caramel cupcakes

Something about caramel.....

sorry about the really really long break in posts, but was really busy the last few weeks..what with the wedding season starting over hear.
So caramel cupcakes....you see speaking from a health point of view chocolate is better then caramel. But there is something about caramel..the sticky, sweet goo.. that is caramel. how can anyone say no to anything caramel.
I've had a few caramel cupcake recipes bookmarked since a long time, but most of these recipes had caramel as a filling or as caramel frosting. what i really wanted to try was a caramel flavored batter, as i usually prefer plain and light cakes. rather than a heavy and extremely rich cake.
after a lot of browsing, i came across a recipe on someone's Facebook page that swirled the caramel into a plain yellow cake which really appealed to me. so i adapted a similar idea for my own caramel cupcakes..

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

100 g butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

vanilla essence

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp buttermilk

1 tsp baking powder

for caramel sauce:-

1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsp butter

1/4 cup cream

Method:

for the caramel sauce - heat sugar and butter on medium heat until melted, do not stir, u can swirl the pan to distribute the sugar and melt it evenly, keep heating until sugar turns a nice amber color. remove from heat and add the cream all at once and stir to mix evenly and dissipate the air bubble...be sure to pour in the cream from some distance so as not to burn your hands. cook for a few more minutes to get the right consistency. remove from heat and let cool completely...the sauce will turn thicker once it cools.

for the cupcakes - cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add the eggs one at a time until well blended, add the vanilla essence. Add half of the sifted flour and baking powder, then add the butter milk, followed by the rest of the flour mixture. fill your lined cupcake tins halfway, then add 2 tbsp of caramel sauce and top with another tbsp of batter. swirl with a fork. 

bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

can top with extra caramel sauce before serving.

topped with caramel...yummmm!!!

light and Heavenly....

caramel sauce...

Cookies n Cream Ice Cream Pie

Cookies N Cream....

Do i need to say more, this is one of those no fail recipes, its actually not even a recipe, more like an awesome idea to serve your ice cream, than just in a bowl,

i know we are an oreo crazy generation, everywhere you go you are bound to find something oreo flavored (and awesome), but who is complaining .

so when its and oreo pie base, with a cookies n cream ice cream and crushed oreos and chocolate chips as topping. its a win win win dish.

Ingredients:

A big packet of oreos

2 tbsp butter, softened

20 - 50 g dark chocolate

vanilla ice cream mixed with crushed oreos or Cookies n Cream ice cream

chocolate chips and extra oreos to top

Method:

put butter, oreos and dark chocolate in a food processor and blitz till it resembles coarse crumbs.

press into a foil lined pie tin or spring mould.

fill with softened ice cream and top with extra crushed oreos and chocolate chips. freeze for 6 to 8 hours, until hard. serve chilled.

Coconut Barfi

When God gives you coconuts....Make coconut barfi..

well thats exactly what i did when there were like 8 coconuts lying in my kitchen. you see every few months we take down all the ready coconuts from the coconut tree in our society and they get distributed among all the flats. 

so we couldn't figure out what to do with so many coconuts. i thougt of coconut cake, coconut cookies, but finally zeroed in on a coconut barfi recipe as they are really tasty and pretty easy to make, as compared to other nut barfis.

I adapted this recipe to suit my taste, as i don't like very sweet desserts

Ingredients:

• Coconut,scraped - 4 cups
• Sugar 1- 1 1/2 cup
• Milk 3/4 cup
• Green cardamoms 2
• Saffron (kesar) a few strands (optional)
• Ghee 2 tablespoons
• Almonds

Method:

heat ghee in a pan and fry the almonds till fragnant, keep aside to cool.Mix sugar and milk well. Add scraped coconut and mix. Transfer the mixture into a pan and cook, stirring continuously with a spatula. Peel cardamoms and crush the seeds. Add crushed cardamom seeds to coconut. Mix well and add saffron. Mix again. Continue cooking for about ten minutes or till the mixture becomes a little dry and begins to leave the sides of the pan. Grease a tray with ghee. Pour the mixture into it and spread evenly. Cool and cut into pieces and top each piece with an almond. 

thats what you do with a lot of coconuts....

Almond Pralines n Custard Layer Cake

Festive baking

Normally i take a lot of time to finish one post, but when I posted this pic on facebook after eid, i got a lot of requests for the recipe, and so for a change i'm finishing this one a little faster.

I went for a purely white cake for Eid this time, (mainly b'coz we went on a chocolate overdose for my son't birthday, and didn't want to make anything chocolaty for some time).

So i was really confused as to what to make on Eid (can't think straight when there is no chocolate involved), thought of a cheese cake, or lemon squares, or muffins, and i kept on searching the net for ideas, finally zeroed in on a combination.

So most of the recipe is just combining simple ingredients to get a lovely light custard filled, sponge.

Ingredients:

For the sponge cake:-

3 eggs

⅓ cup sugar

7 tbsp flour

1.5 tbsp unsweetened vanilla custard powder

½ tsp baking powder

1 tbsp boiling water

for the caramel syrup:-
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water

for the custard filling:-
750 ml milk
4 - 5 tbsp sugar (don't make the custard to sweet, as we are soaking the cake in syrup and adding pralines)
40 g custard powder (add more if required, the end result should b like a pudding)

for the almond praline:-
1/2 cup toasted almonds or any other nut
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp butter

For topping:
1 packet of whipped cream powder or whipped cream

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 º C and line a square or rectangular baking tray with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer beat the eggs and sugar until very thick and four times the initial volume. When the beaters are lifted they should leave a trail of egg on the surface for at least 10 seconds.

Fold in the sifted flour, cocoa powder and baking powder very gently. And then fold in the water.

Spread mixture on parchment paper, evenly. Bake for 6 - 8 minutes until the center is springy to touch. 
i made double the quantity of sponge, given in the recipe to get four layers of sponge cake (approximately 6" by 10" ), but i didn't mix the batter all at once, because an egg sponge batter deflates pretty quicky, which would have resulted in the last layers of cake not rising properly. instead i first mixed a batch with three eggs and finished baking them, and then mixed another batch.

for the caramel syrup:- heat the sugar and 1/2 cup of water on medium high flame, stir until the sugar is just dissolve and then leave undisturbed(no stirring, but you can swirl the pan) till the mixture turns amber, remove from heat and add another 1/2 cup of water, mix well and bring to boil until the mixture is properly combined and liquid  cool to room temperature. (and prepared my syrup a day ahead)

for the Almond praline:-  toast a 1/2 cup of almonds at 150 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes until you start getting a nice toasted smell.
add the butter and sugar in a shallow pan and heat till melted ( do not stir ), when the sugar starts to caremelize, add the almond and mix till all the almonds are well coated, spread on a tray lined with foil paper and cool. once completely cooled and hardened. chop in a food processor.

for the custard :- heat milk and sugar, till it comes to a boil add the custard powder dissolved in a little milk and simmer till it thickens to the required consistency, chill in a covered container.

To assemble:-

soak the first layer of sponge with caramel syrup and spread the custard filling on it, sprinkle with chopped almond praline.

cover with the second layer of sponge cake and repeat the same procedure. use up all the layers of sponge. spread chilled whipped cream on the top layer, and sprinkle with slight larger pieces of the almond praline.

chill for a few hours before serving, to set perfectly.

A perfect dessert for anybody who loves white cakes instead of chocolate

Eclairs

light as air......
Coz its an eclair....okay i know my rhymes are not good..but my eclairs were absolutely delectable.
I've been wanting to try these for a long time, but to tell you the truth, I found the recipe a little weird. I mean cooking the dough before you bake it, i had heard of this for the first time, and could think of all possible things that could go wrong, but thankfully everything went right , and these turned out to be really awesome.
they were so light that you could gobble down 5 of them and still not feel full. these are definitely gonna become a regular in my kitchen.
they recipe (after i tried it out) is pretty simple and i got it from joy of baking
but i don't like the idea of a pastry cream full of egg yolks (just don't like the idea of using so many eggs in a recipe, especially yolks only), it just sounds to heavy..so instead i used custard and whipped cream for my filling, as according to me custard made with custard powder, is like vegetarian pastry cream.(although i've never tasted actual pastry cream or egg custard. coz of all the yolks...thats like my eww factor, i think)
anyways like i've mentioned before, it was light as air and very very yummm.

Ingredients:-
Choux Pastry:
1/2 cup (65 grams) all purposeflour
1/2 teaspoon granulated whitesugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (55 grams) unsaltedbutter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup (120 ml) water
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

For the custard cream:
200 ml milk
4 – 5 tbsp custard powder
3 – 4 tbsp sugar
1 packet whipping cream powder

Chocolate glaze:
50 g semi sweet chocolate
30 ml boiling milk or cream


Method:
Choux Pastry:-
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. To make all the eclairs the same size, I use a template. Take a piece of parchment paper and draw 12 - 3 1/2 inch (8.5 cm) lines, spacing the lines about 2 - 3 inches (5 - 7 cm) apart. Place the template under your parchment paper so you can use it as a guide.

In a bowl whisk the flour with the sugar and salt. Place the butter and water in a saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and, with a wooden spoon, add the flour mixture, all at once, and stir until combined. Return saucepan to the heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball (about 1-2 minutes). Transfer the dough to your electric mixer (can do this by hand or with a hand mixer), and beat on low speed to release the steam from the dough (about 1 minute). Once the dough is lukewarm start adding the lightly beaten eggs (dough will separate and then come together) and continue to mix until you have a smooth thick paste (dough will fall from a spoon in a thick ribbon). Place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip and pipe 12 oblongs of dough (about 3/4 inch (2 cm) wide) onto the baking sheet (using template as a guide). (When piping have the bag at a 45 degree angle.).
although my batter made around 20 eclairs instead of 12.

Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Continue to bake for a further 25 minutes or until the shells are a nice amber color and when split, are almost dry inside. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

for custard:-
boil milk with sugar. add custard powder dissolved with a little milk and cook till it becomes thick, it should be more of a spreading consistency, i.e quiet thick, compared to normal custard.
fold in whipped cream.

for ganache:-
chop chocolate and place it in a bowl. boil milk and add little by little over the chocolates. if using milk be careful to add very little at a time so as not to burn the chocolate. with cream you can add it all at once.

To Assemble: Split the pastry shells in half, lengthwise. Take the top shell and dip into the chocolate glaze, letting the excess drip off. Place on a wire rack to dry. Fill the bottom half (can spoon or pipe) with the cream. Once the glaze is dry, gently place the top half of the pastry shell on the cream. Can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for two days.

i know the recipe sounds quiet elaborate, but the end result is totally worth it .and it actually is not as tough as it looks.

Dutch Apple Cake

Bake !
I love using fresh fruits in my cakes, be it bananas, oranges, pineapple , apples. there is something about those freshly baked cakes that is hard to resist for your evening tea.
So when i saw this rachel allen recipe on TV, i immediately wanted to try it out. especially since you didn't even have to mash the apples, just slice them up and arrange them on top.
so i got busy trying out this recipe as soon as i could.
But me being me i made a few changes, i switched the white sugar with brown and switched half the refined flour for whole wheat, and voila, a healtheir take of the same cake !

Ingredients:

2 eggs

150 g brown sugar + 1 tbsp for dusting

½ tsp vanilla

2 ½ tsp baking powder

75 ml milk

50 g butter, melted

65 g refined flour

60 g whole wheat flour
½ tsp cinnamon powder

1 apple, peeled and sliced (can use any other fruit)

Method:

Beat the sugar, vanilla and eggs at high speed in a stand mixture until very thick and four times the initial volume, add the melted butter and milk and mix well. Fold in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon powder.

Pour into a well greased pan, arrange the sliced apples on top and sprinkle with 1 tbsp of sugar.

Bake at 200°C for 10 mins and then lower the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 20 minutes

Orange Mousse Cake

Long time pending......

Yes !!! this blog has been sitting in my draft list for a long long time. What with ramadan and then eid and then a visit to my mom's place, i couldn't find the time to complete this recipe. this was a special dessert that i made for my third anniversary (which was in July, that's y the long time pending).

the worst part about this recipe - you have to wait for it to set overnight. (yes, that long)

the best part - Well, its worth the wait.

and also good, that I was free on my anniversary and not stuck in the kitchen.

the other thing I found out. as i had made this recipe in Ramadan, and we were all fasting, i could only taste my mousse after breaking my fast, and when i had that first bite of the mousse ( i had set it in a bowl separately to taste). i really didn't like it all that much. it tasted a bit too orangy (this coming from someone who loves citrus fruits) and a bit too sweet, and something weird. But When we had it the next day, layered with the chocolate cake, It was absolutely amazing, the chocolate totally complements the orange mousse. and I must say, it was perfect for our anniversary.

Ingredients :

For orange mousse:-

200ml orange juice

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp gelatin

200 ml cream

1 packet whipped cream powder

2 egg whites

1 tbsp grated orange zest

For chocolate cake:-

See recipe for Chocolate moist cake.

Method:

prepare your chocolate cake in a round springform pan. cool completely and slice into two parts horizontally and keep aside.

For orange mousse:- soak gelatin in 2 tbsp water for 5 minutes

add gelatin, orange juice, and sugar to a sauce pan, and heat on medium to low flame. stir constantly until sugar and gelatin are completely dissolved. remove from heat and cool.

whip cream and whipped cream powder until stiff peaks are formed.  fold in the gelatin mixture.

whip to eggwhites till soft peaks form and fold into the orange cream mixture. if too runny refrigerate for 10 to 15 minute. if it holds shape on a spoon then you can use it to layer with chocolate cake immediately.

allow the cake to set overnight. demould after it is completely set and decorate with chocolate curls, chocolate syrup or orange slices.