, I decided that I needed to come with some other ways to make cute little sheep cupcakes instead. I hadn’t planned to re-invent the wheel on this, but it just seemed necessary.
I made 4 different versions of sheep cupcakes, they all create the same fluffy effect. There’s cupcakes covered in grated white chocolate, cupcakes covered in shredded coconut, cupcakes covered in marshmallows (the big ones – which are much easier to find) and lastly cupcakes frosted to look like wool. Of course if you can’t find halal marshmallows at all, then just use one of (or all of) the other 3 versions and if you’re lucky enough to find minis then use those instead. The faces/heads were created with royal icing, but you could use compound chocolate or candy melts instead. Click the image below for the template or here – Sheep head Template.
I even went so far to create a video tutorial. This is my first ‘voiced’ tutorial and I have to admit, I am a little nervous. I don’t like the sound of my own voice, but I faced my fears just so I could better show you all how to make these cuties. The Eid Mubaaarak cupcake toppers are also free to download. You just need to print them out, cut them, stick onto some toothpick or lollipop sticks and place into your cupcakes.
Pre heat oven to 180c and prepare your muffin/cupcake pans with cupcake liners. In a mixer combine your eggs and sugar and beat for about 1 minute. Add in your oil and vanilla and beat for another minute. Mic together your flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside, you can sift these if you prefer. Measure out your milks and set aside. Add in half the the flour mixture then half the milk then the rest of the flour and follow with the last bit of milk. Mix until just combined.
Fill cupcake liners until ⅔ full and place in the oven. Bake for 13-15 minutes. The tops will be slightly golden and the cupcakes will spring back if touched. Alternatively a clean skewer through a cupcake can be used to check if they’re baked. Set aside your cupcakes to cool.
Buttercream
In the bowl of a mixer, place your butter and beat on a medium to high speed for as long as you possibly can. Anywhere from 5-10 is a good time. This will ensure a fluffy and creamer coloured buttercream (instead of a more yellowy one). Reduce the mixer to a very low speed and add in your sifted icing sugar. Beat until combined. Add in you milk and beat until combined.
Sheep faces/heads
Make some royal icing in black and white (you could also use compound chocolate). Pipe out the faces over the template and leave aside to set for an hour. Pipe the facial features on top and leave aside to set for 24 hours. Peel off and keep aside ready for use.
To decorate
Fill a piping bag with your frosting. Pipe a small dome onto the cupcake. Roll into coconut or grated white chocolate. Then pipe on a tiny dot of frosting and attach a face.
If making with marshmallows, cut them in half and place the marshmallows around the cupcakes. Leave a blank spot to attach the face. Alternatively you could just frost the cupcakes in a dome shape and attache the face. Or pipe around the cupcakes, starting at the edges dragging in and continuing the process for a few layers which creates a cloud like effect. Then attach a face.
