We're celebrating FIVE delicious years by sharing coconut cream cupcakes

It's hard to believe that Mystery Lovers Kitchen has been combining mystery, great tasting recipes and friendship for five years. That's really worth a party.  As Victoria Abbott, we haven't been part of it since the beginning, (although MJ joined a bit earlier) but we've enjoyed every minute since we've been in the gang. It's brought Mystery Lovers Kitchen into our family celebrations (gotta have those guinea pigs!) and our parties with friends. And it's connected us with you readers - that's really worth a party! 

To celebrate Mystery Lovers Kitchen is throwing TWO contests. 

We're giving away a book every day until July 25th.  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment here and tell us how you shared the news of our contests or anniversary. Tell your friends!  Post on Facebook! Tweet, my darlings! 

Be sure to leave a comment every day, because there will be a new drawing every day by midnight.  Don't forget to include your email addy so we can let you know if you won. 

Today we're giving away your choice of The Christie Curse or The Sayers Swindle. If you already own them both, we have more options in our apron pocket!

Our second contest is a photo contest!  You can find our photo contest here and at our Facebook page! Five lucky winners will receive a Mystery Lovers' Kitchen tote bag and seven paperback mysteries! Since we can't all get away on vacation, we hope our books are having fun this summer. Take a picture of one of our books having fun! You can enter up to five times, once in each of these categories:

1) One of our books with a cat

2) One of our books with a dog

3) One of our books having summer fun

4) One of our books in a library

5) One of our books in a bookstore.

Celebration Coconut Cream Cupcakes

A recipe from the celebration files of Mary Jane Maffini and Victoria Abbott.

Another thing worth celebrating is that these little cupcakes are not too carb or calorie heavy.  But they are really yummy.  They’ve been tested on the world’s toughest food critic, the son-in-law, who hates cream cheese in anything and won’t eat yogurt.  So for our recent Canada Day family BBQ we made these for dessert.  Guess who couldn’t resist them?  Just sayin’.   

The secret is cottage cheese (who knew?) and the original recipe came from a booklet of Canadian cheese recipes.  We’re betting it will work with your cottage cheese too.  You could use mascarpone, ricotta or cream cheese, but we like it this way. Lower in calories and less expensive too!

We doubled the recipe and we’re glad we did.  

For a SINGLE batch, you will need these ingredients:

To make crumb crust

2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar

For filling:

1/3 cup sugar

½ cup unsweetened coconut (add a tablespoon for garnish)

1 ½ cups cottage cheese

1 egg at room temperature

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 tablespoon lemon juice

For topping:

½ cup vanilla Greek-style yogurt

Few strands of reserved toasted coconut

Here are the steps! 

Preheat your oven to 375.

Line muffin tins with paper baking cups

Mix the graham cracker crumbs, butter and 1 tbsp sugar. Press into baking cups.  We made this recipe twice. The first time with the dozen baking cups and the second time using only ten.  We got a higher cupcake that way and it worked out better. You can suit yourself here.

Bake for 5 minutes.

At the SAME TIME, spread out coconut on a baking sheet and toast until golden brown. Watch as it can get too dark very quickly. 

Cool liners and coconut. 

 Then: using a blender or food processor, purée the cottage cheese, egg, 1/3 cup sugar, flour, vanilla, lemon juice, and coconut (keep about two tablespoons for garnish).   This will keep in the fridge for a few days if you like to get ahead of things. 

Pour into the  cooled liners.  Bake for 16 – 18 minutes.   Again, you have to keep an eye on them!

Cool and remove the cupcakes. Chill for about an hour (longer is great). 

Top with a dollop of vanilla Greek yogurt and sprinkle with toasted coconut.  You could substitute yogurt with sweetener if you wanted to control the calorie count. We found that the Greek yogurt was firmer and held that ‘icing’ shape better. The recipe as is  comes in at about 150 calories per cupcake and should be less than 20 g. carbs.  If you can eat just one.

The cupcakes keep in the fridge for a day or so, but tend to call your name in the night, so be warned. 

 Thanks for joining in our Mystery Lovers Kitchen 5^th anniversary celebration.  

We’re also celebrating that The Wolfe Widow will be out in less than two months.  You can get a jump on your reading, by pre-ordering.  ORDER IT HERE