Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Silk Meringue Buttercream

Rose's Coconut Cupcakes are truly delicious.

Even my husband, lifelong coconut phobic,

liked the one without toasted coconut on top.

As Rose's cakes goes, this is probably

one of the easiest.

Canned coconut milk is everywhere these days.

I found organic at Trader Joe's. 

It made twenty four mini cupcakes 

and nine regular size.

Katya

clued me in on the baking time for 

the mini's.  I'm never sure

when a different size pan is used.

The Coconut Butter Cream was 

a three part production

but not complicated.

It was fun learning to make a custard

with coconut milk.

This was mixed together with butter, sugar, whipped

egg whites and Coconut rum.

I added extra coconut extract instead and it was fine.

 I came very close to dropping out of

the Alpha Bakers group this past week.

After watching more than a dozen

documentaries on sugar

it became quite clear

sugar is not my friend.

In fact, it made me bloody furious.

And I don't even drink sodas.

Well, you are probably thinking,

what is the big deal?

If you are at all curious

here are a few to watch.

That Sugar Film

or 

The Truth About Sugar

or 

The Secrets of Sugar

or the grand slam

The Weight of the Nation

and the eye opening reality of 

where sugar comes from

Price of Sugar

Just the tip of documentaries from

top medical doctors around the world.

Obesity is not the only fallout.

There is something known as

Thin on the outside

Fat on the inside 

syndrome.

More than the daily recommended amounts

puts everyone at risk for metabolic diseases.

Say it ain't so!

The World Health Organization

recommends six teaspoons of sugar max,

which is 24 grams, per day for women.

Men get more.  Children less. And under two

years of age, zero.

That includes all added sugar, even the hidden stuff in food.

4 grams = 1 teaspoon

Reading food labels has been an education in itself.

All attempts to make food labeling easier

to understand have been blocked

by food lobbyists.

The quantities may not seem like much 

but the accumulative effect is staggering.

If every single product had the teaspoon/grams 

of added sugar per serving boldly labeled

on the front of the package,

we might rethink our purchase,

which is exactly why they fight it

again and again.

During the Bush administration

The WHO was effectively blackmailed

by having millions of dollars withdrawn

unless this guideline was shelved.

It was but not forever.

80% of grocery store products have been carefully laced

with sugar.

It's called the "bliss point".

Food corporations aim for 

"stomach share"

world wide.

Unfortunately for some of the

lower consuming countries,

smaller amount of weight gain

from sugar

trigger metabolic disease

in populations

which were historically leaner.

No country is safe.

Corporations are targeting

"emerging markets"

with a vengeance.

This lacing of food with sugar is equivalent

to lacing cigarettes with nicotine. 

The strangest side effect

is how our taste for food has

been changed without us realizing it.

Fun Fact

Phillip Morris Tobacco Company

bought

Kraft Foods conglomerate

I always wondered why this crazy

obesity epidemic happened.

The  consumption of

30-60 tsp in 24 hours

would take approximately

two hours of running

or 

ten miles of walking

to burn off.

The average American

consumes 30 teaspoons per day.

That's just the average.

Many consume many times over this amount.

One soda can have from 24 to 36 grams of sugar.

Fruit drinks can have more sugar than soda.

Straight fruit juice might as well be soda,

the body reacts the same way

without the entire pulp and fiber.

There goes my healthy cherry juice

and green smoothies.

Flavored yogurt as much added sugar as ice cream.

Say what???

Giving it  up wasn't easy,

but the difference

is a pleasant surprise.

My goal is to stay sugar free during the 

week except for one portion from our weekly bake.

It might seem extreme

but the link between dementia, cancer,

heart, kidney disease 

and sugar is frightening.

My father died from dementia.

My mother from cancer.

Diabetes, heart and kidney disease run in my family.

Ignorance is not bliss for me.

If I can remove one of the triggers,

then I need to try,

even if I don't want to.

Yes, it can seem like

diet recommendations constantly change

throughout the years.

The difference is

technology.

As technology advances,

so can science

and the medical profession's

understanding of cause and effect.

By all accounts,

I should be a walking cup of  tea

(milk and two sugars, please)

with cookies for legs.

I'm not sharing this information to annoy you.

It's more for my benefit.

This is a benchmark week for me.

I don't have kids at home

or it would be more difficult.

 Rose has done all the work for me.

Add up the sugar grams in a recipe,

divide it by serving and voila!

I enjoy baking,

even if it vexes me at times.

I'm just going back to how it 

used to be, when a homemade dessert

was for Sunday dinner.

A cupcake never tasted so good.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum